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Cognitive reality monitoring in adulthood
Abstract
This experiment assessed adult age differences for cognitive reality monitoring (attributing a memory to either an internal or external source) as a function of whether the terminal position in a sentence was completed with an externally presented or internally generated word. Older adults (mean age – 72.3 years) made slightly more accurate attributions than younger adults (mean age — 18.5 years) even though the younger adults accurately recognized a higher proportion of target words than older adults. Subjects were able to discriminate either type of target from distractor, but when an attribution error was made, it was made in favor of external origin. In this experiment, older adults' common complaints about memory source confusions seem without firm basis. Results suggest that the manner in which younger and older adults process and discriminate between sources of information is invariant across the life span.
... Thus, older adults should have higher error rates than younger adults for physically and conceptually similar imagined items compared to control items, but they would not necessarily have higher error rates for perceived items. The relation between source monitoring and old-new recognition performance is important in studies of aging and memory because recognition memory often declines with age (Light, 1991), along with source accuracy (e.g., Gregory, Mergler, Durso, & Zandi, 1988;Guttentag & Hunt, 1988;Mitchell, Hunt, & Schmitt, 1986;Rabinowitz, 1989). A strong case that older adults have particular problems with source memory can be made when source accuracy is impaired in conditions where recognition performance is equivalent for younger and older adults, or where source accuracy and recognition are differentially influenced by the same manipulation, which has been found in several studies of older adults (Brown et al., 1995;G. ...
This study shows that relative to younger adults, olderadults are more adversely influenced by similar items when judging amemory's source, and the phenomenal features of their correctly andincorrectly attributed memories have greater overlap. The authorsargue in accordance with the source monitoring framework that thisage-related impairment in source accuracy is related to processesinvolved in binding features into complex memories and thoseinvolved in accessing and evaluating contextual features ofmemories. These processes are linked to medial temporal and frontalbrain regions, respectively, as evidenced by correlations in olderadults between source accuracy and neuropsychological tests oftenused to assess medial temporal and frontal function. The resultssuggest that adequate feature binding is particularly important whenitems from different sources share similar features andaccess–evaluation processes are particularly important after adelay.
... We had three predictions. First, for all memory measures, we expected both age groups to show the standard generation effect (both lower-constraint and higher-constraint generation will lead to better memory compared to the read task) consistent with previous work that younger and older adults benefit similarly from self-generation (Gregory, Mergler, Durso, & Zandi, 1988;Hashtroudi et al., 1989;D. B. Mitchell et al., 1986;Rabinowitz, 1989;Taconnat et al., 2008;Taconnat & Isingrini, 2004;Whiting, 2003). ...
The generation effect is the memory benefit for information that is self-generated compared to read. This effect is robust for both younger and older adults. Recent work with younger adults has shown that the generation effect for context memory (i.e., contextual details associated with an episode) can be increased when there are fewer rather than greater experimental constraints placed on what participants can generate. This increase in context memory is attributable to enhanced relational processing. Given older adults’ deficits in context memory the present study tested whether fewer generation constraints would similarly improve the generation effect for contextual details in older adults. In this study, we examined age differences in item and context (i.e., source and associative) memory across three different tasks comprising the encoding of cue-target pairs: a lower-constraint generation task (i.e., free response to cue, such as assist – ____), a higher-constraint generation task (i.e., solving an anagram, such as assist – hlpe), and a read task (i.e., simply reading the cue-target pair, such as assist – help). Both age groups showed improved item and context memory for materials studied during the generation tasks (both lower- and higher-constraint) compared to the read task. However, only younger adults showed increased source memory for lower-constraint compared to higher-constraint generation, whereas older adults showed equivalent source and associative memory for both lower- and higher-constraint generation tasks. These findings suggest both age groups benefit from self-generation, but older adults may benefit less from conditions that enhance relational processing (lower-constraint generation) in younger adults.
... According to the authors' conclusions, older adults have difficulties distinguishing extraexperimental and intraexperimental sources of items (Dywan & Jacoby, 1990;Mc-Intyre & Craik, 1987;Spencer & Raz, 1994), identifying the modality in which information was presented (Light et al, 1992;Mclntyre & Craik, 1987), remembering whether they performed actions or only imagined them (Cohen & Faulkner, 1989), discriminating between mentally generated and read information (Rabinowitz, 1989), and remembering which person presented information (Brown, Jones, & Davis, 1995;Hashtroudi, Johnson, & Chrosniak, 1989;Schacter, Osowiecki, Kaszniak, Kihlstrom, & Valdiserri, 1994). Only a minority of studies have not found age differences in source memory (Gregory, Mergler, Durso, & Zandi, 1988;Guttentag & Hunt, 1988;Kausler, Lichty, & Freund, 1985;Mitchell, Hunt, & Schmitt, 1986). Thus, it is now widely assumed that performance is impaired with advanced age in most source memory tasks (see also the results of a meta-analysis by Spencer & Raz, 1995). ...
A number of studies have reported age differences in memory for the source of information. S.A. Ferguson, S. Hashtroudi, and M.K. Johnson (1992) suggested that older adults do not efficiently use multiple distinctive characteristics of sources to distinguish between sources in source memory tasks. In the study reported here, participants heard information from 2 sources and later decided whether test items had been presented by Source A, by Source B, or were new. The distinctiveness of both perceptual and temporal characteristics of sources were independently manipulated. Older adults benefited more than young adults from multiple distinctive characteristics of sources. These results question the generality of S.A. Ferguson et al.'s hypothesis.
... Thus, older adults should have higher error rates than younger adults for physically and conceptually similar imagined items compared to control items, but they would not necessarily have higher error rates for perceived items. The relation between source monitoring and old-new recognition performance is important in studies of aging and memory because recognition memory often declines with age (Light, 1991 ), along with source accuracy (e.g., Gregory , Mergler, Durso, & Zandi, 1988; Guttentag & Hunt, 1988; Mitchell, Hunt, & Schmitt, 1986; Rabinowitz, 1989). A strong case that older adults have particular problems with source memory can be made when source accuracy is impaired in conditions where recognition performance is equivalent for younger and older adults, or where source accuracy and recognition are differentially influenced by the same manipulation, which has been found in several studies of older adults (Brown et al., 1995; G. Cohen & Faulkner, 1989; Dywan & Jacoby, 1990; Dywan, Segalowitz, & Williamson, 1994; Ferguson et al., 1992; Hashtroudi et al., 1989; Mclntyre & Craik, 1987; Schacter, Kaszniak, Kihlstrom, & Valdiserri, 1991; Spencer & Raz, 1995). ...
This study shows that relative to younger adults, older adults are more adversely influenced by similar items when judging a memory's source, and the phenomenal features of their correctly and incorrectly attributed memories have greater overlap. The authors argue in accordance with the source monitoring framework that this age-related impairment in source accuracy is related to processes involved in binding features into complex memories and those involved in accessing and evaluating contextual features of memories. These processes are linked to medial temporal and frontal brain regions, respectively, as evidenced by correlations in older adults between source accuracy and neuropsychological tests often used to assess medial temporal and frontal function. The results suggest that adequate feature binding is particularly important when items from different source share similar features and access-evaluation processes are particularly important after a delay.
The present investigation simulated a group conversation in which participants asked (inquirer) and answered (responder) questions, as well as listened to others exchange information. Source (inquirer; responder) identification accuracy was evaluated immediately or after 1 week. Older adults were less adept at source identification, although this difference was reduced with personal (Experiment 2) rather than categorical (Experiment 1) topics. The age difference was independent of explicit memory (cued recall and recognition), suggesting that memory for source and information are separable. Older adults were comparable to younger adults in responder identification but worse at inquirer identification. Responder identification was better than inquirer identification, with the latter dropping to chance at 1 week. Source identification was most accurate when participants were in the responder role; there was little difference between the inquirer and listener roles.
The generation effect is the memory benefit for self-generated compared with read or experimenter-provided information. In recent decades, numerous theories have been proposed to explain the memory mechanism(s) and boundary conditions of the generation effect. In this meta-analysis and theoretical review, we analyzed 126 articles (310 experiments, 1,653 estimates) to assess 7 prominent theories to determine which theories are supported by the existing literature. Because some theories focus on item memory (memory for the generated target) and others focus on context memory (memory for details associated with the generated target), we examined memory effects for both types of details (item, context) in this meta-analysis. Further, we assessed the influence of generation constraint (how constrained participants are to generate a certain response), which recent work has shown affects the magnitude of the generation effect. Overall, the results of this meta-analysis support some theoretical accounts, but not others, as explanatory mechanisms of the generation effect. Results further showed that generation constraint significantly moderates the magnitude of the generation effect, suggesting that this factor should be rigorously investigated in future work. Overall, this meta-analysis provides a review and examination of generation effect theories, and reveals important areas of future research.
Recognizing a stimulus as previously encountered is a crucial everyday life skill and a critical task motivating theoretical development in models of human memory. Although there are clear age-related memory deficits in tasks requiring recall or memory for context, the existence and nature of age differences in recognition memory remain unclear. The nature of any such deficits is critical to understanding the effects of age on memory because recognition tasks allow fewer strategic backdoors to supporting memory than do tasks of recall. Consequently, recognition may provide the purest measure of age-related memory deficit of all standard memory tasks. We conducted a meta-analysis of 232 prior experiments on age differences in recognition memory. As an organizing framework, we used signal-detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966; Macmillan & Creelman, 2005) to characterize recognition memory in terms of both discrimination between studied items and unstudied lures (d′) and response bias or criterion (c). Relative to young adults, older adults showed reduced discrimination accuracy and a more liberal response criterion (i.e., greater tendency to term items new). Both of these effects were influenced by multiple, differing variables, with larger age deficits when studied material must be discriminated from familiar or related material, but smaller when studying semantically rich materials. These results support a view in which neither the self-initiation of mnemonic processes nor the deployment of strategic processes is the only source of age-related memory deficits, and they add to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying those changes.
The major aim of this study was to provide confirmation of the lack of metamemory deficits found in previous research, and we chose reality monitoring as our empirical arena. Reality monitoring is defined as the ability to distinguish between memories for events that have actually occurred and memories for imagined events, with actual events characterized by higher levels of sensory-perceptual information. Further, since detoxified alcoholics have demonstrated perceptual, especially visual, deficits, this study examined whether that would have an adverse effect on reality-monitoring performance.
Young adult, male, detoxified alcoholics (n = 60) and appropriate controls (n = 29) participated in reality-monitoring tasks using, primarily, either visual or verbal information.
There were no significant differences between the two subject groups on either of the reality-monitoring tasks, and no significant contributions from descriptive, background or educational variables on these tasks.
Convergent validation of the previous finding of no metamemory deficits with young, male, recovering alcoholics was obtained. The results also were discussed briefly in the context of alcoholics' quality of memory in therapeutic situations.
The authors reviewed the evidence of age differences in episodic memory for content of a message and the context associated with it. Specifically, the authors tested a hypothesis that memory for context is more vulnerable to aging than memory for content. In addition, the authors inquired whether effort at encoding and retrieval and type of stimulus material moderate the magnitude of age differences in both memory domains. The results of the meta-analysis of 46 studies confirmed the main hypothesis: Age differences in context memory are reliably greater than those in memory for content. Tasks that required greater effort during retrieval yielded larger age differences in content but not in context memory. The greatest magnitude of age differences in context memory was observed for those contextual features that were more likely to have been encoded independently from content. Possible mechanisms that may underlie age differences in context memory-attentional deficit, reduced working memory capacity, and failure of inhibitory processing are discussed.
In this meta-analysis, the authors evaluated recent suggestions that older adults' episodic memory impairments are partially due to a reduced ability to encode and retrieve associated/bound units of information. Results of 90 studies of episodic memory for both item and associative information in 3,197 young and 3,192 older adults provided support for the age-related associative/binding deficit suggestion, indicating a larger effect of age on memory for associative information than for item information. Moderators assessed included the type of associations, encoding instructions, materials, and test format. Results indicated an age-related associative deficit in memory for source, context, temporal order, spatial location, and item pairings, in both verbal and nonverbal material. An age-related associative deficit was quite pronounced under intentional learning instructions but was not clearly evident under incidental learning instructions. Finally, test format was also found to moderate the associative deficit, with older adults showing an associative/binding deficit when item memory was evaluated via recognition tests but not when item memory was evaluated via recall tests, in which case the age-related deficits were similar for item and associative information.
Describes experiments in which happy or sad moods were induced in Ss by hypnotic suggestion to investigate the influence of emotions on memory and thinking. Results show that (a) Ss exhibited mood-state-dependent memory in recall of word lists, personal experiences recorded in a daily diary, and childhood experiences; (b) Ss recalled a greater percentage of those experiences that were affectively congruent with the mood they were in during recall; (c) emotion powerfully influenced such cognitive processes as free associations, imaginative fantasies, social perceptions, and snap judgments about others' personalities; (d) when the feeling-tone of a narrative agreed with the reader's emotion, the salience and memorability of events in that narrative were increased. An associative network theory is proposed to account for these results. In this theory, an emotion serves as a memory unit that can enter into associations with coincident events. Activation of this emotion unit aids retrieval of events associated with it; it also primes emotional themata for use in free association, fantasies, and perceptual categorization. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
24 17–24 yr olds and 24 56–76 yr olds were tested for memory of activities on a series of tasks (e.g., letter cancellation and anagrams) that varied along the rote–cognitive dimension. Half the Ss in each age group were forewarned of the subsequent memory test (intentional learning); the remaining Ss were not forewarned (incidental learning). An overall age difference, favoring young Ss, was found. However, the magnitude of the age difference varied across activities, being slight for cognitively demanding tasks and pronounced for less-demanding activities. Memory was unaffected by the forewarning variable for both age groups. Results are interpreted in terms of an age deficit in the retrieval of memory traces established by activities, with cognitively demanding activities yielding more distinctive and therefore more retrievable traces than less-demanding activities for older adults. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
People remember information from 2 basic sources: external (perceptual processes) and internal (processes such as reasoning, imagination, and thought). Of particular interest are the processes people use in deciding whether information initially had an external or an internal source, i.e., "reality monitoring." A working model of reality monitoring is proposed to account for both discrimination and confusion between memories for thoughts and memories for perceptions. Examples of questions the model addresses are: What types of information are more likely to be represented in memories of external events than in memories of internal events?; What assumptions do individuals have about their memory for their thoughts compared to their memory for their perceptions?; and How accurate are these assumptions? Research that demonstrates the usefulness of the model is summarized. (100 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
24 young (18.25–27.92 yrs old) and 24 elderly (62.75–80.42 yrs old) adults received a series of tasks (e.g., card sorting, arithmetic) that were planned for performance and subsequently performed with varying frequencies under intentional- and incidental-memory conditions to investigate age differences in active memory. Following the series of tasks, Ss estimated the frequencies with which task activities had been both performed and planned. Recognition-memory scores derived from performance-judgment scores revealed a significant age deficit in Ss' identification of those activities that had been performed earlier. However, memory was unaffected by intentionality at each age level. Results imply a modest age deficit for encoding rehearsal-independent, episodic events, but no age differences were found for reality monitoring: Elderly Ss were as proficient as young Ss in discriminating between planning and performance of an activity in terms of absolute frequency-judgment scores. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Proposes a theory of cognitive adaptation to threatening events. It is argued that the adjustment process centers around 3 themes: A search for meaning in the experience, an attempt to regain mastery over the event in particular and over life more generally, and an effort to restore self-esteem through self-enhancing evaluations. These themes are discussed with reference to cancer patients' coping efforts. It is maintained that successful adjustment depends, in a large part, on the ability to sustain and modify illusions that buffer not only against present threats but also against possible future setbacks. (84 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The question addressed by the present experiment is whether the ability to distinguish between veridical and imaginal memory representations changes with age. Second-grade, fourth-grade, and sixth grade children (8, 10, and 12 years old) and college students were shown pictures of familiar objects. Each picture was presented one, two, or three times and, interspersed with these presentations, subjects were asked to imagine each picture zero, one, or three times. Subsequently they were asked to judge the presentation frequency of each picture. For all groups, imagining the pictures resulted in inflated estimates of event frequency. However, contrary to the idea that children have a particularly difficult time discriminating externally generated from internally generated memories, one analysis indicated adults were actually somewhat more affected than children by the imagination trials.
Young and elderly subjects performed a series of activities that varied in the duration of their performances (45 s, 90 s, and 180 s). Duration was found to have a negligible effect on the subsequent recall of the activities and on the magnitude of the age deficit in recall. Operationalization of the program for performing an activity seems essential for establishing a memory trace of that activity's performance, but the duration of performing that activity seems to yield no further enhancement of that trace.
Adult age differences in the processing of implicit sentence information were examined by testing recognition memory for stated and implied information. The effects of organization on such processing also were examined by presenting test sentences in a structured (story) or unstructured (unrelated sentences) format. No age differences were observed in memory for implied instruments-suggesting that aging has little effect on the processing and storage of such implicational information. In addition, structure had little effect on memory for implied information but interacted with age in determining memory for explicity stated instruments: Young adults remembered more explicit information in the structured condition.
We investigated four theoretical perspectives concerning the role of social comparison (Festinger, 1954) in coping with a threatening event in a sample of breast cancer patients. According to the supercoper perspective, personal contact with comparison others is often unavailable to patients, and contact with media "supercopers"--fellow victims presented as adjusting very smoothly--may make patients feel inadequate by comparison. According to the similarity perspective, patients select comparison targets who are similar to themselves because those comparisons should be the most informative. The upward comparison perspective is predictive of comparisons to relatively advantaged or superior individuals. The downward comparison perspective leads to the prediction that under conditions of threat, individuals make comparisons to people who are inferior or less fortunate in order to enhance their self-esteem. We interviewed 78 breast cancer patients, and results of both closed-ended questions and spontaneously offered comparisons yielded a preponderance of downward comparisons. The results point to the value of using naturalistic methods for studying comparisons, and suggest a more active and cognitive role for social comparison than is usually portrayed.
Each of 12 depressed patients with diurnal mood variation was seen at 2 different times during the day. On one of these occasions they were substantially more depressed than on the other. On each occasion they recalled life experiences associated to stimulus words. At the end of the 2nd occasion they rated these experiences for happiness or unhappiness at the time the experience occurred and also for current happiness or unhappiness. Memories of experiences that had been unhappy were more likely to be retrieved on the more depressed occasion than on the less depressed occasion. Memories of experiences that had been happy were more likely to be retrieved on the less depressed occasion than on the more depressed occasion. The current hedonic tone of a recalled experience was more likely to be rated less positive (or more negative) than the original hedonic tone the more depressed a person was while making the ratings. Findings are discussed in relation to cognitive theories of the development and maintenance of depression and in relation to its treatment. (19 ref)
Goals of AssessmentMultidimensional AssessmentMultimethod AssessmentPractical or General ConsiderationsSummaryReferences
Subjects participated in small groups. Two subjects engaged in a “conversation” in which they alternated generating single words, and other subjects listened to the conversation. Later, speakers were better than other subjects at correctly identifying the origin of words. This held both for a situation in which the subjects had considerable freedom in what they generated (Experiment 1) and for a situation in which what they generated was constrained by specific cues (Experiment 2). The fact that discriminating between externally and internally derived memories was easier than discriminating between two external sources of memories is consistent with the idea that the classes of internally and externally derived memories differ in characteristic ways.
In a study with 18 elderly patients diagnosed as suffering from dementia, "reality orientation" was shown to be effective only where therapists actively participated. Exposure to change in a more stimulating environment than their own wards was not enough to produce sustained improvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
examine theory and research within selected areas of adult developmental psychology, as they have implications for formulating an educational psychology of the adult learner / a primary focus will be on the intellectual and cognitive bases
examines findings regarding long-term change in intellectual functioning, based on longitudinal and cohort-sequential research / considers educational implications of these research findings regarding long-term intellectual change
deals with short-term behavioral change, which is associated with cognitive training research in later adulthood, and considers some of the methodological and conceptual issues related to cognitive training research
potential goals of the adult learner are considered, and the motivational and personality factors associated with lifelong learning in later adulthood are examined (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Completion responses were collected for two sets of sentence contexts, which were designed to produce different distributions
of probabilities for the primary responses. The subject population consisted of undergraduate college students. For each context,
responses and their respective probability of occurrence are listed, and an index of the primary responses is provided. It
is hoped that these normative materials will facilitate comparison among future studies of the effects of sentence contexts
on word processing.
In two experiments, the number of times subjects saw and generated words was varied, and then half the subjects were asked
to judge presentation frequency and half were asked to judge generation frequency. People were more sensitive to the relative
frequency of internally generated, compared with externally generated, events. Also, judgments of internal events were less
affected by whether or not the subjects were given a restricted range of numbers for their judgments, and internally generated
events produced more confusion in estimating external event frequency than vice versa. The results are discussed in terms
of potential differences in the characteristics of memory representations originating in external, compared with internal,
events and the way these might interact with the judgment process.
In a controlled trial, 'reality orientation' for elderly patients diagnosed as suffering from dementia is shown to be effective only where therapists actively participate. Exposure to change in a more stimulating enviroment than their own wards is not enough to produce sustained improvement.
The present experiments compared people's abilities to make decisions about the origin of their memories. Experiment 1 demonstrated that 6-year-olds were as good as 17-year-olds in discriminating memories originating from what they said earlier (self-generations) from memories of what another person said earlier (external presentations). However, in both experiments 1 and 2, 6-year-olds were not as good at discriminating what they had said earlier from what they had only thought. The possibility that younger children simply have more difficulty distinguishing between memories originating from the same class, internal or external, was ruled out because 6-year-olds performed as well as 9-year-olds when differentiating between memories from 2 external sources (experiment 2). Nor could their difficulty be attributed to a general problem in distinguishing memories for their thoughts from any other class of memories because they were at no disadvantage in discriminating their earlier thoughts (words they imagined themselves saying) from words someone else said (experiment 2). Our findings suggest that some distinctions, self versus other, emerge as cues in memory sooner than other distinctions, thoughts versus actions.
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