Age Differences in Verbal Memory - Lab Report Example

Age Differences on Verbal Memory Performance Lara Capponi University of Victoria Abstract This report aims at establishing the variance in verbal memory loss between young and older individuals through an experimental study. The study aimed at establishing whether age related differences were indeed impacting positively or negatively on the verbal memory of individuals. The study comprised an experiment conducted on 210 participants with 110 men and 100 women comprising two groups of older and younger participants. It was conducted using the Auditory Verbal Learning test approach. It enabled the measurement of the group’s differences on a number of different aspects of the memory of the participants. Results indicated that, younger adults perform significantly better at total and delayed recall, but not immediate recall. It was also found that younger adults do not perform better following interference and there are no significant age group differences in the learning curve. However, the experiment had its strengths and limitations as well. For instance, the ability to study the verbal memory with respect to real individuals with differing ages enhanced the credibility of the results. The experiment was also able to carefully analyse the results with respect to the experiment. On the other hand, the number of the participants was limited and should have been more extensive with respect to range. Further research is needed to clarify the role of age on memory performance. However, it is important to generalize Constrict future research by being more specific with the participants and their differences, in order to provide further details and credibility of the results of the study. For example, ask them their education level or if they suffer from any disorder that might compromise the results of the test, for instance hearing impairment. Age Difference in Verbal Memory Performance This literature review aims to explore and compare findings within the area of age disparities in learning and recall of verbal information. Verbal memory (memory of language in different forms) is affected by various factors and age is one of the most important factors. As people continue to grow old, it is common for them to become forgetful. This is one of the issues that are associated with the verbal memory. However, the main cause of this has several explanations both scientific and social. The scientific explanations are mainly based on the functioning of the brain as the people begin to grow older. While there is extensive research to indicate that ability to accurately recall verbal information decreases with age (Simensky & Abeles, 2002), there is much that is not completely understood about why this progression occurs. This review attempts to establish areas in which future research is justified. According to Simensky and Abeles (2002) aging is closely related to the loss of memory and hence affecting the verbal; memory. The research highlights that frontal lobe functioning is closely associated with the verbal memory loss among the aging people. This article further indicates that this is due to the failure of encoding information semantically by the frontal lobe. The limitation of the research is it only explains a small amount of variance in relation to the verbal memory and frontal lobe functioning. On the other hand, Vakil, Greenstein and Blachstein (2010), suggests that the verbal memory is controlled by both retroactive and proactive interference. The loss of verbal memory is thus associated with the overreaction of irrelevant memory items and deficits of source monitoring. The strength of this article is its ability to analyze the issue of verbal memory across all the ages and the relationship with the central nervous system. However, its weakness is the failure of fully establishing the relationship between the brain and the central nervous system in relation to verbal memory. According to Murphy, West, Armilio, Craik, and Stuss (2007), older people have difficulties in recalling the items learned as compared to the young people. This was established through an experiment among the children and adults. This study also supported the fact that aging leads to the decline in the frontal lobe functioning and hence the loss of verbal memory among the adults. The strength of this study is the careful analysis of the results in relation to the experiments carried out. However, its limitation is the failure to involve a wide range of participants in the study. With a larger sample size, the study would have ample data to base their results on based on any discrepancies that might be encountered with a wide range of participants. This further enhances the reliability and credibility of the results. With a wide range of participants, the participants can be divided within their age groups and further into smaller sub-groups that would be defined by similar characteristics. For example, in groups of; the ones with high levels of education and those with lower levels, those who remain active in their day to day life through exercise and those who don’t, or those that have hearing impairment among other disorders and those who don’t have any disorders. This way, results can be evaluated from different perspectives to fully ascertain that verbal memory is affected by age. According to Kramer, Yaffe, Lengenfelder and Delis (2003), age and gender have several effects on the verbal memory. Gender contributes to verbal memory due to the hormone estrogen which has significant impacts on the growth and development of women. The study thus indicates that the older men are more affected by the loss of verbal memory as compared to women. However, this is opposite for younger women and men. The strength of this article is the study of the verbal memory in relation to gender and factors affecting the growth and development of men and women. Its limitations are however on the number of participants in the study. With a larger number of a participants, there would be sufficient evidence from which to base the results on. A larger number also enhances identification of any discrepancies that might result from different attributes of the participants. According to Carstairs, Shores, and Myros (2012), Rey Auditory and verbal learning test indicates that aging impacts negatively on the verbal memory. This was established after the study was conducted among various people of different age and gender. It was then established that the aging process is responsible for impacting negatively on the frontal lobe functioning and hence the memory loss. The limitation of the study is however on the methods that were used to conduct the experiments. Test-retest reliability of the RAVLT is poor, particularly for individual trials. As well as reliability, poor reliability can also result in errors in measurement and prediction that can limit the confidence we have in test scores that reflect the true performance of the individual. Salgado et al. (2010) shows that a positive correlation exists on the level of education and negative on age when using the Rey Auditory and verbal learning test. This is also an indication that aging contributes to the loss of verbal memory. According to Klaassen, Lisbeth, Renate, Dick, and Jelle (2012), the learning abilities decline with age. The young people are more active during learning as compared to the older people. This is also common with recalling of the items taught. This is therefore an indication that verbal memory is affected by age. However this study is limited by lack of enough details with regard to collection of sufficient data with regard to the participants for example, the level of education of the participant. This is as indicated by past studies that Different results would be obtained from individuals with lower or no formal education as compared to those with formal education . A few sentences According to Chang et al. lower executive function is also one of the factors that contribute to the memory loss. Some areas in the brain are also associated with the loss of memory according to this medical study and hence contributing to the problem. This study however relied on medical tests alone and did not provide other explanations regarding the issue. In conclusion, it is evident that aging has a negative impact on the verbal memory. This is because it contributes to the memory loss among the older people. The decline in the frontal lobe functioning has been highlighted as one of the main contributing factor to the verbal memory loss. This has also been supported by various authors in different articles. Medical experiments also suggest that verbal memory is affected by the aging factor. Furthermore, past research has failed to involve a large, extensive range of participants and relied on medical tests alone that do not provide other explanations to support the theories put forward, warranting further research. In order to establish the relationship between aging and verbal memory ability, three study hypotheses have been defined as follows. Younger adults will have significantly greater immediate, total, and delayed recall than older adults, younger adults will perform significantly better following interference than older adults and there will be no significant age group differences in the learning curve. Method Participants There were a total of 210 participants for the study that included 110 men and 100 women with a mean age of 38.22 years respectively. The participants comprised two groups of young and old individuals. The younger group had 106 participants with a range of 14 to 29 years and a mean age of 21.70 years (SD = 3.15), while the older group comprised 104 participants whose years ranged from 50 to 84 years and a mean age of 55.06 years (SD =5.70). The participation was voluntary with the consent of the participants. Materials The experiment adopted the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test (Geffen, Butterworth, Forrester, and Geffen, 1994), to test the participant’s verbal memory and to measure the disparity between the participants on a number of different aspects of the memory. Five primary memory constructs were selected for analysis in this study, immediate recall, total recall, learning curve, interference and delayed recall. The Auditory verbal learning test was administered as per the instructions listed in Appendix 1. Through the method participants were read fifteen words on a one second interval and asked to recall as much as they could with no particular order. This test was dubbed as trials A1 to A5. Another list was read the same way with A and this trial dubbed (B1). Immediately after trial B1 the participants were again asked to remember the words on list A. The scores were measured on how the participants recalled the words after the first trial, after being obstructed and their total recall as well as their learning curve, with respect to their age. Procedure The (Psychology 2A) students carrying out the experiment were required to find one participant each, either younger (below 30 years) or older (above 50 years) as allocated by a class tutor. The AVLT (Appendix 2) was filled out with the participant’s demographics and consent and the experiment commenced when the participant was ready. The Auditory Verbal learning test was conducted as per the instructions in Appendix 1, to ensure consistency in data collection. The experiment involved reading words from list A at a rate of one word per second. The participants were expected to remember as many words as possible from the 15 words in any order. The list (A) was read four more times with each reading, participants given the chance to remember as many words as they could. The presentations made up trials A1 to A5 of the test. List B was then read out also at a rate of one word per second and the participant recalled as many of these words as they could. This list also contained 15 words. Following this trial B1 the participants were asked to remember as many words as possible from list A and this was labeled trial A6. After a 20 minutes break with interference from other activities such as a cup of tea, the participants were again asked to recall as many words as possible from list A labeled trial A7. The participants were then thanked for their time and the course lecturer scored and analyzed the data using the statistical package for social scientists (SPSS, standard version 6.1.2, 1995) Results The results were made of the scores that the participants had with respect to their age. That is, the younger group below 30 years and the older group above 50 years. The means were calculated by adding up the total number of words remembered by the participants either on immediate recall, delayed recall, total recall, learning curve or recall after interference, and dividing it with the number of participants within that age group. This would give the average score for the young or older individuals and then the standard deviation (SD) for this score calculated. Checking of the assumption of normality was done and scores fell within acceptable ranges. Alpha was set at 0.05 for all analysis. The table below (Table 1) shows the means for each age group for immediate span on the Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Younger Older Immediate Recall (Trial 1) 7.08(2.17) 6.68(2.31) From the above result, the younger participants had a better recall for immediate recall. The primary memory trial ascertained that younger individuals remembered an average of 7.08 words (SD = 2.17) as compared to the older group who remembered an average of 6.68 word (SD = 2.31). An independent samples t- test was conducted to see if there were considerable disparities between the older and younger groups for immediate recall. There was no significant difference between the number of words remembered (t (208= -1.300, p = 0.195, two-tailed). This indicated that it did not matter if you were young or older, the immediate recall was similar. The table below (Table 2) shows the means for each group for total recall on the AVLT. Table 2: Younger Older Total recall (sum of trials A1 to A5) 51.42(9.37) 48.23(10.07) From the above table, it can be seen that the younger participants had better recall for total recall. This memory trial found that younger adults recalled an average of 51.42 (SD = 9.37) and older adults recalled an average of 48.23 words (SD = 10.07). An independent samples t-test was run to see if there was a meaningful difference between the older and younger participants for total recall. A considerable difference was found between the number of words remembered (t (208) = -2.372, p = 0.019, two-tailed). Therefore, it could be concluded that the younger group performed significantly better than the older group, meaning that the younger participants on average remembered more words. The table below (Table 3) shows the means for each group for learning curve on the Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Table 3: Younger Older Learning curve (Trial A5 minus Trial A1) 5.21(2.66) 4.98(2.81) From the Table above, it is seen that the younger group performed better on the learning curve. This memory trial found that younger participants had an average of 5.21 (SD = 2.66) and older participants had an average of 4.98 (SD = 2.81). An Independent samples t-test was run to see if there was a significant difference for older and younger groups for the Learning curve. No significant difference was found between the number of words remembered (t (208) = -0.600, p = 0.549, two-tailed). It could therefore be concluded that, it did not matter if you were younger or older your learning curve was similar. The table below (Table 4) shows the means for each group for interference on the Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Table 4: Younger Older Interference (Trial A6 minus Trial A5) -2.31(2.41) -2.27(2.07) As seen from the table above, the older group performed slightly better on Interference. This memory trial found that the mean Interference for younger participants was -2.31 (SD = 2.41) and for the older adults it was -2.27 (SD = 2.07). In this case Levine’s test was not significant (.049 < .05) therefore, equality of Variances could not be assumed. An Independent samples t-test was run to see if there was a significant difference for older and younger groups for Interference. No significant difference was found between the number of words remembered (t (204.467) = -0.136, p = 0.892, two-tailed). Therefore, it could be concluded that it did not matter if you were younger or older interference was similar. The table below (Table 5) shows the means for each age group for delayed recall on the Auditory verbal learning test. Table 5: Younger Older Delayed Recall (Trial A7 total) 10.76(3.00) 9.27(2.94) As seen in the table above, the younger group performed better on delayed recall. This memory trial found that the mean delayed recall for the younger group was 10.76 (SD = 3.00) and for the older adults it was 9.27 (SD = 2.94). An Independent samples t-test was run to see if there was a significant difference for older and younger groups for delayed recall. A significant difference was found between the number of words remembered (t (207) = -3.631, p = 0.000, two-tailed). Therefore, it could be concluded that the younger group performed significantly better than the older group, meaning that the younger participants on average perform better at delayed recall. Discussion The results of the experiment shows that aging negatively affects memory for total and delayed recall, but does not affect immediate recall, partially supporting the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis is disapproved; age did not affect participant’s performance on interference. Finally, the third hypothesis was supported as there were no significant age group differences in the learning curve. From the experiment carried out among the young and older people to ascertain their disparity in virtual memory, it revealed that aging is a core reason for decline in the verbal memory of an individual this is in line with the study done by (Simensky & Abeles, 2002) that the ability to accurately remember verbal information declines with age. This is attributed to the decline in functioning of the frontal lobe hence the loss of verbal memory among older people. This analysis is supported by experimental evidence from the study conducted as it indicates for instance that the younger individuals have greater recall ability for the total word read out to them hence showing that the younger individuals can remember more words on average than the older people. However this study shows differences with part of the results of our experiment that show that older adults have a higher rate of recalling after interference as compared to younger adults. As noted by Yaffe, Lengenfelder and Delis (2003), that apart from age, verbal is also affected by gender. This is as seen in our experiment where some older female participants were found to have a higher recalling rate than their male counterpart. This is as a reason of estrogen, a hormone found in women and contributes significantly to their growth and development. This explains why older males are affected by loss of verbal memory more than the old women. This is in line with the results of the experiment where the average number of words remembered by older women in comparison to their older male was higher. With regard to our experiment, Rey Auditory and verbal learning test, points out that ageing has a negative effect on verbal memory. This was established from the study conducted as it can be ascertained from the results attained that the younger individual, remembered more words on average than the older participants. This is as noted by Salgado et al. (2010) that the education level of a person relates positively with their verbal memory when the Auditory Verbal Learning test is used. This can be attributed to the fact that the younger adults have higher levels of education in comparison to the older adults. The experiment was however limited by a number of factors. These include the method used to conduct the study was questionable to an extent. For instance there ought to have ample information with regard to the participants and any differentiating factors. It has been established in past studies that some factors such as hearing impairment could result in lower verbal memory performance. Auditory performance tests can undermine the true memory performance of an individual. For instance people with undetected or unknown hearing status hence compromises the results of the study. This is supported by the contingent evidence that hearing ability is key in verbal learning performance. According to Brand and Jolles (1985), free remembering performance of young adults tends to be better when words are presented in an auditory manner as compared to that of older individuals, whose performance is better when the words are presented visually. The author points out the age-related hearing impairment as the primary cause of these differences in the outcome of the test. Participants should therefore be asked before the experiment whether they have any hearing related problems in their day to day life. The data collected with regard to the participants of the experiment ought to have been more detailed this is because past research indicates that exercise among older individuals improves their cognitive memory as compared to those individuals who do not exercise at all. Exposure to certain materials as well has been seen to interfere with recalling of verbal learning. For example, exposure to lead affects storage and retrieval of verbal information hence playing a part in loss of verbal memory. Future research should put info focus other factors that could affect the verbal memory of individuals. This includes factors such as the level of education of participants or any disorders they could be suffering from that could impact or compromise the credibility of the results. This is as indicated by past research that conditions such as hearing impairment may limit the verbal performance of an individual hence compromising the validity of Auditory Verbal learning test to Ascertain the effect of age on verbal memory loss. It should also employ other instruments or methods of study so as to compare results and ascertain the validity of the research results. With more than one method employed to carry out the test, the results can be compared to validate whether age is a cause for loss of verbal memory. In the future, research should be undertaken in a more extensive method so as to cover all areas. This can be achieved through having in place extensive and diversified participants. They could be from different social economic backgrounds and populations. Conclusion It is quite apparent that despite the limitations of the study with respect to participants and the methodology used, aging has a negative impact on the verbal memory of an individual. This is as seen from the experiment conducted whereby the older people are found to have smaller average rates of remembering as compared to the younger participants of the study. The decline functioning of the frontal lobe has been pointed as one of the main reasons for verbal memory loss. This fact is supported by other medical experiments that highlight aging as cause for loss of virtual memory. With past research, a wide range of participants have not been involved and used to rely on medical tests that did not provide any further explanations to support the theories brought forth hence the need for further research. Through the auditory verbal learning test conducted, it is seen that age is a cause for verbal memory. Results indicate that the average recalling rate of older adults in comparison to younger adults is lower. In the future, research should be undertaken in a more extensive manner so as to cover as much aspects of the participants as possible. This can be achieved through having in place extensive and diversified participants. They could be from different social economic backgrounds and populations, with differing levels of educations and enough details should be collected from them so as to identify any causes of concern with respect to situations or conditions that might compromise the results of the study. References Brand, N., & Jolles, J. (1985). Learning and retrieval rate of words presented auditory and visually. Journal of General Psychology, 112(2), 201-210. Carstairs, J. R., Shores, E. A., & Myros, B. (2012). Australian norms and retest data for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Australian Psychologist, 47, 191-197. Klaasen, E., Lisbeth, E., Renate, D. G., Dick, V., & Jelle, J. (2012). Age differences in brain activation associated with verbal learning and fatigue. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24(3), 243-255. Kramer, J. H., Yaffe, K., Lengenfelder, J., & Delis, D. C. (2003). Age and gender interactions on verbal memory performance. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9(1), 97-102. Murphy, K. J., West, R., Armilio, M. L., Craik, F. I. M., & Stuss, D. T. (2007). Word-list-learning performance in younger and older adults: Intra-individual performance variability and false memory. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 14(1), 70-94. . Salgado, J. V., Malloy-Diniz, L. F., Abrantes, S. S. C., Moreire, L., Schlottfeldt, C. G., Guimaraes, W., … Fuentes, D. (2011). Applicability of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test to an adult sample in Brazil. Revista Brasilera de Psiquiatria, 33(3), 234-237. Simensky, J. D., & Abeles, N. (2002). Decline in verbal memory performance with advancing age: The role of frontal lobe functioning. Aging & Mental Health, 6(3), 293-303. Vakil, E., Greenstein, Y., & Blachstein, H. (2010). Normative data for composite scores for children and adults derived from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 24(4), 662-677. Appendices Appendix 1. Instructions. Trial A1 Read the 15 words on List A with a 1-second interval between words. As the participant repeats the recalled words, put a tick next to each word recalled. Don’t give any feedback regarding the number of correct responses, repetitions or intrusions. Trial A2 After the participant indicates that s/he cannot remember anymore words, read: Read the 15 words on List A with a 1-second interval between words. As the participant repeats the recalled words, put a tick next to each word recalled. Don’t give any feedback regarding the number of correct responses, repetitions or intrusions. Trials A3 to A5 Repeat the instructions for Trial A2. Trial B1 Read the words on List B with a 1-sec interval between them. Mark off words recalled as per List A. Trial A6 Immediately after the List B trial, ask the participant to recall as many List A words as they can: Do not read the list again for this trial. Trial A7 After a 20-minute delay filled with other activity (have a cup of tea or coffee and have a chat), ask the participant to recall the List A words once more Thank the participant for their time. Appendix 2 Data sheet for APP2013 Lab Report Student name_____________________________________________________________ Date data collected­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________ Consent received ž Yes ž No (data can’t be analysed without consent) Participant Age in years____________ Age group:  Under 30  Over 50 Participant Sex ______________ AVLT data summary Immediate recall (Trial A1 total) Trial A5 total Total recall (sum of Trials A1 to A5) Learning curve (Trial A5 minus Trial A1) Trial A6 total Interference (Trial A6 minus Trial A5) Delayed recall (Trial A7 total) You must bring your participant’s data to class week 3/4. Keep this score sheet to include with your final lab report. APP2013 Lab Report: Data Sheet Read More

The scientific explanations are mainly based on the functioning of the brain as the people begin to grow older. While there is extensive research to indicate that ability to accurately recall verbal information decreases with age (Simensky & Abeles, 2002), there is much that is not completely understood about why this progression occurs. This review attempts to establish areas in which future research is justified. According to Simensky and Abeles (2002) aging is closely related to the loss of memory and hence affecting the verbal; memory.

The research highlights that frontal lobe functioning is closely associated with the verbal memory loss among the aging people. This article further indicates that this is due to the failure of encoding information semantically by the frontal lobe. The limitation of the research is it only explains a small amount of variance in relation to the verbal memory and frontal lobe functioning. On the other hand, Vakil, Greenstein and Blachstein (2010), suggests that the verbal memory is controlled by both retroactive and proactive interference.

The loss of verbal memory is thus associated with the overreaction of irrelevant memory items and deficits of source monitoring. The strength of this article is its ability to analyze the issue of verbal memory across all the ages and the relationship with the central nervous system. However, its weakness is the failure of fully establishing the relationship between the brain and the central nervous system in relation to verbal memory. According to Murphy, West, Armilio, Craik, and Stuss (2007), older people have difficulties in recalling the items learned as compared to the young people.

This was established through an experiment among the children and adults. This study also supported the fact that aging leads to the decline in the frontal lobe functioning and hence the loss of verbal memory among the adults. The strength of this study is the careful analysis of the results in relation to the experiments carried out. However, its limitation is the failure to involve a wide range of participants in the study. With a larger sample size, the study would have ample data to base their results on based on any discrepancies that might be encountered with a wide range of participants.

This further enhances the reliability and credibility of the results. With a wide range of participants, the participants can be divided within their age groups and further into smaller sub-groups that would be defined by similar characteristics. For example, in groups of; the ones with high levels of education and those with lower levels, those who remain active in their day to day life through exercise and those who don’t, or those that have hearing impairment among other disorders and those who don’t have any disorders.

This way, results can be evaluated from different perspectives to fully ascertain that verbal memory is affected by age. According to Kramer, Yaffe, Lengenfelder and Delis (2003), age and gender have several effects on the verbal memory. Gender contributes to verbal memory due to the hormone estrogen which has significant impacts on the growth and development of women. The study thus indicates that the older men are more affected by the loss of verbal memory as compared to women. However, this is opposite for younger women and men.

The strength of this article is the study of the verbal memory in relation to gender and factors affecting the growth and development of men and women. Its limitations are however on the number of participants in the study. With a larger number of a participants, there would be sufficient evidence from which to base the results on. A larger number also enhances identification of any discrepancies that might result from different attributes of the participants. According to Carstairs, Shores, and Myros (2012), Rey Auditory and verbal learning test indicates that aging impacts negatively on the verbal memory.

This was established after the study was conducted among various people of different age and gender.

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