The present results complement existing research exploring gist-based false recognition in younger adults by identifying evidence for a substantial contribution of retrieval failure to false recognition of similar lures (Guerin et al., 2012; Migo et al., 2009). Specifically, we found that the incidence of false recognition was considerably reduced in the Forced Choice test format relative to the Yes/No format, indicating that the object details necessary to discriminate between targets and lures are often available in memory, even when they are not retrieved successfully. Importantly, the present observation that older adults benefited to the same degree as younger adults from the simultaneous presentation of targets and foils in the Forced Choice test lends further support to the proposal that this test format improves the accessibility of stored details, and does so across the life span. This enhancement likely arises because performance in the Forced Choice test can more successfully be supported by assessing the relative familiarity between exemplars, whereas Yes/No performance relies critically on a recall-to-reject strategy (Migo et al., 2009; Norman, 2010), a possibility that is supported by the results of the modified Remember-Know judgments included in Experiment 1.