Older adults show a self-reference effect for narrative information

ABSTRACT

The self-reference effect (SRE), enhanced memory for information encoded through self-related processing, has been established in younger and older adults using single trait adjective words. We sought to examine the generality of this phenomenon by studying narrative information in these populations. Additionally, we investigated retrieval experience at recognition and whether valence of stimuli influences memory differently in young and older adults. Participants encoded trait adjectives and narratives in self-reference, semantic, or structural processing conditions, followed by tests of recall and recognition. Experiment 1 revealed an SRE for trait adjective recognition and narrative cued recall in both age groups, although the existence of an SRE for narrative recognition was unclear due to ceiling effects. Experiment 2 revealed an SRE on an adapted test of narrative recognition. Self-referential encoding was shown to enhance recollection for both trait adjectives and narrative material in Experiment 1, whereas similar estimates of recollection for self-reference and semantic conditions were found in Experiment 2. Valence effects were inconsistent but generally similar in young and older adults when they were found. Results demonstrate that the self-reference technique extends to narrative information in young and older adults and may provide a valuable intervention tool for those experiencing age-related memory decline.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive aging
• memory
• self-reference effect
• narrative
• retrieval experience

Acknowledgement

We thank Malcolm A. Binns for statistical consulting, Jason D. Obzuko for guidance involving the remember/know procedure, and Aurela Vangjeli, Lyn Van Kampen, and Victoria Smith for their assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Flesch reading ease is scored out of 100, with higher scores representing ease of reading a text. The Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level indicates the American grade level thought to be necessary for the comprehension of the text.

2. The duration for which narratives were presented was determined by pilot testing. Additionally, all participants completed a post-experiment questionnaire that asked whether they felt they had sufficient time to read the narratives on the screen and all answers were affirmative.

3. As mentioned above, the older adults in the participant sample had significantly more years of education than the younger adults, and a number of older adult participants performed worse than the recommended cut-off score on the MoCA. However, re-analysis of the data to control for education and without data from individuals scoring below the MoCA cut-off did not change the pattern of results. Thus, the results presented are uncorrected for education and include data from all older adults tested in Experiment 1.

4. Technical issues precluded us from accessing the remember/know data from one of the older adults. The participant's data were thus excluded from the present analysis as well as the corresponding analysis for the narrative recognition test.

5. Although examined for completeness, familiarity was not the focus of this study, and the high estimates of recollection, particularly in the narrative paradigms, made it difficult to estimate familiarity accurately.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grants MOP 93535] to R.S.R. and [MOP 125958] to M.M. N.C. acknowledges support from the Alzheimer Society of Canada Research Program. K.J.M acknowledges support from the Morris Goldenberg Medical Research Endowment.