Spontaneous or Intentional? Involuntary Versus Voluntary Episodic Memories in Older and Younger Adults

Involuntary episodic memories are memories of past events that come to mind with no preceding attempt of retrieval. Such memories have received little attention in relation to aging compared with voluntary episodic memories (i.e., intentionally retrieved memories of past events). It is well document...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology and aging 2017-03, Vol.32 (2), p.192-201
Main Authors: Berntsen, Dorthe, Rasmussen, Anne S., Miles, Amanda N., Nielsen, Niels Peter, Ramsgaard, Stine B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of daily living
Adult
Adults
Age Differences
Aged
Aging
Aging - physiology
Aging - psychology
Attention - physiology
Autobiographical Memory
Compensation
Episodic Memory
Executive function
Executive Function - physiology
Female
Human
Humans
Male
Memories
Memory
Memory, Episodic
Mental Recall - physiology
Older people
Photic Stimulation - methods
Recall
Retrieval
Retrospective Studies
Voluntariness
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:Involuntary episodic memories are memories of past events that come to mind with no preceding attempt of retrieval. Such memories have received little attention in relation to aging compared with voluntary episodic memories (i.e., intentionally retrieved memories of past events). It is well documented that older compared with younger adults have reduced access to episodic memories, when retrieval is voluntary, but little is known about their involuntary episodic recall. Recent evidence suggests that involuntary autobiographical memories are at least as frequent as voluntary autobiographical memories in daily life, but this research has been limited to younger adults. Here older and younger adults recorded involuntary and voluntary episodic memories in relation to a film of a simulated event (Study 1) and during a normal day in their lives (Study 2). Across both studies, no age differences were found regarding the frequency of involuntary episodic memories, whereas older adults showed slower (Study 1) and less frequent (Study 2) voluntary remembering compared with younger adults. The findings suggest that involuntary relative to voluntary episodic remembering is enhanced in older adults, consistent with reduced executive functioning and increased processing of task irrelevant information with aging. Involuntary episodic remembering may provide an adaptive compensation for reductions in strategic retrieval in later adulthood.
ISSN:0882-7974
1939-1498
DOI:10.1037/pag0000157