Aging and strategic retrieval processes: reducing false memories with a distinctiveness heuristic.
The authors show that a strategic retrieval process--the distinctiveness heuristic--is a powerful mechanism for reducing false memories in the elderly. Individuals studied words, pictures, or both types of items and then completed a recognition test on which the studied items appeared once, whereas the new words appeared twice. After studying either pictures only or a mixture of pictures and words, both younger and older adults falsely recognized fewer repeated new words than did participants who studied words. Studying pictures provided a basis for using a distinctiveness heuristic during the recognition test: Individuals inferred that the absence of memory for picture information indicates that an item is "new."
Dodson
Chad S
CS
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 22904, USA. cdodson@virginia.edu
Schacter
Daniel L
DL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index