title: Autobiographical memory, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective in aging.
abstract: In this study, the authors examined the effects of aging on autobiographical memory in 180 participants by means of a new method designed to assess across 5 lifetime periods the nature of memories-that is, specificity and spontaneity--and the phenomenal experience of remembering--that is, self-perspective and autonoetic consciousness--via the field/observer and remember/know paradigms respectively. Age-related differences were found for the specificity and spontaneity of memories and the phenomenal experience of remembering. There was an increase in observer and know responses with age, but a decrease in field and remember responses and in the ability to justify them by recalling sensory-perceptive, affective, or spatiotemporal specific details. This pattern confirms the existence of a semantic-episodic dissociation in autobiographical memory in aging. Moreover, the data support the view that older participants can subjectively "travel back in time" to relive personal events in the most distant past better than those in the recent past.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Cognition et Comportement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Universite Rene Descartes, Paris, France. neuropsycho@chu-caen.fr
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piolino
authors.forename: Béatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Desgranges
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clarys
authors.forename: Bérengère
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guillery-Girard
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Taconnat
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isingrini
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eustache
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics; D013998:Time Perception