Temporal and contextual binding in episodic memory in younger and older adults

Episodic memory (EM) is a subsystem responsible for storing and recalling information about the basic elements of an event in a binding manner. Some approaches consider the temporal element to be one of the basic components of EM (WWWhen paradigm), while others consider that the contextual component is able in practice to better represent this cognitive ability (WWWhich paradigm). The relationship of both paradigms simultaneously with other instruments for measuring EM has not been investigated in healthy older adults. Thus, the present study examined the performance of young and older adults on questions based on the WWWhen and WWWhich paradigms, investigating the relationship of these questions with episodic (Remember) and non-episodic (Know) strategies. The results showed that for the younger adults both the questions demonstrated to only be significantly related with the remember strategy. On the other hand, older adults presented a response pattern in which the WWWhich questions used only episodic strategies for their correct resolution. Aging appears to promote a substantial reduction in both Remember and Know strategies, mainly those associated with solving tasks based on the temporal element of EM.

Automated summary

This study examined the performance of young and older adults on memory questions and found that older adults only used memory strategy for solving questions based on the temporal element, while young adults used both memory and non-memory strategies. This suggests that aging leads to a reduction in memory strategies.