Beyond who, what, and where: Findings from two experiments on age group differences in narrative elaborateness of autobiographical events.
Humans can mentally create and elaborately describe events, detailing not just the who, what, and where, but also the connections and intricacies of these elements. Propositional density (proportion of propositions/total words) can be leveraged to assess how elaborately the elements of memories are...
| Publicado en: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 1419 - 1437 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Jul2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195652870&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195652870 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 54 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 195652870 10.3758/s13421-025-01818-6 ppf: 1419 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: Beyond who, what, and where: Findings from two experiments on age group differences in narrative elaborateness of autobiographical events. aug: au: Cohen, Daniel E. Hayhoe, Janice A. Lynn, Darcey Cochran, Charleigh Klus, Jonas Acevedo-Molina, Mónica C. Pfeifer, Valeria Davis, Patricia L. Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R. Mehl, Matthias R. Grilli, Matthew D. affil: https://ror.org/03m2x1q45 Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Boulevard, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA https://ror.org/01w0d5g70 Department of Psychology and Counseling, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA https://ror.org/01y2d1w05 Department of Psychology, St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, MD, USA https://ror.org/03m2x1q45 Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA https://ror.org/03m2x1q45 Cognitive Sciences Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA https://ror.org/03m2x1q45 Department of Neurology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA su: Language & languages Task performance Interviewing Age distribution Aging Semantics Alzheimer's disease risk factors Statistical correlation Research funding Computer software Data analysis T-test (Statistics) Grammar Two-way analysis of variance Descriptive statistics Autobiographical memory Experimental design Neuropsychological tests Statistics One-way analysis of variance Research Comparative studies Semantic memory Short-term memory Cognitive aging sug: subj: Language & languages Task performance Interviewing Age distribution Aging Semantics Computer and software stores Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers Computer, computer peripheral and pre-packaged software merchant wholesalers Software publishers (except video game publishers) Alzheimer's disease risk factors Statistical correlation Research funding Computer software Data analysis T-test (Statistics) Grammar Two-way analysis of variance Descriptive statistics Autobiographical memory Experimental design Neuropsychological tests Statistics One-way analysis of variance Research Comparative studies Semantic memory Short-term memory Cognitive aging keyword: Episodic memory Language Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Episodic memory Language Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology ab: Humans can mentally create and elaborately describe events, detailing not just the who, what, and where, but also the connections and intricacies of these elements. Propositional density (proportion of propositions/total words) can be leveraged to assess how elaborately the elements of memories are described. The present experiments used propositional density to investigate how age relates to the elaborateness of orally shared autobiographical event memories. Experiment 1 included 94 young adults (ages 18–26) and 91 older adults (ages 60–95) who completed two narrative tasks, including describing a recent autobiographical event. Experiment 2 was a preregistered experiment that included a larger sample: 110 young adults (ages 18–35) and 161 cognitively normal middle-aged/older adults (ages 50–83) who recalled multiple autobiographical event memories. Propositional density scores were calculated using Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater (CPIDR 5.1). In Experiment 1's autobiographical event memory task, propositional density was higher in older adults relative to young adults, p <.001, although this effect was driven by younger-old adults (ages 60–71), d = 0.80. Experiment 2, however, did not replicate the results of Experiment 1, instead finding that propositional density was higher in young adults relative to the oldest group of older adults in our sample (ages 69–83), p =.016, d = 0.41. In summary, the present experiments failed to find robust evidence that propositional density is higher in older relative to young adults within autobiographical event memory oral narratives. Rather, autobiographical event memory narrative elaborateness may be in a state of decline by advanced older age. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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