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Updated: Jun 28, 2025
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The Deese-Roediger-McDermott DRM Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
Published on: January 31, 2017
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How False Memory and True Memory Affect Decision Making in Older Adults: A Dissociative Account
Jianqin Wang1, Angela Gutchess2
1Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Summary
Older adults show impaired decision-making, despite intact memory for rewarding experiences. Their memory for true and false rewards is less influential on choices compared to younger adults, indicating an age-related memory-decision making dissociation.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
- Decision Science
Background:
- Episodic memory decline and increased false memories are common in aging.
- Past rewarding experiences significantly influence future decision-making.
- The impact of age-related memory changes on decision-making for rewards is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how age-related memory changes affect decision-making for rewarding experiences.
- To examine the relationship between true/false memories and decision preferences in younger and older adults.
Main Methods:
- Developed a novel paradigm combining the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm with a reward learning task.
- Participants learned associations between DRM picture lists and monetary rewards or non-rewards.
- Assessed memory for true and false items and decision-making preferences.
Main Results:
- Older and younger adults exhibited similar true and false memory recall in a rewarding context.
- Older adults displayed significantly lower decision-making preferences for both rewarded and lure items compared to younger adults.
- Memory (true and false) was a stronger predictor of decision preferences in younger adults than in older adults.
Conclusions:
- An age-related dissociation exists between memory and decision-making, with older adults being less efficient in utilizing memory to guide choices.
- Further research is needed to explore underlying mechanisms and develop interventions to enhance memory-guided decision-making in older adults.
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