title: Similarity to the Self Affects Memory for Impressions of Others in Younger and Older Adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Similarity to the self has been shown to affect memory for impressions in younger adults, suggesting a self-reference effect in person memory. Because older adults show comparable self-reference effects, but prioritize memory for positive over negative information relative to young adults, we examined age differences in self-similarity effects on memory for positive and negative impressions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Younger and older adults formed positive and negative impressions of others differing in the degree of similarity to the self (high, medium, low).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For positive impressions, both groups showed enhanced memory for self-similar others relative to dissimilar others, whereas for negative impressions, memory was poorer for those similar to the self. When collapsed across similarity to the self, younger adults remembered negative impressions better than older adults, but interestingly, older adults exhibited a trend for better memory for the positive impressions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that self-reference effects in impression memory are preserved with age and that older adults exhibit positivity effects in person memory consistent with previous findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago. leshikar@uic.edu.
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Leshikar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jung M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Angela H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gutchess
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002605:Character; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Impression formation; Memory; Self-reference effect; Spontaneous trait inference