The paper, "False memory for words in noise: An at-home Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) experiment across adulthood" from Wagner, Lyon, & AuBuchon, was accepted for publication in the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research on April 8, 2022.
The research conducted used asynchronous, remote testing to explore younger and older adult susceptibility in false memory production for DRM lists presented in silence and in ecological background noise.
Surprisingly, results found no significant difference in performance between younger and older adults, a finding that contradicts that of previous age-related DRM publications. Furthermore, as expected, noise has a significant effect on memory performance and false memory production - regardless of age.
To make an attempt at exploring what differences sampled participants may have introduced compared to that of previous research, a measure of cognitive load for the task (the NASA RTLX) was administered. It was found that, for older adults almost exclusively, that factors of cognitive load, including physical demand, performance self-evaluation, and frustration levels for the task, correlated with both memory accuracy and false memory production.
To read more about this study, its results, and the implications thereof, read the full paper, published online in the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research (2022): https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN27.2.154