Introduction
Memory is considered as a process of reconstruction of the lived elements which are shaped by links often influenced by our representations (Bartlett, 1932). Memory could be subject to errors. That’s why any memories could be deformed, these we call false memories. Although these phenomena are present in each of us, they could manifest themselves in greater proportions during normal aging (Taconnat & Rémy, 2006). False memories are “remembering events that never happened or remembering them in a very different way from what happened” (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Moreover, different strategies can be created to reduce false memories by manipulating various factors, particularly encoding methods. Indeed, depending on the modality of presentation used, the production of false memories may be more or less important.
The objective of the present study is to examine the effect of the items’ presentation modality on the production of false memories in normal aging.
Hypothesis
We postulated for that older participants have a lower recognition rate than younger participants, but that they produce more false recognitions in all categories.
Likewise, in both groups of participants, we expect a production of false recognitions of the less important critical word and on the contrary a rate of correct recognitions more important in the modality dictated with respect to the auditory and visual modalities.
Method
Our population was made up of two groups of 39 participants. The first one included young people aged 18 to 30 whereas the second one, was composed of healthy seniors aged 70 to 90 years.
The protocol consisted in two phases: a study phase and a recognition phase.
In the first phase, we used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (Deese, 1959, Roediger & McDermott,1995). We presented to the participants nine lists of words (three of them are presented visually, three others audibly and finally the last three will refer to the modality “dictation”). Each list was made of 12 words semantically related (example: lion, jungle, stripes, fierce, Africa …) which were themselves connected to a critical word ever presented (example: Tiger).
The second phase corresponded to the recognition phase where a list of 72 words was presented to the participants. The items had to be recognized by the participants unlike distractors which had to be rejected.
Results & Discussion
Our first hypothesis has been validated. In general, during aging the memory capacity decreases, and more significantly those of working memory and episodic memory. This may explain that the rate of correct recognition is lower among older participants. Afterward, the rate of false recognition is more consistent with aging in a DRM task, because each word of the list presented will cause activation of the critical lure. Thus, in the recognition task, older people do not have the ability to differentiate seen words or imagined words which may be related to their executive function deficits (Anderson, Anderson & Jacobs, 2008).
Our second hypothesis has been partially validated because only the older participants reduce the recognition of critical lures thanks to the dictated modality. Indeed, the rate of false recognition of young participants is the same in dictation and visual mode because the visual modality already allows a distinctive encoding, phonological or orthographic as we have seen (Massaro & Cohen, 1994).
Therefore, writing provides more distinctive details about the subject which will rely during the recognition task. The participants perform a graphic gesture that will provide additional data, such as the direction or the number of traits made, stored in memory that will be reactivated during the recognition of these words.
Key words : aging, false memories, DRM, writing mode.
Words I have learned:
to shape = former
themselves = se (pronom)
a rate = un taux
a critical word = un leurre critique
Bibliography
Anderson, P., Anderson, V., & Jacobs, R. (2008). Executive functions and the frontal lobes. New York: Psychology Press.
Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: a study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge : at University Press.
Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 17-22.
Massaro, D. W., & Cohen, M. M. (1994). Visual, orthographic, phonological, and lexical influences in reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 1107-1128.
Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 21, 803-814.
Taconnat, L., & Rémy, P. (2006). Les faux souvenirs dans le vieillissement normal : données empiriques et modèles théoriques. L’année psychologique, 106, 457-486.