BE CAREFUL HOW YOU TEST ME: HOW RETRIEVAL DESIGN AFFECTS THE MECHANISM OF UNITIZATION

The purpose of the current studies is aimed at using three retrieval paradigms that differ in the mechanism they probe (familiarity or recollection) to examine how we unitize information with age. Results show that while both younger and older adults show a benefit of unitization, the mechanism underlying this benefit depends on the retrieval task. Specifically, while retrieval paradigms that allow for efficient usage of familiarity-based processes result in a memory discrimination benefit, so does a recall design that requires the usage of recollection-based retrieval processes. Additionally, results challenge a strict item account of unitization when items are tested against unitized pairs and non-unitized associative pairs under these different retrieval designs.