Department of Psychology, Plymouth State University.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2011 May;37(3):706-19. doi: 10.1037/a0022525.
Although aging causes relatively minor impairment in recognition memory for components, older adults' ability to remember associations between components is typically significantly compromised, relative to that of younger adults. This pattern could be associated with older adults' relatively intact familiarity, which helps preserve component memory, coupled with a marked decline in recollection, which leads to a decline in associative memory. The purpose of the current study is to explore possible methods that allow older adults to rely on pair familiarity in order to improve their associative memory performance. Participants in 2 experiments were repeatedly presented with either single items or pairings of items prior to a study list so that the items and the pairs were already familiar during the study phase. Pure pair repetition (the effects of pair repetition after the effects of item repetition are taken into account) increased associative memory for older and younger adults. Findings based on remember and know judgments suggest that familiarity but not recollection is involved in mediating the repetition effect.
尽管衰老会导致对成分的识别记忆相对较小的损害，但与年轻人相比，老年人记住成分之间关联的能力通常会明显受损。这种模式可能与老年人相对完整的熟悉度有关，这种熟悉度有助于保存成分记忆，同时记忆的明显下降导致联想记忆的下降。本研究的目的是探讨允许老年人依赖对熟悉度的方法，以提高他们的联想记忆表现。在实验 2 中，参与者在学习列表之前反复呈现单个项目或项目对，以便在学习阶段项目和对已经熟悉。纯对重复（在考虑项目重复的效果后考虑对重复的效果）增加了老年人和年轻人的联想记忆。基于记得和知道判断的发现表明，熟悉度而不是回忆参与了中介重复效应。
