School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology.
University Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Aging", University of Zurich.
Psychol Aging. 2018 Mar;33(2):273-287. doi: 10.1037/pag0000232.
Subjective memory change (SMC) in adulthood involves the perception that one's memory has declined from earlier levels of function. SMC has been conjectured to be more accurate than concurrent subjective memory because people use themselves as a standard of comparison. We used data from two longitudinal studies to contrast the accurate-monitoring-of-change hypothesis-actual memory change predicts SMC-against a constructed-judgment hypothesis that rated SMC is a function of rescaling concurrent memory beliefs without accessing actual memory change. It states that actual memory change has no predictive validity for SMC independent of concurrent memory beliefs. Data from both the Berlin Aging Study and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) showed that older adults' current memory complaints strongly predicted current SMC, and that there was little relationship of longitudinally measured memory change to SMC, controlling on memory complaints. In the HRS there were reliable latent-growth-curve slope correlations of over .20 for change in episodic memory with both slopes of change in SMC and in memory complaints, yet little relationship of SMC slopes to episodic memory slopes, controlling on memory-complaint slopes. The results falsify the accurate-monitoring-of-change hypothesis regarding the origins of SMC in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record
主观记忆变化（SMC）在成年期涉及到人们对自己记忆能力从早期水平下降的感知。SMC 被认为比同时期的主观记忆更准确，因为人们将自己作为比较的标准。我们使用来自两项纵向研究的数据，对比了准确监测变化的假设——实际记忆变化预测 SMC——和一个构建判断的假设，即 SMC 的评级是对当前记忆信念进行重新调整的函数，而无需访问实际记忆变化。该假设表明，实际记忆变化与当前记忆信念独立，对 SMC 没有预测有效性。来自柏林老龄化研究和健康与退休研究（HRS）的数据表明，老年人当前的记忆抱怨强烈预测当前的 SMC，而纵向测量的记忆变化与 SMC 之间几乎没有关系，控制了记忆抱怨。在 HRS 中，与 SMC 和记忆抱怨的变化斜率相比，情节记忆变化的斜率存在可靠的潜在增长曲线斜率相关性，超过.20，但 SMC 斜率与情节记忆斜率之间的关系很小，控制了记忆抱怨斜率。这些结果否定了 SMC 在老年人中的起源的准确监测变化假设。
