The effects of aging on location-based and distance-based processes in memory for time

Retrieving when an event occurred may depend on an estimation of the age of the event
(distance-based processes) or on strategic reconstruction processes based on contextual information associated with the event (location-based processes). Young and older participants
performed a list discrimination task that has been designed to dissociate the contribution of
both types of processes. An adapted Remember/Know/Guess procedure [Can. J. Exp. Psychol.
50 (1996) 114] was developed to evaluate the processes used by the participants to recognize
the stimuli and retrieve their list of occurrence. The results showed that aging disrupts location-
based processes more than distance-based processes. In addition, a limitation of speed
of processing and working-memory capacities was the main predictor of age-related differences
on location-based processes, whereas working-memory capacities mediated partly age
differences on distance-based processes.