Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction

Fiona McNab; Peter Zeidman; Robb B Rutledge; Peter Smittenaar; Harriet R Brown; Rick A Adams; Raymond J Dolan

doi:10.1073/pnas.1504162112

Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction

Fiona McNab, Peter Zeidman, Robb B Rutledge, Peter Smittenaar, Harriet R Brown, Rick A Adams, Raymond J Dolan

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A weakened ability to effectively resist distraction is a potential basis for reduced working memory capacity (WMC) associated with healthy aging. Exploiting data from 29,631 users of a smartphone game, we show that, as age increases, working memory (WM) performance is compromised more by distractors presented during WM maintenance than distractors presented during encoding. However, with increasing age, the ability to exclude distraction at encoding is a better predictor of WMC in the absence of distraction. A significantly greater contribution of distractor filtering at encoding represents a potential compensation for reduced WMC in older age.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6515-6518
Number of pages	4
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	112
Issue number	20
Early online date	4 May 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504162112
Publication status	Published - 19 May 2015

Keywords

Adult
Aged
Aging
Analysis of Variance
Attention
Humans
Memory, Short-Term
Middle Aged
Video Games

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10.1073/pnas.1504162112

Fiona McNab
- fiona.mcnabyork.acuk
- Psychology - Lecturer
Person: Academic

Cite this

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AU - Rutledge, Robb B

AU - Smittenaar, Peter

AU - Brown, Harriet R

AU - Adams, Rick A

AU - Dolan, Raymond J

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KW - Aged

KW - Aging

KW - Analysis of Variance

KW - Attention

KW - Humans

KW - Memory, Short-Term

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Video Games

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JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

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Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction

Abstract

Keywords

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