THE INFLUENCE OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY ON EPISODIC MEMORY FUNCTIONING AMONG CLINICALLY NONDEPRESSED OLDER ADULTS

The authors examined a community-based sample of 303 clinically nondep ressed individuals aged 75 through 96 years on 4 recall tasks: free re call of rapidly presented random words, free recall of slowly presente d random words, free recall of organizable words, and cued recall of o rganizable words. Using a classification taxonomy that identified mood - and motivation-related symptoms of depression, it was found that mot ivation-related symptoms had a negative effect on performance across a ll tasks, whereas mood-related symptoms had no effects. In addition, m otivation-related symptoms negatively influenced the ability to benefi t from more study time but had no effect on the ability to make use of item organization or category cues. An analysis of the specific motiv ation-related symptoms suggested that symptoms that may affect the abi lity to focus and sustain attention (e.g., concentration difficulties, lack of interest) were most strongly associated with performance defi cits.