Cluttered memory representations shape cognition in old age

Tarek Amer; Jordana S Wynn; Lynn Hasher

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.002

Cluttered memory representations shape cognition in old age

Trends Cogn Sci. 2022 Mar;26(3):255-267. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.002.

Authors

Tarek Amer¹, Jordana S Wynn², Lynn Hasher³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: lynn.hasher@mail.utoronto.ca.

PMID: 35165069
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.002

Abstract

Declines in episodic memory in older adults are typically attributed to differences in encoding strategies and/or retrieval processes. These views omit a critical factor in age-related memory differences: the nature of the representations that are formed. Here, we review evidence that older adults create more cluttered (or richer) representations of events than do younger adults. These cluttered representations might include target information along with recently activated but no-longer-relevant information, prior knowledge cued by the ongoing situation, as well as irrelevant information in the current environment. Although these representations can interfere with the retrieval of target information, they can also support other memory-dependent cognitive functions.

Keywords: aging; cluttered memory; cognitive control; memory representations.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Aged
Aging* / psychology
Cognition
Cues
Humans
Knowledge
Memory, Episodic*
Mental Recall