The effects of age and divided attention on spontaneous recognition.
Studies of recognition typically involve tests in which the participant's memory for a stimulus is directly questioned. There are occasions however, in which memory occurs more spontaneously (e.g., an acquaintance seeming familiar out of context). Spontaneous recognition was investigated in a novel paradigm involving study of pictures and words followed by recognition judgments on stimuli with an old or new word superimposed over an old or new picture. Participants were instructed to make their recognition decision on either the picture or word and to ignore the distracting stimulus. Spontaneous recognition was measured as the influence of old vs. new distracters on target recognition. Across two experiments, older adults and younger adults placed under divided-attention showed a greater tendency to spontaneously recognize old distracters as compared to full-attention younger adults. The occurrence of spontaneous recognition is discussed in relation to ability to constrain retrieval to goal-relevant information.
Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. banderson@wustl.edu
Benjamin A
BA
Anderson
Larry L
LL
Jacoby
Ruthann C
RC
Thomas
David A
DA
Balota
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003657:Decision Making; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D057190:Stroop Test; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 1998 Sep;5(3):169-81
25233057
Psychol Aging. 1998 Sep;13(3):405-23
9793117
Psychol Bull. 1991 Mar;109(2):163-203
2034749
Psychon Bull Rev. 2006 Aug;13(4):619-25
17201361
Neuropsychologia. 2008 Jan 31;46(2):679-89
17981307
Brain Cogn. 2002 Aug;49(3):277-96
12139955
Memory. 2006 Nov;14(8):917-24
17077027
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1996 Apr;22(2):461-79
8934854
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2000 Nov;26(6):1483-98
11185778
Am Psychol. 1990 Sep;45(9):1043-56
2221571
Psychol Aging. 2006 Dec;21(4):826-30
17201503
Psychol Aging. 1993 Jun;8(2):283-93
8323731
Psychol Sci. 2010 Mar;21(3):399-405
20424077
Cereb Cortex. 2008 May;18(5):1010-28
17804479
Neuropsychologia. 1997 Jul;35(7):1017-34
9226662
J Exp Psychol Gen. 1990 Dec;119(4):397-411
2148574
Mem Cognit. 2005 Apr;33(3):514-30
16156186
Psychol Aging. 2007 Mar;22(1):209-13
17385996
Psychon Bull Rev. 2005 Oct;12(5):852-7
16524001
Psychol Aging. 1996 Jun;11(2):199-206
8795048
Perception. 2004;33(2):217-36
15109163
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2000 Sep;26(5):1124-40
11009248
Memory. 1996 Jul;4(4):359-411
8817460
J Exp Psychol Gen. 1981 Sep;110(3):306-40
6457080
Neuropsychologia. 2004;42(11):1525-42
15246290
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1986 Nov;12(4):476-83
2946804
J Cogn Neurosci. 2009 Jan;21(1):1-17
18476757
Cogn Psychol. 2004 Jan;48(1):47-94
14654036
Behav Res Methods. 2007 Aug;39(3):445-59
17958156
Psychol Aging. 2005 Mar;20(1):33-46
15769212
Psychol Aging. 1991 Dec;6(4):533-41
1777141
Psychol Aging. 1997 Jun;12(2):352-61
9189995
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2008 Feb;127(2):211-21
17599796