Humphries Joyce E, Flowe Heather D, Hall Louise C, Williams Louise C, Ryder Hannah L
a Department of Psychology , Edge Hill University , Lancashire , UK.
b School of Psychology , University of Leicester , Leicester , UK.
Memory. 2016;24(3):334-47. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2015.1006236. Epub 2015 Feb 11.
This study examined whether beliefs about face recognition ability differentially influence memory retrieval in older compared to young adults. Participants evaluated their ability to recognise faces and were also given information about their ability to perceive and recognise faces. The information was ostensibly based on an objective measure of their ability, but in actuality, participants had been randomly assigned the information they received (high ability, low ability or no information control). Following this information, face recognition accuracy for a set of previously studied faces was measured using a remember-know memory paradigm. Older adults rated their ability to recognise faces as poorer compared to young adults. Additionally, negative information about face recognition ability improved only older adults' ability to recognise a previously seen face. Older adults were also found to engage in more familiarity than item-specific processing than young adults, but information about their face recognition ability did not affect face processing style. The role that older adults' memory beliefs have in the meta-cognitive strategies they employ is discussed.
本研究考察了与年轻人相比，对面部识别能力的信念是否会对老年人的记忆检索产生不同影响。参与者评估了自己识别面孔的能力，并且还获得了有关其感知和识别面孔能力的信息。这些信息表面上基于对他们能力的客观测量，但实际上，参与者是被随机分配他们所收到的信息（高能力、低能力或无信息对照）。在获得此信息后，使用记得-知道记忆范式测量了一组先前研究过的面孔的面部识别准确性。与年轻人相比，老年人将自己识别面孔的能力评定为较差。此外，关于面部识别能力的负面信息仅提高了老年人识别先前见过面孔的能力。还发现老年人比年轻人更多地采用熟悉度而非特定项目的加工方式，但关于他们面部识别能力的信息并未影响面部加工方式。讨论了老年人的记忆信念在他们所采用的元认知策略中所起的作用。
