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Age Differences in Phenomenology of Positive Memories
Getting the Gist: Recalling Autobiographical Memories and Fictional Stories
Storytelling: Who Tells Good Stories?
Self-Reported Functions of Autobiographical Memory
Remembering Being Me: The Self-Continuity Function
A Life Story Account of the Reminiscence Bump
Emotion in Memory: Narratives vs. Self-Reports
Using Autobiographical Memory for Intimacy
Research suggests that the death of a loved one challenges fundamental assumptions about life thereby necessitating coping, but also providing an opportunity for learning more about life. This study examines how both coping and growth might manifest in individuals autobiographical memories of death-related experiences. Participants (N = 52) wrote narratives about a personal memory of a death-related experience, and as a comparison, wrote narratives about a personal memory of a low point in their life (i.e., losing a job). In addition to providing the memory narratives, participants were asked how often they think about and share each memory with others, whether this memory encapsulates a life lesson, and if so, what that lesson is. Data are currently being analyzed using content analytic procedures to assess (i) the differential types of coping represented in death and low-point memories, and (ii) the types of life lessons (i.e., growth) that are gleaned from these two distinct types of life events.
Age Differences in the Phenomenology of Positive Memories
The phenomenology of younger and older
adults’ positive memories provide insight into how they recreate and narrate
the stories of their lives. How emotional and how well structured our
memories are may influence the extent to which we are able to find listeners
for the stories we have to tell. This study is one of the first studies to
examine age differences in the phenomenological characteristics of
autobiographical memories. Participants were randomly assigned to two
conditions. In open-ended recall sessions, with an interested listener, half
recalled two autobiographical memories and half recalled two previously
presented narrative text passages about similar events.
The first aim of the study is to examine the characteristics of positive
autobiographical memories in terms of narrative structure (i.e., cognitive
coherence, and inference) and imaginal quality (i.e., sensory imagery) as
well as positive and negative affect. Recall of non-autobiographical
fictional text narratives are assessed for comparison purposes. The second
aim of the study is to examine differences between younger and older adults
in the characteristics of positive autobiographical memories (i.e., extent
of cognitive coherence, inference, and sensory imagery) as well as in the
level of positive and negative affect in their memory narratives. Where age
differences emerge, the study examines whether such findings are related to
differences in basic cognitive ability (vocabulary, episodic memory).
Getting the Gist: Recalling Autobiographical Memories and Fictional Stories
Recalling and telling autobiographical memory stories in every day life requires basic memory, reasoning, and verbal skills. Some basic cognitive abilities tend to show decreases in later life. How might changes in basic cognitive abilities across the lifespan impact the recall of autobiographical memories? Past research has indicated that despite differences in narrative recall between younger and older adults, older adults generally recall the gist of fictional stories as well as, or better than, younger adults. But what about recalling one’s own personal memory stories?
Participants were randomly assigned to recall either a fictional text passage or a personal autobiographical memory story, and completed standardized tests of cognitive ability (memory, reasoning, verbal ability). All narratives were recorded, transcribed and content-coded for each of five categories of story gist: what happened, who was involved, where did it take place, when did it occur, and why did the event occur. Classic age differences in basic cognitive abilities emerged, but these differences did not affect recall of the gist of either the fictional or autobiographical memory stories. The only age difference was that older adults did not recall the why of autobiographical memories as often as younger adults. It appears that regardless of deficits in basic cognitive abilities that can occur with aging, older adults can tell stories that include all of the main components necessary in everyday social interaction. Lack of the inclusion of the why gist is not central to a story, though leaving out why an event occurred might affect how believable or interesting a story is to potential listeners.
Storytelling: Who Tells Good Stories?
Remembering details and remaining on-target have been identified as essential aspects of telling a good story. This study addresses an inconsistency in the literature: some studies show that older adults are less likely to recall details and more likely to go off-target, but other findings show that older adults receive higher peer evaluations of global story quality. That is, at a global level they are thought to tell better stories. In the current research, actual autobiographical stories and fictional stories (as a comparison) were recalled by younger and older adults. The stories were content-coded for level of detail and for amount of off-target responding. In addition to content-coding, stories were read and evaluated for global quality by a group of peer raters. Results show age and gender differences in memory story characteristics (level of detail, off-target responding) and global quality (younger adult’s memory stories are rated higher in global story quality than older adult’s stories) across autobiographical memory and fictional stories. Age and gender do not, however, predict the global quality of autobiographical memory stories. The quality of autobiographical memory stories are affected more by the characteristics of the story than by the person sharing them. Anyone can tell a ‘good story’ if they include the right type of information.
The study compared people who had just signed up to work with Hospice (‘Novices’) with people who already had several years of experience as Hospice volunteers (‘Veterans’). The first aim of this research was to compare attitudes towards death and dying across these two groups. As predicted, Veteran Hospice volunteers had less death anxiety and a lower fear of death than did Novices. This suggests that being involved with Hospice plays a role in decreasing death anxiety. Decreased anxiety and fear of death in experienced volunteers may be due to the supportive, palliative nature of Hospice care. The second aim of the study was to investigate whether people’s memories of death-related experiences might serve as life “directives.” As predicted, Veterans were more likely than Novices to use their death- related memories directively (as compared to memories of low-points in life). Particularly, Veteran Hospice volunteers more strongly reported that their death-related memories reflected a new starting point in their life. Veterans also reported using their death-related memories to serve social purposes: they reported sharing their death experiences to get to know other people better, to develop greater intimacy in relationships, and to teach or advise others.
Self-Reported Functions of Autobiographical Memory
Autobiographical memory serves three broad functions: self, social, and as a directive for behavior. The Talking About Life Experiences (TALE) questionnaire was developed to assess the frequency of reflecting on the past to serve these three functions. American and German young adults completed the questionnaire. Results indicate that young adults self-report using autobiographical memory to serve the three hypothesized functions (self, social, directive). We are currently examining whether an older adult sample will report a similar pattern of results.
Related readings:
Bluck, S. (2003). Autobiographical memory: exploring its functions in everyday life. Memory, 11, 113-123.
This study is being completed in
collaboration with researchers at the
Remembering Being Me: The Self-Continuity Function
What is the function of remembering one’s personal past? Literatures converge to identify three fundamental functions of autobiographical memory: self, social, and directive. This project focuses on the role of autobiographical memory in maintaining self-continuity. Self-continuity refers to the knowledge and experiential sense of being the same person over time regardless of changes in one’s environment, in social relationships, and across ontological development. People need to maintain self-continuity: memory for one’s self in the past is an important form of self-knowledge (Neisser, 1988) that is necessary for achieving current goals (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004) and is related to well-being. Do individuals consciously use autobiographical memory to promote self-continuity? In this study, using the Thinking About Life Experiences Questionnaire, younger and older adults self-reported the frequency with which they use autobiographical memory to develop and maintain self-continuity. Individuals who reported low levels of self-concept clarity reported more frequently recalling their personal past to try to create self-continuity. Mediation analyses show that it is younger adults, who have lower levels of self-concept clarity, who most frequently draw on their personal past to create continuity. The extent to which individuals use autobiographical memory in the service of self-continuity may depend on the psychosocial tasks faced in their specific life phase.
A Life Story Account of the Reminiscence Bump
The reminiscence bump is one of the most robust findings in the autobiographical memory literature: adults recall a larger number of events from the second and third decade of life than from other periods. Berntsen and Rubin (2002, 2004; Rubin & Berntsen, 2003) proposed a life-script account of the reminiscence bump that explains why the bump is found for positive but not for negative life events. The current project extends the life-script account by taking a life-span developmental approach, proposing a life-story account for the bump. This new account argues that events in the reminiscence bump are characterized not only by positive valence but by high perceived control over the event, and high perceived influence of the event on one’s later development.
Predictions from this account were tested and confirmed in analyses of 3541 life events collected from 659 participants aged 50 to 90 years. Only high-control positive events showed a reminiscence bump, and these events were rated as more influential on later development than events showing any other combination of valence and control. Findings are discussed in terms of an extension of the life-script account to embrace both the principles of lifespan development and the personal creation of a life story by which autobiographical memory is organized.
The
Wisdom of Experience
This project examines the types of life situations to which wisdom is
applied, the types of behaviors that are engaged in that individuals
consider wise, and the outcome of events in which wisdom has been used in
everyday life. Adolescents, young adults, and older adults recalled a time
from their own life when they "said, thought, or did something wise."
Interviews were coded for type of events that elicit wisdom, what was done
that was wise, and the outcome. For all participants the elicitor was
usually a negative event but the outcome was positive. The types of wise
behaviors remembered differed by age: adolescents reported empathy and
perspective-taking, young adults reported self-determination and assertion,
and older adults reported having balance and flexibility. It appears that
personal conceptions of one's own wisdom differ with age and may have a
developmental trajectory.
In a second study, we examined how wisdom-related events differ from stories that people tell of times when they were foolish, and times when they had a ‘peak experience’ in life. Comparison of these autobiographical narratives show that wisdom (but not foolishness) occurs in response to major, significant life events, particularly those involving life decisions and reactions to negative events. Wisdom narratives show unique thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (e.g., empathy) that occur neither in peak experiences or foolishness narratives.
Related readings:
Emotion in Memory:
Narratives vs. Self-reports
Though autobiographical
remembering is a common means of emotional expression in everyday life,
rarely have autobiographical narratives been used to assess emotion. In the
present study, young and older adults' self-reports and narratives of the
salience, frequency, and intensity of emotional reactions to a "real-world"
emotional event were compared. Self-reports and autobiographical narratives
tell different stories about certain aspects of emotion. For example,
self-report measures and narratives both indicate greater salience of
emotion in late life. In contrast, older adults more frequently expressed
negative affect, particularly sadness, in their narratives, but not in
self-reports.
Related readings:
Using Autobiographical
Memory for Intimacy
Maintaining intimate relationships is important for well being across
adulthood. How is intimacy fostered over a lifetime? One theoretical claim
is that we use autobiographical memories of others to keep them close.
Person characteristics (age and gender) and memory characteristics (e.g.,
vividness) were examined as predictors of increases in intimacy after
autobiographical remembering. Sixty-five young and older men and women in
long-term relationships remembered and shared two events about their
partner. Intimacy (both closeness and warmth) was assessed before and after
remembering. Participants made several ratings of their memories’
characteristics, representing three indices: emotional re-experiencing,
vividness, and rehearsal. A series of hierarchical regression analyses
indicate that person and memory characteristics matter. Older adults and
younger adults both benefit from the intimacy function of autobiographical
remembering. Women, however, show greater benefits than men. Characteristics
of the memories seem to matter more than age and gender. Memories that have
been often rehearsed lead to greater feelings of closeness, regardless of
whether the person remembering is young or old, male or female. Similarly,
vivid memories are more predictive (than person characteristics) of
individual’s reports of the level of warmth in their relationship after
remembering. It appears that the intimacy function of autobiographical
memory is served across adulthood, as long as memory quality is preserved.
Related readings:
