Effects of Context and Age on Feeling of Knowing (FOK) Judgments

In two experiments we wanted to examine how does age and context influence FOK ratings and recognition memory. In Experiment 1 we found age and context have no influence on FOK and recognition memory but influences subjective memory ratings such as recollection and familiarity to a greater extent. Older adults specifically seem to have higher subjective ratings for recollection and familiarity between old and new scenes compared to younger adults. In Experiment 2, explicit instruction was added to draw attention away from context. We found with explicit instruction, older adults have higher ratings overall for FOK judgments and higher subjective memory ratings for recollection and familiarity compared to younger adults. Results may help us to understand how FOK judgments are made as we age in addition to importance of contextual information in subjective memory in aging.