title: Mechanisms of remembering the past and imagining the future--new data from autobiographical memory tasks in a lifespan approach.
abstract: We investigated the episodic/semantic distinction in remembering the past and imagining the future and explored cognitive mechanisms predicting events' specificity throughout the lifespan. Eighty-three 6- to 81-year-old participants, divided into 5 age groups, underwent past, present and future episodic (events' evocation) and semantic (self-descriptions) autobiographical tasks and a complementary cognitive test battery (executive functions, working and episodic memory). The main results showed age effects on episodic events' evocation indicating an inverted U function (i.e., developmental progression from 6 to 21years and aging decline). By contrast, age effects were slighter on self-descriptions while self-defining events' evocation increased with age. Furthermore, age effects on episodic events' evocation were mainly mediated by age effects on cognitive functions and personal semantics. These new findings indicate a developmental and aging episodic/semantic distinction for both remembering the past and imagining the future, and suggest that above similarities, these abilities could have a fundamentally different basis.
authors.affiliation: Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; Institute of Psychology, Memory and Cognition Laboratory, Boulogne Billancourt, France; Inserm U 894, Psychiatry and Neurosciences Center, Paris, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abram
authors.affiliation: Franche Comté University, Laboratory of Psychology, Besançon, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Picard
authors.affiliation: Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; Institute of Psychology, Memory and Cognition Laboratory, Boulogne Billancourt, France; Inserm U 894, Psychiatry and Neurosciences Center, Paris, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.affiliation: Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; Institute of Psychology, Memory and Cognition Laboratory, Boulogne Billancourt, France; Inserm U 894, Psychiatry and Neurosciences Center, Paris, France; Institut Universitaire de France, France. Electronic address: pascale.piolino@parisdescartes.fr.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piolino
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Autobiographical memory; Children; Cognitive mechanisms; Episodic memory; Executive functions; Lifespan; Self-concept; Semantic memory; Working memory