Mohamad El Haj1, Diana Omigie, Séverine Samson. 1. Research Unit on Cognitive and Affective Sciences (URECA EA1059 & UMR SCALAB), Department of Psychology, University of North of France, Domaine du Pont de Bois, 59653, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France, mohamad.elhaj@univ-lille3.fr.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Familiarity is assumed to exert a beneficial effect on memory in older adults. Our paper investigated this issue specifically for destination memory, that is, memory of the destination of previously relayed information. METHODS: Young and older adults were told familiar (Experiment 1) and unfamiliar (Experiment 2) proverbs associated with pictures depicting faces of celebrities (e.g., Elvis Presley) or unknown people, with a specific proverb assigned to each face. In a later recognition task, participants were presented with the previously exposed proverb-face pairs and for each pair had to decide whether they had previously relayed the given proverb to the given face. RESULTS: In general, destination performance was found to be higher for familiar than for unfamiliar faces. However while there was no difference between the two groups when the proverbs being relayed were unfamiliar, the advantage of face familiarity on destination memory was present only for older adults when the proverbs being relayed were familiar. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that destination memory in older adults is sensitive to familiarity of both destination and output information.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Familiarity is assumed to exert a beneficial effect on memory in older adults. Our paper investigated this issue specifically for destination memory, that is, memory of the destination of previously relayed information. METHODS: Young and older adults were told familiar (Experiment 1) and unfamiliar (Experiment 2) proverbs associated with pictures depicting faces of celebrities (e.g., Elvis Presley) or unknown people, with a specific proverb assigned to each face. In a later recognition task, participants were presented with the previously exposed proverb-face pairs and for each pair had to decide whether they had previously relayed the given proverb to the given face. RESULTS: In general, destination performance was found to be higher for familiar than for unfamiliar faces. However while there was no difference between the two groups when the proverbs being relayed were unfamiliar, the advantage of face familiarity on destination memory was present only for older adults when the proverbs being relayed were familiar. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that destination memory in older adults is sensitive to familiarity of both destination and output information.