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Biomedical subjects

T M Hess

Publications and source records attributed to T M Hess.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Schema-based retrieval processes in young and older adults.

Through two experiments we examined the extent to which the memory performance of different-aged adults was dependent upon the conceptual relationship between the to-be-remembered information and the perspective adopted at retrieval. In both studies, young and old adults read a story from one of two perspectives. They then recalled the story twice: first from the perspective taken at reading and then again from the alternative perspective. It was found that memory performance in both age groups was related to the relevance of the story information to the recall perspective. In addition, the interaction between recall perspective and the relevance of the story units was similar across age groups. This suggests that young and older adults are similarly dependent upon schema-based relations in aiding recall, at least when the memory task has a heavy emphasis on conceptually driven retrieval processes.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Adult age differences in explanations and memory for behavioral information.

Age differences in the effects of knowledge-based expectations on both the use of integrative memory processes and recall were examined. In the context of an impression-formation task, young and older adults were presented with lists containing behaviors that varied in consistency with attributed personality traits. Younger adults recalled trait-inconsistent behaviors better than consistent ones, but older adults exhibited no such consistency effect. The age difference in performance was related to the younger adults' spontaneously producing more explanations for inconsistent behaviors. Explanations are assumed to facilitate access to such information by establishing associations with other behavioral information residing in memory. When age differences in the use of explanation-based processing were controlled, the age differences in the effects of consistency on memory were eliminated.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Treatment of acute herpetic neuralgia. A case report and review of the literature.

Herpes zoster (shingles) is a viral infection that results from a reactivation of a dormant varicella zoster virus. It has been estimated that more than 300,000 new cases are seen in the United States each year. Several factors influence the incidence of infection, with increasing age being the most consistent. Postherpetic neuralgia is the No. 1 cause of intractable, debilitating pain in the elderly and is the leading cause of suicide in chronic pain patients over the age of 70.

Analgesia, Epidural↗
PubMed1987

Adult age differences in the perception and learning of artistic style categories.

Adult age differences in conceptual behavior were studied using informationally complex stimuli from real-world categories: paintings by two impressionist artists. In Experiment 1 we examined perceptions of category structure by having subjects sort paintings according to style similarity. Young adults were observed to depend more on abstract information in making style judgments, whereas older adults relied more on similarity in content. This resulted in different category structures between age groups, but similarity judgments in both groups appeared to correspond to actual style differences between the two artists. In Experiment 2, learning efficiency was shown to increase with a painting's category centrality, but older adults had particular trouble learning noncentral items. At transfer, both age groups were able to use abstracted central tendency information to categorize new paintings, although young adults appeared to have better access to information about specific category exemplars from acquisition. The results are generally consistent with those from studies using simpler artificial stimuli.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Memory for sex-role consistent and inconsistent actions in young and old adults.

Adult age differences in the flexibility of schematic processing were examined by measuring the degree to which a dominant structure (traditional sex-role knowledge) interfered with the operation of a nondominant structure (nontraditional knowledge). In two experiments, young and old adults read statements describing a man performing actions consistent or inconsistent with a prescribed sex role in an impression-formation task. Participants in both age groups altered their processing of the actions, as indicated by reading times and trait ratings, relative to the sex role emphasized, although the effect was stronger for men than women. The expected greater recall for sex role inconsistent than consistent actions was observed only when the traditional sex role was emphasized, and not when the nontraditional role was emphasized, suggesting interference from the dominant schema at recall. However, the lack of age differences in the degree of interference observed during initial processing and recall suggests no aging effects on schematic flexibility.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults.

The effects of age differences in retention of information about specific concept members on the ability to abstract central tendency information were examined. Young and older adults were presented with a series of visual patterns that were organized around a prototype. They were then presented with these same patterns plus a set of new patterns varying in prototype similarity in a recognition test. It was found that young adults retained more information about specific acquisition set exemplars, which resulted in slightly different recognition responses for new patterns. However, the recognition behavior of both young and older adults appeared to be governed by the same rules. It is suggested that the organization of conceptual information does not change with age, but the poorer retention of specific item information in older adults may result in a less complete representation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Adult age differences in memory for explicit and implicit sentence information.

Adult age differences in the processing of implicit sentence information were examined by testing recognition memory for stated and implied information. The effects of organization on such processing also were examined by presenting test sentences in a structured (story) or unstructured (unrelated sentences) format. No age differences were observed in memory for implied instruments-suggesting that aging has little effect on the processing and storage of such implicational information. In addition, structure had little effect on memory for implied information but interacted with age in determining memory for explicity stated instruments: Young adults remembered more explicit information in the structured condition.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Aging effects on prototype abstraction and concept identification.

The hypotheses that prototype abstraction is an automatic process unaffected by aging and that different aging effects associated with different types of concept learning can be accounted for by differential effortful memory process involvement were examined. Young and old adults were compared on tests of prototype abstraction and concept identification, and relationships between performance measures derived from these tasks and backward memory span were assessed. In the abstraction task, both age groups used prototypical organizational processes to structure incoming information, but age differences did exist in the specificity of the information used in prototype construction. Concept identification performance, however, declined with age, and the poorer performance of the old adults was related to their poorer memory skills. The results suggest that the different aging effects associated with different tests of conceptual skills are dependent upon the nature of the underlying processes.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Aging-related changes in the processing and retention of script information.

Adult age differences in the processing of script-related information were examined in two separate experiments. In both studies, no age differences were observed in the pattern of reading times across different types of script actions, with all groups reading relevant actions faster than irrelevant ones. In addition, script structure had similar effects across age groups on both recall and recognition performance, with relevant actions being recalled better than irrelevant ones, and atypical actions recognized better than typical ones. In both cases, however, the younger adults exhibited better memory than the older adults for all types of actions, but the age differences in performance decreased as the relevance and typicality of the target information increased. It is suggested that aging is associated with greater dependence upon scripts in the encoding of scripted events.

Adolescent↗