Conceptual and perceptual similarity between encoding and retrieval contexts and recognition memory context effects in older and younger adults

We examined the hypothesis that older adults' deficits in contextual memory result from difficulties in contending with partial encoding-to-retrieval changes in the context. We measured effects of contextual change and constancy on recognition memory for words, in older and younger adults. We assessed the ability to adjust to partial contextual changes by manipulating encoding-retrieval context similarity: identical, new and unrelated, conceptually similar, or perceptually similar. For both older and younger adults, identical and conceptually similar contexts benefited recognition of target words, whereas perceptually similar contexts did not. Older adults did not make more false alarms. In contrast, older adults' direct recognition of contextual stimuli was at chance. These results indicate that retrieval processes, rather than encoding or rigidity in the use of contextual cues, are implicated in older adults' difficulties in memory for contextual information.