Age Effects in Story Recall: Comparing the Narrative Similarities of Memories for a Fictional Movie

This study examines age differences in memories for a fictional story. We compared the narratives of young and older participants about a TV series when recalled to a young or older listener. In the young listener condition, 35 older and 37 young adults recalled the episode to a young adult. In the older listener condition, 40 older and 37 young participants recalled it to an older adult. Memories were analyzed with three complementary methods: (1) a measure of episodic specificity, (2) a quantification of semantic similarity, and (3) the lexical content. Results revealed that young adults had more similar memories than older adults, and used more words related to negative emotions than older adults. However, older adults recalled as many episodic details as younger participants. There was no difference as a function of the recipient's age. Overall, these results underscore the value of studying memory in everyday social contexts.