Dual task demands and gist-based false recognition of pictures in younger and older adults

In a yes/no recognition paradigm using categorized pictures (Koutstaal & Schacter, 1997), older adults show high rates of false recognition of category items where many related items are studied; they also show high levels of veridical recognition of targets from such categories (where gist-like memory representations might be sufficient) but impaired recognition of one-of-a-kind items (where item-specific memory may be required). Dual task demands at study were used to equate older and younger adults on veridical memory for one-of-a-kind iteM.S., but older adults still showed elevated false recognition. When we compared young adults under dual task conditions to a young control group, dual task performance at study, or at both study-and-test, substantially reduced veridical memory but did not reduce false recognition. Dual task demands at test also did not affect false recognition. Gist-based false recognition of pictures is robust to changes in encoding resources that exert substantial effects on veridical memory.