Autobiographical Memory, Past and Future Events, and Self-images in Younger and Older Adults

Abstract

There are differences in the ways in which younger and older adults remember the past and imagine the future. However, little research has examined this finding in relation to the self. Older and younger adults described current and future self-images and generated associated memories and future events. Age differences in the generation of past and future events were paralleled in self-images: Older adults' future self-images were closer to the present, whereas their current self-images were formed longer ago. Both groups' memories and future events clustered temporally around times of self-image formation. We propose that the self governs event construction in both younger and older adults, and discuss the role of self-related processing in imagining the future and remembering the past.