Lack of Imagination in Senior Citizens Indicates
Declining Memory
To create imagined future events, seniors must be
able to remember details of past events
Jan 8, 2008 - Most children are able to imagine
their future selves as astronauts, politicians or even superheroes;
however, many older adults find it difficult to recollect past events,
let alone generate new ones. A new Harvard University study reveals that
the ability of older adults to form imaginary scenarios is linked to
their ability to recall detailed memories.
According to the study, episodic memory, which
represents our personal memories of past experiences, allows
individuals to project themselves both backward and forward in
subjective time.
Therefore, in order to create imagined future
events, the individual must be able to remember the details of
previously experienced ones extract various details and put them
together to create an imaginary event, a process known as the
constructive-episodic-simulation.
Harvard psychologists Donna Rose Addis, Alana Wong
and Daniel Schacter supported the hypothesis using an adapted version of
the Autobiographical Interview in which young and older participants
responded to randomly selected cue words with past and future scenarios.
When compared with young adults, the researchers
found that the older adults displayed a significant reduction in the use
of internal episodic details to describe both past memories and imagined
future events.
The results of the study, which appear in the
January 2008 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the
Association for Psychological Science, not only reveal that there is a
link between age-related memory deficits and future planning in older
adults, but raise questions concerning the involvement of other types of
memory, as well.
Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10
general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific
Information. For a copy of the article Age-Related Changes in
Simulation of Future Events and access to other Psychological Science
research findings, please contact Katie Kline at (202) 783-2077 or
kkline@psychologicalscience.org.
