Discounting input from older adults: the role of age salience on partner age effects in the social contagion of memory

Abstract

Three experiments examined the impact of partner age on the magnitude of socially suggested false memories. Young participants recalled household scenes in collaboration with an implied young or older adult partner who intentionally recalled false items. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with only the age of their partner (low age-salience context); in Experiment 2, participants were presented with the age of their partner along with a photograph and biographical information about their partner (high age-salience context); in Experiment 3, age salience was varied within the same experiment. Across experiments, participants in both the low age-salience and high age-salience contexts incorporated their partners' misleading suggestions into their own subsequent recall and recognition reports, thus demonstrating social contagion with implied partners. Importantly, the effect of partner age differed across conditions. Participants in the high age-salience context were less likely to incorporate misleading suggestions from older adult partners than from young adult partners, but participants in the low age-salience context were equally likely to incorporate suggestions from young and older adult partners. Participants discount the memory of older adult partners only when age is highly salient.

Misinformation encountered during a simulated jury deliberation can distort jurors' memory of a trial and bias their verdicts

“…Focussing on statistical power, large memory conformity effects are often observed in studies using source monitoring tests (e.g., Meade, McNabb, Lindeman, & Smith, 2017, obtained a η 2 of .20; Thorley & Christiansen, 2018, a ηp 2 of .42). G*Power 3 (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007) indicated a sample size of 52 participants would be required to achieve power >.80 in our main 2 x 2 ANOVA source monitoring analyses if large effects were expected (Cohen's f = .40) and alpha was .05.…”

Collaborative inhibition in same-age and mixed-age dyads.

“…Especially when collaborating with unacquainted partners, individuals might rely on age-based assumptions because they have no preexisting knowledge of their partner’s memory ability. Indeed, research in related paradigms demonstrates that individuals incorporate fewer suggestions from older adult partners than from young adult partners (Davis & Meade, 2013; Meade, McNabb, Lindeman, & Smith, 2017). Such discounting of another’s responses could help protect one’s retrieval strategy from disruption.…”

Eyewitness Memory Distortion Following Co-Witness Discussion: A Replication of Garry, French, Kinzett, and Mori (2008) in Ten Countries

“…For example, socially avoidant participants tend to conform less whereas socially anxious participants tend to conform more (Wright, Busnello, Buratto, & Stein, 2012;Wright, London, & Waechter, 2010). Partner characteristics may also play a role, as participants tend to conform more towards familiar than unfamiliar partners Hope et al, 2008) and more towards younger than older adults (Davis & Meade, 2013;Meade, McNabb, Lindeman, & Smith, 2017).…”