Memory Inhibition, Aging, and the Executive Deficit Hypothesis

Although memory inhibition seems to underlie retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), there is some controversy about the precise nature of this effect. Because normal RIF is observed in people with deficits in executive control (i.e., older adults), some have proposed that an automatic-like inhibitory p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2012-01, Vol.38 (1), p.178-186
Main Authors: Ortega, Almudena, Gomez-Ariza, Carlos J, Roman, Patricia, Bajo, M. Teresa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult Education
Adult. Elderly
Age Differences
Aged
Aging
Analysis of Variance
Attention Control
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition Disorders - complications
Cognitive Control
Cognitive Processes
College Students
Comparative analysis
Cues
Developmental psychology
Dual Task Performance
Evaluation
Executive Function
Executive Function - physiology
Experimental Psychology
Experiments
Female
Forgetting
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Human Information Storage
Humans
Inhibition
Inhibition (Psychology)
Male
Memory
Memory Disorders - etiology
Memory Disorders - psychology
Mental Recall - physiology
Middle Aged
Neurology
Neuropsychological Tests
Observation
Older Adults
Older people
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Task Analysis
Theories
Young Adult
Young Adults
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Summary:Although memory inhibition seems to underlie retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), there is some controversy about the precise nature of this effect. Because normal RIF is observed in people with deficits in executive control (i.e., older adults), some have proposed that an automatic-like inhibitory process is responsible for the effect. On the contrary, neurocognitive and dual-task findings with young people support the view that an executive control process underlies RIF. In the present study, we address this apparent controversy by comparing young and older participants under different dual-task conditions. Our results indicate that memory inhibition in older adults also depends on executive control, which is more easily disrupted by a secondary task in older than in young adults. Thus, the fact that RIF in older adults is sometimes present is not incompatible with a decline in executive control with aging. The results also shed some light into the discussion regarding the effect of dual tasking on retrieval. (Contains 1 footnote and 2 tables.)
ISSN:0278-7393
1939-1285
DOI:10.1037/a0024510