Eye Movements as a Reflection of Binding in Older Adults

• Main Author: Bloom, Rachel
• Other Authors: Ryan, Jennifer D.
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Relational Memory; Eye Movement Monitoring; 0633
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/18221

Theories of age-related memory decline debate whether the problem lies at the level of encoding or consciously accessing information at the level of retrieval. Deficits at encoding may be due to the inability to bind relations among objects. The present research implements eye movement monitoring into an associative memory task to explore age-related memory at encoding and retrieval. Eye movements of older and younger adults are compared. Three solitary items were presented during the study phase, and test responses were whether the spatial relation of these objects to one another was intact or manipulated when subsequently presented all together. Observed differences at the level of encoding in addition to the level of retrieval clarifies that there is not a deficit in consciously accessing encoded representations. Further, differences in relational binding at the level of encoding were observed, which supports the association deficit theory of memory and aging.