Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1997 Nov;25(6):859-66.
doi: 10.3758/bf03211330.

The distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan

D C Rubin  1 , M D Schulkind
Affiliations

The distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan

D C Rubin et al. Mem Cognit. 1997 Nov.

Abstract

Words were used to cue autobiographical memories from 20- and 70-year-old subjects. Both groups showed a decrease in memories from the childhood years and a power-function retention function for their most recent 10 years. Older subjects also had an increase in the number of memories from the ages 10 to 30. These results held for individual subjects as well as grouped data and held when either 124 or 921 memories were cued. Reaction times to produce memories were constant across decades except for childhood where they were longer.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 1994 Nov;20(6):1486-503 - PubMed
    1. Am J Psychol. 1984 Winter;97(4):493-507 - PubMed
    1. J Gerontol. 1991 May;46(3):P85-91 - PubMed
    1. J Exp Psychol. 1968 Jan;76(1):Suppl:1-25 - PubMed
    1. J Gerontol. 1986 Jul;41(4):481-5 - PubMed

Publication types