Aging and Biases in Spatial Memory: a Dynamic Field Approach Gregory J
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Psychology, Department of Department of Psychology 5-2018 Aging and Biases in Spatial Memory: A Dynamic Field Approach Gregory J. DeGirolamo University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss Part of the Psychology Commons DeGirolamo, Gregory J., "Aging and Biases in Spatial Memory: A Dynamic Field Approach" (2018). Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology. 100. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss/100 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Aging and Biases in Spatial Memory: A Dynamic Field Approach by Gregory J. DeGirolamo A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirement For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Psychology Under the Supervision of Professor Anne R. Schutte Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2018 Aging and Biases in Spatial Memory: A Dynamic Field Approach Gregory J. DeGirolamo, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2018 Advisor: Anne R. Schutte. Spatial cognition encompasses a wide variety of abilities and requires the interaction of several regions of the brain, including the hippocampus, striatum, and pre- frontal cortex (PFC). (Packard & McGaugh, 1996; Reuter-Lorenz et al., 2000). Given that these areas atrophy in later adulthood (Golomb et al., 1993; Raz et al., 2003; Aizenstein et al., 2006), it raises the question of how spatial cognition changes with age. It has been found that increased task complexity leads to an age-related decline in performance (Nagel et al., 2009). Other factors that lead to a decline in memory performance in older adults include whether the memory task involves allocentric or egocentric memory (Desrocher & Smith, 1998). This study developed a computational model of spatial working memory recall and recognition abilities for young adulthood to late adulthood using a type of neural network—dynamic field theory. This model was used to generate hypotheses of how spatial working memory recall and recognition abilities change from young adulthood to late adulthood. This model also influenced the development of hypotheses of how long-term memory performance changes with age, and how working memory abilities predict long-term memory abilities. Some of the hypotheses were supported, such as performance declined as task complexity increased, and, compared to younger adults, older adults had a greater level of error on the long- term memory task. Other models and hypotheses, such as the prediction that there would ii not be a significant difference in performance between the two age groups on a spatial working memory recall task, were not supported. iii Author’s Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my Ph.D advisor and primary mentor, Dr. Anne Schutte. I am extremely grateful that she took me on as one of her graduate students. Her constant support and guidance helped me to develop into a better teacher, researcher, and person. I cannot begin to capture my gratitude in words for the positive influence she has had on my life and career. I have learned a lot from Anne between taking some of her graduate courses, being her TA, developing researcher projects with her, and many other experiences and observations. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee for their mentorship and guidance over the years, both with this dissertation and in other aspects of my graduate training. I would especially like to thank my readers, Dr. Mike Dodd and Dr. Matt Johnson. I particularly enjoyed discussing research with each of them, attending Matt’s computer programming meetings, and their help in my development as an instructor. I especially appreciate Dr. Mike Dodd lending my his slides and syllabi to use as an example when I was the instructor for Cognitive Processes. I also appreciate Dr. Matt Johnson’s help and advice when it came time to grade essay exams. I would like to thank Dr. Dennis Molfese for his career advice and introducing me to EEG research. I would like to thank Dr. Alex Twyman for challenging how I think about Dynamic Field Theory and Categorical-Adjustment Model and the comparison between these two models. I also appreciate her advice when to me when I was on the job market. Finally, I would like to thank the two former members of my committee: Dr. Alan Bond and Dr. Julie Honaker. I would like to thank Dr. Alan Bond for his advice on feedback on my research goals and my comprehensive exams. I would like to thank Dr. Julie Honaker for her feedback on iv my dissertation proposal and for checking on my progress after she accepted a position at another institution. I would especially like to thank my family. I would like to thank my parents, Joseph and Joyce DeGirolamo for their unending love, support, encouragement, and the sacrifices they made to help me to where I am today. There are so many ways they have helped shaped me into who I am today and encouraged my interests, between the countless times they took me to the library and bookstores when I asked, trips to museums, attending my soccer and baseball matches, and in many other small things they have done. I would also like to thank my siblings, Doug, Kristina, and Denise, for their encouragement. I would like to thank my grandparents, George and Anita Atoulikian and Leonardo and Filomena DeGirolamo. In particular, special thanks to my maternal grandparents for taking my siblings and I to school and watching us when we were little, for all of the love and support they have given over the years. I would also like to thank my maternal grandmother for helping me think of ways to recruit older adult participants and for sending me care packages so that I “wouldn’t forget to eat”. I would like to thank my paternal grandparents for their love, encouragement, their example of hard work and seeking out new opportunities for a better life, even if it is challenging (such as how they moved to the U.S for better opportunities). I would like to thank my girlfriend, Kate Woolf, for her love, support, and encouragement. Between our writing sessions at The Mill where we’d work on our respective items, the little things she would do, and listening to me vent when I was stressed out or frustrated, I appreciate Kate and her patiently journeying down this path with me. v I would like to thank my master’s thesis advisor from Cleveland State, Dr. Naohide Yamamoto for his mentorship on my master’s thesis and help as I applied for Ph.D programs. I first became interested in different aspects of spatial cognition while working in his lab. I appreciate his continued support and encouragement. I also appreciate the research experience and mentorship I received from working in Dr. Mike Hammond’s lab at Cleveland State. I would like to thank Dr. Brian Thomas from Baldwin Wallace University for allowing me to work in his lab as an undergraduate and conducting an independent study in his lab. This experience is what solidified my interest in studying learning and memory during my career. I would like to thank Dr. Jennifer Perry and Dr. Lewis Sage for co-mentoring my senior thesis. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Michael Dwyer and Ms. Barb Coniam, who were my academic advisors in undergrad. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and acquaintances. I would especially like to thank Rosa Vinas-Racionero, Fernando Aragones, and Ruby Charak, who were my closest friends in Lincoln and like family to me there. I would also like to thank my other close friends from graduate school, including Grace Sullivan, Bobby Byrom, John Kiat, Josh Zosky, Molly McPherson, Gerald McDonnell, Mark Mills, Monica Rosen, Juan Duque, Curtis Walker, Josh Haby, Carly Malloy, Amy Ort, Patrick Ledwidge, Caitlin Hudac, Chelsie Temmen, Paul Nabbity, Health Hodges, Vincenzo and Marissa Roma, Yinbo Wu, Cheng Lim, Frank Gonzalez, Ibrahim Acar, and Alex Wasserman. I would like to thank my friends from outside of grad school, including Jason Chambers, Ryan Merriman, Nathaniel Maier, Dave Heckathorn, Michael Columboro, Greg Miller, Goran Jovanovic, Nick Slusher, Dan Conlin, Kyle Miers, John Monroe, Mike Hanson vi Shannon Perry, Zach Millikan, Randall Smith and Sam Griffin, among others. I would also like to thank Bill and Amy Woolf for their support and encouragement. I would like to thank The Brave New Brew Running Crew and its members...it has been a joy being a member of this charitable running group. I would like to thank the members of Friedens Lutheran Church who had helped with recruitment for my dissertation. I would like thank Fr. Holdren and Fr. Matya from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church for their encouragement. I would like to thank the members of the Spatial Cognition lab that have not been already mentioned. I would especially to thank Lalah McLaughlin, Yoselin Suarez, Victoria Burkey, who helped with data collection for this dissertation. I would like to thank Yinbo Wu for helping to assess the long-term memory task. I would like to thank the following undergraduates research assistants whom I worked with on other projects. Emily Frazen, Nedu Izuegbunam, Erica Ness,