ERIC Number: EJ734793
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Jan
Pages: 17
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
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A Diffusion Model Analysis of Adult Age Differences in Episodic and Semantic Long-Term Memory Retrieval
Spaniol, Julia; Madden, David J.; Voss, Andreas
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v32 n1 p101-117 Jan 2006
Two experiments investigated adult age differences in episodic and semantic long-term memory tasks, as a test of the hypothesis of specific age-related decline in context memory. Older adults were slower and exhibited lower episodic accuracy than younger adults. Fits of the diffusion model (R. Ratcliff, 1978) revealed age-related increases in nondecisional reaction time for both episodic and semantic retrieval. In Experiment 2, an age difference in boundary separation also indicated an age-related increase in conservative criterion setting. For episodic old-new recognition (Experiment 1) and source memory (Experiment 2), there was an age-related decrease in the quality of decision-driving information (drift rate). As predicted by the context-memory deficit hypothesis, there was no corresponding age-related decline in semantic drift rate.
Descriptors: Semantics, Reaction Time, Long Term Memory, Age Differences, Older Adults, Information Retrieval, Young Adults, Recognition (Psychology), Hypothesis Testing, Causal Models, Retention (Psychology)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A