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Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
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Psicothema, 2009. Vol. Vol. 21 (nº 3). 409-415




Memoria y envejecimiento: recuerdo, reconocimiento y sesgo positivo

Teresa Simón, Trinidad Ruiz Gallego-Largo y Aurora G. Suengas

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

El objetivo del estudio es analizar el declive y mantenimiento de distintos aspectos del rendimiento mnémico al envejecer y su posible relación con el sesgo positivo en el procesamiento de la información. Para ello, se comparó el rendimiento en tareas de recuerdo y reconocimiento de dos grupos de distinta edad (joven, mayor). Los resultados muestran que el declive del recuerdo presente en el envejecimiento no afecta por igual a la curva de posición serial, sino que se plasma en la ausencia del efecto de primacía, frente a la presencia del efecto de recencia inalterado. Los datos evidencian además la permanencia intacta de la habilidad para reconocer información al envejecer, así como el sesgo positivo en el recuerdo que aparece incluso frente a estímulos sin carga emocional. Una reinterpretación de la teoría de la selectividad socioemocional de Carstensen y colaboradores sirve para dar cuenta de los resultados.

Memory and aging: Recall, recognition and positive bias. The aim of the present study was to analyze the decay and maintenance of various aspects of the mnemic performance among the aged population and its potential relationship with a positive information processing bias. Thus, we compared recall and recognition performance in two groups of different ages (young, old). Results indicated that the free recall deficit found among the aged participants did not affect the serial position curve evenly, but took its toll in the absence of the primacy effect, whereas it left the recency effect intact. The data also showed that the ability to recognize information did not change with age, and revealed the presence of a positive recall bias even when the stimuli had no emotional content. A re-interpretation of Carstensen and colleagues’ socio-emotional selectivity theory was used to account for the results.

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