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Age-related differences on cognitive overload in an audio-visual memory task

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Abstract

The present study aimed to provide evidence outlining whether the type of stimuli used in teaching would provoke differing levels of recall across three different academic age groups. One hundred and twenty-one participants, aged 11–25 years, were given a language-based memory task in the form of a wordlist consisting of 15 concrete and 15 abstract words, presented either visually, acoustically, or a combination of both audio and visual presentation. The study found that the presence of cognitive overload was greater in the older academic age participants than in the younger groups and that as academic experience increased, the visual presentation of the target stimuli produced greater levels of recall than was the case with acoustic and audio-visual presentation. Overall the findings indicate that cognitive overload increases with age, as the younger-age groups were found to have significantly higher levels of word recall in the audio-visual condition than the older groups.

Resumé

La présente étude visait à fournir des preuves indiquant que le type de stimuli utilisés dans l'enseignement provoquerait des niveaux différents de rappeler à travers trois différents groupes d'âge scolaire. 121 participants, âgés de 11–25 ans, ont eu une tâche de mémoire linguistique en fonction sous la forme d'un dictionnaire composé de 15 en béton et 15 mots abstraits, présenté soit visuellement, acoustiquement, ou une combinaison des deux audio et visuels de présentation. L'étude a révélé que la présence de surcharge cognitive était plus élevée chez les participants plus âgés universitaires que dans les groupes plus jeunes et que l'expérience universitaire a augmenté, la présentation visuelle des stimuli cibles produites niveaux plus élevés de rappeler que ce fut le cas acoustique et audio- présentation visuelle. Globalement, les résultats indiquent que les augmentations de surcharge cognitive avec l'âge, comme les groupes d'âge plus jeunes ont été trouvés à des niveaux significativement plus élevés de rappel de mots dans la condition audio-visuelle que les groupes plus âgés.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Glasgow Caledonian University, 70 Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0PP, Scotland, UK

    Jennifer Murray & Mary E. Thomson

Authors
  1. Jennifer Murray
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  2. Mary E. Thomson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Murray.

Additional information

Jennifer Murray. Glasgow Caledonian University, Department of Psychology, 70 Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0PP, Scotland, UK. E-mail: jennifer.murray@gcu.ac.uk

Mary Thomson. Glasgow Caledonian University, Department of Psychology, 70 Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0PP, Scotland, UK. E-mail: m.thomson@gcu.ac.uk

Current themes of research:

Jennifer Murray’s current research interests focus primarily on examining judgemental bias in clinical judgements of violence risk assessment. She is also interested in the changes in memory across the lifespan, having previous research experience investigating the impact of glucose on prospective memory and eyewitness’ memory across older and younger adults.

Mary Thomson’s research focus is on all aspects of judgment and decision making. She has published in a wide variety of books and journals, including The Journal of Behavioural Decision Making, Risk Analysis, the International Journal of Forecasting, The European Journal of Operational Research and Decision Support Systems.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Murray, J., & Thomson, M. E. (2008). The effects of academic experience on the presence of cognitive overload in an audio-visual memory task. Proceedings of the BPS Cognitive Section Conference, p. 77.

Appendices

Appendix A

Word list used in the current research, shown in the order presented to participants: Flower, Anger, Corn, Truth, Shoes, Belief, Car, Effort, Apple, Theory, Bird, Moral, Fire, Knowledge, Table, Freedom, River, Chance, Heart, Mood, Radio, Fate, Window, Interest, Doctor, Idea, House, Hope, Rock, Honour.

Appendix B

Table 2 Table illustrating the number of concrete and abstract words from the word list displayed in frequency per million words (in both spoken and written English) categories based on Leech et al. (2001) frequency guidelines
Full size table

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Murray, J., Thomson, M.E. Age-related differences on cognitive overload in an audio-visual memory task. Eur J Psychol Educ 26, 129–141 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-010-0032-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-010-0032-7

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