Age-Related Differences in the Use of Contextual Information in Recognition Memory: A Global Matching Approach

Abstract

Age differences in the processing of contextual information were investigated using the Item, associated Context, and Ensemble (ICE) model (K. Murnane, M. P. Phelps, & K. Malmberg, 1999), a general global matching model of recognition memory. In two experiments, young and older adults studied words in environmental contexts and were tested in both the same and different contexts. Patterns of context effects for hit rate, false alarm rate, and d' suggest that older adults process associated context, but have difficulties integrating items and context into an ensemble. Thus, older adults appear to have a specific, rather than a general, deficit in processing contextual information. A deficiency in ensemble processing may be responsible for the prevalent finding that older adults show poorer recognition memory performance than young adults.

Word concreteness and encoding effects on context-dependent discrimination

“…Generally, concrete words elicited a higher HR than did abstract words, and same contexts resulted in a higher HR than did different contexts. These results are consistent with previous research on concreteness (e.g., Glanzer & Adams, 1990) and context-dependent recognition (e.g., Bayen et al, 2000;Murnane et al, 1999). An encoding context interaction was present [F(2,91) 13.00, p .05].…”

“…The ensemble information is crucial to the added advantage of the increase in HR for same-context conditions because the ensemble information can contribute to match strength only when it is present both in memory and in the test probe, and this is possible only for targets tested in the same-context condition. Thus, context-dependent discrimination is predicted to occur only when item and context information are integrated into an ensemble at encoding and subsequently used at retrieval (Bayen, Phelps, & Spaniol, 2000;Murnane et al, 1999). However, when an ensemble is stored alongside the item and associated context, as indicated in the last row of Table 1, there is an increase in both the HR and the FAR.…”

Life-span development of visual working memory: When is feature binding difficult?

“…Given the aging deficit in the encoding of contextual information (e.g., Bayen et al, 2000;Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996;Mitchell et al, 2000), a likely candidate is the degradation with aging of temporal lobe regions implicated in memory storage (e.g., Raz et al, 2004). In particular, the hippocampus and surrounding structures may be especially important in binding information about an item to the context in which it occurred (e.g., Rolls et al, 1996).…”

“…When items are presented in pairs, the items can be remembered normally but there is difficulty in remembering which ones were paired with which others. This appreciable decline occurs for the binding of focal items to contextual elements (Bayen, Phelps, & Spaniol, 2000;Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996 Chalfonte & Johnson (1996), suggested an associative deficit hypothesis, which focuses on the distinction between memory for single units and memory for associations among units. The present study examines the generality of the associative deficit hypothesis for children as well as the older adults, and for a task examining working memory rather than long-term memory.…”

A benefit of context reinstatement to recognition memory in aging: the role of familiarity processes

“…One factor that may be beneficial to these forms of memory in normal aging is the reinstatement of encoding context (e.g., Bayen, Phelps, & Spaniol, 2000;Craik & Schloerscheidt, 2011;Gutchess et al, 2007;Naveh-Benjamin & Craik, 1995;Park, Puglisi, Smith, & Dudley, 1987). Global matching of context refers to when the surroundings in which encoding takes place are reinstated at test.…”