Neural substrates of specific and general autobiographical memory retrieval in younger and older adults.

Healthy aging is associated with a shift away from the retrieval of specific episodic autobiographical memories (AMs), towards more general and semanticized memories. Younger adults modulate activity in the default mode network according to the episodic specificity of AM retrieval. However, little is known about whether aging disrupts this neural modulation.

Constructive episodic retrieval processes underlying memory distortion contribute to creative thinking and everyday problem solving.

Constructive episodic retrieval processes play an adaptive role in supporting divergent thinking (i.e., creatively combining diverse bits of information) and means-end problem solving (i.

Linking creativity and false memory: Common consequences of a flexible memory system.

Episodic retrieval plays a functional-adaptive role in supporting divergent thinking, the ability to creatively combine different pieces of information. However, the same constructive memory process that provides a functional-adaptive benefit can also leave memory prone to error. In two experiments, we employed an individual differences approach to examine the relationship between different forms of creative thinking (divergent and convergent thinking) and false memory generation in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

Decoding the emotional valence of future thoughts.

Affective future thinking allows us to prepare for future outcomes, but we know little about neural representation of emotional future simulations. We used a multi-voxel pattern analysis to determine whether patterns of neural activity can reliably distinguish between positive and negative future simulations. Neural patterning in the anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortices distinguished positive from negative future simulations, indicating that these regions code for the emotional valence of future events.

Age-related changes in repetition suppression of neural activity during emotional future simulation.

Despite advances in understanding the consequences of age-related episodic memory decline for future simulation, much remains unknown regarding changes in the neural underpinnings of future thinking with age. We used a repetition suppression paradigm to explore age-related changes in the neural correlates of emotional future simulation. Younger and older adults simulated positive, negative, and neutral future events either 2 or 5 times.

Looking on the Bright Side: Aging and the Impact of Emotional Future Simulation on Subsequent Memory.

Objectives: When younger adults simulated positive future events, subsequent memory is positively biased. In the current studies, we explore age-related changes in the impact of emotional future simulation on subsequent memory.

Methods: In Experiment 1, younger and older adults simulated emotional future events before learning the hypothetical outcome of each event via narratives.

Adaptive constructive processes: An episodic specificity induction impacts false recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

Numerous studies indicate that an episodic specificity induction (ESI)-brief training in recollecting the details of a past experience-enhances performance on subsequent tasks that rely on episodic retrieval, including autobiographical memory, imagination, problem solving, and creative thinking. In 5 experiments, we examined whether these benefits of the ESI extend to reducing susceptibility to false memory, or whether they are accompanied by a cost in the form of increased susceptibility to false memory. To assess how ESI impacts false memory generation, we used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, a reliable procedure for generating false memories.

An Optimistic Outlook Creates a Rosy Past: The Impact of Episodic Simulation on Subsequent Memory.

People frequently engage in future thinking in everyday life, but it is unknown how simulating an event in advance changes how that event is remembered once it takes place. To initiate study of this important topic, we conducted two experiments in which participants simulated emotional events before learning the hypothetical outcome of each event via narratives. Memory was assessed for emotional details contained in those narratives.

Constructive episodic simulation, flexible recombination, and memory errors.

According to Mahr & Csibra (M&C), the view that the constructive nature of episodic memory is related to its role in simulating future events has difficulty explaining why memory is often accurate. We hold this view, but disagree with their conclusion. Here we consider ideas and evidence regarding flexible recombination processes in episodic retrieval that accommodate both accuracy and distortion.

Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination: A multilevel analysis.

Autobiographical memories of past events and imaginations of future scenarios comprise both episodic and semantic content. Correlating the amount of "internal" (episodic) and "external" (semantic) details generated when describing autobiographical events can illuminate the relationship between the processes supporting these constructs. Yet previous studies performing such correlations were limited by aggregating data across all events generated by an individual, potentially obscuring the underlying relationship within the events themselves.

Autobiographical memory conjunction errors in younger and older adults: Evidence for a role of inhibitory ability.

Because of its reconstructive nature, autobiographical memory (AM) is subject to a range of distortions. One distortion involves the erroneous incorporation of features from one episodic memory into another, forming what are known as memory conjunction errors. Healthy aging has been associated with an enhanced susceptibility to conjunction errors for laboratory stimuli, yet it is unclear whether these findings translate to the autobiographical domain.

False memories with age: Neural and cognitive underpinnings.

As we age we become increasingly susceptible to memory distortions and inaccuracies. Over the past decade numerous neuroimaging studies have attempted to illuminate the neural underpinnings of aging and false memory. Here we review these studies, and link their findings with those concerning the cognitive properties of age-related changes in memory accuracy.

Factors that influence the generation of autobiographical memory conjunction errors.

The constructive nature of memory is generally adaptive, allowing us to efficiently store, process and learn from life events, and simulate future scenarios to prepare ourselves for what may come. However, the cost of a flexibly constructive memory system is the occasional conjunction error, whereby the components of an event are authentic, but the combination of those components is false. Using a novel recombination paradigm, it was demonstrated that details from one autobiographical memory (AM) may be incorrectly incorporated into another, forming AM conjunction errors that elude typical reality monitoring checks.

Making the future memorable: The phenomenology of remembered future events.

Although our ability to remember future simulations conveys an adaptive advantage, enabling us to better prepare for upcoming events, the factors influencing the memorability of future simulations are not clear. In this study, participants generated future simulations that combined specific people, places and objects from memory, and for each trial, made a series of phenomenological ratings about the event components and the simulation as a whole. Memory for simulations was later assessed using a cued-recall test.