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The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought

When voluntarily describing their past or future, older adults typically show a reduction in episodic specificity (e.g., including fewer details reflecting a specific event, time and/or place). However, aging has less impact on other types of tasks that place minimal demands on strategic retrieval s...

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Autores principales: Jordão, Magda, Pinho, Maria Salomé, St. Jacques, Peggy L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7416953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32776948
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237340
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author Jordão, Magda
Pinho, Maria Salomé
St. Jacques, Peggy L.
author_facet Jordão, Magda
Pinho, Maria Salomé
St. Jacques, Peggy L.
author_sort Jordão, Magda
collection PubMed
description When voluntarily describing their past or future, older adults typically show a reduction in episodic specificity (e.g., including fewer details reflecting a specific event, time and/or place). However, aging has less impact on other types of tasks that place minimal demands on strategic retrieval such as spontaneous thoughts. In the current study, we investigated age-related differences in the episodic specificity of spontaneous thoughts using experimenter-based coding of thought descriptions. Additionally, we tested whether an episodic specificity induction, which increases episodic detail during deliberate retrieval of events in young and older adults, has the same effect under spontaneous retrieval. Twenty-four younger and 24 healthy older adults performed two counterbalanced sessions including a video, the episodic specificity or control induction, and a vigilance task. In the episodic specificity induction, participants recalled the details of the video while in the control they solved math exercises. The impact of this manipulation on the episodic specificity of spontaneous thoughts was assessed in the subsequent vigilance task, in which participants were randomly stopped to describe their thoughts and classify them as deliberate/spontaneous. We found no differences in episodic specificity between age groups in spontaneous thoughts, supporting the prediction that automatic retrieval attenuates the episodic specificity decrease in aging. The lack of age differences was present regardless of the induction, showing no interactions. For the induction, we also found no main effect, indicating that automatic retrieval bypasses event construction and accesses pre-stored events. Overall, our evidence suggests that spontaneous retrieval is a promising strategy to support episodic specificity in aging.
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spelling pubmed-74169532020-08-19 The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought Jordão, Magda Pinho, Maria Salomé St. Jacques, Peggy L. PLoS One Research Article When voluntarily describing their past or future, older adults typically show a reduction in episodic specificity (e.g., including fewer details reflecting a specific event, time and/or place). However, aging has less impact on other types of tasks that place minimal demands on strategic retrieval such as spontaneous thoughts. In the current study, we investigated age-related differences in the episodic specificity of spontaneous thoughts using experimenter-based coding of thought descriptions. Additionally, we tested whether an episodic specificity induction, which increases episodic detail during deliberate retrieval of events in young and older adults, has the same effect under spontaneous retrieval. Twenty-four younger and 24 healthy older adults performed two counterbalanced sessions including a video, the episodic specificity or control induction, and a vigilance task. In the episodic specificity induction, participants recalled the details of the video while in the control they solved math exercises. The impact of this manipulation on the episodic specificity of spontaneous thoughts was assessed in the subsequent vigilance task, in which participants were randomly stopped to describe their thoughts and classify them as deliberate/spontaneous. We found no differences in episodic specificity between age groups in spontaneous thoughts, supporting the prediction that automatic retrieval attenuates the episodic specificity decrease in aging. The lack of age differences was present regardless of the induction, showing no interactions. For the induction, we also found no main effect, indicating that automatic retrieval bypasses event construction and accesses pre-stored events. Overall, our evidence suggests that spontaneous retrieval is a promising strategy to support episodic specificity in aging. Public Library of Science 2020-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7416953/ /pubmed/32776948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237340 Text en © 2020 Jordão et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jordão, Magda
Pinho, Maria Salomé
St. Jacques, Peggy L.
The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title_full The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title_fullStr The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title_full_unstemmed The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title_short The effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
title_sort effects of aging and an episodic specificity induction on spontaneous task-unrelated thought
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7416953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32776948
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237340
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