The ability to remember associations among components of an event, which is central to episodic memory, declines with normal aging. In accord with the specificity principle of memory, these declines may occur because associative memory requires retrieval of specific information. Guided by this principle, we endeavored to determine whether ubiquitous age-related deficits in associative memory are restricted to specific representations or extend to the gist of associations. Young and older adults (30 each in Experiment 1, 40 each in Experiment 2) studied face–scene pairs and then performed associative-recognition tests following variable delays. Whereas both young and older adults could retrieve the gist of associations, older adults were impaired in their ability to retrieve more specific representations. Our results also show that associations can be retrieved from multiple levels of specificity, suggesting that episodic memory might be accessed on a continuum of specificity.

中文翻译：

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记忆的特异性原则：来自衰老和联想记忆的证据

记住事件组成部分之间关联的能力是情景记忆的核心，随着正常衰老而下降。根据记忆的特异性原则，这些下降可能是因为联想记忆需要检索特定信息。在这一原则的指导下，我们努力确定联想记忆中普遍存在的与年龄相关的缺陷是否仅限于特定的表征或扩展到联想的要点。年轻人和老年人（实验 1 各 30 人，实验 2 各 40 人）研究了人脸场景对，然后在可变延迟后进行联想识别测试。尽管年轻人和老年人都可以检索到联想的要点，但老年人检索更具体表征的能力却受到了损害。