Category-Specific Visual Recognition and Aging from the PACE Theory Perspective: Evidence for a Presemantic Deficit in Aging Object Recognition

Abstract

Background/Study Context: The objective of this study was to investigate the object recognition deficit in aging. Age-related declines were examined from the presemantic account of category effects (PACE) theory perspective (Gerlach, 2009, Cognition, 111, 281–301). This view assumes that the structural similarity/dissimilarity inherent in living and nonliving objects, respectively, can account for a wide range of category-specific effects.

Methods: In two experiments on object recognition, young (36 participants, 18–27 years) and older (36 participants, 53–69 years) adult participants’ performances were compared.

Results: The young adults’ results corroborate the PACE theory expectations. The results of the older adults showed an impairment in recognition of structurally similar objects irrespective of semantic category.

Conclusion: The two sets of results suggest that a deficit in the selection stage of the PACE theory (visual long-term memory matching) could be responsible for these impairments. Indeed, the older group showed a deficit when this stage was most relevant. This article emphasize on the critical need for taking into account structural component of the stimuli and type of tasks in further studies.

Notes

¹ A previous study showed that the visual deficits in early and late aging are not necessarily of the same origin (Lenoble, Amiéva, & Delord, 2012). For a first experiment on PACE theory and aging, we chose to investigate early aging deficits, as the wide range of deficits in late aging would have made it difficult to integrate into the PACE framework. This group is thus referred to as older adults and not elderly.