An online, updated battery for executive control and episodic memory composites in young and older adults

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Adelaide Jensen¹ (ajens098@uottawa.ca), Steven Carton¹, Olivia Ardilliez¹, Patrick S. R. Davidson¹; ¹University of Ottawa

Neuropsychological perspectives on cognitive aging suggest that episodic memory and executive function are particularly vulnerable. Previous studies have created composite neuropsychological indexes representing participants’ relative episodic memory and executive function performance. However, the measures that make up the composites are often common clinical ones (e.g., Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory) and may therefore show ceiling and/or practice effects. In the present study, we replaced our previous episodic memory measures with a new set that are novel, reliable, valid, and easy to administer online (i.e., Taler Story recall, modified Verbal Paired Associates, 4 Mountains Test, Face-Name associative recall, and Brown Location Task). Our goals were to 1) learn how these memory tasks are related to one another in n = 100 young adults (age 18-30) and n = 100 older adults (age 65+) and 2) better understand the individual-level factors that might influence participants’ performance on our new battery, including biological sex and aspects of health, mood, sleep, and medication. Preliminary analyses revealed that participants’ scores on the individual memory tasks were off the floor and ceiling and positively intercorrelated in both age groups. The young adults outperformed the older adults on several of the memory tasks.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging