Belief in memories may be relinquished as often for adulthood as for childhood events, but for different reasons

ABSTRACT

The age distribution of nonbelieved memories (NBMs) reported by young and older adults typically reflects a large proportion of events dated to childhood. The present study aimed to further investigate the age of origin of NBMs by using instructions that include an NBM related to adulthood. Participants aged from 40 to 80 years were asked to describe an NBM, to explain why they had stopped believing their memory, and to rate its phenomenal characteristics. Participants also described and rated an age-matched believed memory (BM). The results revealed a similar proportion of nonbelieved events experienced in childhood and adulthood, thus calling into question the hypothesis that NBMs are mainly related to childhood events. We also found that NBMs might emerge for different reasons depending on the time of events. Additional analyses indicated that, overall, the influence of temporal distance on the ratings of phenomenal characteristics was similar for BMs and NBMs.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• nonbelieved memories
• false memories
• ageing

Acknowledgment

We thank Perrine Arco and Sara Ajamieh for their help in running participants, as well as Christel Devue for her comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Valentine Vanootighem http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9174-9599

Serge Brédart http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2250-5603