Age and openness to experience in autobiographical memory

Abstract

Adult age and openness to experience were examined as predictors of autobiographical memory in a group of men and women ranging from 25 to 85 years of age. The remoteness of autobiographical memories retrieved in response to prompt words was more dependent on the age of the respondent than on his or her tendency to be receptive to new experiences as measured by Costa and McCrae's (1978) Experience Inventory. Older adults were more past-oriented in their recollections than younger adults, and experientially-open individuals regardless of age recalled more events from their recent pasts than from their distant pasts. Number of memories recalled, while not related to age, was positively associated with experiential openness.