Distribution of important and word-cued autobiographical memories in 20-, 35-, and 70-year-old adults.
Abstract
For word-cued autobiographical memories, older adults had an increase, or bump, from
the ages 10 to 30. All age groups had fewer memories from childhood than from other
years and a power-function retention for memories from the most recent 10 years. There
were no consistent differences in reaction times and rating scale responses across
decades. Concrete words cued older memories, but no property of the cues predicted
which memories would come from the bump. The 5 most important memories given by 20-
and 35-year-old participants were distributed similarly to their word-cued memories,
but those given by 70-year-old participants came mostly from the single 20-to-30 decade.
No theory fully accounts for the bump.
Type
Journal articleSubject
AdultAged
Aging
Attention
Cues
Geriatric Assessment
Humans
Life Change Events
Male
Mental Recall
Middle Aged
Reference Values
Retention (Psychology)
Word Association Tests
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David C. Rubin
Juanita M. Kreps Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
For .pdfs of all publications click here My main research interest has been in
long-term memory, especially for complex (or "real-world") stimuli. This work includes
the study of autobiographical memory and oral tra

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