Episodic memory in normal and pathological aging: Studies on recollection and familiarity memory processes and modulating variables

A decreased capacity to remember past events is observed in healthy aging and is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitive neuroscience research explores the nature of the memory processes that are more specifically affected in normal and pathological aging. Notably, the distinction between recollection (i.e., recall of the encoding context of past events) and familiarity (i.e., judgments of oldness) has allowed to clarify the picture by showing dissociation between these two processes in healthy aging. In the course of Alzheimer’s disease, however, evidence for a dissociation between recollection and familiarity is mixed. Our work aims at understanding the neurocognitive architecture of recollection and familiarity by examining how these processes are modulated during aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Our research includes studies on variables that allow older people to reliably use familiarity to support memory decisions, studies on the source of subjective memory judgments in aging, and factors that may affect familiarity-based recognition memory in early Alzheimer’s disease.