Age and Practice Effects in Continuous Recognition Memory

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Abstract
Older and younger women identified new and repeated items in extended lists of letter-number combinations (e.g., “A42G”). Repeated items occurred at intervals ranging from 0 to 32 items (0 to 160 s) and for different lists the items were either visual or auditory. The older women's performances declined at a more rapid rate as the retention interval was increased. When the older women practiced the auditory task, performances improved and gains transferred to the visual task. Gains by the younger women were equivalent, so that initial age differences were maintained. Signal detection analyses attributed age effects to differences in sensitivity rather than bias. For women of both ages, conservative bias was greater when the intervals were long and when the task was visual. The absence of age-bias effects was contrary to the hypothesis that older adults adopt more conservative decision strategies. The presence of sensitivity differences, even when the task was well practiced, suggests fundamental age differences in recognition memory

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