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Item Understanding subjective memory complaints in ageing : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2017) Burmester, Bridget REveryday memory difficulties are a common experience with age, and cause considerable distress for many people when they are interpreted as potential indicators of age-related disease. However, research literature examining the relationship between these difficulties (known as subjective memory complaints; SMCs) and actual memory performance on neuropsychological tests has shown mixed results, suggesting that SMCs are not a pure reflection of memory ability, but instead that their aetiology is complicated and not fully understood. Both psychological and methodological factors are also implicated, although no research has yet comprehensively examined how a combination of these factors might predict SMCs. The current research aimed to test a new aetiological model of SMCs that incorporated a range of potential confounds. It was hypothesised that SMCs would be predicted by measures of processing speed and executive functioning, and that this relationship would be moderated by measures of anxiety and depression. First, a meta-analysis and systematic review of existing research on the relationship between subjective and objective memory was conducted as a platform to inform subsequent analyses. Then, Study A addressed current variation in assessment methods by describing differences in SMCs when assessed with both an open-ended measure and a prescriptive questionnaire. Study B examined how these differences in subjective reports related to objective memory performance. Finally, Study C tested the proposed aetiological model of SMCs. Study A showed that different measures of SMCs garnered non-overlapping reports. SMCs gathered via the open-ended measure were fewer in number, but rated as more distressing, than those endorsed on the questionnaire. Spontaneous reports appeared to be more ecologically valid reflections of SMCs, although questionnaire assessments were by their nature more robust to a “catch 22” situation whereby some endorsed SMCs were not reported spontaneously (perhaps due to memory failures in themselves). Study B found that neither method of assessing SMCs produced reports that were significantly convergent with objective measures of memory functioning. Study C found partial support for the hypothesised aetiological model. SMCs (as assessed by the questionnaire) were inversely related to processing speed, but only when depressive symptoms were relatively high. Collectively, results offer important insights into the interaction of cognitive and psychological factors in explaining SMCs, and highlight the previously undelineated context in which processing speed contributes to SMCs.Item Investigating working memory and metamemory in old age : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 2002) Craighead, Cheryll LAn investigation of metamemory for working memory was conducted in a group of older adults aged 60 to 74 years using a variation of the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task. There were twelve trials in each experiment, with each trial containing six sentences. Participants had to assess whether each sentence was true or false as well as remembering the last word of each sentence in correct order. In Experiment 1 words were phonologically similar (rhyming) and dissimilar (non-rhyming), whereas Experiment 2 presented one syllable (short) words and two syllable (long) words Half the participants were asked to predict how well they would remember the words and half were asked to postdict how well they had recalled the words. Participants were also asked to complete the Metamemory Functioning Questionnaire (Gilewski, Zelinski & Schaie, 1990) for a self-assessment of memory and this was compared to their memory performance on the recall task. Results indicated that older adults recalled more rhyming words than non-rhyming words, and more short words than long words. They overestimated the number of non-rhyming words they would remember but their estimates fluctuated in the same pattern as actual recall for the rhyming and non-rhyming words showing some accuracy in their metamemory. However, people unexpectedly estimated that they would do better with long than short words. For long words postdictions matched recall better than predictions which showed that older adults were able to gather information about their performance during the task. There was no correlation between the MFQ scores and the recall accuracy of the memory task probably because the questionnaire measured more general aspects of everyday memory, whereas the recall task involved a single and very specific aspect of memory. When compared to the younger adults the older adults showed poorer recall performance and overestimation was larger for older adults. These results showed us that to some extent, older adults are able to estimate their memory performance, using metamemory in a complex memory task.