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Errorless learning and elaborative self-generation in healthy older adults and individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Mnemonic benefits and mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

TOBI LUBINSKY ,
JILL B. RICH  and
NICOLE D. ANDERSON
TOBI LUBINSKY
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
JILL B. RICH
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Department of Psychology, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NICOLE D. ANDERSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Nicole D. Anderson, Ph.D., Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit, Baycrest, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada. E-mail: nanderson@klaru-baycrest.on.ca
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Abstract

Errorless learning is an intervention that benefits memory performance in healthy older adults and a variety of clinical populations. A limitation of the errorless learning technique is that it is passive and does not involve elaborative processing. We report two studies investigating the added benefits of elaborative, self-generated learning to the errorless learning advantage. We also explored the mnemonic mechanisms of the errorless learning advantage. In both studies, older adults and individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) completed four encoding conditions representing the crossing of errorless/errorful learning and self-generated/experimenter-provided learning. Self-generation enhanced the errorless learning benefit in cued recall and cued recognition, but not in free recall or item recognition. An errorless learning advantage was observed for priming of target words, and this effect was amplified for participants with aMCI after self-generated learning. Moreover, the aMCI group showed significant priming of prior self-generated errors. These results demonstrate that self-generation enhances the errorless learning advantage when study and test conditions match. The data also support the argument that errorless learning eliminates the misleading implicit influence of prior errors, as well as the need for explicit memory processes to distinguish targets from errors. (JINS, 2009, 15, 704–716.)

Keywords

GenerationLearningImplicit memoryCued recallRecognition memoryNeuropsychological tests
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , September 2009 , pp. 704 - 716
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2009

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