The role of spontaneous strategy use in younger and older adults' visuospatial memory
Abstract
Spontaneous strategy use may contribute to age-related changes in visuospatial memory. We aimed to establish which strategies are associated with young and older adults’ working memory and long-term memory performance, using ecologically valid stimuli. Across four experiments, we investigated younger (18–37 years; total N = 192) and older (63–85 years; total N = 192) adults’ strategy use when remembering coloured objects within everyday virtual scenes. Participants attempted to recall object-colour or object-location bindings from working memory. In-task spontaneous strategy use was also comprehensively assessed via theory-driven, repeated Likert scale probes. Participants subsequently completed an incidental or intentional long-term memory task assessing item (objects only) and associative memory (object-colour/object-location associations) for the working memory task stimuli. All experiments revealed age-related deficits in working memory and long-term memory, although item long-term memory exhibited smaller effect sizes than associative long-term memory. Regarding strategies, younger adults used verbal coding to a greater extent than older adults, who generally exhibited a reduced strategy repertoire. Importantly, verbal coding was consistently associated with better working memory performance. Regarding object-colour associations, using semantic strategies was associated with better intentional, but not incidental, long-term memory, showing the importance of task…
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