Date attribution, age, and the distribution of lifetime memories

Abstract

Conflicting results have been reported for the lifetime distribution of personal memories. To resolve the discrepancy, two age groups were asked to respond to cue words by supplying event associations, and to date the remembered events using either the standard or a serial procedure. Memory retrieval times, dating times, and the frequencies of elicited memories, were compared across the four quarters of the life span. The 70-year-olds took twice as long to respond, and twice as long to supply dates, as the 20-year-olds. Age interacted with period of life, in dating time, but not with the dating method on any measure. The serial dating method halved the time required by the standard method but, as predicted, distorted the lifetime frequency pattern. With serial dating, earlier memories were more rapidly dated and more numerous than with the standard procedure. The effects are ascribed to the activation of temporal markers in both age groups.