Hofit Azrad^1,2, Eden A. Eliyahu³, Olga Kreichman^1,2, Shaimaa Masarwa^1,2, Boaz M. Ben-David^3,4,5, Sharon Gilaie-Dotan^1,2; ¹School of Optometry and Vision Science, Bar-Ilan University, ²Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, ³Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, ⁴University of Toronto, ⁵KITE Research Institute, University Health Network

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 first tested this in a large cohort (n=294, 18–92 years). Participants freely viewed 160 3°-15.5° sized pictures without being notified about the memory aspect of the study. Afterwards they were given a surprise old-new recognition memory test on these and 160 additional new images. Image memory was not affected by age (as evident in accuracy, dprime, decision criterion and in 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. We then tested this in-person with 30 younger (19–31 years) and 30 older (60–77 years, all cognitively healthy, MoCA score of 24 or higher) adults that underwent an assessment of basic visual functions (near and far visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity). Despite significant age-related differences in near and far VA and in contrast sensitivity, we replicated the results of the online study and the only age-related effect that was found here was that older adults were significantly slower to respond. Although older adults undergo multiple vision-related sensory changes, our results indicate that the benefit from visual-sensory enhancement supports memory to a similar extent in older adults as in younger adults. These findings may have important implications for understanding memory processes and for developing methods to improve information accessibility and interface design for older adults.

Acknowledgements: This study was funded by ISF Individual Research Grants 1485/18 and 1462/23 to SGD, by CHE Lev-Zion Scholarship to OK, and by ISF 1726/22 to BBD