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Age-related Changes in Recognition and Response Criterion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Aurora G. Suengas ,
Trinidad Ruiz Gallego-Largo  and
Teresa Simón
Aurora G. Suengas
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
Trinidad Ruiz Gallego-Largo*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
Teresa Simón
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Trinidad Ruiz Gallego-Largo. Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento. Facultad de Psicología. Universidad Complutense. Campus de Somosaguas. 28223 Madrid. (Spain). Email: truiz@psi.ucm.es
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Abstract

Recognition performance does not usually change along the lifespan, but the response criterion usually does, and in general, it changes from being conservative during youth to being liberal, in old age. The focus of the present study is to analyze the changes that take place, both in discrimination and response criterion, as a result of aging in two recognition tasks: one with neutral images, and the other with faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions. Two groups of participants performed both tasks: young (N = 21; age range, 17-33 years), older (N = 21; age range, 65-91 years). The analyses of several discrimination parameters (d′ and probability of recognition) and the response criterion yielded significant age differences. Thus, results indicated that the ability to discriminate of older participants was better than that of younger participants when having to recognize neutral images, and faces with negative emotional expressions. The response criterion of younger participants was always conservative, whereas older participants only showed liberal criteria in front of faces with emotional expressions. In relation to the neutral images, the response criterion of older participants was optimum, because it led to more hits, without increasing the false alarms. The results are partially explained by the tasks differential difficulty, and are discussed within the frame of Simulation theory.

El rendimiento en pruebas de reconocimiento no suele variar a lo largo de la vida, pero sí lo hace el criterio de respuesta empleado que, en general, pasa de ser conservador, en la juventud, a ser liberal, al envejecer. El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar los cambios que se producen en la discriminación y el criterio de respuesta en función de la edad en dos pruebas de reconocimiento: una frente a imágenes sin carga emocional y otra frente a caras con expresiones faciales positivas y negativas. Dos grupos de participantes realizaron ambas pruebas: joven (N = 21; rango de edad de 17-33 años), mayor (N = 21; rango de edad de 65-91 años). El análisis de diferentes medidas de discriminación (d' y probabilidad de reconocimiento) y del criterio de respuesta de los participantes en las distintas tareas experimentales arrojó diferencias significativas en función de la edad. Así, los resultados indicaron que la habilidad para discriminar de las personas de más edad supera a la de los jóvenes frente a imágenes neutras y caras con expresiones faciales negativas. En lo que respecta al criterio de respuesta, el de los jóvenes siempre fue conservador, en tanto que el de los mayores fue óptimo frente a imágenes neutras (más aciertos sin incremento de falsas alarmas) y liberal frente a las caras con expresiones faciales emocionales. Los resultados se explican en parte por la dificultad diferencial de las pruebas y se interpretan dentro del marco de la teoría de la simulación.

Keywords

age differencesrecognitionresponse criterionface recognitionfacial expression valenceenvejecimientoreconocimientocriterio de respuestareconocimiento de carasvalencia de la expresión facial
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , November 2010 , pp. 557 - 571
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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