Several pieces of research have concluded that the number of items that the working memory is capable of handling often decreases as an individual age. Also, a person’s ability to exclude distractors is effective in improving the performance of the working memory. However, impaired inhibitory processing of distraction contributes to an age-related reduction in the performance of a person's working memory (McNab et al., 2015). A reduced capacity of the working memory to function effectively has been linked to specific impairment in suppressing distractors. Usually, distractors involve encoding distractions and delay distractions. Even though an improved working memory capacity is often associated with an improved ability to eliminate distractors, it also has unique contributions to the functioning of an individual’s working memory (McNab et al., 2015). This paper examines the age-related reduction in a person's working memory capacity. Most recent studies have identified age-related delays in encoding distractors as well as an early deficit in the suppression of delayed distractors (Gazzaley et al., 2008). Thus, this paper presents a review of ways in which aging affects the working memory capacity based on an empirical research and review done by Hasher and Zacks (1988). Hasher and Zacks (1988) made various important conclusions about the impact of aging on an individual’s linguistic comprehension capacity as well as their working memory capacity. Thus, a review of the works of the two scholars will provide further insights into what must be included in future studies on the impacts of age on cognitive abilities.
Hasher and Zacks' Conceptual Framework
Hasher and Zacks (1988) proposed a conceptual framework for the understanding of the impacts of age differences on individuals’ working memory. Particularly, Hasher and Zacks (1988) argued that aging directly contributes inhibits the efficiency of the working memory. Hasher and Zacks (1988) explained that aging reduces the functional capacity of the working memory due to an inability of the efficient processes to prevent unnecessary information from entering the working memory. An older person's inferior encoding, retrieval, and comprehension allow more irrelevant information to enter a person's working memory. Also, Hasher and Zacks (1988) argued that most age-related changes in a person’s cognitive functions are caused by the working memory’s inhibitory prowess. Hasher and Zacks (1988) stated that existing studies on cognitive gerontology indicate that an older person's behavior is consistent with the anticipations stemming from the weakened inhibition view (216). However, the interesting aspect of the two scholars review is the new proposed framework that expanded on the inhibitory aspect of aging.
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The framework proposed by cognitive gerontology triggered a large number of studies attempting to explain the inhibitory functions of older people’s working memories. Most of those new studies have addressed inhibition in different cognitive domains such as reading, working memory, attention, memory, and language. Almost all the findings from the emerging studies have also been reviewed by different scholars including Stoltzfus, Hasher, and Zacks (1996) and Gazzale et al. (2009). Thus, the purpose of Hasher and Zacks (1988)’s review was to address the rudimentary precept of the inhibitory framework for the understanding of an individual’s cognitive aging.
Basic Elements of this Review
This review seeks to examine the claim put forward by Hasher, and Zacks (1988) and explains whether the key arguments and frameworks proposed by the two researchers are consistent with the current and previous findings from studies undertaken by various scholars. The main point put forward by Hasher, and Zacks (1988) is that aging has a negative impact on the functioning of a person’s working memory and comprehension.
There is a general assumption put forward by Stoltzfus, Hasher and Zacks (1996) stating that the evidence of the inhibition view on the working memory’s capacity is encouraging even when taken as a whole. However, other scholars have also suggested different that different other factors act alongside the inhibition view to affect the working memory of a person at an old age. Also, this review will examine the adequacy of the inhibitory deficit's view in creating the understanding of the selective attention in aging. Thus, this review intends to fulfill three main goals. First, the review intends to assess the role played by inhibitory mechanisms in selective attention as one age. Second, the review will evaluate inhibition as one of the theoretical concepts in cognitive aging theories while specifically concentrating on attention and aging. Finally, this review will examine ways of evaluating progress in the development of theories of individuals’ working memory and comprehension.
Summary of Hasher and Zacks (1988)’s Review
Hasher and Zacks (1988) explained that the amount of resources available on a time-to-time basis limits cognitive functioning and that those amount of resources decrease from the beginning of adulthood. A review of the most recent research on aging and cognitive abilities indicates that there is the need to reevaluate the overreliance of the reduced capacity opinions in cognitive gerontology. Hasher and Zacks (1988) went ahead to list the things that they thought were the conceptual as well as empirical shortcomings of the reduced capacity approach. These main points include lack of detailed specifications regarding ways in which limited resources affect cognitive processes, the uncertainty in deciding whether to consider resources in terms of a single pool or in terms of several autonomous pools and the unavailability of valid as well as reliable measures of capacity. Finally, Hasher and Zacks (1988) summarized their work with the formulation of a new framework for the understanding of comprehension and aging build around the idea of inhibitory function.
Related Empirical Research
The working memory can be explained as a short-term memory responsible for holding recent events and ideas temporarily to enable the brain to recall everything easily. Various cognitive changes take place as the process of aging continues. According to Hedden and& Gabrieli (2004) and Piguet and Corkin (2007), some of the most significant cognitive changes that take place with aging are those that challenge the working memory and cognitive control processes. Several scholars have developed various hypotheses about the cognitive aging at the behavioral level although the hypotheses advanced by Hedden and& Gabrieli (2004) and Piguet and Corkin (2007) continue to influence most recent studies. A diminished ability to overlook distractors is the main cause of age-related cognitive decline. Other studies have concluded that aged people greatly focus on encoding of information to compensate on their diminished ability to retain information in their working memories. Thus, a multi-pronged strategy for enhancing cognitive ability in aged people is necessary.
The decline in the capacity of an individual’s working capacity as one age is related to a characteristic increase in distractibility. Various scholars have studied the brain activity and come up with findings which suggest that the working memory capacity is directly related with increased storage of the distractor information. Therefore, people with higher working memory capacity are more efficient in filtering out distractions thereby enabling them to only focus on relevant information. Aged people usually have a diminished working memory capacity. Thus, the ability of older adults to disregard distractors or irrelevant information is minimal. Various studies in the field of psychology on cognitive functioning in normal aging have come up with several interesting findings. However, the overall impression of those studies is that there is a general decline in cognitive performances among older people. Metamemory and monitoring, verbal fluency, speed processing, attention efficiency, and memory performance all reflect age-related differences ( McNab et al., 2015) . Also, various studies have shown that older people have poorer reading comprehension as well as a poorer memory for passages.
Aging and Reading Comprehension
Older people usually show impaired comprehension and the ability to recall when information is rapidly presented rather than when the information is presented slowly. Also, older adults have difficulty in comprehending information with highest syntactic structures ( Belsky, 2013; Hagar, 2013) . Aged people experience a significant amount of difficulties when making inferences when comprehending texts as well as when updating textual meanings especially when new information is introduced. When compared to younger people, the aged spend a lot of time processing new concepts when reading through a text.
A person’s working memory can only handle a limited amount of information. According to Cowan, Morey, and Chen (2007) , the working memory can hold up to seven items over a short time. Most information often fades away after a short period of time making it difficult for a person to recall most things. The working memory model developed by Baddeley supports the assumption of decay of information in the working memory. For instance, one must retain the beginning of a sentence as he/she continues reading through the sentence for that person to understand the meaning conveyed by the sentence. The working memory is responsible for retaining the beginning or parts of a sentence as one reads through the entire sentence.
Cowan, Morey, and Chen (2007) explained that most grown-up can retain between five to nine items in the short-term. Cowan, Morey, and Chen (2007) further explained chunking can play a significant role in ensuring that individuals retain more information at a go. For instance, clubbing phone numbers into three digits help in retaining people's phone numbers in the working memory. Thus, a number such as 174234567654 can be read as 1742, 3456, 7654. Retrieving information held in the working memory into the long-term memory helps in enhancing a person’s ability to retain information for long.
Age-related Cognitive Decline and Normal Cognitive Functioning
Although Hasher and Zacks (1988) explained that aging impairs an individual’s cognitive functioning, their study is insufficient since it fails to explain whether age-related cognitive functioning impairs a person’s normal functioning. Available research findings from various studies indicate that aging only slows down an individual’s ability to comprehend information but it does not affect a person’s overall functioning (McNab et al., 2015; Stoltzfus, Hasher & Zacks,1996; Piguet et al., 2009). Thus, although aged people can suffer from age-related cognitive impairment, they could still function normally and undertake other functions effectively.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this review has provided important information regarding the impact of aging on an individual’s comprehension of information. The working memory is responsible for processing and retaining information in the short-term. However, various studies conducted on the functional ability of the working memory over time as one age have concluded that the number of items that the working memory is capable of handling often decreases as an individual age. Generally, older people usually show an impaired comprehension and the ability to recall when information is rapidly presented rather than when the information is presented slowly . Therefore, older people are less likely to comprehend information compared to younger people. However, the extent to which age-related cognitive impairment affects an individual's normal functioning must be addressed to aid in decision making in clinical circumstances. For instance, future studies must explain whether age-related cognitive decline is worse to the extent of preventing someone from living a quality lifestyle. In the current world, cognitive abilities such as the ability to read are important since it allows a person to read and undertake various functions such as administrative tasks.
References
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