Naveh-Benjamin Moshe, Kilb Angela, Maddox Geoffrey B, Thomas Jenna, Fine Hope C, Chen Tina, Cowan Nelson
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri.
Department of Psychology, Plymouth State University.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2014 Nov;40(6):1540-50. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000020. Epub 2014 May 12.
Although working memory spans are, on average, lower for older adults than young adults, we demonstrate in 5 experiments a way in which older adults paradoxically resemble higher capacity young adults. Specifically, in a selective-listening task, older adults almost always failed to notice their names presented in an unattended channel. This is an exaggeration of what high-span young adults show and the opposite of what low-span young adults show. This striking finding in older adults remained significant after controlling for working memory span and for noticing their names in an attended channel. The findings were replicated when presentation rate was slowed and when the ear in which the unattended name was presented was controlled. These results point to an account of older adults' performance involving not only an inhibition factor, which allows high-span young adults to suppress the channel to be ignored, but also an attentional capacity factor, with more unallocated capacity. This capacity allows low-span young adults to notice their names much more often than older adults with comparably low working memory spans do.
虽然老年人的工作记忆广度平均低于年轻人，但我们在5个实验中证明了一种情况，即老年人在某种程度上与高能力的年轻人表现出相似之处，这看似矛盾。具体而言，在一项选择性听力任务中，老年人几乎总是未能注意到在未被关注的声道中出现的自己的名字。这是高广度年轻人表现的一种夸张，与低广度年轻人的表现相反。在控制了工作记忆广度以及在被关注声道中注意到自己名字的情况后，老年人的这一惊人发现仍然显著。当呈现速度放慢以及控制未被关注名字所呈现的耳朵时，这些发现得到了重复验证。这些结果表明，老年人的表现不仅涉及一个抑制因素，该因素使高广度年轻人能够抑制要被忽略的声道，还涉及一个注意力容量因素，即有更多未分配的容量。这种容量使低广度年轻人比工作记忆广度相当低的老年人更频繁地注意到自己的名字。
