Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations
The retrieval of autobiographical memories is an integral part of everyday social interactions. Prior laboratory research has revealed that older age is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of autobiographical episodic memories, and the ability to elaborate these memories with episodic detai...
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doaj-dd1e116fa534463f80f2a179127f0f242020-11-25T03:11:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612020-06-011410.3389/fnhum.2020.00238539969Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily ConversationsAubrey A. Wank0Matthias R. Mehl1Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna2Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna3Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna4Angelina J. Polsinelli5Suzanne Moseley6Elizabeth L. Glisky7Matthew D. Grilli8Matthew D. Grilli9Matthew D. Grilli10Human Memory Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesNaturalistic Observation of Social Interaction Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesNeuroscience of Emotion and Thought Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesEvelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesCognitive Science Program, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United StatesMinnesota Epilepsy Group, St. Paul, MN, United StatesAging and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesHuman Memory Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesEvelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United StatesThe retrieval of autobiographical memories is an integral part of everyday social interactions. Prior laboratory research has revealed that older age is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of autobiographical episodic memories, and the ability to elaborate these memories with episodic details. However, how age-related reductions in episodic specificity unfold in everyday social contexts remains largely unknown. Also, constraints of the laboratory-based approach have limited our understanding of how autobiographical semantic memory is linked to older age. To address these gaps in knowledge, we used a smartphone application known as the Electronically Activated Recorder, or “EAR,” to unobtrusively capture real-world conversations over 4 days. In a sample of 102 cognitively normal older adults, we extracted instances where memories and future thoughts were shared by the participants, and we scored the shared episodic memories and future thoughts for their make-up of episodic and semantic detail. We found that older age was associated with a reduction in real-world sharing of autobiographical episodic and semantic memories. We also found that older age was linked to less episodically and semantically detailed descriptions of autobiographical episodic memories. Frequency and level of detail of shared future thoughts yielded weaker relationships with age, which may be related to the low frequency of future thoughts in general. Similar to laboratory research, there was no correlation between autobiographical episodic detail sharing and a standard episodic memory test. However, in contrast to laboratory studies, episodic detail production while sharing autobiographical episodic memories was weakly related to episodic detail production while describing future events, unrelated to working memory, and not different between men and women. Overall, our findings provide novel evidence of how older age relates to episodic specificity when autobiographical memories are assessed unobtrusively and objectively “in the wild.”https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00238/fullepisodic specificityautobiographical memoryepisodic memorysemantic memorycognitive agingnaturalistic observation |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Aubrey A. Wank Matthias R. Mehl Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Angelina J. Polsinelli Suzanne Moseley Elizabeth L. Glisky Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli |
spellingShingle |
Aubrey A. Wank Matthias R. Mehl Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Angelina J. Polsinelli Suzanne Moseley Elizabeth L. Glisky Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations Frontiers in Human Neuroscience episodic specificity autobiographical memory episodic memory semantic memory cognitive aging naturalistic observation |
author_facet |
Aubrey A. Wank Matthias R. Mehl Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna Angelina J. Polsinelli Suzanne Moseley Elizabeth L. Glisky Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli Matthew D. Grilli |
author_sort |
Aubrey A. Wank |
title |
Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations |
title_short |
Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations |
title_full |
Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations |
title_fullStr |
Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Eavesdropping on Autobiographical Memory: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Older Adults’ Memory Sharing in Daily Conversations |
title_sort |
eavesdropping on autobiographical memory: a naturalistic observation study of older adults’ memory sharing in daily conversations |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5161 |
publishDate |
2020-06-01 |
description |
The retrieval of autobiographical memories is an integral part of everyday social interactions. Prior laboratory research has revealed that older age is associated with a reduction in the retrieval of autobiographical episodic memories, and the ability to elaborate these memories with episodic details. However, how age-related reductions in episodic specificity unfold in everyday social contexts remains largely unknown. Also, constraints of the laboratory-based approach have limited our understanding of how autobiographical semantic memory is linked to older age. To address these gaps in knowledge, we used a smartphone application known as the Electronically Activated Recorder, or “EAR,” to unobtrusively capture real-world conversations over 4 days. In a sample of 102 cognitively normal older adults, we extracted instances where memories and future thoughts were shared by the participants, and we scored the shared episodic memories and future thoughts for their make-up of episodic and semantic detail. We found that older age was associated with a reduction in real-world sharing of autobiographical episodic and semantic memories. We also found that older age was linked to less episodically and semantically detailed descriptions of autobiographical episodic memories. Frequency and level of detail of shared future thoughts yielded weaker relationships with age, which may be related to the low frequency of future thoughts in general. Similar to laboratory research, there was no correlation between autobiographical episodic detail sharing and a standard episodic memory test. However, in contrast to laboratory studies, episodic detail production while sharing autobiographical episodic memories was weakly related to episodic detail production while describing future events, unrelated to working memory, and not different between men and women. Overall, our findings provide novel evidence of how older age relates to episodic specificity when autobiographical memories are assessed unobtrusively and objectively “in the wild.” |
topic |
episodic specificity autobiographical memory episodic memory semantic memory cognitive aging naturalistic observation |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00238/full |
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