DISTINCTIVENESS-BASED ENCODING REDUCES AGE DIFFERENCES IN HIGH-CONFIDENCE RECOGNITION MEMORY ERRORS

Older adults produce more high-confidence recognition memory errors in episodic memory tasks. We studied how distinctive encoding enhances the retrieval-monitoring accuracy in older adults (OA) and younger adults (YA). Individuals viewed words consisting of four randomly selected exemplars (e.g., SALMON, BASS, PERCH, SHARK) from a taxonomic category (e.g., FISH), one being designated as the to-be-remembered target. Participants experienced one of two orienting tasks at encoding: Shared (generate a shared feature, e.g., GILLS) or Difference (generate a distinctive feature of the target). Recall and recognition were tested after a 7-day delay for YA and a 2-day delay for OA (equating them on memory performance). We collected Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments before and retrospective confidence judgments (CJs) after a five-alternative forced-choice (5AFC) recognition test. 5AFC lures were either previously presented (old) exemplars or new category exemplars. Recall and recognition memory were better in the Difference condition. Shared processing produced more high-confidence memory errors for both age groups, especially OAs (p < .01). Both age groups were lured by old exemplars after Shared processing, with more errors for older adults. This age difference disappeared with Difference processing, generating better CJ resolution (correlation of CJs with 5AFC accuracy). FOK resolution was very low for both age groups. Results indicate two routes to 5AFC errors: reliance on episodic familiarity over recollection and reliance on semantic activation and interference. Distinctiveness encoding boosts recollection and reduces illusory semantic activation during test, which is especially helpful to older adults in reducing false memories.