The differences in young and elderly adults on false memory: Examination on the effect of retention interval

Abstract

False recognition can occur at high levels after participants study lists of associated words and are tested with semantically related lures. The present study attempted to determine the differences of young and elderly adults in retention interval on false recognition and remember-know judgments of critical lure. Young participants' mean age was 21.6 years (range 21-23 years). Elderly participants' mean age was 69.7 years (range 65-74 years). Participants engaged in estimating the frequency of usage of visually presented words, and they were tested both immediately and one week later after the study phase. We found that elderly adults were relatively more susceptible than young adults to this false recognition effect. Moreover, a reliable increase of false recognition for critical lures was observed across retention interval in young adults but not in elderly adults.

False Memory in Adults With ADHD: A Comparison Between Subtypes and Normal Controls

“…Several studies on clinical populations, including patients with frontal lobe disease (De Villiers, Zent, Eastman, & Swingler, 1996), Alzheimer’s-type dementia (Sommers & Huff, 2003; Waldie & Kwong See, 2003), schizophrenia (Mammarella et al, 2010; Moritz, Woodward, Cuttler, Whitman, & Watson, 2004), Asperger’s syndrome (Bowler, Gardiner, Grice, & Saavalainen, 2000), and post-traumatic stress disorder (Brennen, Dybdahl, & Kapidžić, 2007; Hauschildt, Peters, Jelinek, & Moritz, 2012; Khosropour, Ebrahiminejad, Baniasadi, & Faryabi, 2010), and on different age groups, including children (Brainerd & Reyna, 2002; Otgaar & Smeets, 2010; Otgaar, Verschuere, Meijer, & van Oorsouw, 2012; Riggs & Robinson, 1995; Thijssen, Otgaar, Howe, & de Ruiter, 2013), adolescents (Caza, Doré, Gingras, & Rouleau, 2011; Goodman et al, 2011; Zack, Sharpley, Dent, & Stacy, 2009), adults (McCabe & Smith, 2002; Otgaar, Peters, & Howe, 2012), and the elderly (Hamajima, Nakanishi, Fujiwara, Nakaaki, & Tatsumi, 2005; Kunimi & Matsukawa, 2011; Meade, Geraci, & Roediger, 2012; Plancher, Guyard, Nicolas, & Piolino, 2009), have shown increased false memory formation relative to controls. Such patterns are predicted by Fuzzy-Trace Theory (e.g., Reyna & Brainerd, 2011), which suggests that these clinical populations have difficulty processing the semantic gist of their experiences.…”