Searching for the past: Exploring the dynamics of direct and generative autobiographical memory reconstruction among you
- PDF / 965,069 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 22 Downloads / 187 Views
Searching for the past: Exploring the dynamics of direct and generative autobiographical memory reconstruction among young and cognitively normal older adults Aubrey A. Wank 1 & Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna 1,2,3 & Matthew D. Grilli 1,3,4 Accepted: 9 September 2020 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract Episodic autobiographical memories (EAMs) can come to mind through two retrieval routes, one direct (i.e., an EAM is retrieved almost instantaneously) and the other generative (i.e., by using autobiographical/general knowledge to cue an EAM). It is well established that normal cognitive aging is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of EAMs, but the contributions of direct or generative reconstruction to the age-related shift toward general memories remain unknown. Prior studies also have not clarified whether similar cognitive mechanisms facilitate the ability to successfully reconstruct EAMs and elaborate them in event-specific detail. To address these gaps in knowledge, young and older participants were asked to reconstruct EAMs using a “think-aloud” paradigm and then describe in detail a subset of retrieved memories. An adapted scoring procedure was implemented to categorize memories accessed during reconstruction, and the Autobiographical Interview (AI) scoring procedure was utilized for elaboration scoring. Results indicated that in comparison with young adults, older adults not only engaged in direct retrieval less often than young adults but they also more often ended generative retrieval at general events instead of EAMs. The ability to elaborate EAMs with internal details was positively associated with the ability to use generative retrieval to reconstruct EAMs in both young and older adults, but there was no relationship between internal detail elaboration and direct retrieval in either age group. Taken together, these results indicate age-related differences in direct and generative retrieval contribute to overgeneral autobiographical memory and they support a connection between generative retrieval and elaboration. Keywords Aging . Autobiographical memory . Episodic memory . Direct retrieval . Generative retrieval
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01098-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Aubrey A. Wank [email protected] Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna [email protected] Matthew D. Grilli [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
2
Cognitive Science, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Blvd, AZ 85721 Tucson, USA
3
Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
4
Department of Neurology, University of Arizona, 1501 N Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ 85724, USA
The retrieval of an episodic autobiographical memory (EAM), or a memory of a specific life event (Tulving, 1983), is thought to be a dynamic process, requiring engageme
Data Loading...
