title: Memory for self-generated narration in the elderly.
abstract: The story mnemonic technique, an effective encoding and retrieval strategy for young adults, was used as a procedure to study encoding and recall in elderly women. Experiment 1 (15 undergraduate and 14 elderly women) showed the technique to be reliable over 3 weeks and without practice effects in both age groups. In Experiment 2, 67 elderly women (mean age = 72 years) were found to make up 3 distinctive subgroupings in patterns of narration cohesiveness and recall accuracy, consistent with pilot data on the technique. A stepwise multiple regression equation found narration cohesiveness, an adaptation of the Daneman-Carpenter (1980) working-memory measure and vocabulary to predict word recall. Results suggested that a general memory factor differentiated the 3 elderly subgroups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens 45701-2979.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Drevenstedt
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Bellezza
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001076:Aptitude; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D011939:Mental Recall; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning