Effects of age on estimated familiarity in the process dissociation procedure: The role of noncriterial recollection

Research on recognition memory using the process dissociation procedure has suggested that although recollection (R) declines with age, familiarity (F) remains age invariant. However, this research has used relatively broad definitions of R. An important question concerns age-related changes in memory when R is defined in terms of specific event details. Yonelinas and Jacoby (1996a) required young participants to recollect specific, criterial details of a prior event and found evidence that recollection of noncriterial details elevated estimates of F yet still operated automatically. In the present study, the issue of noncriterial recollection was examined in the context of aging. The results replicated the effects of noncriterial recollection for the young, but not for the older adults, who also showed overall reduced levels of familiarity.     

Consciousness, control, and confidence: the 3 Cs of recognition memory

The contributions of recollection and familiarity to recognition memory performance were examined using the process dissociation, remember-know, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) procedures. Under standard test conditions the 3 measurement procedures led to process estimates that were almost identical and to similar conclusions regarding the effects of different encoding manipulations. Dividing attention led to a large decrease in recollection and a smaller, sometimes nonsignificant, decrease in familiarity. Semantic compared with perceptual processing led to a large increase in recollection and a moderate increase in familiarity. Moreover, the results showed that familiarity was well described by classical signal-detection theory but that recollection reflected a threshold process. The convergence observed across the 3 measurement procedures shows that the 3 procedures tap similar underlying processes and that recollection and familiarity differ in terms of conscious awareness, intentional control, and the manner in which they contribute to the shape of response confidence ROCs.     

Diversity within Spatial Cognition: Memory Processes Underlying Place Recognition

We conducted three experiments to explore distinct memory processes involved in remembering places in spatial environments. The results of all three experiments demonstrated the viability of the process-dissociation procedure for studying spatial cognition; that procedure yielded separate measures of the role of familiarity (implicit memory) and conscious recollection (explicit memory) in recognizing scenes along a previously viewed route of travel. Those measures were not affected by whether the participants viewed videotapes or also physically walked the route of travel. Increasing the delay between encoding and retrieval led to comparable effects for familiarity and conscious recollection (Experiment 1). In contrast, the adverse consequences of dividing attention during encoding were specific to conscious recollection; familiarity estimates were unaffected (Experiments 2 and 3). Overall, the results reinforced the viability of process dissociation as a vehicle for exploring diverse memory processes underlying place recognition.     

Recollection,not familiarity,decreases in healthy ageing: Converging evidence from four estimation methods

Although it is generally accepted that ageing is associated with recollection impairments, there is considerable disagreement surrounding how healthy ageing influences familiarity-based recognition. One factor that might contribute to the mixed findings regarding age differences in familiarity is the estimation method used to quantify the two mnemonic processes. Here, this issue is examined by having a group of older adults (N = 39) between 40 and 81 years of age complete remember/know (RK), receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) and process dissociation (PD) recognition tests. Estimates of recollection, but not familiarity, showed a significant negative correlation with chronological age. Inconsistent with previous findings, the estimation method did not moderate the relationship between age and estimates of recollection and familiarity. In a final analysis, recollection and familiarity were estimated as latent factors in a confirmatory factor analysis that modelled the covariance between measures of free recall and recognition, and the results converged with the results from the RK, PD and ROC tasks. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that episodic memory declines in older adults are primary driven by recollection deficits, and also suggest that the estimation method plays little to no role in age-related decreases in familiarity.     

How semantic content of stimuli works on episodic memory processes in negative schizophrenia: Evidence from picture recognition

IntroductionEven though episodic memory is impaired in schizophrenia, semantic processing strategies can improve patients’ performance. However, it is less clear if negative schizophrenia patients can benefit from semantic strategies, and if both familiarity and recollection processes can be enhanced in patients with schizophrenia.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the possibility for negative schizophrenia patients to enhance their familiarity and/or recollection processes in the presence of concrete images.MethodA recognition memory task using concrete versus abstract images as stimuli was designed to assess the performance of schizophrenia patients for single item recognition and the recollection of spatial context, allowing us to calculate the estimates of familiarity and recollection processes. Thirty-six patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy individuals participated to the study. Schizophrenia patients were divided into two groups according to their scores on the negative scale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for Schizophrenia (PANSS).ResultsResults showed that, while healthy participants enhanced their recollection estimates in the presence of concrete images, both schizophrenia groups could enhance their familiarity estimates.ConclusionSemantic strategies are helpful to promote successful familiarity process in schizophrenia patients, independently from clinical dimension of negativity. However, recollection process seems not to respond to such strategies.     

Recollection and familiarity in recognition memory: adult age differences and neuropsychological test correlates

Dual process theories account for age-related changes in memory by proposing that old age is associated with deficits in recollection together with invariance in familiarity. The authors evaluated this proposal in recognition by examining recollection and familiarity estimates in young and older adults across 3 process estimation methods: inclusion/exclusion, remember/know, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Consistent with a previous literature review (Light, Prull, LaVoie, & Healy, 2000), the authors found age invariance in familiarity when process estimates were derived from the inclusion/exclusion method, but the authors found age differences favoring the young when familiarity estimates were derived from the remember/know and ROC methods. Recollection estimates were lower for older adults in all 3 methods. Recollection and familiarity had variable relationships with frontal- and temporal-lobe measures of neuropsychological functioning in older adults, depending on which method was used to generate process estimates. These data suggest that although recollection deficits appear to be the rule in aging, not all estimates of familiarity show age invariance.     

The contribution of familiarity to recognition memory is a function of test format when using similar foils

Patient Y.R., who suffered hippocampal damage that disrupted recollection but not familiarity, was impaired on a yes/no (YN) object recognition memory test with similar foils. However, she was not impaired on a forced-choice corresponding (FCC) version of the test that paired targets with corresponding similar foils (Holdstock et al., 2002). This dissociation is explained by the Complementary Learning Systems (CLS) neural-network model (Norman & O'Reilly, 2003) if recollection is impaired but familiarity is preserved. The CLS model also predicts that participants relying exclusively on familiarity should be impaired on forced-choice noncorresponding (FCNC) tests, where targets are presented with foils similar to other targets. The present study tests these predictions for all three test formats (YN, FCC, FCNC) in normal participants using two variants of the remember/know procedure. As predicted, performance using familiarity alone was significantly worse than standard recognition on the YN and FCNC tests, but not on the FCC test. Recollection in the form of recall-to-reject was the major process driving YN recognition. This adds support to the interpretation of patient data, according to which hippocampal damage causes a recollection deficit that leads to poor performance on the YN test relative to FCC.     

An evaluation of recollection and familiarity in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment using receiver operating characteristics

There is a need to investigate exactly how memory breaks down in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Examining what aspects of memorial processing remain relatively intact early in the disease process will allow us to develop behavioral interventions and possible drug therapies focused on these intact processes. Several recent studies have worked to understand the processes of recollection and familiarity in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and very mild AD. Although there is general agreement that these patient groups are relatively unable to use recollection to support veridical recognition decisions, there has been some question as to how well these patients can use familiarity. The current study used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and a depth of processing manipulation to understand the effect of MCI and AD on the estimates of recollection and familiarity. Results showed that patients with MCI and AD were impaired in both recollection and familiarity, regardless of the depth of encoding. These results are discussed in relation to disease pathology and in the context of recent conflicting evidence as to whether familiarity remains intact in patients with MCI. The authors highlight differences in stimuli type and task difficulty as possibly modulating the ability of these patients to successfully use familiarity in support of memorial decisions.     

Not all sources of familiarity are created equal: the case of word frequency and repetition in episodic recognition

Low-frequency (LF) words produce higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates than high-frequency (HF) words. This word frequency mirror pattern has been interpreted within dual-process models of recognition, which assume the contributions of a slower recollective process and a relatively fast-acting familiarity process. In the present experiments, recollection and familiarity were placed in opposition using Jacoby, L. L., Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513–541 (1991), two-list exclusion paradigm with HF and LF words. Exclusion errors to LF words exceeded those to HF words at fast deadlines, whereas the reverse occurred at slow deadlines. In Experiments 2 and 3, false alarms to HF nonpresented lures were higher than to LF nonpresented lures, indicating the use of baseline familiarity for totally new items. Combined, these results indicate that in addition to baseline familiarity and recollection, a third process involving the assessment of a relative change in familiarity is involved in recognition performance. Both relative changes in familiarity and recollection processes have distinct time courses and are engaged when there is diagnostic list information available, whereas baseline familiarity is used when there is no diagnostic information available (e.g., for nonpresented lure items).     

Binding and inhibition in working memory: individual and age differences in short-term recognition

Two studies investigated the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC), adult age, and the resolution of conflict between familiarity and recollection in short-term recognition tasks. Experiment 1 showed a specific deficit of young adults with low WMC in rejecting intrusion probes (i.e., highly familiar probes) in a modified Sternberg task, which was similar to the deficit found in old adults in a parallel experiment (K. Oberauer, 2001). Experiment 2 generalized these results to 3 recognition paradigms (modified Sternberg, local recognition, and n back tasks). Old adults showed disproportional performance deficits on intrusion probes only in terms of reaction times, whereas young adults with low WMC showed them only in terms of errors. The generality of the effect across paradigms is more compatible with a deficit in content-context bindings subserving recollection than with a deficit in inhibition of irrelevant information in working memory. Structural equation models showed that WMC is related to the efficiency of recollection but not of familiarity.     

Neuropsychological correlates of recollection and familiarity in normal aging

The dual-process model of recognition memory proposed by Jacoby (1991; see also Mandler, 1980) postulates the existence of two independent components of recognition memory: a conscious retrieval process (recollection) and an automatic component ( familiarity). Older adults appear to be impaired in recollection, but findings with respect to familiarity have been mixed. Studies of the brain bases of these components, using neurological patients, have also been inconclusive. We examined recollection and familiarity, using the process dissociation procedure, in older adults characterized on the basis of both their frontal and their medial temporal lobe function. Findings suggest that only some older adults, depending on their neuropsychological status, are impaired in recollection and/or familiarity: Recollection seems to involve both frontal and medial temporal lobe function, whereas familiarity appears to be dependent only on function associated with the medial temporal lobes.     

The sensorimotor contributions to implicit memory, familiarity, and recollection

The sensorimotor contributions to memory for prior occurrence were investigated. Previous research has shown that both implicit memory and familiarity draw on gains in stimulus-related processing fluency for old, compared with novel, stimuli, but recollection does not. Recently, it has been demonstrated that processing fluency itself resides in stimulus-specific motor simulations or reenactment (e.g., covert pronouncing simulations for words as stimuli). Combining these lines of evidence, it was predicted that stimulus-specific motor interference preventing simulations should impair both implicit memory and familiarity but leave recollection unaffected. This was tested for words as verbal stimuli associated to pronouncing simulations in the oral muscle system (but also for tunes as vocal stimuli and their associated vocal system, Experiment 2). It was found that oral (e.g., chewing gum), compared with manual (kneading a ball), motor interference prevented mere exposure effects (Experiments 1-2), substantially reduced repetition priming in word fragment completion (Experiment 3), reduced the familiarity estimates in a remember-know task (Experiment 5) and in receiver-operating characteristics (Experiment 6), and completely neutralized familiarity measured by self-reports (Experiment 4) and skin conductance responses (Experiment 7), while leaving recollection and free recall unaffected (across Experiments 1-7). This pattern establishes a rare memory dissociation in healthy participants, that is, explicit without implicit memory or recognizing without feeling familiar. Implications for embodied memory and neuropsychology are discussed.     

Old processes,new perspectives: Familiarity is correlated with (not independent of) recollection and is more (not equally) variable for targets than for lures

According to dual-process models of memory, recognition is subserved by two processes: recollection and familiarity. Many variants of these models assume that recollection and familiarity make stochastically independent contributions to performance in recognition tasks and that the variance of the familiarity signal is equal for targets and for lures. Here, we challenge these ‘common-currency’ assumptions. Using a model-comparison approach, featuring the Continuous Dual Process (CDP; Wixted & Mickes, 2010) model as the protagonist, we show that when these assumptions are relaxed, the model’s fits to individual participants’ data improve. Furthermore, our analyses reveal that across items, recollection and familiarity show a positive correlation. Interestingly, this across-items correlation was dissociated from an across-participants correlation between the sensitivities of these processes. We also find that the familiarity signal is significantly more variable for targets than for lures. One striking theoretical implication of these findings is that familiarity—rather than recollection, as most models assume—may be the main contributor responsible for one of the most influential findings of recognition memory, that of subunit zROC slopes. Additionally, we show that erroneously adopting the common-currency assumptions, introduces severe biases to estimates of recollection and familiarity.     

Recollection Is a Continuous Process: Implications for Dual-Process Theories of Recognition Memory

ABSTRACT— Dual-process theory, which holds that recognition decisions can be based on recollection or familiarity, has long seemed incompatible with signal detection theory, which holds that recognition decisions are based on a singular, continuous memory-strength variable. Formal dual-process models typically regard familiarity as a continuous process (i.e., familiarity comes in degrees), but they construe recollection as a categorical process (i.e., recollection either occurs or does not occur). A continuous process is characterized by a graded relationship between confidence and accuracy, whereas a categorical process is characterized by a binary relationship such that high confidence is associated with high accuracy but all lower degrees of confidence are associated with chance accuracy. Using a source-memory procedure, we found that the relationship between confidence and source-recollection accuracy was graded. Because recollection, like familiarity, is a continuous process, dual-process theory is more compatible with signal detection theory than previously thought.     

汉字的无线索回忆再认效应:重复学习和重复测验的作用

采用无线索回忆再认范式,对基于熟悉性的汉字语义特征再认进行了探索,考察了重复学习和重复测验对汉字语义特征的无线索回忆再认效应(RWCR效应)的影响。实验1采用即时测验,实验2采用延时测验,结果发现:(1)无论即时还是延时测验,汉字语义特征的再认均存在RWCR效应。(2)在即时测验时,重复学习对熟悉性有显著影响,重复测验对熟悉性没有影响;重复学习和重复测验均提高回想成绩,但二者无差异。(3)在延时测验时,重复学习组和重复测验组的熟悉性评分均下降,但前者下降快于后者;重复测验组回想的遗忘率较低,重复学习组回想的遗忘率较高。上述结果说明,汉字的语义特征存在稳定的RWCR效应,且重复学习主要影响熟悉性,重复测验主要影响回想。进一步证明了再认记忆的双加工理论。     

Identifying the Basis for the Word Frequency Effect in Recognition Memory

Abstract

Recent theories of recognition memory have identified two bases on which recognition-memory judgments may be made: recollection, which involves retrieval of contextual information from an earlier episode of stimulus presentation; and familiarity, which is distinguished by a general sense of familiarity in the absence of recollection. Four experiments were conducted to test whether the word frequency effect (WFE) in recognition memory (superior performance with low- in comparison with high-frequency targets) results from recollection-based processes, familiarity-based processes, or both. In two of the experiments, superior memory for aspects of the study context was found for low-frequency in comparison with high-frequency words, suggesting frequency-related differences in recollection. The other two experiments used Jacoby's (1991) inclusion/exclusion paradigm to provide estimates of the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition. In both experiments the data suggested that the WFE is primarily a recollection-based phenomenon. These findings suggest that the recognition memory WFE for old items results primarily from the effects of word frequency on recollection. The implications of these findings for theories of recognition memory are discussed.     

Context effects in recognition memory: the role of familiarity and recollection

A variant of the process dissociation procedure was coupled with a manipulation of response signal lag to assess whether manipulations of context affect one or both of the familiarity and search processes described by the dual process model of recognition. Participants studied a list of word pairs (context+target) followed by a recognition test with target words presented in the same or different context, and in the same or different form as study (singular/plural). Participants were asked to recognize any target word regardless of changes to form (inclusion), or to only recognise words that were presented in the same form (exclusion). The standard context reinstatement effect was evident even at the short response lags. Analyses of the estimates of the contributions of familiarity and search processes suggest that the context effect demonstrated here can be attributed in part to the influence of familiarity on recognition, whereas the effect on recollection was less clear.     

Recognition,recollection, familiarity and executive function in medicated patients with moderate Parkinson's disease

There is conflicting evidence about whether Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with deficiencies in recognition memory (RM) and the processes which underlie it, namely recollection (a form of recall) and familiarity (a feeling of memory in the absence of recall). The aims of the current study were to examine forced‐choice verbal RM (assessed with the Warrington Recognition memory Test), yes‐no RM, recollection, familiarity and executive functioning in 17 patients with moderate PD and 17 healthy volunteers matched for age and premorbid intelligence. We predicted that patients with moderate PD would display a significant recollection deficit on the yes‐no RM test, because their strategic memory processing that depends on executive functioning and is necessary for efficient encoding and/or retrieval, was disrupted. In contrast, familiarity memory, which is not dependent on these processes, and forced‐choice RM (which is largely dependent on familiarity) should show higher levels of preservation. We also predicted that recollection should be correlated with severity of executive dysfunction. Our findings revealed that the PD patients were as likely to accurately discriminate between targets and distractors as the healthy volunteers on both RM tests. However, the PD patients were significantly less reliant on recollection‐driven recognition decisions on the yes‐no RM test when compared with the healthy control group. The patients also displayed executive function deficits, but these were not correlated with recollection. The extent to which the PD patients' reliance on familiarity at the expense of recollection is explained by impairments in strategic memory processes/executive function and/or medial temporal lobe retrieval processes needs further exploration.     

The Effects of Healthy Aging,Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment,and Alzheimer’s Disease on Recollection and Familiarity: A Meta-Analytic Review

It is well established that healthy aging, amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) are associated with substantial declines in episodic memory. However, there is still debate as to how two forms of episodic memory – recollection and familiarity – are affected by healthy and pathological aging. To address this issue we conducted a meta-analytic review of the effect sizes reported in studies using remember/know (RK), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and process dissociation (PD) methods to examine recollection and familiarity in healthy aging (25 published reports), aMCI (9 published reports), and AD (5 published reports). The results from the meta-analysis revealed that healthy aging is associated with moderate-to-large recollection impairments. Familiarity was not impaired in studies using ROC or PD methods but was impaired in studies that used the RK procedure. aMCI was associated with large decreases in recollection whereas familiarity only tended to show a decrease in studies with a patient sample comprised of both single-domain and multiple-domain aMCI patients. Lastly, AD was associated with large decreases in both recollection and familiarity. The results are consistent with neuroimaging evidence suggesting that the hippocampus is critical for recollection whereas familiarity is dependent on the integrity of the surrounding perirhinal cortex. Moreover, the results highlight the relevance of method selection when examining aging, and suggest that familiarity deficits might be a useful behavioral marker for identifying individuals that will develop dementia.     

Assessing text representations with recognition: The interaction of domain knowledge and text coherence

Readers construct at least 2 interrelated mental representations when they comprehend a text: a textbase and a situation model. Two experiments were conducted with recognition memory to examine how domain knowledge and text coherence influence readers' textbase and situation-model representations. In Experiment 1, participants made remember-know judgments to text ideas. Knowledge and coherence interacted to influence remember judgments differently than know judgments. In Experiment 2, the authors used the process-dissociation procedure to obtain recollection and familiarity estimates. Knowledge and coherence interacted to influence recollection estimates but not familiarity estimates. The authors claim that recollection and familiarity can be used as markers of the different processes involved in constructing a textbase and a situation model.