Is there a deficit in recognition in old age?

BACKGROUND There is some debate over of the effect of aging on the ability to recognize previously processed information. The aim of the present study is to analyze, by means of different measurements, whether aging has differential effects on recall and recognition of visual and verbal materials. METHOD A within-subject design was used to compare two groups of different age (younger, older) in tasks of recall and recognition of images and of the verbal descriptors exchanged in a conversation. RESULTS The results indicated that, unlike the recall and recognition of words, better in younger participants, the recall and recognition of images was equal in both groups, or even better in older participants when assessed by means of d´. Nevertheless, a more strict recently proposed measurement, the conditional probability for recall given recognition, yielded significant age differences in all instances. Besides, the conditional probability shows the aging changes usually found in the serial position curve: decline of the primacy effect, while maintenance of the recency effect. CONCLUSIONS RESULTS are explained according to the theories that postulate two components in the process of recognition (familiarity and recollection), which are independently affected by aging.