Abstract
Normal aging has been shown to spare recency effects in the initiation of free recall while disrupting temporally defined associations. The temporal context model (TCM) explains recency and temporally defined associations as consequences of a gradually changing context signal and recovery of those contextual states, respectively. Here we extend TCM to account for the dissociation between recency and temporally defined associations in younger and older adults. Modeling results suggested that the effect of aging was restricted to a decrement in the ability of items to recover the temporal contexts in which they were presented, a function that has been hypothesized to depend on the hippocampus.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atkinson, R. C., &Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence & J. T. Spence (Eds.),The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2, pp. 89–105). New York: Academic Press.
Balota, D. A., Duchek, J. M., &Paullin, R. (1989). Age-related differences in the impact of spacing, lag, and retention interval.Psychology & Aging,4, 3–9.
Brodie, D. A., &Murdock, B. B. (1977). Effects of presentation time on nominal and functional serial position curves in free recall.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,16, 185–200.
Davelaar, E. J., Goshen-Gottstein, Y., Ashkenazi, A., &Usher, M. (2005). A context activation model of list memory: Dissociating shortterm from long-term recency effects.Psychological Review,112, 3–42.
Glenberg, A. M., &Swanson, N. G. (1986). A temporal distinctiveness theory of recency and modality effects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 3–15.
Head, D., Buckner, R. L., Shimony, J. S., Williams, L. E., Akbudak, E., Conturo, T. E., et al. (2004). Differential vulnerability of anterior white matter in nondemented aging with minimal acceleration in dementia of the Alzheimer type: Evidence from diffusion tensor imaging.Cerebral Cortex,14, 410–423.
Hogan, R. M. (1975). Interitem encoding and directed search in free recall.Memory & Cognition,3, 197–209.
Howard, M. W. (2004). Scaling behavior in the temporal context model.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,48, 230–238.
Howard, M. W., Fotedar, M. S., Datey, A. V., &Hasselmo, M. E. (2005). The temporal context model in spatial navigation and relational learning: Toward a common explanation of medial temporal lobe function across domains.Psychological Review,112, 75–116.
Howard, M. W., &Kahana, M. J. (1999). Contextual variability and serial position effects in free recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,25, 923–941.
Howard, M. W., &Kahana, M. J. (2002). A distributed representation of temporal context.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,46, 269–299.
Howard, M.W., & Kahana, M. J. (2005). [Unpublished observation].
Hyman, J. M., Zilli, E. A., Paley, A. M., &Hasselmo, M. E. (2005). Medial prefrontal cortex cells show dynamic modulation with the hippocampal theta rhythm dependent on behavior.Hippocampus,15, 739–749.
Kahana, M. J. (1996). Associative retrieval processes in free recall.Memory & Cognition,24, 103–109.
Kahana, M. J., Howard, M. W., Zaromb, F., &Wingfield, A. (2002). Age dissociates recency and lag-recency effects in free recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,28, 530–540.
Laming, D. (1999). Testing the idea of distinct storage mechanisms in memory.International Journal of Psychology,34, 419–426.
Levy, W. B., &Steward, O. (1983). Temporal contiguity requirements for long-term associative potentiation/depression in the hippocampus.Neuroscience,8, 791–797.
Li, S. C., Naveh-Benjamin, M., &Lindenberger, U. (2005). Aging neuromodulation impairs associative binding.Psychological Science,16, 445–450.
Mensink, G.-J. M., &Raaijmakers, J. G. W. (1988). A model for interference and forgetting.Psychological Review,95, 434–455.
Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology,64, 482–488.
Murdock, B. B. (1997). Context and mediators in a theory of distributed associative memory (TODAM2).Psychological Review,1997, 839–862.
Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2000). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 1170–1187.
Naveh-Benjamin, M., Hussain, Z., Guez, J., &Bar-On, M. (2003). Adult age differences in episodic memory: Further support for an associative-deficit hypothesis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,29, 826–837.
Raaijmakers, J. G. W., &Shiffrin, R. M. (1980). SAM: A theory of probabilistic search of associative memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 14, pp. 207–262). New York: Academic Press.
Raz, N., Gunning, F. M., Head, D., Dupuis, J. H., McQuain, J., Briggs, S. D., et al. (1997). Selective aging of the human cerebral cortex observed in vivo: Differential vulnerability of the prefrontal gray matter.Cerebral Cortex,7, 268–282.
Rosenzweig, E. S., &Barnes, C. A. (2003). Impact of aging on hippocampal function: Plasticity, network dynamics, and cognition.Progress in Neurobiology,69, 143–179.
Rundus, D. (1971). An analysis of rehearsal processes in free recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology,89, 63–77.
Siapas, A. G., Lubenov, E. V., &Wilson, M. A. (2005). Prefrontal phase locking to hippocampal theta oscillations.Neuron,46, 141–151.
Tan, L., &Ward, G. (2000). A recency-based account of the primacy effect in free recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 1589–1626.
West, R. L. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging.Psychological Bulletin,120, 272–292.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was funded by NIH Grants AG15852, MH55687, and MH069938, and by the W. M. Keck foundation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Howard, M.W., Kahana, M.J. & Wingfield, A. Aging and contextual binding: Modeling recency and lag recency effects with the temporal context model. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 13, 439–445 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193867
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193867