Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College London, England.
Psychol Aging. 2013 Jun;28(2):429-42. doi: 10.1037/a0031888. Epub 2013 Apr 15.
Recognition memory is typically weaker in healthy older relative to young adults, while performance on implicit tests (e.g., repetition priming) is often comparable between groups. Such observations are commonly taken as evidence for independent explicit and implicit memory systems. On a picture version of the continuous identification with recognition (CID-R) task, we found a reliable age-related reduction in recognition memory, while the age effect on priming did not reach statistical significance (Experiment 1). This pattern was consistent with the predictions of a formal single-system model. Experiment 2 replicated these observations using separate priming (continuous identification; CID) and recognition phases, while a combined data analysis revealed a significant effect of age on priming. In Experiment 3, we provide evidence that priming in this task is unaffected by explicit processing, and we conclude that the age difference in priming is unlikely to have been driven by differences in explicit processing between groups of young and older adults ("explicit contamination"). The results support the view that explicit and implicit expressions of memory are driven by a single underlying memory system.
再认记忆通常在健康的老年人中比年轻人弱，而在隐式测试（例如重复启动）上的表现，两组之间往往相当。这些观察通常被视为独立的外显和内隐记忆系统的证据。在连续识别与再认（CID-R）任务的图片版本中，我们发现再认记忆随着年龄的增长而可靠地下降，而启动的年龄效应没有达到统计学意义（实验 1）。这种模式与单一系统模型的预测一致。实验 2 使用单独的启动（连续识别；CID）和识别阶段重复了这些观察，而综合数据分析显示启动年龄存在显著影响。在实验 3 中，我们提供了证据表明，该任务中的启动不受外显加工的影响，我们得出结论，启动的年龄差异不太可能是由于年轻和老年组之间的外显加工差异造成的（“外显污染”）。结果支持这样一种观点，即记忆的外显和内隐表达是由一个单一的潜在记忆系统驱动的。
