Sensory-based modulations on visual memory are preserved in older adults

Sensory visual degradation is one of the most well-known implications of aging. Theories on compensation mechanisms in aging suggest that with sensory degradations, processing shifts to prioritize more preserved non-sensory sources of information such as semantic and contextual information. Therefore, it is unclear whether image size changes (evident in profound sensory changes to the retinal image) that significantly affect memory in young adults, would also affect memory in older ages. Here we directly tested this in a large cohort (n=294) covering a continuous age range (18–92 years). Participants freely viewed 160 3-15.5 visual degree sized pictures (of faces, people, indoor and outdoor scenes) without being notified about the memory aspect of the study (“naturalistic encoding”). Afterwards they were given a surprise old-new recognition memory test on these and on 160 additional new images. Image memory was not affected by age (as evident in accuracy, memory sensitivity (dprime), decision criterion and in area under the ROC curve (AUC)). Furthermore, larger images were better remembered across all age groups, and the extent of the image size-related memory benefit was also not affected by age. The findings suggest that even in older age, with sensory senescence, visual (sensory) information affects image memory during naturalist encoding to the same extent as in younger age. These findings may have important implications for understanding memory processes and for developing methods to improve information accessibility and interface design for older adults.