Relation between auditory memory and global memory in young and older adults

Purpose: Controversy exists as to whether auditory memory is modality-specific or not. To determine this, the study investigated the relation between the scores obtained on an auditory memory test with that obtained on a global memory test in adults. The study also aimed to compare the scores of young and older adults on the two memory tests. Methods: Thirty young adults aged 18 to 30 years and 30 older adults aged 58 to 70 years, having normal hearing sensitivity, were studied. Auditory memory was evaluated using the ‘Kannada auditory memory and sequencing test’, while global memory was assessed using the memory domain of the ‘Cognitive linguistic assessment protocol for Adults’ and the ‘Memory ability checklist’. Results: No significant correlation was seen between the scores obtained on the auditory memory and the global memory tests in both young adults as well as older adults. Also, the scores on the memory ability checklist did not show any correlation with either global memory scores or auditory memory scores in both participant groups. Additionally, the scores of the three memory measures were found to be significantly different from each other. The older adults obtained significantly poorer scores on all three memory tools compared to young adults. Conclusion: The findings indicated that auditory memory is modality-specific and is independent of global memory. Additionally, all three measures were sensitive in detecting age-related decline in memory.