TY - JOUR
T1 - Aging’s Effect on Working Memory—Modality Comparison
AU - Heled, Eyal
AU - Levi, Ohad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - Research exploring the impact of development and aging on working memory (WM) has primarily concentrated on visual and verbal domains, with limited attention paid to the tactile modality. The current study sought to evaluate WM encompassing storage and manipulation across these three modalities, spanning from childhood to old age. The study included 134 participants, divided into four age groups: 7–8, 11–12, 25–35, and 60–69. Each participant completed the Visuospatial Span, Digit Span, and Tactual Span, with forward and backward recall. The findings demonstrated a consistent trend in both forward and backward stages. Performance improved until young adulthood, progressively diminishing with advancing age. In the forward stage, the Tactual Span performance was worse than that of the Digit and Visuospatial Span for all participants. In the backward stage, the Visuospatial Span outperformed the Digit and Tactual Span across all age groups. Furthermore, the Tactual Span backward recall exhibited significantly poorer performance than the other modalities, primarily in the youngest and oldest age groups. In conclusion, age impacts WM differently across modalities, with tactile storage capacity being the most vulnerable. Additionally, tactile manipulation skills develop later in childhood but deteriorate sooner in adulthood, indicating a distinct component within tactile WM.
AB - Research exploring the impact of development and aging on working memory (WM) has primarily concentrated on visual and verbal domains, with limited attention paid to the tactile modality. The current study sought to evaluate WM encompassing storage and manipulation across these three modalities, spanning from childhood to old age. The study included 134 participants, divided into four age groups: 7–8, 11–12, 25–35, and 60–69. Each participant completed the Visuospatial Span, Digit Span, and Tactual Span, with forward and backward recall. The findings demonstrated a consistent trend in both forward and backward stages. Performance improved until young adulthood, progressively diminishing with advancing age. In the forward stage, the Tactual Span performance was worse than that of the Digit and Visuospatial Span for all participants. In the backward stage, the Visuospatial Span outperformed the Digit and Tactual Span across all age groups. Furthermore, the Tactual Span backward recall exhibited significantly poorer performance than the other modalities, primarily in the youngest and oldest age groups. In conclusion, age impacts WM differently across modalities, with tactile storage capacity being the most vulnerable. Additionally, tactile manipulation skills develop later in childhood but deteriorate sooner in adulthood, indicating a distinct component within tactile WM.
KW - Digit Span
KW - Tactual Span
KW - Visuospatial Span
KW - aging
KW - development
KW - working memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85191381879&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/biomedicines12040835
DO - 10.3390/biomedicines12040835
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AN - SCOPUS:85191381879
SN - 2227-9059
VL - 12
JO - Biomedicines
JF - Biomedicines
IS - 4
M1 - 835
ER -