"Flexible retrieval mechanisms supporting successful inference produce false memories in younger but not older adults": Correction to Carpenter and Schacter (2018).

Abstract

Reports an error in "Flexible retrieval mechanisms supporting successful inference produce false memories in younger but not older adults" by Alexis C. Carpenter and Daniel L. Schacter (Psychology and Aging, 2018[Feb], Vol 33[1], 134-143). In the article, the script that was used to calculate the trial counts was found to be incorrect when the experiments reported in the article were reanalyzed. Thus, although the statistical conclusions of the article have not changed, data reported throughout the Results section and in Tables 1 and 2 were incorrect. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2018-08555-012.) Episodic memory involves flexible retrieval processes that allow a person to link elements of distinct episodes in order to make novel inferences across events. In younger adults, we recently found that the same retrieval-related recombination mechanism that supports successful associative inference produces source misattributions as a consequence of erroneous binding of contextual elements from distinct episodes. In the current experiment, we found that older adults, in contrast to younger adults, did not show an increase in source misattributions following successful associative inference. We observed this pattern both when (a) younger and older adults were tested under identical experimental conditions and (b) younger and older adults were matched on associative inference accuracy and overall source memory errors. We suggest that the differing patterns of results are a consequence of age-related deficits in associative binding during successful inferential retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).