Our research focuses on memory with an emphasis on the occurrence of (a) false memories, (b) overconfidence in one’s memories and (c) changes in memory across the lifespan. For example, some of our research examines eyewitness memory. We have observed with a typical eyewitness suggestibility paradigm that older adults are much more likely than younger adults to assert confidently that they remember witnessing an event that was only suggested to them. Some of our current projects are examining whether this age-related effect generalizes to more naturalistic eyewitness settings and whether there are variables that can minimize the occurrence of these kinds of high confidence errors.

Eyewitness Memory

There are significant policy implications to the occurrence of high-confidence errors on the part of older adults. We have shown with a typical eyewitness suggestibility paradigm that older adults are much more likely than younger adults to assert confidently that they remember witnessing an event that was only suggested to them (Dodson & Krueger, 2006). We are examining whether this age-related effect generalizes to more naturalistic eyewitness settings and whether there are variables that can minimize the occurrence of these kinds of high confidence errors.

Aging & Memory

Older adults exhibit a variety of memory impairments.  Although there are several different explanations of this finding, many of them share the view that older adults remember fewer specific details about past events than do younger adults.  By contrast, we have proposed that older adults are prone to experience convincing illusory recollections (Dodson, Bawa & Krueger, 2007; Dodson, Bawa & Slotnick, 2007; Dodson & Krueger, 2006).  But, there are constraints on this age-related increase in high-confidence memory errors:  they occur on memory tests that require specific details about recently-learned events, such as remembering who-said-what earlier; they do not occur on tests of semantic memory, such as remembering who wrote the book, War and Peace. Importantly, this age-related propensity to make high confidence errors persists after ruling out alternative explanations, such as age-related differences in either overall memory accuracy or the tendency to use the high end of the confidence rating scale.

Memory Strategies

We have shown that both older and younger adults can reduce false memories by using a retrieval strategy that we call the distinctiveness heuristic (e.g., Dodson & Hege, 2005; Dodson et al., 2000; Dodson & Schacter, 2001a, 2002a, 2002b; Hege & Dodson, 2004; Weiss, Dodson et al., 2002). This strategy hinges on an individual’s expectations about what should be remembered about past events. Therefore, the absence of memory for expected information is taken as evidence for an event’s nonoccurrence.