The contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition memory: a study of the effects of test format and aging.
Whether the format of a recognition memory task influences the contribution of recollection and familiarity to performance is a matter of debate. The authors investigated this issue by comparing the performance of 64 young (mean age = 21.7 years; mean education = 14.5 years) and 62 older participants (mean age = 64.4 years; mean education = 14.2 years) on a yes-no and a forced-choice recognition task for unfamiliar faces using the remember-know-guess procedure. Familiarity contributed more to forced-choice than to yes-no performance. Moreover, older participants, who showed a decrease in recollection together with an increase in familiarity, performed better on the forced-choice task than on the yes-no task, whereas younger participants showed the opposite pattern.
Bastin
Christine
C
Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium. christine.bastin@ulg.ac.be
Van der Linden
Martial
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011594:Psychometrics; D012153:Retention, Psychology