Age differences in forgetting false memories

Abstract

This study replicated and extended the results of some recent studies concerned with the effects of repeated testing in false-memory creation (e.g. Brainerd and Reyna, 1996), and recent studies concerned with the persistence of false memories over time (Brainerd and Reyna, 1996; McDermott, 1996; Payne et al., 1996). One hundred and twenty children of ages 6, 9 and 12 listened to a series of sentences and took three recognition tests (Immediate, One-week, One-month). Participants made recognition decisions about four items: (1) targets, (2) distractors with the same meaning as targets but different words, (3) distractors with different meaning than targets, but the same words, and (4) distractors with different meaning than targets and different words. Analysis of variance of hits and false alarms showed effects of repeated testing on both. Stochastic dependency analyses showed greater long-term persistence for false alarms than for hits. The effects of testing repetition in creating false memories and the persistence of false memories increased with age. Results are discussed using Fuzzy-Trace Theory as a theoretical framework.