Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on recognition and testimony memory: Differential effects in young and older adults

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused global mental health deterioration, with young adults being the most affected. Anxiety and depression levels in this group were significantly higher during the pandemic, raising concerns about long-term effects. Challenges such as reduced social interaction, poor sleep, fear of infection, and job instability, compounded by socioeconomic factors, exacerbated impacts. Older adults also experienced increased anxiety and depression but demonstrated better coping mechanisms, partly due to fewer concerns about job loss or financial instability despite higher health risks.

Memory formation, influenced by anxiety, depression, and sleep quality, is also impacted by normal aging. Mental health deterioration during the pandemic impaired the encoding of aversive episodic memories.

This study investigated the differential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on episodic memory processes in young and older adults. We hypothesized that the pandemic’s mental health toll would diminish younger adults' typically higher performance on episodic memory tasks compared to older adults. During the pandemic, participants completed anxiety, depression, and sleep quality tests, watched an aversive video, and performed a free recall task on day 1. On day 2, they completed a recognition task, another free recall, and an episodic order task. The same study was conducted post-pandemic with a new group of participants as a control.

Results showed that during the pandemic, both age groups experienced elevated anxiety and depression compared to pre-pandemic levels, with younger adults reporting higher values. Post-pandemic, anxiety decreased only for younger adults. During the pandemic, older adults outperformed younger adults in free recall tasks, while younger adults excelled in recalling gist details and in face recognition across both periods. Notably, during the pandemic, both groups recalled more total details on day 2, whereas recall declined by day 2 post-pandemic. Temporal order results remained stable across periods.

Note: Funding: This work was supported by AGENCIA PICT 2020/02666 to CF. Financial disclosure. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist Competing interests statement: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Ethics: Approval was obtained from the Alberto Taquini Biomedical Research Ethics Committee. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Sleep, Episodic memory, free recall, covid 19 pandemic