The ironic effect of guessing: increased false memory for mediated lists in younger and older adults

Authors

Jennifer H. Coane, Mark J. Huff, Keith A. Hutchison

Publication

Aging, Neuropsychology, & Cognition

Abstract

Younger and older adults studied lists of words directly (e.g., creek, water) or indirectly (e.g., beaver, faucet) related to a nonpresented critical lure (CL; e.g., river). Indirect (i.e., mediated) lists presented items that were only related to CLs through nonpresented mediators (i.e., directly related items). Following study, participants completed a condition-specific task, math, a recall test with or without a warning about the CL, or tried to guess the CL. On a final recognition test, warnings (vs. math and recall without warning) decreased false recognition for direct lists, and guessing increased mediated false recognition (an ironic effect of guessing) in both age groups. The observed age-invariance of the ironic effect of guessing suggests that processes involved in mediated false memory are preserved in aging and confirms the effect is largely due to activation in semantic networks during encoding and to the strengthening of these networks during the interpolated tasks

Description

Younger and older adults studied lists of words (e.g., run, creek, water) directly associated to a critical non-presented lure (e.g., river) or instead words indirectly associated to the critical lure (e.g., jog, beaver, faucet). Following study, participants completed either a math test, a recall test, or tried to guess the critical lure. For directly related lists, guessing the critical lure reduced its later false memory on a final recognition test. However, for indirectly related lists, trying to guess the critical lure had the ironic effect of actually boosting its false memory on the later recognition test. We believe this is because (1) people were unable to identify the indirectly related critical lure and (2) attempting to guess the critical lure increased its activation via generation of directly associated items. The observed age-invariance of this guessing effect suggests the processes involved in mediated false memory are preserved in aging and are due to increased semantic activation of critical lures during encoding. Such findings suggest caution in education settings because extensive elaboration on study material can lead to false memory.

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