Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Ageing is not all bad: Middle-aged memory shows enhanced recognition of semantic information.

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Charlotte Hunt¹ (), Oliver Gray¹, Daniela Montaldi¹; ¹University of Manchester

Noticeable failures in recall and recognition memory are experienced long before we reach old age; despite this, little research focuses on middle-age. The source of these failures could reflect early neurodegeneration, of the type found in the elderly (e.g., hippocampal atrophy) or it could reflect other subtle changes in information processing. Here we draw on the established pseudoneglect effect and its reduction across the adult lifespan to ask whether the relationship between attention and memory could explain the middle-aged memory failures experienced by most. Likewise, drawing on evidence that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) exhibits a similar hemispheric lateralisation of function related to whether semantic and perceptual memory is retrieved, we compare the relative preservation of semantic and perceptual memory in middle-age and its relation to changes on attention. We tested middle-aged (40-65yrs; N=30) and younger adults (18-30yrs; N=30) on two novel recognition memory tasks that require perceptual (object pictures) and semantic (sentences) pattern separation selectively. Results demonstrate that while pattern-separated memory for perceptual information shows decline in middle-age, pattern-separated memory for semantic information does not. Similarly, we show that middle-aged participants while poorer than younger adults on a speeded perceptual matching task, perform more accurately than younger adults on a speeded semantic matching task, potentially suggesting a more efficient semantic encoding system. These findings will be discussed in the context of a middle-age shift in attention laterality, the role of the IPL, and the implications for ageing research more generally.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic