Memory distortions or false memories are inherent in normal memory functioning, they also seem to increase with aging. False memories are by definition the act of remembering an event that never happened. In fact, aging makes the performances in episodic memory more sensitive. It might be relevant to note the impact of this aging on mnesic functioning and particularly on the false memories creation process, which is more likely to increase with age based on several studies (Norman, Daniel & Schacter, 1997; Dehon & Bredart, 2004). We used various models that could explain the creation of false memories, especially in aging. The first explanatory model is activation-monitoring (Roediger, Watson, Mcdermott, & Gallo, 2001), which allows to report the propagation effects of semantic activation during encoding and retrieval but also to report the monitoring effects. The second model is the theory of fuzzy trace (Brainerd & Reyna, 1996, 1998), This theory is based on the existence of two modes of information processing: a global treatment which concerns the general sense of a stimulus and a more local, specific treatment concerning the surface forms of a stimulus. Artificially and through the use of the DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & Mcdermott, 1995), we have seen what conditions of word presentations can alter the creation of false memories. This paradigm offers participants different word lists, each semantically linked to a critical word, which is not told to them. These words, in previous studies, have been presented orally, that is, in the auditory mode, or in writing, that is, in the visual mode.
This study considers the value of a dictated modality, in addition to the visual and auditory modalities already studied using the DRM. In our case we compared two groups, a group of 36 young people aged between 18 and 30, for 18 men and 18 women, and 36 people aged between 69 and 94, divided into 18 men and 18 women. We postulated that the dictated modality would limit the creation of false memories in the elderly, the latter allowing multimodal encoding with the use of the auditory, visual and graphic pathways. This encoding would facilitate recovery for seniors with difficulties inherent in normal aging. The dictated modality could have a real impact on the daily lives of older people, particularly in the implementation of strategies that can overcome normal memory difficulties. Our hypothesis is that older people will have more false memories in visual and auditory modalities, in our opinion, in dictated modality, the results would become identical between young adults and older adults. Indeed, older adults would be help by this modality for memorise words in episodic memory.
Contrary to our hypothesis, the results show a relatively shallow effect on the dictated modality in the creation of false memories plus no interaction has been observed between the groups (young/old) and the modalities (auditory, visual, dictation). For the elderly, however, we will observe a positive effect of the dictated modality compared to the visual modality on the creation of false memories.
Different assumptions can be made to explain these results. First, the differences in our assumptions between young and older participants may be due to a difference in motivation (Hess, 2014). Motivation can indeed have a real impact on everyone’s cognitive performance. A second explanation may be the degree parameter between the two groups: young and old, in fact, we start from the principle that older participants have done less studies than young participants, however, this may not be the case and it may influence the results and thus create nongeneralizable results. Various other explanations can be made: such as the level of cognitive inhibition or the passing environment (Maylor & Mo, 1999). These results reinforce the value of a comprehensive study of how false memories are created, particularly in the elderly, the results being sometimes inconsistent.
Keywords: false memories, normal aging, Activation Monitoring, Fuzzy Trace Theory, DRM paradigm
Bibliography:
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Dehon, H., & Brédart, S. (2004). False memories: young and older adults think of semantic associates at the same rate, but young adults are more successful at source monitoring. Psychology and Aging, 19(1), 191-197. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882- 7974.19.1.191
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