Source monitoring and suggestibility to misinformation: adult age‐related differences

Abstract

We compared young and older adults' source monitoring performance on an explicit source identification test using the misinformation paradigm. Several age-related differences in source memory were demonstrated: (a) older adults were more likely than were young adults to say that they saw information that was actually only suggested to them; (b) older adults were more confident in their false memories than were young adults; (c) older adults were less confident in their accurate memory for the source of information than were young adults. Together, the data suggest that older adults either lacked or failed to use helpful diagnostic source information (e.g. perceptual details or temporal information), and that their confidence in their false memories reflected an over-weighting of semantic information.

The effects of post ‐identification feedback and age on retrospective eyewitness memory

“…Our findings also are consistent with a recent study by Mitchell et al (2003), who argued that older adults are more susceptible to suggestion because they lack or failed to use helpful diagnostic cues. In similar vein, in terms of accessibility the post-identification feedback has similar effects on both age groups, because these diagnostic cues are not registered in memory and cannot be employed at the time the post-identification questionnaire is given.…”

Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan

“…We aimed to investigate whether the trends in cognitive performance and phenomenological experience associated with hallucination-proneness were equivalent across the lifespan. In keeping with previous research (Alganami et al, 2017;Bentall & Slade, 1985;Mitchell et al, 2003), the younger two groups reported more language in the JST, and the oldest group displayed poorer source memory (despite not significantly differing on recognition memory). Hallucination-proneness was related to age but, contrary to our For a while I had a phantom face numbness-I thought the left side of my face had reduced sensation though the doctor could not find a physiological cause.…”

Adult Age‐Related Differences in the Misinformation Effect for Context‐Consistent and Context‐Inconsistent Objects

“…The miscombinations did not increase yes/no recognition errors relative to the young, but they were convincing enough for older adults to make more remember errors to misinformation than the young. Remember judgments may reflect higher levels of memory confidence than familiar judgments (e. g., Wixted, 2007), and this interpretation meshes with other studies that have reported higher levels of response confidence among older adults following misinformation (e.g., Cohen & Faulkner, 1989;Dodson & Krueger, 2006;Gabbert et al, 2003;Karpel et al, 2001;Mitchell et al, 2003). Although older adults did not have elevated remember judgments for misled consistent items in Experiment 3, we believe the misrecollection account provides the best interpretation of our data overall.…”