Age-consistent phenomenological experience in remembering the past and imagining the past and the future

Abstract

We investigated age differences in mental time travel by comparing young, middle-aged and older adults, with equal number of participants in each age decade, from age 22 to 79. Participants generated and phenomenologically rated one experienced and one imagined past event, and two imagined future events. The results showed event type effects with richer phenomenology for experienced than imagined events, but no age group differences. Specifically, experienced events were more vivid, detailed, and were re-lived in the mind more than the other event types. All events were highly central to life, revealing no event type effects on centrality. For both past events, older age groups generated more distant events. There were no age group differences for temporal distance for the two future events. Both future events were from a near future. The results suggest that for events that are central to life, phenomenological experience may be similar across the adulthood.

Keywords:

• Aging
• phenomenological experience
• mental time travel
• autobiographical memory
• counterfactual thinking
• future simulation

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ethics board of the authors’ institution (X University Ethics Review Board) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors state that there are no potential conflicts of interest about the manuscript. The study complies with the ethical standards of research involving human participants and informed consent was obtained from all participants. The study does not have financial support.