Department of Psychology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 29;8(7):e69937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069937. Print 2013.
Although healthy aging is accompanied by a general decline in memory functioning, environmental support at retrieval can improve older adults' (+65 years) episodic remembering. Despite those over the age of 65 years representing a growing proportion of the population, few environmental retrieval support methods have been empirically evaluated for use with older witnesses and victims of crime. Here, the efficacy of a novel retrieval technique, the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context, is compared with a standard Mental Reinstatement of Context and a no support control (Control). Fifty-one participants witnessed an unexpected live event, and 48 hours later were interviewed using one of three aforementioned techniques. In line with predictions emanating from cognitive theories of aging and the environmental support hypothesis, participants in the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context condition recalled significantly more correct information and fewer inaccurate items. The Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context technique appears to scaffold memory retrieval in an age-appropriate manner during a post-event interview, possibly by encouraging more effortful retrieval and reducing dual-task load. As such, this procedure offers an effective alternative to current approaches, adding to the toolbox of techniques available to forensic and other interviewers.
尽管健康的衰老伴随着记忆功能的普遍下降，但在检索时提供环境支持可以提高老年人（65 岁以上）的情景记忆。尽管 65 岁以上的人口比例不断增加，但很少有环境检索支持方法经过实证评估，可用于老年犯罪目击者和受害者。在这里，一种新颖的检索技术——草图心理情境再现，与标准的心理情境再现和无支持控制（Control）进行了比较。51 名参与者目击了一场意外的现场活动，48 小时后，他们使用上述三种技术中的一种接受了采访。与衰老的认知理论和环境支持假设所产生的预测一致，草图心理情境再现条件下的参与者回忆起的正确信息明显更多，不准确的项目明显更少。草图心理情境再现技术似乎以一种适合年龄的方式在事件后采访中支撑记忆检索，可能是通过鼓励更努力的检索和减少双重任务负担。因此，该程序为当前方法提供了有效的替代方案，为法医和其他采访者提供了更多可用的技术手段。
