False Memory in Aging: Effects of Emotional Valence on Word Recognition Accuracy

Olivier Piguet*, Emily Connally, Anne C. Krendl, Jessica R. Huot, Suzanne Corkin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Memory is susceptible to distortions. Valence and increasing age are variables known to affect memory accuracy and may increase false alarm production. Interaction between these variables and their impact on false memory was investigated in 36 young (18-28 years) and 36 older (61-83 years) healthy adults. At study, participants viewed lists of neutral words orthographically related to negative, neutral, or positive critical lures (not presented). Memory for these words was subsequently tested with a remember-know procedure. At test, items included the words seen at study and their associated critical lures, as well as sets of orthographically related neutral words not seen at study and their associated unstudied lures. Positive valence was shown to have two opposite effects on older adults' discrimination of the lures: It improved correct rejection of unstudied lures but increased false memory for critical lures (i.e., lures associated with words studied previously). Thus, increased salience triggered by positive valence may disrupt memory accuracy in older adults when discriminating among similar events. These findings likely reflect a source memory deficit due to decreased efficiency in cognitive control processes with aging.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)307-314
Number of pages8
JournalPsychology and Aging
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • emotion
  • learning
  • memory deficit
  • response bias

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