Sind Altersunterschiede in der Gedächtnisspanne die Folge einer im Alter erhöhten Störbarkeit durch Interferenzen?
Abstract
Dem Hemmungs-Defizit-Modell zufolge beruhen im Alter verringerte Gedächtnisspannen auf der nachlassenden Fähigkeit, Interferenzen aus zuvor verarbeitetem Material auszublenden. Diese Annahme wurde in einer Studie überprüft, in der je 80 junge und ältere Erwachsene (19-35, vs. 57-78) komplexe Satzspannenaufgaben mit hoch und gering interferierendem Wortmaterial bearbeiteten, und zwar im Standardformat, mit der Länge nach aufsteigenden Itemsequenzen und umgekehrt (absteigend). Der Einfluss von Interferenzen sollte bei absteigender Darbietung geringer sein, als bei aufsteigender. Eine Veränderung des Interferenzausmaßes hatte keinen Einfluss auf Altersunterschiede in der Gedächtnisspanne. Für ältere Erwachsene waren jedoch mehr Intrusionsfehler durch irrelevante Wörter nachweisbar. Eine stärkere Störbarkeit durch interferierendes Material scheint also vorzuliegen, aber nicht in unmittelbarer Beziehung zu Altersunterschieden in der Gedächtnisspanne zu stehen.
According to the inhibition theory of aging, lower levels of memory span performance for older than for younger adults results from a more severe interference-proneness with aging. In a study with 80 younger and 80 older adults (19-35 vs. 57-78) this assumption has been tested. Participants completed working memory span tasks with both high and low interfering words in a standard format, beginning with ascending sequences of items, and inversely (descending). The influence of proactive interferences should be lower for the descending format than for the ascending format. Changes in interference demands did not influence age differences in memory span. Nevertheless, older adults produced more intrusion errors of irrelevant words. Consequently, a higher interference-proneness seems to be given in old age, but seems not to be directly related to age differences in memory span.
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