An Episodic Specificity Induction Enhances Means-End Problem Solving in Young and Older Adults.
Episodic memory plays an important role not only in remembering past experiences, but also in constructing simulations of future experiences and solving means-end social problems. We recently found that an episodic specificity induction-brief training in recollecting details of past experiences- enh...
| Published in: | Psychology & Aging Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 913 - 925 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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American Psychological Association
Dec2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=100203427&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 100203427 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 08827974 PYG jtl: Psychology & Aging issn: 08827974 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2014 vid: 29 iid: 4 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 100203427 10.1037/a0038209 ppf: 913 ppct: 12 formats: tig: atl: An Episodic Specificity Induction Enhances Means-End Problem Solving in Young and Older Adults. aug: au: Madore, Kevin P. Schacter, Daniel L. affil: Harvard University su: Episodic memory Age factors in memory Ends & means Induction (Logic) Imagination Psychological aspects of aging Problem solving ability testing Autobiographical memory sug: subj: Episodic memory Age factors in memory Ends & means Induction (Logic) Imagination Psychological aspects of aging Problem solving ability testing Autobiographical memory keyword: aging autobiographical memory episodic specificity induction imagination means-end problem solving aging autobiographical memory episodic specificity induction imagination means-end problem solving ab: Episodic memory plays an important role not only in remembering past experiences, but also in constructing simulations of future experiences and solving means-end social problems. We recently found that an episodic specificity induction-brief training in recollecting details of past experiences- enhances performance of young and older adults on memory and imagination tasks. Here we tested the hypothesis that this specificity induction would also positively impact a means-end problem-solving task on which age-related changes have been linked to impaired episodic memory. Young and older adults received the specificity induction or a control induction before completing a means-end problem-solving task, as well as memory and imagination tasks. Consistent with previous findings, older adults provided fewer relevant steps on problem solving than did young adults, and their responses also contained fewer internal (i.e., episodic) details across the 3 tasks. There was no difference in the number of other (e.g., irrelevant) steps on problem solving or external (i.e., semantic) details generated on the 3 tasks as a function of age. Critically, the specificity induction increased the number of relevant steps and internal details (but not other steps or external details) that both young and older adults generated in problem solving compared with the control induction, as well as the number of internal details (but not external details) generated for memory and imagination. Our findings support the idea that episodic retrieval processes are involved in means-end problem solving, extend the range of tasks on which a specificity induction targets these processes, and show that the problem-solving performance of older adults can benefit from a specificity induction as much as that of young adults. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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