Abstract
There are conflicting findings concerning the effect of education on different cognitive measures in late adulthood. The primary aim of the current study was to determine if level of education predicted the efficiency of passive and active visuo-spatial and verbal immediate serial order functions in Italian cognitively healthy elders aged 60–99 years. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to immediately retrieve sequences of positions in forward and backward order using the Corsi Block Tapping Task. In Experiment 2 a further sample of Italian elders was presented the Digit Span test, that is, the forward and backward immediate recall of strings of digits was requested. Our results suggest that level of education impacts significantly the efficiency of visuo-spatial and verbal immediate recall processes in late adulthood. Moreover, the assessment of passive and active working memory processes in older people can be partially biased by schooling effects.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, P.A., Crozier, L.C.: Age and ideal chunk size. J. Gerontol. 47, 47–51 (1992). doi:10.1093/geronj/47.1.P47
Alley, D., Suthers, K., Crimmins, E.: Education and cognitive decline in older Americans: Results from the AHEAD Sample. Res. Aging 29, 73–94 (2007). doi:10.1177/0164027506294245
Anstey, K., Christensen, H.: Education, activity, health, blood pressure and apolipoprotein E as predictors of cognitive change in old age: a review. Geront 46, 163–177 (2000). doi:10.1159/000022153
Ardila, A., Bertolucci, P.H., Braga, L.W., Castro-Caldas, A., Judd, T., Kosmidis, M.H., et al.: Illiteracy: the neuropsychology of cognition without reading. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 25, 689–712 (2010). doi:10.1093/arclin/acq079
Ardila, A., Ostrosky-Solis, F., Rosselli, M., Gomez, C.: Age-related cognitive decline during normal aging: the complex effect of education. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 15, 495–513 (2000). doi:10.1016/S0887-6177(99)00040-2
Baddeley, A.D.: Working Memory. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1986)
Baddeley, A.D., Gathercole, S.E., Papagno, C.: The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychol. Rev. 105, 158–173 (1998). doi:10.1037/0033-295X.105.1.158
Capitani, E., Barbarotto, R., Laicana, M.: Does education influence age-related cognitive decline? A further inquiry. Dev. Neuropsychol. 12, 231–240 (1996). doi:10.1080/87565649609540648
Craik, F.I.M.: Age differences in human memory. In: Birren, J.E., Schaie, K.W. (eds.) Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, pp. 384–420. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (1977)
De Beni, R., Borella, E., Carretti, B., Marigo, C., Nava, L.A.: BAC: Benessere e Abilità Cognitive nell’età Adulta e Avanzata. (BAC: Wellness and Cognitive Abilities in the Advanced and Adult Age). Organizzazioni Speciali, Firenze (2007)
Fastame, M.C., Penna, M.P., Rossetti, E.S., Agus, M.: The effect of age and socio-cultural factors on self-rated well-being and metacognitive and mnemonic efficiency among healthy elderly people. Appl. Res. Qual. Life 9, 325–334 (2014). doi:10.1007/s11482-013-9238-6
Fava, G.A.: Assessing depressive symptoms across cultures: italian validation of the CES-D self-rating scale. J. Clin. Psychol. 39, 249–251 (1983). doi:10.1002/1097-4679(198303)39:2<249:AID-JCLP2270390218>3.0.CO;2-Y
Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., McHugh, P.R.: Mini-mental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J. Psychol. Res. 12, 189–198 (1975). doi:10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6
Hitch, G.J., Fastame, M.C., Flude, B.: How is the serial order of a verbal sequence coded? Some comparisons between models. Memory 13, 247–258 (2005). doi:10.1080/09658210344000314
Katzman, R.: Education and the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology 43, 13–20 (1993)
Kausler, D.H.: Learning and memory in normal aging. Academic Press, San Diego (1994)
Kosmidis, M.H., Tsapkini, K., Folia, V.: Lexical processing in illiteracy: effect of literacy or education? Cortex 42, 1021–1027 (2006)
Kosmidis, M.H., Zafiri, M., Politimou, N.: Literacy versus formal schooling: influence on working memory. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 26, 575–582 (2011). doi:10.1093/arclin/acr063
Lyketsos, C.G., Chen, L.S., Anthony, J.C.: Cognitive decline in adulthood: an 11.5-year follow-up of the Baltimore epidemiologic catchment area study. Am. J. Psychiatry 156, 58–65 (1999)
Milner, B.: Interhemispheric differences in the localization of psychological processes in man. Br. Med. Bull. 27, 272–277 (1971)
Orsini, A., Chiaccio, I., Cinque, M., Cocchiaro, C., Schiappa, O., Grossi, D.: Effects of age, education and sex on two tests of immediate memory: a study of normal subjects from 20 to 99 years of age. Percept. Mot. Skills 63, 727–732 (1986). doi:10.2466/pms.1986.63.2.727
Ostrosky-Solis, F., Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., Lopez-Arango, G., Uriel-Mendoza, V.: Neuropsychological test performance in illiterates. Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. 13, 645–660 (1998). doi:10.1016/S0887-6177(97)
Rabbitt, P.: Crystal quest: a search for the basis of maintenance of practised skills into old age. In: Baddeley, A., Weiskrant, L. (eds.) Attention, selection, awareness and control, pp. 188–230. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1993)
Radloff, L.S.: The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Appl. Psychol. Measurement 1, 385–401 (1977). doi:10.1177/014662167700100306
Salthouse, T.A.: Mediation of adult age differences in cognition by reductions in working memory and speed of processing. Psychol. Sci. 2, 179–183 (1991). doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00127.x
Salthouse, T.A.: The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychol. Rev. 103, 403–428 (1996). doi:10.1037/0033-295X.103.3.403
Stern, Y. (ed.): Cognitive Reserve: Theory and Application. Taylor & Francis, New York (2007)
Stern, Y., Albert, S., Tang, M.X., Tsai, W.Y.: Rate of memory decline in AD is related to education and occupation: cognitive reserve? Neurology 53, 1942–1947 (1999). doi:10.1212/WNL.53.9.1942
Van Linden, S., Cremers, A.H.M.: Cognitive abilities of functionally illiterate persons relevant to ICT use. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W., Karshmer, A. (eds.) Computers Helping People with Special Needs, pp. 705–712. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Wechsler, D.: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R), 3rd edn. Psychological Corporation, San Antonio (1974)
Zacks, R., Hasher, L.: Cognitive gerontology and attentional inhibition: a reply to Burke and McDowd. J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. 52B, 274–283 (1997). doi:10.1093/geronb/52B.6.P274
Zahodne, L.B., Glymour, M.M., Sparks, C., Bontempo, D., Dixon, R.A., MacDonald, S.W., Manly, J.J.: Education does not slow cognitive decline with aging: 12-year evidence from the victoria longitudinal study. J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc. 17, 1039–1046 (2011). doi:10.1017/S1355617711001044
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fastame, M.C., Hitchcott, P.K. & Penna, M.P. Does education influence visuo-spatial and verbal immediate serial recall in healthy older adults?. Qual Quant 49, 2155–2167 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-014-0099-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-014-0099-3