Aging and single versus multiple cues in source monitoring

Participants heard words said by 2 speakers and later decided who said each word. The authors varied the perceptual distinctiveness of the speakers and the distinctiveness of the cognitive operations participants performed on the words. Relative to younger adults, older adults had significantly lower source monitoring scores when perceptual or cognitive operations conditions were similar but not when either cue was more distinctive. Combining cues did not affect source monitoring of younger adults but hurt older adults' performance relative to the distinctive perceptual condition. Evidently, older adults generate cognitive cues at the expense of encoding perceptual cues; any deficit in binding perceptual and semantic information disadvantages them more in source monitoring than in old/new recognition. There was no correlation between neuropsychological tests assessing frontal function and source monitoring in older adults.