Associative recognition of face pairs by younger and older adults: The role of familiarity-based processing.

Previous research suggested that older adults have a specific impairment in remembering verbal associative information, but it is unclear how elaboration and familiarity might influence this deficit in situations that involve perceptual processing. In the present experiments, younger and older participants studied male-female pairs of faces. Participants were then administered an associative recognition test consisting of previously studied pairs, pairs that contained previously studied items that were not studied together (i.e., conjunction pairs), and entirely new pairs of faces, and participants were instructed to identify pairs that had been presented together at study. Overall, participants were successful at recognizing previously presented pairs but were highly likely to mistakenly endorse conjunction pairs. This pattern was more pronounced for older adults, especially when items were repeated at encoding. Such data suggest that memory for face pairs relies largely on the familiarity of each face and not on a more precise recollection of associative information. (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)     

Age-related deficits in associative memory: The influence of impaired strategic retrieval.

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether impaired strategic retrieval processes contribute to the age-related deficit in associative memory. To do so, they compared older and younger adults on measures of associative memory that place high demands on retrieval processes (associative identification and recall-to-reject) to measures that place low demands on such processes (associative reinstatement and recall-to-accept). Results showed that older adults were severely impaired on associative identification and recall-to-reject measures; relatively intact on recall-to-accept measures, unless recollection was prominent; and intact on associative reinstatement measures. Together, these findings suggest that impairment in strategic retrieval accounts for older adults' deficits in memory for associative information and that this deficit, above and beyond poor binding of items, leads to and amplifies an impairment in overall recollection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuous recollection versus unitized familiarity in associative recognition.

Recollection has long been thought to play a key role in associative recognition tasks. Evidence that associative recollection might be a threshold process has come from analyses of the associative recognition receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Specifically, the ROC is not as curvilinear as a signal detection theory requires. In addition, the ?-ROC is usually curvilinear, as a threshold recollection model requires, not linear, as a signal detection model requires. In Experiment 1, word pairs were strengthened at study, which yielded a curvilinear ROC and a linear ?-ROC (in accordance with signal detection theory). This result suggests that associative recognition performance was based on a continuous variable, one that likely consists of either unitized familiarity or continuous recollection. The remember–know procedure and an unexpected cued recall test suggested that the more curvilinear ROC in the strong condition was mainly due to increased recollection. In Experiment 2, word pairs were presented for an old–new recognition decision before being presented for an associative recognition decision. When pairs consisting of items not recognized as having been seen on the list were removed from the analysis, the ROC again became curvilinear, the ?-ROC again became linear, and most associative recognition decisions were associated with remember judgments. These findings suggest that the curvilinear ?-ROC often observed on associative recognition tests results from noise, as a mixture signal detection model assumes, and that recollection is a continuous process that yields a curvilinear ROC that is well characterized by signal detection theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Item and Associative Information.

The present study examined how aging and divided attention influence memory for item and associative information. Older adults and younger adults working under full-attention conditions and younger adults working under divided-attention conditions studied unrelated word pairs. Memory for item information was measured by later recognition of the 2nd word in the pair, and associative information was measured by recognition of the entire pair. Both older adults in the full-attention condition and younger adults in the divided-attention condition performed more poorly than younger adults in the full-attention condition, with the deficit in associative information being greater than the deficit in item information. In addition, a differentially greater associative decrement was found for the older adults, as shown by their heightened tendency to make false-alarm responses to re-paired (conjunction) distractors. The results are discussed in terms of an age-related reduction in processing resources compounded by an age-related increase in older adults' reliance on familiarity in associative recognition memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of bilateral eye movements on the retrieval of item, associative, and contextual information.

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on the retrieval of item, associative, and contextual information. Experiment 1 compared the effects of bilateral versus vertical versus no eye movements on tests of item recognition, followed by remember-know responses and associative recognition. Supporting previous research, bilateral eye movements enhanced item recognition by increasing the hit rate and decreasing the false alarm rate. Analysis of remember-know responses indicated that eye movement effects were accompanied by increases in remember responses. The test of associative recognition found that bilateral eye movements increased correct responses to intact pairs and decreased false alarms to rearranged pairs. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of eye movements on the recall of intrinsic (color) and extrinsic (spatial location) context. Bilateral eye movements increased correct recall for both types of context. The results are discussed within the framework of dual-process models of memory and the possible neural underpinnings of these effects are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to say no: Single- and dual-process theories of short-term recognition tested on negative probes.

Three experiments with short-term recognition tasks are reported. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants decided whether a probe matched a list item specified by its spatial location. Items presented at study in a different location (intrusion probes) had to be rejected. Serial position curves of positive, new, and intrusion probes over the probed location's position were mostly parallel. Serial position curves of intrusion probes over their position of origin were again parallel to those of positive probes. Experiment 3 showed largely parallel serial position effects for positive probes and for intrusion probes plotted over positions in a relevant and an irrelevant list, respectively. The results support a dual-process theory in which recognition is based on familiarity and recollection, and recollection uses 2 retrieval routes, from context to item and from item to context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scopolamine impairs human recognition memory: Data and modeling.

Eight subjects studied a set of complex visual images after administration of 0.4 mg scopolamine. Another 8 subjects performed the same task without drug administration. On a subsequent item recognition test, subjects rated, on a 5-point scale, their confidence that the studied pictures and an equal number of unstudied lures were actually presented. Results showed that scopolamine affected responses to studied items, but not unstudied lures, demonstrating an unambiguous effect of scopolamine on recognition memory. To describe the scopolamine-injected subjects' data, the authors constructed a new model of 2-process recognition that includes the A. P. Yonelinas (1994) model as a limiting case. The model analysis suggests that scopolamine affected both familiarity and recollection. In particular, scopolamine did not affect the frequency with which recollection took place, but rather, affected the amount of recollected information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collaboration in associative recognition memory: Using recalled information to defend "new" judgments.

S. E. Clark, A. Hori, A. Putnam, and T. J. Martin (2000) showed that collaboration on a recognition memory task produced facilitation in recognition of targets but had inconsistent and sometimes negative effects regarding distractors. They accounted for these results within the framework of a dual-process, recall-plus-familiarity model but showed only weak evidence to support it. The present results of 3 experiments present stronger evidence for Clark et al.'s dual-process view and also show why such evidence is difficult to obtain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the nature of associative information in recognition memory.

In a typical associative-recognition task, participants must distinguish between intact word pairs (both words previously studied together) and rearranged word pairs (both words previously studied but as part of different pairs). The familiarity of the individual items on this task is uninformative because all of the items were seen before, so the only way to solve the task is to rely on associative information. Prior research suggests that associative information is recall-like in nature and may therefore be an all-or-none variable. The present research reports several experiments in which some pairs were strengthened during list presentation. The resulting hit rates and false alarm rates, and an analysis of the corresponding receiver operating characteristic plots, suggest that participants rely heavily on item information when making an associative-recognition decision (to no avail) and that associative information may be best thought of as a some-or-none variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging and prospective memory on recognition of item and associative information.

Older adults typically perform worse than younger adults on tasks of associative, relative to item, memory. One account of this deficit is that older adults have fewer attentional resources to encode associative information. Previous researchers investigating this issue have divided attention at encoding and then have examined whether associative and item recognition were differentially affected. In the current study, we used a different cognitive task shown to tax attentional resources: event-based prospective memory. Although older adults demonstrated worse associative, relative to item, memory, the presence of the prospective memory task at encoding decreased item and associative memory accuracy to the same extent in both age groups. These results do not support the resource account of age-related associative deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The associative memory deficit of older adults: The role of strategy utilization.

Past research has established an associative deficit hypothesis (e.g., M. Naveh-Benjamin, 2000) that attributes part of older adults' poor episodic memory performance to their difficulty in creating and retrieving cohesive episodes. Here, the authors evaluate the degree to which this deficit can be reduced by older adults' use of associative strategies. Young and older adults learned word pairs under either intentional-learning instructions or instructions eliciting associative strategies either at encoding or both at encoding and at retrieval, and they then took tests on their memory for both the components and the associations. Results replicated the associative deficit of older adults under intentional-learning instructions. In addition, they showed that instructions to use appropriate associative strategies during either encoding or, even more so, during encoding and retrieval resulted in a significant decrease in the associative deficit. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Item and associative recognition with precuing and postcuing.

M. Duncan & B. B. Murdock (2000) compared precued and postcued item recognition and serial recall showing precued-postcued differences for item recognition but not for serial recall. Precuing and postcuing refer to 2 conditions in which the instructions as to the type of recall test following the presentation of short lists of items is given before or after the list presentation. This methodology was extended here to a paired-associate task. In 2 experiments, short lists of paired associates were presented followed by single-item, old-new, or intact-rearranged pair recognition tests; test type was precued or postcued. A fast or slow presentation rate was used to discourage or encourage mediators. TODAM2 (a theory of distributed associative memory) predicts that there should be little or no cuing differences regardless of whether subjects use mediators to remember the pairs. As predicted the recognition data were essentially identical for the precued and postcued conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of emotion on associative recognition: Valence and retention interval matter.

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of familiarity in item recognition, associative recognition, and plurality recognition on self-paced and speeded tests.

Four experiments compare the effect of familiarity on item, associative, and plurality recognition on self-paced and speeded tests. The familiarity of test items was enhanced by presenting a prime that matched the subsequent test item. On item and plurality recognition tests, participants were more likely to respond "old" to primed than to unprimed test items. In associative recognition, priming increased the proportion of old responses on a speeded test, but not on a self-paced test. This suggests that familiarity plays a larger role in item and plurality recognition than in associative recognition on self-paced tests. On speeded tests, priming has a similar effect on item, associative, and plurality recognition. Results suggest that item and associative recognition rely differentially on familiarity and recollection. They are also consistent with recent evidence suggesting that different processes underlie plurality and associative recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of repetition priming on recognition memory: Testing a perceptual fluency-disfluency model.

Five experiments explored the effects of immediate repetition priming on episodic recognition (the Jacoby-Whitehouse effect) as measured with forced-choice testing. These experiments confirmed key predictions of a model adapted from D. E. Huber and R. C. O'Reilly's (2003) dynamic neural network of perception. In this model, short prime durations pre-activate primed items, enhancing perceptual fluency and familiarity, whereas long prime durations result in habituation, causing perceptual disfluency and less familiarity. Short duration primes produced a recognition preference for primed words (Experiments 1, 2, and 5), whereas long duration primes produced a preference against primed words (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). Experiment 2 found prime duration effects even when participants accurately identified short duration primes. A cued-recall task included in Experiments 3, 4, and 5 found priming effects only for recognition trials that were followed by cued-recall failure. These results suggest that priming can enhance as well as lower familiarity, without affecting recollection. Experiment 4 provided a manipulation check on this procedure through a delay manipulation that preferentially affected recognition followed by cued-recall success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elevated false recollection of emotional pictures in young and older adults.

Current theories predict opposing effects of emotionally arousing information on false memory. If emotion enhances true recollection, then false recollection might be lower for emotional than for neutral pictures. However, if emotion enhances conceptual relatedness, then false recollection might increase for nonstudied but emotionally related pictures. We contrasted these 2 factors in young and older adults, using the International Affective Pictures Systems set (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005). Although both age groups used recollection in our task, false recollection was greatest for emotional pictures, supporting a conceptual relatedness account. Finally, even after accuracy differences were controlled, age was related to high-confidence false recollection of emotional pictures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of conceptual processing on familiarity-based recognition.

Two experiments compared the impact of conceptual and perceptual processing at encoding on the familiarity-based recognition of items without preexisting conceptual representations. The stimuli for the experiments were visual designs and nonsense letter strings. The process dissociation procedure was used in conjunction with the process dissociation equations and the Dual Process Signal Detection model to assess the contributions of familiarity-based recognition and recollection in the recognition of the stimuli. A conceptual processing advantage was observed in both experiments: familiarity-based recognition was enhanced more by conceptual than by perceptual processing at encoding. It is suggested that the results may be problematic for the view that conceptual priming underlies the conceptual processing advantage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Environmental context and recognition: The role of recollection and familiarity.

Evidence for effects of changed environmental context on recognition has been equivocal. Using 3 experiments, the author investigated the role of environmental context from a dual-processing approach. Experiment 1 showed that testing word recognition in a novel context led to a reliable decrement but only for recognition accompanied by conscious recollection, with familiarity-based recognition judgments being unaffected. This was replicated in Experiment 2 using stimuli that were novel to the participants (nonwords). Experiment 3 showed that the decrement in recollection also occurred when the changed-context condition involved presenting items in a different but familiar context. The results suggest that effects of environmental context will only be found when recognition is accompanied by conscious recollection and that this effect is due to a specific item-context association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Variations in recollection: The effects of complexity on source recognition.

Whether recollection is a threshold or signal detection process is highly controversial, and the controversy has centered in part on the shape of receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) and z-transformed ROCs (zROCs). U-shaped zROCs observed in tests thought to rely heavily on recollection, such as source memory tests, have provided evidence in favor of the threshold assumption, but zROCs are not always as U-shaped as threshold theory predicts. Source zROCs have been shown to become more linear when the contribution of familiarity to source discriminations is increased, and this may account for the existing results. However, another way in which source zROCs may become more linear is if the recollection threshold begins to break down and recollection becomes more graded and Gaussian. We tested the “graded recollection” account in the current study. We found that increasing stimulus complexity (i.e., changing from single words to sentences) or increasing source complexity (i.e., changing the sources from audio to videos of speakers) resulted in flatter source zROCs. In addition, conditions expected to reduce recollection (i.e., divided attention and amnesia) had comparable effects on source memory in simple and complex conditions, suggesting that differences between simple and complex conditions were due to differences in the nature of recollection, rather than differences in the utility of familiarity. The results suggest that under conditions of high complexity, recollection can appear more graded, and it can produce curved ROCs. The results have implications for measurement models and for current theories of recognition memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)