Mather M, Johnson M K
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2000 Dec;15(4):596-606. doi: 10.1037//0882-7974.15.4.596.
Participants were given several 2-option choices and then asked to review how they felt about their decisions, to review the details of their decisions, or to do an unrelated task. When later asked to attribute features to the previous options, in each condition older adults (64-83 years) attributed significantly more positive and fewer negative features to their chosen options than to foregone options. Younger adults' (18-22 years) attributions were as choice-supportive as those of older adults in the affective review condition but were less so in the other conditions. The age difference was present even when older and younger adults were equated for source identification and recognition accuracy. This study suggests that as people age, their tendency to distort memory in favor of the options they chose increases. In addition, it suggests that affectively reviewing choices increases younger adults' tendency toward choice-supportive memory.
研究参与者被给予几个二选一的选择，然后被要求回顾他们对自己决策的感受、回顾决策细节或做一项不相关的任务。之后当被要求为之前的选项赋予特征时，在每种情况下，老年人（64 - 83岁）对他们所选选项赋予的积极特征显著多于被放弃的选项，而赋予的消极特征则显著更少。在情感回顾条件下，年轻人（18 - 22岁）的归因与老年人一样支持所选选项，但在其他条件下则不然。即使在老年人和年轻人在来源识别和识别准确性方面相当的情况下，年龄差异依然存在。这项研究表明，随着人们年龄的增长，他们为支持自己所选选项而扭曲记忆的倾向会增加。此外，研究还表明，对选择进行情感回顾会增加年轻人支持所选选项的记忆倾向。
