The effects of aging on ERP correlates of source memory retrieval for self-referential information

Numerous behavioral studies have suggested that normal aging negatively affects source memory accuracy for various kinds of associations. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that less efficient retrieval processing (temporally delayed and attenuated) may contribute to these impairments. Previous aging studies have not compared source memory accuracy and corresponding neural activity for different kinds of source details; namely, those that have been encoded via a more or less effective strategy. Thus, it is not yet known whether encoding source details in a self-referential manner, a strategy suggested to promote successful memory in the young and old, may enhance source memory accuracy and reduce the commonly observed age-related changes in neural activity associated with source memory retrieval. Here, we investigated these issues by using event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure the effects of aging on the neural correlates of successful source memory retrieval (“old–new effects”) for objects encoded either self-referentially or self-externally. Behavioral results showed that both young and older adults demonstrated better source memory accuracy for objects encoded self-referentially. ERP results showed that old–new effects onsetted earlier for self-referentially encoded items in both groups and that age-related differences in the onset latency of these effects were reduced for self-referentially, compared to self-externally, encoded items. These results suggest that the implementation of an effective encoding strategy, like self-referential processing, may lead to more efficient retrieval, which in turn may improve source memory accuracy in both young and older adults.

Research Highlights
► Self-referential encoding is an effective strategy for improving source memory.
► ERP results also suggest that self-referential encoding enhances recollection.
► Self-referential encoding may support more efficient retrieval processing.