Aging, misinformation, and eyewitness memory: accuracy and confidence for central and peripheral items

Official URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0cv9c8m6

Eyewitness memory is susceptible to distortion, especially among aging populations. Although we know that memory deteriorates as an individual becomes older, research on the interaction between aging, misinformation, and eyewitness memory remains limited. In this study, 42 young adults (age = 18-30) and 50 older adults (age = 65-78) first watched a short video clip depicting various central and peripheral items and read a narrative text that described the video but included false information about the items. Participants were then tested for their memory accuracy about the items and rated their confidence in memory. While memory appeared to be less accurate in older adults than in younger adults, misinformation and item location (central vs. peripheral) affected memory accuracy similarly for young and older adults. In contrast, confidence judgments differed by age, whereby older adults reported higher overall confidence, with their confidence was less sensitive to the central vs. peripheral distinction.