Objective To explore the neuropsychological effect of aging on false memory, and to investigate the neuropsychological mechanism of formation of false memory in the elderly.Methods Sixty education-matched subjects were divided into young group (aged below 44 years), middle-aged group (aged between 45 and 59 years), and elderly group (aged above 60 years), with 20 subjects in each group. The experimental paradigm of picture-induced and word-induced false memory (Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm) was used in the study.Results The picture-induced false memory rate was significantly higher in the elderly group than in the young and middle-aged groups (both P=0.000). The rate of word-induced false recall of critical lures was significantly higher in the middle-aged group than in the young and elderly groups (P=0.001, P=0.000). The rate of word-induced false recall of irrelevant items was significantly higher in the elderly group than in the middle-aged and young groups, and the above rate was significantly higher in the middle-age group than in the young group (P=0.032, P=0.000, and P=0.005, respectively). The false recall of irrelevant items was negatively correlated with correct recall of studied items (P=0.000).Conclusions The increased aging-associated false memory is associated with impaired memory encoding and extraction functions and possibly with memory monitoring disorder.