K. Oberauer, Removing irrelevant information from working memory: A cognitive aging study with the modified Sternberg task, J EXP PSY L, 27(4), 2001, pp. 948-957
Citations number
37
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-LEARNING MEMORY AND COGNITION
Two experiments with a modified Sternberg recognition task explored the abi
lity of young and old adults to remove irrelevant information from working
memory. The task involved 2 memory sets, 1 of which was later cued as irrel
evant. The recognition probe was presented at a variable time after the cue
. Two indicators of inhibition, the setsize effect of the irrelevant set an
d the reaction time cost of intrusion probes (i.e., negative probes present
in the irrelevant list), were dissociated. Irrelevant setsize effects last
ed less than 1 s after the cue and did not differ between old and young adu
lts. Intrusion costs lasted up to 5 s and were disproportionally large for
old adults. With the additional requirement to remember both lists until af
ter the probe, young adults' intrusion costs in Experiment 2 were equivalen
t to those of old adults in Experiment 1, but the setsize effects of the ir
relevant set was larger. The results are compatible with a dual-process mod
el of recognition in combination with a working-memory model distinguishing
the focus of attention from the activated portion of long-term memory.