Goethe University, Frankfurt a.M., Germany.
Conscious Cogn. 2013 Sep;22(3):1061-73. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2013.07.010. Epub 2013 Aug 13.
Autobiographical memories of older adults show fewer episodic and more non-episodic elements than those of younger adults. This semantization effect is attributed to a loss of episodic memory ability. However the alternative explanation by an increasing proclivity to search for meaning has not been ruled out to date. To test whether a decrease in episodicity and an increase in meaning-making in autobiographical narratives are related across the lifespan, we used different instructions, one focussing on specific episodes, the other on embedding events in life, in two lifespan samples. A continuous decrease of episodic quality of memory (memory specificity, narrative quality) was confirmed. An increase of search for meaning (interpretation, life story integration) was confirmed only up to middle adulthood. This non-inverse development of episodicity and searching for meaning in older age speaks for an autonomous semantization effect that is not merely due to an increase in interpretative preferences.
老年人的自传体记忆表现出比年轻人更少的情节和更多的非情节元素。这种语义化效应归因于情节记忆能力的丧失。然而，到目前为止，越来越倾向于寻找意义的另一种解释尚未被排除。为了测试在整个生命周期中自传体叙述中的情节性减少和意义建构的增加是否相关，我们在两个生命周期样本中使用了不同的指令，一个侧重于特定的情节，另一个侧重于将事件嵌入生活中。记忆特异性、叙事质量）。仅在中年之前，对意义的搜索（解释、生活故事整合）才得到证实。在老年时，情节性和对意义的搜索没有相反的发展，这表明语义化效应是自主的，不仅仅是由于解释偏好的增加。
