Signal detection analysis of recognition memory in depressed elderly

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of late-life depression to memory complaint and objective performance in a recognition memory task. Fifty-seven individuals between the ages of 58 and 88 were evaluated for depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (short form). They were then shown two stimulus lists, each consisting of high-imagery and low-imagery words. Recognition for these words was subsequently tested. Error rates and nonparametric signal detection measures were analyzed as indices of performance. Respondents gave global self-assessments of memory and, during the recognition task, also made self-ratings of performance. Depressed individuals showed more conservative response biases than nondepressed respondents, reflected in a higher false-negative error rate but a lower false-positive rate. Neither overall memory sensitivity as assessed by signal detection analysis nor self-ratings of performance were related to depression, though global memory self-ratings were. Elderly depressed individuals thus presented a pattern of greater memory complaint and unwillingness to venture responses in spite of showing small or no information-processing deficits.