CogSci 2025

•

July 31, 2025

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San Francisco, United States

keywords:

comparative studies

cognitive development

computational modeling

learning

psychology

memory

knowledge representation

Aging greatly affects memory, but not all aspects are impaired equally. Past research has demonstrated that older adults show greater deficits in remembering where an object was encountered compared to what was experienced. A third dimension, that has received less attention in this context is memory for when events occurred. In this study, we employed a Sequential Memory Task (SMT) in which participants memorized spatio-temporal visual object sequences over repeated exposures. In two experiments with 39 younger (YAs, 18-35 years) and 53 older adults (OAs, 65-75 years), we examined age-related differences in sequence memory (when) and the interplay between item (what), and location (where) knowledge. Our results revealed that memory was stronger for item sequences than for location sequences or item-location combinations in both younger and older adults. In addition, older adults exhibited greater age-related deficits in location-related memory. We also found that item and location memory were bi-directionally related and that even pure item sequence reports involved location memory and vice versa. Both age groups relied more on item-location binding associations than on transition learning, but computational modeling indicated a higher reliance on independent location transition learning in OAs than YAs. This suggests that the strong age-related impairment in spatial location memory was in part driven by age-differences in memory binding. These findings provide insights into age-related changes in spatio-temporal sequence memory, and highlight distinct learning strategies in younger and older adults.

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