Autobiographical Event Memory and Aging: Older Adults Get the Gist

Overview

Journal Trends Cogn Sci

Date 2022 Oct 4

PMID 36195539

Authors

Matthew D Grilli

Signy Sheldon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We propose that older adults' ability to retrieve episodic autobiographical events, although often viewed through a lens of decline, reveals much about what is preserved and prioritized in cognitive aging. Central to our proposal is the idea that the so-called gist of an autobiographical event is not only spared with normal aging but also well adapted to serve memory-guided behavior in older age. To support our proposal, we review cognitive and brain evidence indicating an age-related shift toward gist memory. We then discuss why this shift likely arises from more than age-related decline and instead partly reflects a natural, arguably adaptive, outcome of experience, motivation, and mode-of-thinking factors. Our proposal reveals an upside of age-related memory changes and identifies important research questions.

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