Are age-related differences in episodic feeling-of-knowing accuracy influenced by the timing of the judgment?

Abstract

The current study investigated whether there were age-related differences in episodic feeling-of-knowing (FOK) accuracy and whether accuracy was influenced by when the FOK judgments were made. Younger and older participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions that manipulated the timing of the FOK in relation to cued-recall and recognition. Age-related differences in FOK accuracy were not reliable either when the FOK was immediate or when it was delayed. Moreover, FOK accuracy was above chance for both age groups. Remember/Know (RK) judgments correlated reliably with FOKs for unrecalled words for both age groups and did not vary by FOK timing. Verbal ability, but not education, health, or perceptual speed, correlated with FOK accuracy. These results suggest that rather than a general age-related deficit in episodic FOK accuracy, the presence of age-related differences in resolution might be influenced by individual differences in such factors as verbal ability and frontal functioning.