[False memories and aging: age effects on predictive inferences].
To study false memories in older adults, a lot of experiments used the DRM paradigm (Deese, Roediger et McDermott). Most of the time, the results showed that older adults make more false memories than young adults. To test this hypothesis with a more ecological material, we used a situation of text reading. When we read a text, we activate predictive inferences, which are anticipations of what will happen next. We constructed short texts inducing predictive inferences (represented by a target word not presented) to study false memories in young and older adults. For example, in the text <<Charlotte had her breakfast on the terrace when the bees beat about the bush of jam. She made a movement to move them away but one of them succeeds in being posed on its arm>>, the target word "sting" is not presented but represents the predictive inference. After the reading of the texts, we propose to the subjects a restitution task consisting in recalling texts with the first sentence as clue. Then, they made a recognition task composed of target words and lures; they had to say if they remembered having read these words in the texts. In these two tasks, the subjects tended to remember not presented target words, creating false memories. This effect was the same for the two age groups showing that, in an ecological situation like text reading, older persons make as many false memories as young adults.
Gras
Doriane
D
Laboratoire de psychologie et neurosciences cognitives, CNRS UMR 8191, Groupe de recherche Mémoire et apprentissage, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt. doriane.gras@parisdescartes.fr
Tardieu
Hubert
H
Nicolas
Serge
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult