Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2011 Sep;26(3):661-70. doi: 10.1037/a0022942.
The current study examined the effects of two manipulations on equal and expanded spaced retrieval schedules in young and older adults. First, we examined the role that the type of expansion (systematic vs. nonsystematic) has in producing a benefit of expanded retrieval. Second, we examined the influence of an immediate retrieval attempt to minimize forgetting after the original encoding event. It was predicted that including multiple retrieval attempts with minimal intervening spacing (best accomplished in a nonsystematic retrieval schedule) would be necessary to produce a benefit of expanded retrieval over equal spaced retrieval for older adults but not young adults due to age differences in working memory capacity. Results from two experiments revealed that the presence of an expanded over equal spaced retrieval benefit is modulated by the extent to which the spacing conditions minimize forgetting in the early retrieval attempts in the spaced conditions. As predicted, these conditions differ substantially across young and older adults. In particular, in older adults two intervening items between early retrieval attempts produce dramatic rates of forgetting compared to one intervening item, whereas younger adults can maintain performance up to five intervening events in comparable conditions. Discussion focuses on age differences in short term forgetting, working memory capacity, and the relation between forgetting rates and spaced retrieval schedules.
本研究考察了两种操作对年轻和老年成年人等距和扩展间隔检索方案的影响。首先，我们研究了扩展的类型（系统的与非系统的）在产生扩展检索益处方面的作用。其次，我们考察了立即检索尝试对原始编码事件后最小化遗忘的影响。预测包含多次检索尝试和最小的间隔（在非系统检索方案中最佳实现）对于老年人来说是必要的，以产生扩展检索相对于等距检索的益处，但对于年轻人来说则不然，因为工作记忆容量存在年龄差异。两项实验的结果表明，扩展检索相对于等距检索的益处的存在受到间隔条件在早期检索尝试中最小化遗忘的程度的调节。正如预测的那样，这些条件在年轻人和老年人之间有很大的不同。特别是，在老年人中，早期检索尝试之间的两个间隔项目会导致遗忘率急剧上升，而相比之下，年轻人在类似条件下可以维持多达五个间隔事件的表现。讨论重点关注短期遗忘、工作记忆容量以及遗忘率和间隔检索方案之间的关系方面的年龄差异。
