Age differences in spatial memory for mediated environments.

ABSTRACT: Compared with younger adults, older adults have more difficulty with navigation and spatial memory in both familiar and unfamiliar domains. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these effects have been little explored. We examined three potential factors: (a) use of and coordination across spatial reference frames, (b) nonspatial cognitive abilities, and (c) the ability to segment a route into effective chunks. In two experiments, healthy young and older adults watched videos of navigation in a novel environment and had to remember the placement of landmarks along the route. Participants completed three spatial memory tasks-a virtual pointing task, a distance estimation task, and sketch map drawing-for each route. The pointing task depends on updating and accessing the updated egoce

SUBMITTER: Richmond LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8718108 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature