Younger and older adults’ susceptibility to the continued influence of inferences
in memory was examined using a paradigm implemented by Wilkes and Leatherbarrow.
Research has shown that younger adults have difficulty forgetting inferences they make
after reading a passage, even if the information that the inferences are based on is later
shown to be untrue. The current study examined the effects of these inferences on
memory in the lab and tested whether older adults, like younger adults, are influenced by
the lingering effects of these false inferences. In addition, this study examined the nature
of these inferences, by examining younger and older adults’ subjective experiences and
confidence associated with factual recall and incorrect inference recall. Results showed
that younger and older adults are equally susceptible to the continued influence of
inferences. Both younger and older adults gave primarily remember judgments to factual
questions but primarily believe judgments to inference questions. This is an important
finding because it demonstrates that people may go against what they remember or know
occurred because of a lingering belief that the information might still be true. Also, the
finding that participants do actually give more believe responses to inference questions is
important because it demonstrates that there is a third state of awareness that people will readily use when making inferences. Participants were also more confident when making
remember and know judgments compared to believe judgments. This is an interesting
finding because it supports the theory that both remember and know judgments can be
associated with high confidence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-415 |
| Date | 2009 May 1900 |
| Creators | Guillory, Jimmeka J. |
| Contributors | Geraci, Lisa |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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