Aging and Recognition Failure

Young and old adults studied lists of A-B paired associates that were subsequently tested for both cued recall and recognition of the B items. Significant age deficits were found for both recall and recognition. The age deficit in recognition was attributed to differences in the effectiveness of the retrieval process in recognition, with no age deficit in the process of evaluating an item's familiarity. Recognition failure, the failure to recognize items that are subsequently recalled, was also observed; older adults showed a higher recognition failure rate than younger adults. These results are discussed within the context of current theories of the recognition failure phenomenon.