False recognition can occur at high levels after participants study lists of associated words and are tested with semantically related lures. The present study attempted to determine the differences of young and elderly adults in retention interval on false recognition and remember-know judgments of critical lure. Young participants' mean age was 21.6 years (range 21-23 years). Elderly participants' mean age was 69.7 years (range 65-74 years). Participants engaged in estimating the frequency of usage of visually presented words, and they were tested both immediately and one week later after the study phase. We found that elderly adults were relatively more susceptible than young adults to this false recognition effect. Moreover, a reliable increase of false recognition for critical lures was observed across retention interval in young adults but not in elderly adults.
