Thesis abstract : Prior task success and false memories in normal aging
Memory is an essential cognitive function that allows us to store, encode and retrieve information. Although Bartlett understood as early as 1932 that memory processes are not infallible and that they can lead to memory errors, it was not until the 1980s that the scientific community began to study the accuracy of memory, including its reliability in court testimony.
Consequently, experimental paradigms are specifically designed to artificially create and study these memory errors called false memories, which can be defined as the creation of memories of events that never happened or more or less distorted memories of what was actually experienced (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Notably, the DRM paradigm (Deese-Roediger-McDermott ; Deese, 1959 ; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) consists of presenting participants (in auditory or visual modality) with lists of 12 to 15 words all semantically linked to an inductive word called “critical lure” that is not presented in the list. Then a task of free recall and/or recognition takes place. A recall or recognition of the critical lure is considered as the production of a false memory. According to the authors, false memories appear in the DRM task either because of encoding and/or retrieval based on unspecific information characteristics (Fuzzy Trace Theory, Brainerd & Reyna, 2002), or because the implementation of strategies for searching, controlling and retrieving the source of the memories is not efficient enough (Activation-Monitoring Theory, Roediger, Watson, McDermott, & Gallo, 2001).
While false memories occur daily and often unconsciously for the general population, older people appear to be particularly sensitive to their production (Dehon & Brédart, 2004 ; Schacter, Koutstaal, & Norman, 1997). In particular, research shows that altered episodic memory and source memory may explain the increased production of false memories and restricted recall of correct informations in older adults during an DRM task (Schacter, Koutstaal, & Norman, 1997).
In parallel, studies on cognitive functioning have highlighted the positive effect of successful completion of a prior task on the performance of older adults’ episodic memory (Geraci, Hughes, Miller, & De Forrest, 2016 ; Geraci & Miller, 2013). Prior task success would also help counter negative age stereotypes, which can manifest as anxiety and stress during memory tests, among other things. However, no study has yet investigated the relationship between prior task success and the production of false memories. Thus, the objective of our study is to explore the effect of the success of a prior task on the propensity for false memories in normal aging. The interest is not only to better understand the cognitive mechanisms involved in the appearance of false memories in older adults, but also to shed light on the modalities of action of the success of a previous task.
For this, we have selected forty participants, including twenty young and twenty elderly. In each age group, half of the participants completed a visual episodic memory task: the DMS 48 test (Delayed Matching to Sample, Barbeau, et al., 2004). Since this test is generally very well completed by participants of all ages, it was used as a prior successful task. The DRM task was then administered to all participants along with questionnaires on stereotype threat perception and anxiety.
The results confirmed some of our hypotheses, namely that the production of critical lures in the DRM task was higher among older participants than younger participants. The opposite result was observed for the production of correct recalls. However, the analyses revealed that the condition of prior task success did not improve the performance of either the older adults or the younger ones. Finally, older participants appeared to be more sensitive to the perception of the stereotype threat than younger ones, but this difference was not modulated by successful completion of a prior task. Anxiety levels were similar between the two groups and were also not influenced by prior task success.
Therefore, the interpretation of the results does not allow us to conclude that the success of a prior task constitutes a situational factor limiting the production of false memories, whether in young or old adults.
Léa Riou, Marie Descroix and Audrey Le Quilleuc