Age-related differences in irrelevant-speech effects.

Three experiments examined age-related differences in irrelevant-speech effects. Younger and older adults were required to recall short prose texts or lists of semantically related words presented visually together with distractor speech. In all experiments, older adults made more semantically related intrusion errors from the irrelevant speech than younger adults. Results of a source memory test suggested that these age-related differences in interference are most likely due to both inhibitory deficits and source-monitoring problems. The results lend partial support to the inhibition deficit theory of cognitive aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test formats change source-monitoring decision processes.

The authors manipulated in 4 experiments how participants made source-monitoring decisions (SMDs). In Experiments 1 and 2, asking whether items were encountered from specific sources produced asymmetries that depended on the source that was queried. Such testing also differed from a standard source test in which all potential sources were considered simultaneously. Across the 2 experiments, the results were also a function of the combination of sources tested. This pattern of findings persisted in Experiments 3 and 4 when relative source judgments were made from pairs of items presented at test from which participants were asked to pick the item from a particular source. The results are discussed in terms of how specific queries focus SMD processes toward or away from particular qualitative characteristics that vary in diagnosticity concerning the origin of a memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response strategies in source monitoring.

Examines the role that response strategies play in a memory paradigm known as source monitoring. It is argued that several different response biases can interact to confound the interpretation of source-monitoring data. This problem is illustrated with 2 empirical examples, taken from the psychological literature, which examine the role of source monitoring in the generation effect and the picture superiority effect. To resolve this problem, a new multinomial model for source monitoring is presented that is capable of separately measuring memory factors from response-bias factors. The model, when applied to the results of 2 new experiments, results in a clearer picture of which source-monitoring variables are instrumental in the generation effect and picture superiority effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process dissociation as source monitoring.

A 2-high-threshold model source-monitoring model (U. J. Bayen, K. Murnane, & E. Erdfelder, 1996) was applied to both source-monitoring and process-dissociation data collected varying source and distracter similarity. The model fit both sets of data using identical parameter values. The values of the detection parameter, D, and the source-discrimination parameter, d, varied in the manner expected. Also, neither the process-dissociation (L. L. Jacoby, 1991) nor the extended process-dissociation model (A. Buchner, E. Erdfelder, & B. Vaterrodt-Plünnecke, 1995) fit either type of data. The memory processes involved in recognition judgments are the same when using the process-dissociation or the source-monitoring procedure. The 4 cognitive processes in both procedures can be interpreted as item detection, source identification, recognition guessing, and source guessing. The potential role of unconscious memory influences via the 2 guessing processes is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and the misinformation effect: A neuropsychological analysis.

Older adults' susceptibility to misinformation in an eyewitness memory paradigm was examined in two experiments. Experiment 1 showed that older adults are more susceptible to interfering misinformation than are younger adults on two different tests (old-new recognition and source monitoring). Experiment 2 examined the extent to which processes associated with frontal lobe functioning underlie older adults' source-monitoring difficulties. Older adults with lower frontal-lobe-functioning scores on neuropsychological tests were particularly susceptible to false memories in the misinformation paradigm. The authors' results agree with data from other false memory paradigms that show greater false recollections in older adults, especially in those who scored poorly on frontal tests. The results support a source-monitoring account of aging and illusory recollection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of pure pair repetition on younger and older adults' associative memory.

Although aging causes relatively minor impairment in recognition memory for components, older adults' ability to remember associations between components is typically significantly compromised, relative to that of younger adults. This pattern could be associated with older adults' relatively intact familiarity, which helps preserve component memory, coupled with a marked decline in recollection, which leads to a decline in associative memory. The purpose of the current study is to explore possible methods that allow older adults to rely on pair familiarity in order to improve their associative memory performance. Participants in 2 experiments were repeatedly presented with either single items or pairings of items prior to a study list so that the items and the pairs were already familiar during the study phase. Pure pair repetition (the effects of pair repetition after the effects of item repetition are taken into account) increased associative memory for older and younger adults. Findings based on remember and know judgments suggest that familiarity but not recollection is involved in mediating the repetition effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An alternative conceptualization to memory "strength" in reality monitoring.

Recently, H. G. Hoffman (1997) has proposed that reality-monitoring judgments can be made using average differences in the strength of 2 classes of studied items. The support for this claim was that the inferred recognition hit rate differed for the 2 classes of items. Hoffman argued that misattributions of new items to an old source were more frequent to the source that was weaker in memory strength. The authors of the present study have demonstrated that source misattribution biases of this sort can arise when the inferred recognition hit rate does not differ between classes of items. Their argument is that different source-monitoring situations may require different weightings of source-monitoring decision criteria and that these can provide a valid account of both their own and Hoffman's data. Arguments concerning when strength might and might not be used in tasks involving source monitoring versus unconscious plagiarism are clarified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' memories of childhood: True and false reports.

In 3 experiments, the authors examined factors that, according to the source-monitoring framework, might influence false memory formation and true/false memory discernment. In Experiment 1, combined effects of warning and visualization on false childhood memory formation were examined, as were individual differences in true and false childhood memories. Combining warnings and visualization led to the lowest false memory and highest true memory. Several individual difference factors (e.g., parental fearful attachment style) predicted false recall. In addition, true and false childhood memories differed (e.g., in amount of information). Experiment 2 examined relations between Deese/Roediger-McDermott task performance and false childhood memories. Deese/Roediger-McDermott performance (e.g., intrusion of unrelated words in free recall) was associated with false childhood memory, suggesting liberal response criteria in source decisions as a common underlying mechanism. Experiment 3 investigated adults' abilities to discern true and false childhood memory reports (e.g., by detecting differences in amount of information as identified in Experiment 1). Adults who were particularly successful in discerning such reports indicated reliance on event plausibility. Overall, the source-monitoring framework provided a viable explanatory framework. Implications for theory and clinical and forensic interviews are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental comparisons of the ability to discriminate between memories for symbolic play enactments.

Children's memory errors reveal the kinds of processing that may occur during source-monitoring judgments. After symbolically enacting everyday actions using toys or substitutes, preschoolers were more likely to claim they played with a toy when a substitute was involved as the instrument of action than the reverse (Exps 1–3). The authors interpret this bias as evidence for the importance of the functional similarity between actions for children's source-monitoring judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' conceptions of everyday memory failures in others: Factors that mediate the effects of target age.

Investigated young and older adults' conceptions of memory failures in others. 100 young and 100 older adults rated memory failures in targets of 20, 40, 60, and 80 yrs of age as to how likely the memory failures were due to lack of effort or lack of ability. With increasing age, targets' forgetful episodes were rated as less likely to be caused by lack of effort and more likely to be due to lack of ability. A Subject Age?×?Target Age interaction on ability ratings showed age to be more salient for older Ss. Memory content, type of memory, S sex, and target sex all influenced judgment of memory failure. The results support J. T. Erber's (1989) notion of a double standard in memory-failure appraisal; they demonstrated that adults' conceptions of memory include a decremental view of memorial ability with increasing age that is differentially sensitive to S, target, and memorial variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source-monitoring training facilitates preschoolers' eyewitness memory performance.

Preschool children are more susceptible to misleading postevent information than are older children and adults. One reason for young children's suggestibility is their failure to monitor the source of their memories, as in, for example, discriminating whether an event was seen live versus on television. The authors investigated whether source-monitoring training would decrease preschoolers' suggestibility. Thirty-six 3-4-year-olds observed target live and video events and were then given source-monitoring or recognition (control) training on nontarget events. Following training, all children answered 24 misleading and nonmisleading target-event questions. Children given source-monitoring training were more accurate than control group children in response to misleading and nonmisleading yes-no questions and in response to nonmisleading, open-ended questions. Implications for strategy development, dual representation, and child witness interviewing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging on source monitoring: Differences in susceptibility to false fame.

Older adults were less likely than young adults to spontaneously recollect the source of familiarity for previously read nonfamous names. Older adults were more likely to call old nonfamous names famous when subsequently encountered in a fame judgment task. Poor source monitoring by the elderly could not be accounted for by inability to recognize earlier read nonfamous names when specifically asked to do so. Both source-monitoring errors and recognition memory performance were based on attributions made about the experience of familiarity. Elderly subjects most prone to making familiarity errors recalled fewer items on a verbal learning task and were less likely to chunk information into semantic categories as it was recalled. This finding suggests that a decline in the tendency to spontaneously organize and integrate information underlies the poor source monitoring observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The associative deficit in older adult memory: Recognition of pairs is not improved by repetition.

This study used a novel experimental paradigm that combined associative recognition and list discrimination to study the associative deficit in older adults’ memory (M. Naveh-Benjamin, 2000). Participants viewed 2 lists of word–face pairs and were tested on recognition of pairs from the second study list. Older and young adults’ recognition was increased by repetition of individual items, but repetition of pairs of items increased recognition in young adults only. This provides converging evidence that older adults do not form associative links between items within pairs and supports the hypothesis that an associative deficit contributes to age-related memory decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in using source-relevant cues.

Ss heard words originating from 2 speakers and later decided which of the 2 speakers said the words. Older adults had difficulty with source monitoring when perceptual cues from 2 sources were similar (2 female speakers), but this difficulty was overcome when perceptual cues were distinctive (a male and a female speaker) and were the only salient cues to source. Older adults also benefited from distinctive spatial cues when these were the only salient cues to source. Older adults, however, experienced difficulties in using multiple cues (both perceptual and spatial) to source effectively, whereas younger adults were able to use multiple cues to enhance their source-monitoring performance. It is suggested that age differences in source monitoring result from differential cue utilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative and strategic components of episodic memory: A life-span dissociation.

The authors investigated the strategic component (i.e., elaboration and organization of episodic features) and the associative component (i.e., binding processes) of episodic memory and their interactions in 4 age groups (10-12, 13-15, 20-25, and 70-75 years of age). On the basis of behavioral and neural evidence, the authors hypothesized that the two components are functionally related but follow different life-span gradients. In a fully crossed design, age differences in recognition memory for single words versus word pairs (associative demand manipulation) were examined under instructions that emphasized item, pair, or elaborative-pair encoding (strategy manipulation). As predicted, the results showed that the strategic and associative components follow different life-span trajectories. Relative to younger adults, children's difficulties in episodic memory primarily reflected lower levels of strategic functioning. In contrast, older adults showed impairments in both strategic and associative components. The authors conclude that the comparison of strategic and associative components of episodic memory across the life span helps to delineate the two components' unique and interactive contributions to episodic memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autobiographical memory, eyewitness reports, and public policy.

In the first part of this article I summarize the source-monitoring perspective on the cognitive processes involved in differentiating between mental events from different sources (e.g., memories of what one witnessed during a crime versus memories of what one later heard a cowitness describe). In the middle section of the article I consider, from the perspective of the source-monitoring framework, four issues pertaining to remembering in forensic situations: 1) adults' memory reports, 2) children's memory reports, 3) "recovered memories" of childhood sexual abuse, and 4) eyewitnesses' suspect-identification decisions. I then comment briefly on research psychologists as expert witnesses before offering some concluding comments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and interference in verbal working memory.

According to inhibitory views of working memory, old adults should have particular problems deleting irrelevant information from working memory, leading to greater interference effects compared with young adults. The authors investigated this hypothesis by using variations of an A-B, C-D retroactive interference paradigm in working memory with young and old adults. They used a recognition measure of memory, assessing both accuracy and reaction time. The primary finding was that senior adults consistently exhibited proportionally greater retroactive interference effects compared with young adults when interfering word pairs that had been read aloud had to be rejected. Patterns of recognition and reaction time data suggested that old adults' activation of target material is similar to young adults, but they experience sustained activation of irrelevation material that has entered working memory. Theoretical implications of these findings for inhibitory deficit (R.T. Zacks & L. Hasher, 1998) and source memory deficit accounts of cognitive aging are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of age on item and associative measures of memory: A meta-analysis.

In this meta-analysis, the authors evaluated recent suggestions that older adults' episodic memory impairments are partially due to a reduced ability to encode and retrieve associated/bound units of information. Results of 90 studies of episodic memory for both item and associative information in 3,197 young and 3,192 older adults provided support for the age-related associative/binding deficit suggestion, indicating a larger effect of age on memory for associative information than for item information. Moderators assessed included the type of associations, encoding instructions, materials, and test format. Results indicated an age-related associative deficit in memory for source, context, temporal order, spatial location, and item pairings, in both verbal and nonverbal material. An age-related associative deficit was quite pronounced under intentional learning instructions but was not clearly evident under incidental learning instructions. Finally, test format was also found to moderate the associative deficit, with older adults showing an associative/binding deficit when item memory was evaluated via recognition tests but not when item memory was evaluated via recall tests, in which case the age-related deficits were similar for item and associative information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Higher social intelligence can impair source memory.

Source monitoring is made difficult when the similarity between candidate sources increases. The current work examines how individual differences in social intelligence and perspective-taking abilities serve to increase source similarity and thus negatively impact source memory. Strangers first engaged in a cooperative storytelling task. On each trial, a single word was shown to both participants, but only 1 participant was designated to add a story sentence, using this assigned word. As predicted, social intelligence negatively predicted performance in a subsequent source-monitoring task. In a 2nd study, preventing participants from being able to anticipate their partner’s next contribution to the story eliminated the effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

False recognition occurs more frequently during source identification than during old–new recognition.

A number of recent reports have investigated false memories using variants of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Because these false memories have been difficult to eliminate, this study investigated whether false recognition could be reduced by incorporating source-monitoring criteria into decision processes. Making claims about the manner in which items were learned should require more careful scrutiny of memories, and therefore false recognition should be minimized with source instructions as compared with old–new recognition instructions. In 3 experiments that varied the combination of sources, false recognition was increased rather than reduced by applying source-monitoring processes. The theoretical implications of these counterintuitive results are discussed in terms of the old–new detection component of source judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)