Older adults encode–but do not always use–perceptual details: intentional versus unintentional effects of detail on memory judgments

Investigations of memory deficits in older individuals have concentrated on their increased likelihood of forgetting events or de-tails of events that were actually encountered (errors of omission). However, mounting evidence demonstrates that normal cognitive ag-ing also is associated with an increased propensity for errors of com-mission—shown in false alarms or false recognition. The present study examined the origins of this age difference. Older and younger adults each performed three types of memory tasks in which details of encountered items might influence performance. Although older adults showed greater false recognition of related lures on a standard (iden-tical) old/new episodic recognition task, older and younger adults showed parallel effects of detail on repetition priming and meaning-based episodic recognition (decreased priming and decreased mean-ing-based recognition for different relative to same exemplars). The results suggest that the older adults encoded details but used them less effectively than the younger adults in the recognition context requiring their deliberate, controlled use. Studies of memory deficits in older individuals (and the memory complaints of older adults themselves) have primarily focused on their increased likelihood of forgetting events or details of events that were ac-tually encountered—shown as misses or errors of omission. However, mounting evidence demonstrates that normal cognitive aging also may be associated with an increased propensity to make errors of commis-sion—false alarms or false recognition responses (e.g., Balota et al.