Unique events improve episodic richness, enhance mood, and alter the perception of time during isolation.

Living in isolation is associated with a lack of stimulating experiences, which negatively impacts quality of life and increases risk of advancing cognitive decline for older adults. We examined how engaging in unique events would enhance memory and improve well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, a period characterized by social isolation and monotonous daily experiences lacking diversity. Over 8-weeks during lockdowns, 18 healthy older adults used a smartphone-based application called "HippoCamera", capturing a total of 670 unique and routine events with short audio-video cues that were later replayed to prompt memory.

Spatial context scaffolds long-term episodic richness of weaker real-world autobiographical memories in both older and younger adults.

Remembering life experiences involves recalling not only what occurred (episodic details), but also where an event took place (spatial context), both of which decline with age. Although spatial context can cue episodic detail recollection, it is unknown whether initially recalling an event alongside greater reinstatement of spatial context protects memory for episodic details in the long term, and whether this is affected by age. Here, we analysed 1079 personally-experienced, real-world events from 29 older adults and 12 younger adults.