FALSE RECOLLECTION INDUCED BY PHOTOGRAPHS - A COMPARISON OF OLDER ANDYOUNGER ADULTS

Looking at photographs constitutes an important everyday memory activi ty for older adults. The authors found that reviewing photographs of e vents seen earlier in a videotape increases the likelihood that both o lder and younger adults remember specific details from the reviewed ev ent (W. Koutstaal, D. L. Schacter, M. K. Johnson, K. E. Angell, & M. S . Gross, 1997). In the present study, the authors report 2 experiments demonstrating that photo review can also produce false recollection i n elderly adults: After reviewing photos of events that had not been s hown earlier in a videotape, older but not younger adults were later m ore likely to ''remember'' that those events had been shown in the vid eotape. False recollection induced by photo review appears to reflect an age-related deficit in source-monitoring abilities.