Assessing Autobiographical Memory

Diamond, Nicholas; Armson, Michael J.; Palombo, Daniela J.; Selarka, Dhawal; Romero, Kristoffer; Bacopulos, Agnes; Levine, Brian

doi:10.1002/9781119170174.epcn111

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 211 publications

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“…Overall, our findings complement previous investigations using the AI, which report increases in external details in aging and neurodegenerative disease (for review, see Sheldon et al, 2018). Here we show that, in aging and in FTD/SD patients, this increase is specific to semantic details, as initially envisaged by Levine et al (2002) using the original AI scoring scheme.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview

Renoult¹,

Armson²,

Diamond³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a variety of non-episodic utterances: general semantics, different types of personal semantics details, metacognitive statements, repetitions, and details about off topic events. Elevated external details are consistently observed in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we augmented the AI scoring system to differentiate subtypes of external details to test whether the elevation of these details in aging and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (including mixed frontotemporal/semantic dementia [FTD/SD] and progressive non-fluent aphasia [PNFA]) would be specific to general and personal semantics or would concern all subtypes. Specifically, we separated general semantic details from personal semantic details (including autobiographical facts, self-knowledge, and repeated events). With aging, external detail elevation was observed for general and personal semantic details but not for other types of external details. In frontotemporal lobar degeneration, patients with FTD/SD (but not PNFA) generated an excess of personal semantic details ¬but not general semantic details. The increase in personal but not general semantic details in FTD/SD is consistent with prevalent impairment of general semantic memory in SD, and with the personalization of concepts in this condition. Under standard AI instructions, external details were intended to capture off-topic utterances and were not intended as a direct measure of semantic abilities. Future investigations concerned with semantic processing in aging and in dementia could modify standard instructions of the AI to directly probe semantic content.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview

Renoult¹,

Armson²,

Diamond³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Forward asymmetry was also positively associated with episodic detail richness, but this association was driven by reduced external details. Excessive external details reflect overreliance reliance on semantic information or poor cognitive control (Sheldon et al, 2018). It is possible that external detail interjections interrupt the forward flow of temporal context, truncating memory search.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The balance of internal and external details, measured as the internal-to-total detail ratio, is commonly used to measure the episodic detail richness of autobiographical memories. It reliably differentiates younger from older adults and healthy from episodic memory-impaired populations (Levine et al, 2002;Sheldon et al, 2018), while controlling for individual differences in verbosity. Younger adults had considerably higher internal detail proportions than older adults (t(22.03) = 3.05, p < .001, d = 1.35), replicating the established negative effect of age on episodic detail richness (Levine et al, 2002; see Figure 2B).…”

Section: Detailsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…semantic, metacognitive, or unrelated) (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002). Here, aging is associated with reduced internal details and elevated external details, a pattern that is exaggerated with medial temporal lobe dysfunction, reflecting impaired episodic re-experiencing (Levine et al, 2002;Sheldon et al, 2018). But as autobiographical events are typically sampled retrospectively, and are therefore heterogeneous and unverifiable, their recall dynamics cannot be mapped to the encoded event dynamics.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Linking detail to temporal structure in naturalistic event recall

Diamond¹,

Levine²

2019

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Decades of research demonstrates the importance of temporal structure in recall dynamics of laboratory stimuli (i.e. word lists) at seconds-long delays. Little is known, however, about such structure in recall of richer and more remote real-world experiences (i.e. autobiographical memories), where the focus is usually on quantifying memory detail without reference to known event sequences. Here, 119 younger and older participants freely recalled controlled real-world episodes, for which the encoding sequence was verified, after two days or one week. We paired analytical tools from the list-learning and autobiographical memory literatures to measure contextual dynamics and details within extended recall narratives. Aging was associated with large reductions in both episodic detail richness and temporal organization (contiguity and forward asymmetry) when controlling for atemporal recall properties. Temporal organization was positively associated with detail richness across groups, providing empirical evidence for a theorized link between re-experiencing past events and reinstating their spatiotemporal context.

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“…semantic, metacognitive, or unrelated) (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002). Here, older adults retrieve fewer internal details and more external details, a pattern that is exaggerated with DETAIL AND TEMPORAL STRUCTURE IN NATURALISTIC EVENT RECALL 5 hippocampal dysfunction, reflecting reduced episodic re-experiencing (Levine et al, 2002;Sheldon et al, 2018). But as autobiographical events are typically sampled retrospectively, and are therefore heterogeneous and unverifiable, their recall dynamics typically cannot be mapped to the encoded event dynamics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Detail to Temporal Structure in Naturalistic-Event Recall

Diamond

Levine

2020

Psychol Sci

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Decades of memory research demonstrate the importance of temporal organization in recall dynamics, using laboratory stimuli (i.e., word lists) at seconds- to minutes-long delays. Little is known, however, about such organization in recall of richer and more remote real-world experiences, in which the focus is usually on memory content without reference to event order. Here, 119 younger and older adults freely recalled extended real-world experiences, for which the encoding sequence was controlled, after 2 days or 1 week. We paired analytical tools from the list-learning and autobiographical memory literatures to measure spontaneous contextual dynamics and details in these recall narratives. Recall dynamics were organized by temporal context (contiguity and forward asymmetry), and organization was reduced in older age, despite similar serial position effects and recall initiation across age groups. Across participants, organization was positively associated with richness of episodic detail, providing evidence for a link between reexperiencing past events and reinstating their spatiotemporal context.

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Assessing Autobiographical Memory

Cited by 11 publications

References 211 publications

Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview

Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview

Linking detail to temporal structure in naturalistic event recall

Linking Detail to Temporal Structure in Naturalistic-Event Recall

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