EPISODIC ENCODING: SPECIFICITY INDUCTION AND GENERATION OF DETAILS IN YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS

Abstract

The effect of an episodic specificity induction on the amount and type of details recalled from unique events was examined. Forty young adults and thirty older adults were asked questions about a recent event. Either an episodic specificity or a gist mode of thinking was induced during this brief interview. Then participants were shown a series of videos, given a filler task, and asked to recall the content of the videos in as much detail as possible. These memories were scored for total detail generation to determine whether older or younger adults recalled more episodic details. It was predicted that an episodic specificity induction would increase encoding and recall of episodic details relative to a gist-based induction, and there would be a greater increase in detail generation in the older adults relative to younger adults. It was found that young adults who received an episodic specificity induction generated more details than young adults who received a gist-based induction. In regard to episodic detail content, the episodic specificity induction selectively benefited the encoding of perceptual details. There was not a significant difference in memory between the older adult groups, indicating the episodic specificity induction did not alter encoding among older adults.