Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31396816›Full record

SynthesisPsychonomic bulletin & review2019

Age-related differences in recall and recognition: a meta-analysis.

Stephen Rhodes, Nathaniel R Greene, Moshe Naveh-Benjamin

Abstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
57citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

57 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Specialized recall procedures.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026
    Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Bilingual Proficiency Effects on Word Recall and Recognition.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Stephen RhodesRotman Research Institute, Baycrest, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada. srhodes@research.baycrest.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0588-8948
Nathaniel R GreeneUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
Moshe Naveh-BenjaminUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Relative to younger adults, older adults tend to perform more poorly on tests of both free recall and item recognition memory. The age difference in performance is typically larger for recall tasks relative to those involving recognition. However, there have been reports of comparable age-related differences in free recall and item recognition performance. Further, a differential performance cost does not necessarily mean that processes involved in recall are specifically affected by age. Here we present a meta-analysis of 36 articles reporting 89 direct comparisons of free recall and item recognition in younger and older groups of participants. Standardized effect sizes reveal that age differences are larger for recall tasks (Hedges' g = 0.89, 95% confidence intervals [0.75, 1.03]) than for recognition tasks (0.54, [0.37, 0.72]). Further, Brinley analyses of the data suggest that distinct functions are needed to relate younger and older performance for the two tasks. These functions differ in intercept pointing to a disproportionate age difference in recall relative to recognition. This is in line with theories of memory and aging which posit specific deficits in processes related to search and retrieval from memory.

Indexed as

Memory, EpisodicCognitive AgingHumansMemoryMental RecallRecognition, PsychologyCognitive agingEpisodic memoryRecallRecognition

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.