6533b82ffe1ef96bd1295a16

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Differences in familiarity according to the cognitive reserve of healthy elderly people / Diferencias en familiaridad en función de la reserva cognitiva en ancianos sanos

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description

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between cognitive reserve and familiarity processes in recognition memory. We hypothesize that people with high cognitive reserve are able to better compensate in alternative information retrieval processes. Forty-five participants, divided into high and low cognitive reserve groups, conducted a recognition experiment where they were asked to discriminate between studied and non-studied words that varied in perceptual familiarity. The results indicated that participants were able to use perceptual familiarity to improve their level of recognition. More importantly, people with high cognitive reserve used familiarity better than those with low cognitive reserve. The results provide the first empirical evidence indicating that people with high cognitive reserve are more efficient at balancing recollection and familiarity processes, and thus maintain a better performance level than those with low cognitive reserve.