Aging, confidence, and misinformation: recalling information with the cognitive interview.

In 2 experiments, younger and older adults witnessed a simulated robbery, received misleading information about the event, and then were interviewed with the Cognitive Interview about their memory for the robbery. In both experiments, older adults were disproportionately more confident than younger adults in the accuracy of incorrect information that they recalled than in the accuracy of correct information. Critically, this age-related increase in high-confidence errors occurred even in comparison with younger adults who were matched with older adults on the overall amount and accuracy of the information remembered about the robbery.