Recent research has demonstrated that priming and recognition memory performance are not independent as traditionally thought. Evidence is accumulating suggesting that information recognized in great detail (recollected) also has higher levels of priming (Sheldon & Moscovitch, 2010; Turk-Browne, Yi, & Chun, 2006). The purpose of this dissertation was to delineate the conditions under which recognition processes (estimates of recollection and familiarity) are associated with priming, and how this changes with age. Results from a systematic crossing of level of encoding (deep versus shallow) with type of priming task (conceptual versus perceptual) suggests that the relation between priming and recognition is determined by the nature of the encoding task. Under deep encoding conditions, a greater magnitude of priming—both perceptual and conceptual—was related to subsequent recollection but only amongst younger adults. Under shallow encoding conditions, perceptual priming performance was related to subsequent familiarity in both younger and older adults. Taken together, this series of experiments suggests that the processing mode engaged during encoding dictates which processes will be engaged at retrieval (a recollection-based process, or a familiarity-based process; Henke, 2010). These findings also suggest that both recollection and familiarity have rapid and unconscious aspects that are measurable through behavioural priming tasks, aligning with a recently proposed model suggesting recollection is characterized by a two-stage process, an early, relatively automatic and unconscious stage and a later, controlled and conscious stage (Moscovitch, 2008). It is suggested that the rapid, unconscious aspects of recollection may decline across the lifespan, while the rapid, unconscious aspects of familiarity stay intact with age.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/43580 |
| Date | 09 January 2014 |
| Creators | Guild, Emma Bennett |
| Contributors | Anderson, Nicole Dianne |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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