A multi-method comparison of autobiographical memory impairments amongst younger and older adults

Abstract

Research indicates that, compared to adults of working age, older adults have difficulty recalling memories of specific past events (those lasting less than 24 hours) and this difficulty is associated with depression. These studies are largely confined to a single measure of specific memory recall and there are conflicting findings when alternative measures are used.This investigation provides the first comparison of memory specificity between adults of working age and older adults using several different measures. MethodOlder adults (n = 105) and adults of working age (n = 88) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) and Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT) and the number of specific memories was quantified for each measure. Participants also completed the Beck Depression Inventory Version II (BDI-II). ResultsCompared to younger adults, older adults recalled fewer specific memories in the AMT and more specific memories in the AMI. This latter effect was particularly pronounced for memories related to childhood. There was no group difference in responses in the SCEPT.There was no evidence of an association between memory specificity and depression for any of the measures. ConclusionOlder adults have difficulty retrieving specific memories after cuing by nouns and adjectives, as in the AMT, but they have enhanced recall of specific memories after cuing by life periods, as in the AMI, and this is particularly true of memories related to childhood.Individual differences in memory specificity are not related to depression symptoms in healthy samples.

Autobiographical memory impairments as a transdiagnostic feature of mental illness: A meta-analytic review of investigations into autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality among people with psychiatric diagnoses.

“…One finding that could, indirectly, support the contribution of CaRFAX processes to rAMS/OGM, regards our finding that participants with diagnoses had greater difficulty retrieving specific memories in tasks with shorter (30 s) retrieval times. This finding aligns with others that indicate that older adults without depression are significantly less likely to retrieve specific memories than younger nondepressed adults in paradigms that have shorter recall times (Barry et al, 2020). This is relevant because older adults have shown similar difficulties retrieving specific memories to depressed, younger people (Wilson & Gregory, 2018).…”

“…Another set of participant-related factors that might contribute to rAMS/OGM regard participants’ age (Barry et al, 2020), gender (Young et al, 2013b), education level (Boelen et al, 2010; Farina et al, 2019; Wessel et al, 2001), and the difference between clinical and control participants in the severity of their symptoms (Liu et al, 2013; Van Vreeswijk & De Wilde, 2004). In addition, although most studies use interviews with trained clinicians to establish participants’ diagnostic status, some studies use self-report questionnaires with validated cut-off scores for probable diagnoses (Kyung et al, 2016).…”

Overgeneral and specific autobiographical memory predict the course of depression: an updated meta-analysis

“…Cognitive decline in aging, such as reduced executive functioning, may explain these stronger effects, particularly given that age is related to more pronounced OGM when assessed using the AMT (Wilson & Gregory, 2018). One caveat here is that some recent evidence indicates that older people can outperform younger people when using measures of OGM other than the AMT, and providing ample time and cues relating to lifetime periods rather than simple word cues might facilitate this retrieval performance (Barry et al, 2020). Regardless, the restricted age range of our samples, with the oldest sample being 52.6 years of age, precludes us from making strong inferences in relation to the current findings.…”

Effects of affectively-loaded childhood-related photos from the IAPS on the induction of involuntary autobiographical memories in young and older adults

“…Additionally, memories of childhood and early adolescence are typically associated with family relationships and early affective attachments, such as memories with parents, siblings or family in general, since the memories are frequently generated and maintained in family conversations and relationships (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000;Conway, 2005;Fivush, 2011;Kim et al, 2020). Autobiographical memory has frequently been assessed using stimuli in the form of cue words (Ros et al, 2018;Barry et al, 2021), although other methods used to elicit the retrieval of autobiographical memories include stimuli such as images, odors, textures, personal items and sounds (Williams et al, 1999;Hackländer et al, 2019;Van den Hoven et al, 2021;Jakubowski et al, 2023a,b). A study by St-Laurent et al presented a series of photos to two groups of participants (young adults and older adults), who were asked to retrieve an autobiographical memory thematically related to the image and to rate its vividness.…”