Age-related differences in the use of contextual information in recognition memory: A global matching approach

Age differences in the processing of contextual information sere investigated using the Item, associated Contest, 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 contests and were tested in both the same and different contests. Patterns of contest effects for hit rate, false alarm rate, and d' suggest that older adults process associated contest, but have difficulties integrating items and contest 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.