Story Asides As a Useful Construct in Examining Adults' Story Recall

Overview

Journal Psychol Aging

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2016 Jan 12

PMID 26751005

Citations 8

Authors

Susan Bluck

Nicole Alea

Jacqueline M Baron-Lee

Danielle K Davis

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Older adults sometimes exhibit higher levels of off-target verbosity during story recall than do young adults. This appears as the inclusion of extraneous information not directly relevant to the topic. Some production of such material has been clearly related to cognitive decline, particularly older adults' inability to inhibit production of irrelevant information. In tandem, however, research also suggests that some extraneous information is indirectly related to the topic and may reflect age differences in communicative styles. To further elucidate the social-cognitive aspect of this issue, the question of import is: What is the content of the additional information provided by participants during story recall? The present study answers this question. Grounded in the autobiographical memory and life story literatures, we introduce the construct, story asides, and a reliable content-analytic scheme for its assessment. Young and older adults (N = 129) recalled 1 of 2 types of stories: a personal autobiographical memory or an experimenter-generated fictional story. Narratives were reliably coded for story asides. As expected, older adults produced more story asides than young adults only for autobiographical stories. The discussion focuses on the role of story asides in everyday communication including the possibility that they may be a sign of communicative expertise.

Citing Articles

Attention to event segmentation improves memory in young adults: A lifespan study.

Smith M, Hall C, Membreno R, Quintero D, Zacks J Psychol Aging. 2024; 39(7):750-769.

PMID: 39172410 PMC: 11774534. DOI: 10.1037/pag0000842.

Retrieving autobiographical memories in autobiographical contexts: are age-related differences in narrated episodic specificity present outside of the laboratory?.

Hernandez D, Griffith C, Deffner A, Nkulu H, Hovhannisyan M, Ruiz J Psychol Res. 2024; 88(5):1437-1447.

PMID: 38573358 PMC: 11283367. DOI: 10.1007/s00426-024-01938-9.

Former dementia caregivers' high and low point narratives: what is remembered, and how is it shared?.

Matta-Singh T, Sharma S, Ali T, Piechota A, Abboud A, Fried T Aging Ment Health. 2023; 28(3):427-435.

PMID: 37712688 PMC: 10922763. DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2023.2256252.

The cost of changing language context: The language-dependent recall of fictional stories.

Bilgin E, Adiguzel Z, Goksun T, Gulgoz S Mem Cognit. 2023; 51(7):1607-1622.

PMID: 36988855 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-023-01415-5.

Past and future episodic detail retrieval is reduced among clinically normal older adults at higher genetic risk for late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Acevedo-Molina M, Thayer S, Horn K, Nkulu H, Ryan L, Andrews-Hanna J Neuropsychology. 2022; 37(2):194-203.

PMID: 36442007 PMC: 10129290. DOI: 10.1037/neu0000866.

References

Singer J, Blagov P, Berry M, Oost K . Self-defining memories, scripts, and the life story: narrative identity in personality and psychotherapy. J Pers. 2012; 81(6):569-82. DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12005. View

MADDOX G . Some correlates of differences in self-assessment of health status among the elderly. J Gerontol. 1962; 17:180-5. DOI: 10.1093/geronj/17.2.180. View

Giambra L . Task-unrelated-thought frequency as a function of age: a laboratory study. Psychol Aging. 1989; 4(2):136-143. DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.4.2.136. View

Juncos-Rabadan O, Pereiro A, Rodriguez M . Narrative speech in aging: quantity, information content, and cohesion. Brain Lang. 2005; 95(3):423-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2005.04.001. View

Trunk D, Abrams L . Do younger and older adults' communicative goals influence off-topic speech in autobiographical narratives?. Psychol Aging. 2009; 24(2):324-37. DOI: 10.1037/a0015259. View

Marini A, Boewe A, Caltagirone C, Carlomagno S . Age-related differences in the production of textual descriptions. J Psycholinguist Res. 2005; 34(5):439-63. DOI: 10.1007/s10936-005-6203-z. View

Levine B, Svoboda E, Hay J, Winocur G, Moscovitch M . Aging and autobiographical memory: dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval. Psychol Aging. 2003; 17(4):677-89. View

Wang Q . The emergence of cultural self-constructs: autobiographical memory and self-description in European American and Chinese children. Dev Psychol. 2004; 40(1):3-15. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.40.1.3. View

Schaie K . The course of adult intellectual development. Am Psychol. 1994; 49(4):304-13. DOI: 10.1037//0003-066x.49.4.304. View

10.

Castel A, Humphreys K, Lee S, Galvan A, Balota D, McCabe D . The development of memory efficiency and value-directed remembering across the life span: a cross-sectional study of memory and selectivity. Dev Psychol. 2011; 47(6):1553-64. PMC: 3312745. DOI: 10.1037/a0025623. View

11.

Baltes P . On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny. Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. Am Psychol. 1997; 52(4):366-80. DOI: 10.1037//0003-066x.52.4.366. View

12.

Hess T, Auman C, Colcombe S, Rahhal T . The impact of stereotype threat on age differences in memory performance. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2002; 58(1):P3-11. DOI: 10.1093/geronb/58.1.p3. View

13.

Hooker K, McAdams D . Personality reconsidered: a new agenda for aging research. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2003; 58(6):P296-304. DOI: 10.1093/geronb/58.6.p296. View

14.

Alea N, Bluck S . Why are you telling me that? A conceptual model of the social function of autobiographical memory. Memory. 2003; 11(2):165-78. DOI: 10.1080/741938207. View

15.

Fung H, Carstensen L, Lutz A . Influence of time on social preferences: implications for life-span development. Psychol Aging. 2000; 14(4):595-604. DOI: 10.1037//0882-7974.14.4.595. View

16.

Gold D, Andres D, Arbuckle T, Schwartzman A . Measurement and correlates of verbosity in elderly people. J Gerontol. 1988; 43(2):P27-33. DOI: 10.1093/geronj/43.2.p27. View

17.

Carstensen L, Isaacowitz D, Charles S . Taking time seriously. A theory of socioemotional selectivity. Am Psychol. 1999; 54(3):165-81. DOI: 10.1037//0003-066x.54.3.165. View

18.

Hsieh H, Shannon S . Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qual Health Res. 2005; 15(9):1277-88. DOI: 10.1177/1049732305276687. View

19.

Boden D, Bielby D . The past as resource. A conversational analysis of elderly talk. Hum Dev. 1983; 26(6):308-19. DOI: 10.1159/000272892. View

20.

Nelson K, Fivush R . The emergence of autobiographical memory: a social cultural developmental theory. Psychol Rev. 2004; 111(2):486-511. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.111.2.486. View