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. 2022 Jun;94(4):436-458.
doi: 10.1177/00914150211024185. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

The Content of Nostalgic Memories Among People Living with Dementia

Sanda Ismail  1 , Emily Dodd  1 , Gary Christopher  1 , Tim Wildschut  2 , Constantine Sedikides  2 , Richard Cheston  1
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The Content of Nostalgic Memories Among People Living with Dementia

Sanda Ismail et al. Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Although dementia may affect the reliability of autobiographical memories, the psychological properties of nostalgic memories may be preserved. We compared the content of nostalgic (n = 36) and ordinary (n = 31) narratives of 67 participants living with dementia. Narratives were rated according to their self-oriented, social, and existential properties, as well as their affective content. Social properties and affective content were assessed using a linguistic word count procedure. Compared to the ordinary narratives described in the control condition, nostalgic narratives described a typical events, expressed more positive affect, and had more expressions of self-esteem and self-continuity. They were also rated higher on companionship, connectedness and the closeness of relationships, and reflected life as being meaningful. Despite their cognitive impairment, people living with dementia experience nostalgia in similar ways to cognitively healthy adults, with their nostalgic narratives containing self-oriented, social, and existential properties.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; autobiographical memory; meaning in life; self-continuity; self-esteem; social connectedness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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