Destination memory accuracy and confidence in younger and older adults

ABSTRACT

Background/Study Context: Nascent research on destination memory—remembering to whom we tell particular information—suggested that older adults have deficits in destination memory and are more confident on inaccurate responses than younger adults. This study assessed the effects of age, attentional resources, and mental imagery on destination memory accuracy and confidence in younger and older adults.

Methods: Using computer format, participants told facts to pictures of famous people in one of four conditions (control, self-focus, refocus, imagery).

Results: Older adults had lower destination memory accuracy than younger adults, driven by a higher level of false alarms. Whereas younger adults were more confident in accurate answers, older adults were more confident in inaccurate answers. Accuracy across participants was lowest when attention was directed internally but significantly improved when mental imagery was used. Importantly, the age-related differences in false alarms and high-confidence inaccurate answers disappeared when imagery was used.

Conclusion: Older adults are more likely than younger adults to commit destination memory errors and are less accurate in related confidence judgments. Furthermore, the use of associative memory strategies may help improve destination memory across age groups, improve the accuracy of confidence judgments in older adults, and decrease age-related destination memory impairment, particularly in young-old adults.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge David LaPorte, Susan Zimny, and Don Robertson for their feedback and guidance throughout the course of this project. We are also grateful for Nigel Gopie’s willingness to share his experimental stimuli and E-Prime programming code from his destination memory studies and for Shea Jefferson’s technical assistance in modifying that programming code to suit our experimental conditions. This article is based on the dissertation completed by Susan Jefferson. Due to her chair’s significant involvement in the dissertation process and her responsibility to modify the dissertation into a manuscript suitable for publication, Susan Jefferson gave permission to Tara Johnson to take over as first author.

Funding

This research was supported in part by funds from the Department of Psychology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.