The Effects of Ageing on the Organisation of Visual Short-term Memory

Past research has reported a deterioration in the corpus callosum of older adults that causes less interhemispheric communication between the hemispheres. However, this study did not measure the corpus callosum; instead, it assumes that older people have smaller corpus callosum based on past research. Past research has also reported a considerable impairment in the elders' capacity to handle global statistics instead of local figures but a global preceding effect in younger adults. To study the ageing effects on the organisation of VSTM, 45 younger adults aged between 18-28 and 44 older adults aged between 62-80 (some exclusions were made later) participated in a change detection task. A memory display was presented to the participants. After a short delay, a test display was presented with one of the four conditions: single probe, whole probe, Half probe (across hemifield) or half probe (within hemifield). Participants had to choose if the colours were similar or distinct between the memory and the test display. Only the colours and probe conditions could change between memory and the test display, but the locations stayed the same. The study builds on the present knowledge of VSTM-related age decline in cognition. It was reported that overall, the older participants performed less accurately on the change detection task than the younger adults. The effects of the answer and the interaction between the probe condition and the answer were also reported. However, there was no significant interaction between the probe condition and the group. It was a complex online study which was a significant limitation of the study. Future research can investigate memory consolidation in older adults using a simpler design in a lab-based study. The present study is a follow-up study for Anonymous (2020).