Attention to global gist processing eliminates age effects in false memories

Counterintuitive age increases have been reported for the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory illusion. The current theoretical explanation of this effect assumes that it is due to age increases in spontaneous interconnection of DRM list words’ meanings. To test this explanation, 11-year-old...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental child psychology 2008-02, Vol.99 (2), p.96-113
Main Authors: Odegard, Timothy N., Holliday, Robyn E., Brainerd, Charles J., Reyna, Valerie F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age Factors
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child psychology
Children
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gist
Humans
Information processing
Male
Meaning
Memory
Memory development
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Recognition (Psychology)
Recognition memory
Repression, Psychology
Source memory
Young Adults
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Summary:Counterintuitive age increases have been reported for the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory illusion. The current theoretical explanation of this effect assumes that it is due to age increases in spontaneous interconnection of DRM list words’ meanings. To test this explanation, 11-year-olds and young adults studied DRM lists under conditions that (a) encouraged them to form such meaning-based connections or (b) discouraged them from doing so. In line with the explanation, the usual developmental increase in false memory disappeared in the first condition but was preserved in the second condition. Also in line with the explanation, conjoint recognition analyses revealed that encouraging participants to form meaning connections increased their reliance on gist-based similarity judgments.
ISSN:0022-0965
1096-0457
DOI:10.1016/j.jecp.2007.08.007