Effects of repetition and response deadline on associative recognition in young and older adults.

Full Abstract

The present study examined the joint effects of repetition and response deadline on associative recognition in older adults. Young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs, half presented once (weak pairs) and half presented four times (strong pairs). Test lists contained old (intact) pairs, pairs consisting of old words that had been studied with other partners (rearranged lures), and unstudied pairs (new lures), and participants were asked to respond "old" only to intact pairs. In Experiment 1, participants were tested with both short and long deadlines. In Experiment 2, the tests were unpaced. In both experiments, repetition increased hit rates for young and older adults. Young adults tested with a long deadline showed reduced (Experiment 1) or invariant (Experiment 2) false alarms to rearranged lures when word pairs were studied more often. Young adults tested with a short deadline and older adults tested under all conditions had increased false alarm rates forstrong rearranged pairs. Implications of these results for theories of associative recognition and cognitive aging are explored.

Author information

Author/s: Light, Leah L (LL); Patterson, Meredith M (MM); Chung, Christie (C); Healy, Michael R (MR);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA. leah_light(-atsign-)pitzer.edu

Grants: AG 02452 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2004-Oct; vol 32 (issue 7) : pp 1182-93

Dates: Created 2005/04/07; Completed 2005/07/08; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 15813499, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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