The Influence of Value on Item Memory and Source Memory in Younger and Older Adults

The study specifically examined whether the effect of value reflects a “benefits-only” pattern, enhancing both item and source memory simultaneously, or a “benefits and cost” pattern, enhancing item memory while impairing source memory.

Furthermore, the study explored how source type—intrinsic source, characterized by low cognitive demand, versus extrinsic source, characterized by high cognitive demand—and age, younger versus older adults, modulate this effect. Two experiments were conducted using the Remember/Know paradigm to distinguish between two memory processes: recollection, the conscious retrieval of contextual details, and familiarity, a sense of recognition without access to specific contextual information.Experiment 1 investigated intrinsic source memory using the inherent color of line drawings as the context.