Work

How retellings shape younger and older adults' memories

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: The way a story is retold influences the way it is later remembered; after retelling an event in a biased manner people subsequently remember the event in line with their distorted retelling. This study tested the hypothesis that this should be especially true for older adults. To test this, older and younger adults retold a story to be entertaining, to be accurate, or did not complete an initial retelling. Later, all participants recalled the story as accurately as possible. On this final test younger adults were unaffected by how they had previously retold the story. In contrast, older adults had better memory for the story's content and structure if they had previously retold the story accurately. Furthermore, for older adults, greater usage of storytelling language during the retelling was associated with lower subsequent recall. In summary, retellings exerted a greater effect on memory in older, compared with younger, adults.

Source: Journal of Cognitive Psychology

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2014.892494

Authors: Sarah J. Barber, Mara Mather

Institution: University of Southern California

Language: English

Topic: Memory Processes and Influences

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Aging

Awards: Brain Mechanisms of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Aging, The effects of stress on neural processing of reward and risk, Emotion-cognition interactions and aging, Multidisciplinary Research Training in Gerontology