Evoking episodic and semantic details with instructional manipulation during autobiographical recall

Melega, Greta, Lancelotte, Fiona, Johnen, Ann-Kathrin, Hornberger, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2214-3788, Levine, Brian and Renoult, Louis ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7861-0552 (2024) Evoking episodic and semantic details with instructional manipulation during autobiographical recall. Psychology and Aging, 39 (4). 378–390. ISSN 0882-7974

	Microsoft Word (OpenXML) (Melega et al_PSY & Aging_Supplementary Materials) - Accepted Version Download (1MB)
	Microsoft Word (OpenXML) (Melega et al_PSY & Aging) - Accepted Version Download (1MB)

Abstract

Older adults tend to describe experiences from their past with fewer episodic details, such as spatiotemporal and contextually specific information, but more nonepisodic details, particularly personal semantic knowledge, than younger adults. While the reduction in episodic details is interpreted in the context of episodic memory decline typical of aging, interpreting the increased production of semantic details is not as straightforward. We modified the widely used Autobiographical Interview (AI) to create a Semantic Autobiographical Interview (SAI) that explicitly targets personal (P-SAI) and general semantic memories (G-SAI) with the aim of better understanding the production of semantic information in aging depending on instructional manipulation. Overall, older adults produced a lower proportion of target details than young adults. There was an intra-individual consistency in the production of target details in the AI and P-SAI, suggesting a trait level in the production of personal target details or consistency in the narrative style and communicative goals adopted across interviews. Older adults consistently produced autobiographical facts and self-knowledge across interviews, suggesting that they are biased toward the production of personal semantic information regardless of instructions. These results cannot be easily accommodated by accounts of aging and memory emphasizing reduced cognitive control or compensation for episodic memory impairment. Nevertheless, future work is needed to fully disentangle between these accounts.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	autobiographical memory, episodic memory, personal semantic memory, ageing,episodic memory,personal semantic memory,ageing,autobiographical memory,retrieval,aging,geriatrics and gerontology,social psychology,ageing,3* ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2717
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > UEA Experimental Philosophy Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2024 12:30
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2024 01:42
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94668
DOI:	10.1037/pag0000821

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