Response bias and aging on a recognition memory task

Abstract

Response bias reflects the decision rule an individual uses when faced with uncertainty on recognition memory tasks. Recent studies indicate frontal regions may mediate response bias performance. One theory of aging also implicates frontal lobe contributions in age-related cognitive changes. This suggests that frontal lobe changes may mediate response bias in older adults. Consistent with this frontal aging hypothesis, we predicted that response bias would become more liberal with age. Methods: Participants were 181 younger (30-49) and 112 older normal adults (751) that were part of the California Verbal Learning Test-second edition (CVLT-2) normative sample (total n 5 1078). We used parametric measures of discriminability and response bias provided by the CVLT-2 scoring program. Groups were similar in IQ and education. Multi-level regression models were created to examine the effects of moderating variables. The interaction between age and age group significantly predicted response bias. Post hoc analysis indicated that increasing age was associated with more liberal bias in the older but not in the younger group. In the light of reported relationships between frontal regions and both aging and response bias, we hypothesize that frontal changes may be the underlying mechanism explaining the increase in liberal response bias with age. (JINS, 2006, 12, 1-7.)

Preserved metamemorial ability in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease: Shifting response bias

“…There was an effect of age found only in the most educated group, where the older participants used a more conservative criterion for responding. Huh et al (2006) found that increasing age correlated with an increasingly liberal response bias in older adults (aged 75-89), but not in a younger (aged 35-49) age cohort.Impaired discrimination in AD patients has been well documented, but there have been fewer studies exploring response bias in AD. In one such study, Balota, Burgess, Cortese, and Adams (2002) found patients with mild AD demonstrated a more liberal response bias to high frequency words than to low frequency words.…”

“…There was an effect of age found only in the most educated group, where the older participants used a more conservative criterion for responding. Huh et al (2006) found that increasing age correlated with an increasingly liberal response bias in older adults (aged 75-89), but not in a younger (aged 35-49) age cohort.…”

“…Another factor impacting memory is response bias, which is the overall tendency to respond "old" to test items. Response bias may be liberal (responding "old" greater than 50% of the time) or conservative (responding "old" less than 50% of the time) (Snodgrass & Corwin, 1988;Macmillan & Creelman, 2005;Huh, Kramer, Gazzaley, & Delis, 2006). Although perfect discrimination is always accompanied by a neutral bias, as discrimination decreases the range of possible biases increases.…”

Response bias in recognition memory as a cognitive trait

“…Although response bias is not generally characterized as representing a trait in the recognition literature, studies have identified a number of populations exhibiting a more liberal response bias than appropriate comparison groups, such as the elderly (e.g., Huh, Kramer, Gazzaley, & Delis, 2006), patients with Alzheimer's disease (e.g., Beth, Budson, Waring, & Ally, 2009), schizophrenia patients (e.g., Moritz, Woodward, Jelinek, & Klinge, 2008), dementia patients (e.g., Woodard, Axelrod, Mordecai, & Shannon, 2004), individuals with mental retardation (Carlin et al, 2008), and panic disorder patients (Windmann & Krüger, 1998). The association of liberal response bias and particular populations is consistent with the idea that groups of individuals may be differentiated from one another on the basis of response bias without a specific experimental intervention, which is, in turn, consistent with the notion of response bias as a cognitive trait.…”

“…Because frontal brain regions are often implicated in criterion setting (see, e.g., Kramer et al, 2005), Huh et al (2006) correlated response bias on a recognition test with performance on four measures of executive function in 293 adults ranging from 35 to 89 years old. Among these measures, inhibition (indexed via a Stroop task) was the only significant predictor of response bias (r 0 .31, estimated from the reported beta values); Huh et al declared the analysis inconclusive.…”