Dual process theories account for age-related changes in memory by proposing that old age is associated with deficits in recollection together with invariance in familiarity. The authors evaluated this proposal in recognition by examining recollection and familiarity estimates in young and older adults across 3 process estimation methods: inclusion/exclusion, remember/know, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Consistent with a previous literature review (Light, Prull, LaVoie, & Healy, 2000), the authors found age invariance in familiarity when process estimates were derived from the inclusion/exclusion method, but the authors found age differences favoring the young when familiarity estimates were derived from the remember/know and ROC methods. Recollection estimates were lower for older adults in all 3 methods. Recollection and familiarity had variable relationships with frontal- and temporal-lobe measures of neuropsychological functioning in older adults, depending on which method was used to generate process estimates. These data suggest that although recollection deficits appear to be the rule in aging, not all estimates of familiarity show age invariance.
To explore how children come to adopt cultural forms of representation, three studies are presented. Study 1 asks about children's ability to discriminate between 'younger' and 'older' pieces of work, with 'younger and 'older' distinguished on the basis of Developmental Drawing Status (Harris 1963). Study 2 asks about children's preferences and the extent to which they match those of teachers. Study 3 asks about the differences between drawings children produce for themselves and those they produce when asked by an adult for a 'good' drawing. The underlying assumption is that one condition influencing developmental change is children's exposure to work by adults or by older children. The results point to ways of combining cross-cultural comparisons of performances with monocultural work on processes underlying children's productions. They also raise questions about patterns of exposure in any cultural context and about factors involved in the development of discriminations, preferences, and audience expectations.
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