Source memory and eyewitness suggestibility in older adults.
The authors investigated the influence of test format on the source-memory performance of older adults (N = 128). Each participant viewed a picture and wrote a description of the scene. Then half of the participants (control group) read a text that accurately described the scene; the other half (misled group) read a text that contained misinformation. After writing another scene description, the participants were given a surprise memory test. Half were given a yes/no recognition test, and half were given a source-monitoring test. The misled yes/no participants mistakenly indicated more often than the control yes/no participants that misleading-text items were in the picture (suggestibility effect). There was no suggestibility effect for source-monitoring participants. The data are discussed in terms of the source monitoring framework.
Multhaup
K S
KS
Department of Psychology, Davidson College, NC 28036-1719, USA. krmulthaup@davidson.edu
De Leonardis
D M
DM
Johnson
M K
MK
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation; D013404:Suggestion; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales