The use of autobiographical knowledge in age estimation

Abstract

Event dates are not directly associated with memories, so the processes by which we maintain a sense of time and sequence in our autobiographical memories is of considerable interest. The present study examined participants’ reported age estimation strategies for childhood memories retrieved using a Galton-Crovitz cueing technique. The results indicate that all three categories of autobiographical knowledge in Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) self-memory system model—lifetime periods, general events, and event-specific details—support temporal inferences. However, participants most frequently used lifetime period knowledge to provide an initial age range, and event-specific knowledge was used to confirm or narrow the range of their estimated age.

Keywords:

• Autobiographical memory
• Time

Notes

¹This study was part of a larger investigation of autobiographical memory (see Arbuthnott, Kealy, & Ylioja, 2007, Experiment 1), and both concrete and abstract cue words were used to examine whether retrieval strategy and memory confidence were influenced by cue type, reasons unrelated to the present question. Preliminary analyses indicated that cue type was unrelated to either age at the time of the event (M=8.9 and 8.7, t=.26, p=.795, for concrete and abstract cues, respectively) or age estimation information (first mention Ms=1.7 and 1.7, t=.07, p=.943; second mention Ms=2.2 and 2.5, t=−1.5, p=.149, for concrete and abstract cues, respectively). Although frequencies suggested that participants used landmark events to estimate their age more frequently with events retrieved in response to abstract cues (21) than concrete cues (14), this difference was not significant, t=1.37, p=.179.

²A total of 15 participants also rated their confidence in the accuracy of their memories using 7-point Likert scales. These ratings were highly correlated with the adjective-coded confidence described in the text, and showed exactly the same pattern of associations with age at the time of the event (no correlation) and strategy reports (negative correlation with second reported strategy) as the coded confidence scores. Thus, we are confident that the adjective-coded confidence ratings adequately indicated participants’ confidence in their memories.