How False Memory and True Memory Affect Decision Making in Older Adults: A Dissociative Account.

This article investigates how aging affects the relationship between episodic memory—including false memories—and value-based decision making using a novel paradigm combining the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm with a reward learning task. The study found that older and younger adults exhibited similar levels of false and true memories for rewarded and nonrewarded items, although older adults showed reduced true memory for item–value associations. Despite comparable memory performance, older adults demonstrated lower decision-making preferences for both rewarded and lure pictures, and their memories were less predictive of their choices compared to younger adults. These findings suggest an age-related dissociation between memory and decision making, indicating that older adults may be less efficient in using episodic memory to guide reward-based decisions, with implications for understanding cognitive aging and developing interventions to support decision-making in older populations.