Neuropsychologia 47 (2009) 2527–2536 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Neuropsychologia journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/neuropsychologia Mechanisms underlying the production of false memories for famous people’s names in aging and Alzheimer’s disease Gaën Plancher a,1 , Anne Guyard a,b,1 , Serge Nicolas a , Pascale Piolino a,∗ a CNRS UMR 8189, Laboratoire Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives, Université Paris Descartes, France b Centre Hospitalier de Cholet, Service de neurologie-rhumatologie, France article info Article history: Received 16 July 2008 Received in revised form 24 November 2008 Accepted 26 April 2009 Available online 3 May 2009 Keywords: Episodic memory Aging Alzheimer’s disease False memory DRM paradigm R/K paradigm Executive function Semantic memory abstract It is well known that the occurrence of false memories increases with aging, but the results remain inconsistent concerning Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Moreover, the mechanisms underlying the production of false memories are still unclear. Using an experimental episodic memory test with material based on the names of famous people in a procedure derived from the DRM paradigm [Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 21, 803–814], we examined correct and false recall and recognition in 30 young adults, 40 healthy older adults, and 30 patients with AD. Moreover, we evaluated the relationships between false memory performance, correct episodic memory performance, and a set of neuropsychological assessments evaluating the semantic memory and executive functions. The results clearly indicated that correct recall and recognition performance decreased with the subjects’ age, but it decreased even more with AD. In addition, semantically related false recalls and false recogni- tions increased with age but not with dementia. On the contrary, non-semantically related false recalls and false recognitions increased with AD. Finally, the regression analyses showed that executive functions mediated related false memories and episodic memory mediated related and unrelated false memories in aging. Moreover, executive functions predicted related and unrelated false memories in AD, and episodic and semantic memory predicted semantically related and unrelated false memories in AD. In conclusion, the results obtained are consistent with the current constructive models of memory suggesting that false memory creation depends on different cognitive functions and, consequently, that the impairments of these functions influence the production of false memories. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction According to Tulving (2002), episodic memory is defined as the memory for personal events located in their spatiotemporal encoding context. In contrast with other long-term memory sys- tems (semantic memory or procedural memory), which remain focused on the present, episodic memory allows the mind to travel in time and thus to relive past personal experiences. One of the most unexpected aspects of this form of memory is the creation of false memories, that is to say, the recall or the recognition of events that never took place (Balota et al., 1999; Guyard & Piolino, 2006; Henkel, Johnson, & De Leonardis, 1998; Koutstaal & Schacter, 1997; Norman & Schacter, 1997; Schacter, Koutstaal, & Norman, 1997). Memory ∗ Corresponding author at: Laboratoire Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives, Groupe Mémoire et Apprentissage, CNRS UMR 8189, Université Paris Descartes, 71 avenue E. Vaillant, Boulogne Billancourt 92774 Cedex, France. Tel.: +33 1 55 20 59 22; fax: +33 1 55 20 54 24. E-mail address: pascale.piolino@parisdescartes.fr (P. Piolino). 1 The authors have contributed equally to this article. necessarily undergoes a certain amount of deformation because it corresponds to an approximate rebuilding of reality, bounded by our own knowledge and our memories (Conway & Pleydell- Pearce, 2000). This phenomenon raises the question of the interface between normal memory and pathology when it comes to errors or distortions (Guyard & Piolino, 2006; Henkel et al., 1998; Koriat & Goldsmith, 1996; Schacter, 1996, 1999; Schacter, Verfaellie, & Anes, 1997). Studying these phenomena therefore makes it possible to pro- vide information about the normal operation of memory and its fragility in both healthy younger and older subjects (Schacter, Koutstaal, et al., 1997; Schacter, Verfaellie, et al., 1997) and to better understand the memory disorders related to cerebral pathologies. The first neuropsychological studies were focused on the investi- gation of the negative symptoms observed in memory disorders after cerebral lesions (deficits affecting the recall or recognition of a learned item of information). Recent studies have shown a growing interest in the comprehension of the positive symptoms (a false recall or a false recognition) that can appear in case of confabulations (Dalla Barba, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000), intrusions, or 0028-3932/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.04.026