Close, but not Quite: Memory Accuracy Across Spatial Frames of Reference in Cognitive Aging

Aging is associated with deficits in spatial memory for object locations across egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference. However, little is known about how this age-related decline interacts with cognitive status. In this study, we used desktop virtual reality to compare object location memory across spatial frames of reference in older adults, both healthy and at-risk for mild cognitive impairment, relative to younger adults. A coarse-grained accuracy measure was not sensitive to differences in task performance across frames of reference driven by cognitive status. With a fine-grained measure of accuracy, healthy older adults showed no impairments relative to younger adults except when the task required a switch from an egocentric to an allocentric frame of reference. This condition also failed to differentiate healthy from at-risk older adults. Taken together, these findings provide novel insights into the interaction of cognitive status and aging for spatial memory across frames of reference.M.A.2021-11-20 00:00:0