The Effect of Age on Working Memory Processing: Insights from Typing

The role of memory in our lives is unquestionable. As age increases difference in our level of memory are known to exist. As a mental process important in guiding our behavior, memory has been studied extensively by psychologists. This study aims to explore the effect of working memory on typing performance, and how this effect changes with age. The sample consisted of 31 Turkish literate participants. The age of participants were divided into two groups, such that the younger group consisted of participants 44 years old and lower (n = 15) and the older group consisted of participants 45 years old and higher (n = 16). They were tested individually on their typing performance (accuracy, initiation time, IKI and trial duration) by using a typing paradigm with the MATLAB program. The three conditions important in the study were age, feedback and lexicality. Feedback condition was found to have an effect on accuracy, initiation time, IKI and trial duration. Findings also showed that feedback condition and age had an effect on accuracy and trial duration. Lexicality and age was also found to have a significant effect on accuracy and IKI. Older adults’ performance was affected severely when they relied on tasks depending on the visuospatial sketchpad and was also severely affected when non-words were typed. Findings are discussed in line with the frontal lobe hypothesis of aging (West, 1996). Keywords: Aging, Frontal Lobe, Typing, Visual Feedback