Aging and Source Monitoring of Characters in Literary Texts

This research examines adult age differences in source monitoring for literary texts. Source monitoring refers to processes that lead to attributions regarding the source or origin of information (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). Young and older adults read a literary play (Experiment 1) or short story (Experiment 2). In a later source-monitoring test, participants decided whether statements originated from Character A, Character B, Character C, or none of them. Recognition memory for statements was lower for older adults. Age differences in source monitoring were also consistently observed in both experiments, suggesting that older adults are impaired in everyday source-monitoring tasks that involve written discourse.