Cue-utilization in the Imagination Inflation Effect Paradigm in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Objective: We investigated the imagination inflation effect in healthy older adults and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to determine whether an intervention can reduce susceptibility to these distortions, with implications for daily functioning. Method: Fifty-seven older adults aged 69-90 participated. In Session 1, participants either: listened to an action statement being read, performed the action, or imagined performing the action. Actions were either functional (encountered actions of daily life; e.g., "fill the pillbox") or nonfunctional (not routinely encountered; e.g., "put the toy duck on a plate"). During Session 2, participants imagined action statements from the first session. In Session 3, participants were asked to determine whether action statements were performed during the first session. Intervention participants were instructed before the first and third sessions to attend various sensory aspects of their experience using a cue-utilization technique. Results: Memory was worse for functional compared to nonfunctional actions. For older adults with MCI, the intervention increased correct identifications of functional actions that were performed. For healthy older adults, the intervention increased source memory of functional actions that were imagined. The intervention did not impact the accuracy of nonfunctional actions or the rates of misremembering an action as having been performed. Conclusions: These initial findings supported the efficacy of a cue-utilization intervention to improve memory for functional actions in an imagination inflation effect paradigm in community-dwelling older adults. The use of such strategies represents an important first step in designing interventions that are applicable to daily life.