OBJECTIVE: The aims were (1) to explore the effects of normal aging on the main aspects of episodic memory--what, where, and when,--and on feature binding in a virtual environment; (2) to explore the influence of the mode of learning, intentional versus incidental; and (3) to benchmark virtual environment findings collected with older adults against data recorded in classical neuropsychological tests. METHOD: We tested a population of 82 young adults and 78 older adults without dementia (they participated in a short battery of neuropsychological tests). All the participants drove a car in an urban virtual environment composing of 9 turns and specific areas. Half of the participants were told to drive through the virtual town; the other half were asked to drive and to memorize the environment (itinerary, elements, etc.). All aspects of episodic memory were then assessed (what, where, when, and binding). RESULTS: The older participants had less recollection of the spatiotemporal context of events than the younger with intentional encoding (p < .001), but similar recollection with incidental encoding (except for verbal spatial aspect). The younger participants showed better binding than older ones regardless of the type of encoding (p < .001). For the older participants the virtual test was sensitive to mnesic complaints as well as general cognitive changes (p < .05 to p < .01). CONCLUSION: We view these results as an indication that virtual environments could provide helpful standard tools for assessing age effects on the main aspects of episodic memory.
OBJECTIVE: The aims were (1) to explore the effects of normal aging on the main aspects of episodic memory--what, where, and when,--and on feature binding in a virtual environment; (2) to explore the influence of the mode of learning, intentional versus incidental; and (3) to benchmark virtual environment findings collected with older adults against data recorded in classical neuropsychological tests. METHOD: We tested a population of 82 young adults and 78 older adults without dementia (they participated in a short battery of neuropsychological tests). All the participants drove a car in an urban virtual environment composing of 9 turns and specific areas. Half of the participants were told to drive through the virtual town; the other half were asked to drive and to memorize the environment (itinerary, elements, etc.). All aspects of episodic memory were then assessed (what, where, when, and binding). RESULTS: The older participants had less recollection of the spatiotemporal context of events than the younger with intentional encoding (p < .001), but similar recollection with incidental encoding (except for verbal spatial aspect). The younger participants showed better binding than older ones regardless of the type of encoding (p < .001). For the older participants the virtual test was sensitive to mnesic complaints as well as general cognitive changes (p < .05 to p < .01). CONCLUSION: We view these results as an indication that virtual environments could provide helpful standard tools for assessing age effects on the main aspects of episodic memory.
Authors: Timothy B Meier; Veena A Nair; Mary E Meyerand; Rasmus M Birn; Vivek Prabhakaran Journal: Behav Brain Res Date: 2014-03-12 Impact factor: 3.332
Authors: Tom V Smulders; Amber Black-Dominique; Tahsina S Choudhury; Simona E Constantinescu; Kyriaki Foka; Tom J Walker; Kevin Dick; Stephen Bradwel; R Hamish McAllister-Williams; Peter Gallagher Journal: J Vis Exp Date: 2017-05-16 Impact factor: 1.355
Authors: Jana Reifegerste; João Veríssimo; Michael D Rugg; Mariel Y Pullman; Laura Babcock; Dana A Glei; Maxine Weinstein; Noreen Goldman; Michael T Ullman Journal: Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn Date: 2020-06-05