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 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.     

Cognitive mechanisms of false facial recognition in older adults

Older adults show elevated false alarm rates on recognition memory tests involving faces in comparison to younger adults. It has been proposed that this age-related increase in false facial recognition reflects a deficit in recollection and a corresponding increase in the use of familiarity when making memory decisions. To test this hypothesis, we examined the performance of 40 older adults and 40 younger adults on a face recognition memory paradigm involving three different types of lures with varying levels of familiarity. A robust age effect was found, with older adults demonstrating a markedly heightened false alarm rate in comparison to younger adults for "familiarized lures" that were exact repetitions of faces encountered earlier in the experiment, but outside the study list, and therefore required accurate recollection of contextual information to reject. By contrast, there were no age differences in false alarms to "conjunction lures" that recombined parts of study list faces, or to entirely new faces. Overall, the pattern of false recognition errors observed in older adults was consistent with excessive reliance on a familiarity-based response strategy. Specifically, in the absence of recollection older adults appeared to base their memory decisions on item familiarity, as evidenced by a linear increase in false alarm rates with increasing familiarity of the lures. These findings support the notion that automatic memory processes such as familiarity remain invariant with age, while more controlled memory processes such as recollection show age-related decline.     

Dual-process models of associative recognition in young and older adults: evidence from receiver operating characteristics

In 3 experiments, young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs and were given confidence-rated item and associative recognition tests. Several different models of recognition were fit to the confidence-rating data using techniques described by S. Macho (2002, 2004). Concordant with previous findings, item recognition data were best fit by an unequal-variance signal detection theory model for both young and older adults. For both age groups, associative recognition performance was best explained by models incorporating both recollection and familiarity components. Examination of parameter estimates supported the conclusion that recollection is reduced in old age, but inferences about age differences in familiarity were highly model dependent. Implications for dual-process models of memory in old age are discussed.     

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.     

Measuring recollection and familiarity: Improving the remember/know procedure

The remember/know (RK) procedure is the most widely used method to investigate recollection and familiarity. It uses trial-by-trial reports to determine how much recollection and familiarity contribute to different kinds of recognition. Few other methods provide information about individual memory judgements and no alternative allows such direct indications of recollection and familiarity influences. Here we review how the RK procedure has been and should be used to help resolve theoretical disagreements about the processing and neural bases of components of recognition memory. Emphasis is placed on procedural weaknesses and a possible confound of recollection and familiarity with recognition memory strength. Recommendations are made about how to minimise these problems including using modified versions of the procedure. The proposals here are important for improving behavioural and lesion research, and vital for brain imaging work.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The effects of pure pair repetition on younger and older adults' associative memory

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.     

ROC in animals: Uncovering the neural substrates of recollection and familiarity in episodic recognition memory

It is a consensus that familiarity and recollection contribute to episodic recognition memory. However, it remains controversial whether familiarity and recollection are qualitatively distinct processes supported by different brain regions, or whether they reflect different strengths of the same process and share the same support. In this review, I discuss how adapting standard human recognition memory paradigms to rats, performing circumscribed brain lesions and using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methods contributed to solve this controversy. First, I describe the validation of the animal ROC paradigms and report evidence that familiarity and recollection are distinct processes in intact rats. Second, I report results from rats with hippocampal dysfunction which confirm this finding and lead to the conclusion that the hippocampus supports recollection but not familiarity. Finally, I describe a recent study focusing on the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) that investigates the contribution of areas upstream of the hippocampus to recollection and 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.     

Recollective experience, normal aging, and frontal dysfunction.

This study examined the nature of verbal recognition memory in young and old subjects. Following presentation of a word list, subjects undertook a yes-no recognition test and indicated whether their decision was based on explicit recollection or assessment of familiarity. Explicit recollection declined with age, and familiarity-based recognition increased. Furthermore, the extent to which older subjects relied on familiarity-based recognition correlated with neuropsychological indices of frontal lobe dysfunction. A further experiment indicated that the change from explicit recollection to familiarity-based responding was unrelated to changes in older subjects' confidence about their memory. The data indicate the central role of frontal dysfunction in understanding age-related memory loss.     

Individual differences in forced-choice recognition memory: Partitioning contributions of recollection and familiarity

In forced-choice recognition memory, two different testing formats are possible under conditions of high target–foil similarity: Each target can be presented alongside foils similar to itself (forced-choice corresponding; FCC), or alongside foils similar to other targets (forced-choice noncorresponding; FCNC). Recent behavioural and neuropsychological studies suggest that FCC performance can be supported by familiarity whereas FCNC performance is supported primarily by recollection. In this paper, we corroborate this finding from an individual differences perspective. A group of older adults were given a test of FCC and FCNC recognition for object pictures, as well as standardized tests of recall, recognition, and IQ. Recall measures were found to predict FCNC, but not FCC performance, consistent with a critical role for recollection in FCNC only. After the common influence of recall was removed, standardized tests of recognition predicted FCC, but not FCNC performance. This is consistent with a contribution of only familiarity in FCC. Simulations show that a two-process model, where familiarity and recollection make separate contributions to recognition, is 10 times more likely to give these results than a single-process model. This evidence highlights the importance of recognition memory test design when examining the involvement of recollection and familiarity.     

Modeling associative recognition: a comparison of two-high-threshold, two-high-threshold signal detection, and mixture distribution models

A 2-high-threshold signal detection (HTSDT) model, a mixture distribution (SON) model, and 2-high-threshold (HT) models with responses distributed over 1 or several response categories were fit to results of 6 experiments from 2 studies on associative recognition: R. Kelley and J. T. Wixted (2001) and A. P. Yonelinas (1997). HTSDT assumes that associative recognition is based on conscious recollection and familiarity assessment, whereas according to SON and HT, associative information results in a shift of familiarity. The modeling results cast doubt on the prominent role of conscious recollection, and as far as models are valid, parameter estimation suggests 2 processes in associative recognition: a shift in familiarity that is due to associative information and the determination of the source of familiarity of pairs.     

The impact of aging on associative memory for preexisting unitized associations

Aging is accompanied by a decline in associative memory that can, however, be attenuated when associations are unitized at encoding, that is, when they form an integrated entity. Unitization is thought to promote familiarity-based recognition memory, which is preserved in aging. We examined whether preexperimentally unitized associations (compound words (CWs)) do indeed reduce age differences in memory, and whether preexperimental unitization promotes familiarity. In Experiment 1, we assessed the memory of 20 young and 20 older participants for compound versus unrelated word pairs using a yes/no recognition test with Remember/Know/Guess judgments. In Experiment 2, we tested 20 young and 20 older participants using the same procedure, except for the use of a two-alternative forced-choice recognition paradigm, which is thought to enhance the contribution of familiarity. The results of both experiments corroborated the greater contribution of familiarity to recognition of unitized associations. In Experiment 1, however, the use of CWs did not attenuate the age-related associative decline. We suggest that preexisting knowledge associated with recombined compounds induced high absolute familiarity and illusory recollection, leading to high false-recognition rates for the older adults. By contrast, the two groups performed similarly across both conditions in Experiment 2. Thus, the forced-choice procedure facilitates the use of familiarity in such a way that it improves older adults’ associative memory to the level of young participants. These results suggest that the modulation of associative memory in aging by preexisting unitization varies according to methodological parameters, such as the nature of the lures and the test format.     

Effects of repetition on age differences in associative recognition

The study reported here examined the effect of repetition on age differences in associative recognition using a paradigm designed to encourage recollection at test. Young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs presented one, two, four, or eight times. Test lists contained old (intact) pairs, pairs consisting of old words that had been studied with other partners (rearranged lures), and pairs consisting of two unstudied words (new lures). Participants gave old/new responses and then indicated whether their responses were based on details that they could recollect or on familiarity. Older adults exhibited an ironic effect of repetition—an increase in false alarms on rearranged lures with more study opportunities—whereas young adults did not. Older adults also claimed to recall details of the study episode for rearranged lures whose constituent words were presented more frequently, but this was not true for young adults. Although both young and older adults said that they based correct rejections of rearranged lures on memory for details of the study episode, this effect was stronger for young adults. The observed age differences are consistent with older adults having reduced use of recollection in associative recognition tasks.     

Interfering with remembering and knowing: effects of divided attention at retrieval

A Remember-Know paradigm was used to examine the cognitive resource requirements of recollection and familiarity memory processes at retrieval. Younger and older adults studied a list of words, and in a later auditory recognition test indicated whether each word was Remembered, Known, or New. Retrieval was performed under full or divided attention (DA) conditions, with either a digit task to numbers, or an animacy task to words, presented visually. Younger and older adults showed an increase in false Remember responses during both DA conditions, indicating a general effect of attention on illusory recollection. Both age groups also showed decreased accuracy in Know responses, but only during the word-based DA condition, indicating a material-specific effect on familiarity. Aging was associated with decreased accuracy in Remember, but not Know, responses, and with increased latency in distracting task responses under DA conditions. Results suggest that avoiding false recollective responses during retrieval requires attentional resources, whereas accurate familiarity responses require the reactivation of content-specific representations.     

The contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition and source-memory judgments: a formal dual-process model and an analysis of receiver operating characteristics

A formal dual-process model that assumes that memory judgments can be based on a threshold recollection process and a signal-detection-based familiarity process is proposed to account for both recognition and source-memory performance. The model was tested in 4 experiments by examining recognition and source-memory receiver operating characteristics (ROCs). In agreement with the predictions of the model, recognition and source memory dissociated in certain conditions. Recognition ROCs were curvilinear in probability space and relatively linear in z-space, as expected if recollection and familiarity contributed to performance. In contrast, source ROCs typically were linear and exhibited a pronounced U shape in z-space, as expected if performance primarily relied on recollection. However, in conditions in which familiarity was clearly indicative of an item's source, the source ROC became curvilinear, suggesting that participants could use familiarity as a basis for source judgments. Several alternative models, including the unequal-variance signal-detection model, were found to be inconsistent with the ROC data.     

Age-related differences in associative memory depend on the types of associations that are formed

Building on well-established findings of age-related decline in associative memory, we examined whether the magnitude of age differences depends on the types of associations that are formed. Specifically, because of predominant age-related changes in the hippocampus, we expected to find larger age differences in recognition of between-domain than within-domain associations. Twenty younger and 20 older healthy adults were given two associative recognition tests, using face-name and word-word pairs, that were matched for difficulty level. As hypothesized, a three-way interaction indicated that, relative to item recognition, age differences in associative recognition were greater for between-domain face-name associations than for within-domain word-word associations. This dissociation is consistent with the idea that the hippocampus plays a prominent role in binding information received from distal neocortical regions. The discussion focuses on the roles of recollection and familiarity in supporting associative memory as well as implications for the remediation of age-related memory decline.