Examining theories of cognitive ageing using the false memory paradigm

Changes in memory performance with advancing age have been well-documented, even in the absence of brain injury or dementia. The mechanisms underlying cognitive ageing are still a matter of debate. The current paper describes a comparison between young (18-25 year old) and older (60+ years) adults using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm and manipulating the number of words included in the memory lists. Two key theories of cognitive ageing (the Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis and the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis) predict opposing patterns on this task. Results showed that longer lists increase the likelihood that a lure is retrieved and that older adults are more susceptible to false memories than are younger adults. We argue that these findings are supportive of the Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis and cannot easily be reconciled with the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis account.