Age Differences in False Memories Induced by Misinformation: The Role of Attentional Salience of Original Information

People may remember events inaccurately after being exposed to misleading information. This can lead to false memories being reported in multiple interviews. The higher the attentional salience of the original event information (i.e., the extent to which it strongly captures attention during encoding), the less likely young adults are to form false memories. However, it was unknown whether this would also apply to older adults across multiple memory assessments. This study used the misinformation paradigm to examine age differences in memory accuracy and consistency in two recognition tests. It also investigated how attentional salience of the original information influenced memory performances. Thirty young adults (aged 23 ± 2 years) and 30 older adults (aged 70 ± 3 years) saw images of original events, then read misleading narratives, and finally completed a verbal recognition test and a pictorial recognition test based on what they had seen in the original events. Results showed that older adults reported more false memories than young adults in both tests. Older adults were less consistent in reporting true memories across two tests, but there was no age difference in the consistency of false memories. Greater attentional salience helped young and older adults report more original information and less misinformation, though the effect was weaker in older adults. It also helped young and older adults report original information more consistently across tests. Overall, this study showed that how well the original information was encoded significantly influenced eyewitness reports across interviews in young and older adults.