This region has been associated in other studies, such as language studies, with gist or semantic processing. “This suggests that older adults who make the most false memories tend to show more activity in this region. “But, what we have seen consistently is that when we look at brain activity during memory retrieval, we see increasing activity in the middle or superior temporal gyrus, which tracks increases in false memories. “Just grouping people by age in our lab hasn’t worked out, in terms of saying, this is where older adults differ from younger adults,” says Dennis, who worked with Christina Webb, a graduate student in psychology. Just as people physically age differently, individual differences in brain aging also seem to be important, especially in how people retrieve false memories as they age, according to the researchers. However, if older people rely too much on schemas to remember things, Dennis suggests it could lead people to believe that false memories are actually real and, ultimately, lead to more confusion.
“If we really want to understand memory issues in aging we have to understand false memories, just as much as we need to understand forgetting.” Get the gist?īecause the brain is continually bombarded with information, schema-or gist-memory helps organize this rush of data. “If your spouse asks you to go to the grocery store to get milk, eggs, and bread, but you go to the store and pick up orange juice, tomatoes, and cereals, you may have had a false memory,” says Nancy Dennis, associate professor of psychology at Penn State. This inability to remember details could lead to difficulty in distinguishing between a memory of something that really happened and something that a person thought happened, but did not-a false memory.
Researchers have discovered that as people age, they may be more likely to rely on a type of memory-called schematic memory-that helps them remember the gist of an event, but not necessarily the details.