Recognition memory measures yield disproportionate effects of aging on learning face-name associations.
No previous research has tested whether the specific age-related deficit in learning face-name associations that has been identified using recall tasks also occurs for recognition memory measures. Young and older participants saw pictures of unfamiliar people with a name and an occupation for each person, and were tested on a matching (in Experiment 1) or multiple-choice (in Experiment 2) recognition memory test. For both recognition measures, the pattern of effects was the same as that obtained using a recall measure: More face-occupation associations were remembered than face-name associations, young adults remembered more associated information than older adults overall, and older adults had disproportionately poorer memory for face-name associations. Findings implicate age-related difficulty in forming and retrieving the association between the face and the name as the primary cause of obtained deficits in previous name learning studies.
James
Lori E
LE
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7150, USA. ljames@uccs.edu
Fogler
Kethera A
KA
Tauber
Sarah K
SK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001245:Association Learning; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D009790:Occupations; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception