INT’L. J. AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, Vol. 78(1) 47-65, 2014
AGE DIFFERENCES IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES OF NEGATIVE EVENTS
ADRIEL BOALS BERT HAYSLIP JR. JONATHAN B. BANKS University of North Texas, Denton
ABSTRACT
This study examined whether older adults recollect autobiographical memories of negative events so as to minimize unpleasant emotions to a greater extent than do younger adults. A sample of healthy older adults (N = 126) and younger adults (N = 119) completed the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire and a measure of PTSD symptoms in response to their most negative recalled event. Results supported the hypothesis that older adults rated their negative memories as having: 1) less of a sense of traveling back to the time the event occurred, 2) less associated visceral emotional reactions, 3) fewer associated negative emotions, and 4) fewer PTSD symptoms, all relative to younger adults. In addition, older adults exhibited higher ratings of belief in accuracy, higher ratings that the memory comes as a coherent story, and more associated positive emotions, again all relative to younger adults. After controlling for differences between the types of events younger and older adults reported and how long ago the event occurred, the above age differences remained statistically significant, though the effect sizes were attenuated in some cases. These results are consistent in their support for the positivity effect, and suggest that older adults modify their recollections of negative events in a manner that is emotionally adaptive for them. 47 Ó 2014, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/AG.78.1.d http://baywood.com
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INTRODUCTION Numerous studies have documented that the frequency of experiencing negative emotions varies with age, such that older adults report fewer negative emotions than do younger adults (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000; Charles, Reynolds, & Gatz, 2001). One possible reason for this phenomenon is that adults appear to improve their ability to regulate their emotions with increasing age (Gross, Carstensen, Pasupathi, Tsai, Goetestam Skorpen, & Hsu, 1997). This reduction in negative emotions extends to areas of memory and cognition. For example, older adults are less likely to pay attention to negative information (Mather & Carstensen, 2003) and to recall or recognize negative information (Charles, Mather, & Cartstensen, 2003). Although younger and older adults experience roughly equivalent frequencies of involuntary memories (memories not intentionally retrieved), older adults tend to report very few negative involuntary memories (Schlagman, Schulz, & Kvavilashvili, 2006). These biases reflecting a preference of the positive over the negative are referred to as the positivity effect (Mather & Carstensen, 2005; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998; Schryer & Ross, 2012) or alternatively the reduced negativity effect (Grühn, Smith, & Baltes, 2005). The above reported age-related biases that reflect the positivity effect also impact the recollection of autobiographical memories. Recollecting autobiographical memories is an active reconstructive process that combines various features of memory such as sensory information, narrative features, language, and emotion (Rubin, 2005, 2006). Which details of an event are recalled can vary each time memories of that event are elicited, often times based on the current goals of the self (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and as such are prone to distortions (Loftus, 2004). The importance attached to the positivity effect as it relates to autobiographical memory is underscored by the fact that memories of one’s personal past are a core component of the self and play a central role in defining oneself (Singer, 1995). They give meaning and continuity to one’s sense of self and life story (McAdams, Josselson, & Lieblich, 2006). In addition, the manner in which autobiographical memories are recalled can influence behavior and goals (Sutin & Robins, 2008) and affect both mental and physical health (Boals, 2010; Rubin, Boals, & Berntsen, 2008). As do younger adults, older adults who construe a negative experience as central to their life story experience worse mental health outcomes (Berntsen, Rubin, & Siegler, 2011). Given that older adults have a bias toward the positive and strategically employ emotion regulation strategies, it is possible that older adults utilize biases and cognitive distortions when recollecting autobiographical memories as a means of coping with the otherwise negative emotional impact of doing so. Indeed, it has been suggested that remembering past personal events in a positive light can be an effective emotion regulation strategy and contribute to the positivity effect (Mather & Carstensen,
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2005). For example, recalling a past negative event as less emotionally intense over time may reflect the evocation of a coping strategy, in contrast to the possibility that the event itself decreases in intensity over time, making it more difficult to recall. In this respect, the use of such selectivity as a coping strategy in the recall of negative events has been documented in older adults (Levine & Bluck, 1997). Autobiographical memory may be a useful way to examine the positivity effect. Once an event has ended, it is the memory of the event that allows that event to continue to affect an individual’s psychological state. Past research has found that highly emotional memories can be difficult to forget (Brown & Kulik, 1977; LeDoux, 2000) and can be frequently brought into conscious awareness without volition (Horowitz, 1975). Stressful memories may be well-remembered due to phenomenological and organization features in memory. Generally speaking, the degree of aberration in memory features has been linked with both physical and mental health outcomes (Foa, Molnar, & Cashman, 1995; Harvey & Bryant, 1999; Pennebaker, Mayne, & Francis, 1997). Evidence contributing to the utility of the positivity effect in younger versus older adults can speak to the manner in which older persons cope with emotionally painful and/or stressful experiences in either preferring to remember events in positive terms or in minimizing their affective intensity. This generally positive orientation to the understanding of the emotional experiences of older persons has been discussed in the context of the theory of Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) (Charles, 2011). This theory stresses the coexistence of strengths, that is, positive adaptive capacities (e.g., appraising events as less emotionally intense or less negative in tone; remembering events in a manner which minimizes negative feelings) and age-related physiological vulnerabilities (e.g., higher blood pressure, increased reaction time, neurologically-based changes in the processing of emotional stimuli) in understanding older adults’ emotional arousal in the face of stress, loss, or change (see Levenson, 2000; Mitchell, 2007; Keightly, Wincour, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006). In this light, among older adults, a propensity to experience positive emotions predicts more rapid recovery from illness, better physical health, and stronger relationships with others (Lyubomirsky, King, & Deiner, 2005). Each of these factors is key to successful aging (Rowe & Kahn, 1995, 1997, 1998). This age-related ability to emphasize positive well-being via emotional regulation is also consistent with discussions about the adaptive role of wisdom in later life (Baltes, Smith, Staudinger, & Sowarka, 1990) and with the tenets of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, wherein as a function of an awareness of time left to live, there is an age-related shift in relationships; those that are intimate in nature are increasingly valued and preferred to those which are knowledgebased in nature (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). The positivity effect among older persons is also consistent with Selection, Optimization, and Compensation Theory (Baltes & Baltes, 1990), which stresses the purposeful
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narrowing of one’s life space and the attainment of expertise as a means of coping with age-related losses in function. In the context of the above discussion of emotional regulation and aging, it is important to point out that to date, studies designed to explain the positivity effect as it relates to autobiographical memory in later life have been limited. In one case, in comparison to memories of positive or neutral events, older adults were found to recall negative memories with more positive emotions and a less complex storyline (Comblain, D’Argembeau, & Van der Linden, 2005). The results of this study suggest older adults may reappraise negative events in a more positive manner. Another study found that older adults are less likely to construe a negative event as central to their identity (Boals, Banks, & Hayslip, 2012), again reflecting a positivity reporting bias. A study of nuns who reported their health behaviors and then attempted to recollect these behaviors 14 years later found that older nuns were more likely than younger nuns to inaccurately remember their past behaviors as more positive (Kennedy, Mather, & Carstensen, 2004). Rationale for the Present Study The goal of the present study was to add to our understanding of possible biases in the recollection of autobiographical memories for negative events between older and younger adults. While the present design is similar to the above discussed Comblain, D’Argembeau, and Van der Linden (2005) study, that is, persons nominated a negative life event and then completed a questionnaire about the phenomenal characteristics of its memory, that is, vividness, sensory details, ability to recall the setting, the present study builds upon Comblain et al. in incorporating several potentially important control variables, that is, the nature of the negative events nominated. In this respect, the negative events nominated by older adults may vary in important ways from those nominated by younger adults, such as whether the event was death-related or not and how long ago the event occurred. This is important in that older adults will likely have experienced more death-related events than younger adults (Corr & Corr, 2013; Hansson & Hayslip, 2000; Hayslip, Hicks-Patrick, & Panek, 2011). Given the greater age of older persons, the likelihood that these events as well as others that do not involve loss are more temporally distant is greater. In addition, although Comblain et al. (2005) included two indices of emotions (positive feelings and negative feelings), in the current study we included four measures of visceral emotional reactions, important in light of the increased physiological vulnerability (e.g., greater reactivity, poorer physical health) of older adults in dealing with negative emotional experiences (see Charles, 2011). Additionally, to increase the statistical power of our findings, in contrast to the relatively small samples (N = 40) of younger and older adults in the Comblain
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et al. (2005) study, larger samples (exceeding 100 in each case) of younger and older persons were utilized here. To examine the extent to which negative experiences are recalled in a manner that minimize unpleasant recollections, we included the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ) (Rubin, Schrauf, & Greenberg, 2003). The AMQ measures all known phenomenological properties of autobiographical memories. These properties include recollection and belief, which measure the extent to which the individuals have a sense of reliving when they recall the event and the extent to which they are confident in the accuracy of their memory. Reliving is viewed as a defining property of autobiographical memory (Tulving, 1983). The AMQ also assesses sensory features of autobiographical memory, which include the extent to which the memory comes with visual imagery, auditory sounds, visual perspective, and recall of the setting. The AMQ includes several items relevant to one’s emotions, including emotional intensity, positive/negative emotions, and visceral reactions. In this light, it is important to include visceral reactions in addition to ratings of emotional intensity because visceral reactions commonly occur independently of cognitive judgments (Rubin, Feldman, & Beckham, 2004). In addition, the AMQ assesses properties of a memory’s availability which include the extent to which the individual has thought and talked about the event. Last, the AMQ includes properties of narrative, language, and specificity. These properties include measures of coherence and event centrality. All of these features are basic components of autobiographical memory (Rubin, 2005, 2006) and are especially relevant to emotion regulation. Importantly, they speak to potential qualitative differences in autobiographical recall that may differentiate younger and older adults (see Charles, 2011). These phenomenological properties as measured by the AMQ have also distinguished between trauma memories resulting in PTSD or not (Rubin et al., 2008), where memories associated with PTSD have higher ratings of recollection and belief and more sensory features. Greater amounts of reliving and emotional responses reflect a greater impact of the event on the individual and greater concurrent distress (Rubin et al., 2003). We also included a measure of PTSD symptoms associated with the nominated negative event to assess the level of distress caused by the event. PTSD symptoms are an important outcome measure of the distressing nature of autobiographical memories for negative events (Berntsen et al., 2011; Rubin et al., 2008). In the context of the present study, assessing PTSD symptoms that might mirror the potentially maladaptive consequences of events that reflect, for example, the impact of differential losses across adulthood whose occurrence cannot be predicted, i.e., nonnormative events (see Baltes, 1997). Indeed, older adults may be especially vulnerable in their ability to deal with events they cannot predict and/or control (Danish, 1981; Harvey & Miller, 2000).
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In light of the greater experience with negative events among older persons and their impact on them in light of the ability of older persons to regulate their emotions to minimize the impact of negative events on them (see BlanchardFields, 2007; Charles, 2011; Magai, Consedine, Krivoshekova, Kudadjie-Gyamfi, & McPherson, 2006), we hypothesize that older adults will rate their negative memory as less emotionally arousing (as measured by the emotion items on the AMQ) and report fewer PTSD symptoms. We believe that each of these outcomes reflects an age-related tendency to recall past negative events with a bias toward more positivity. METHOD Participants The younger adult sample consisted of 119 participants (82% female) recruited from the psychology subject pool at the University of North Texas who participated for partial course credit. The mean age was 19.4 (SD = 1.9), with a range of 18-29. While the data here were collected as part of a project dealing with the benefits of expressive writing for older adults (Boals et al., 2012), they have not been published elsewhere. A sample of 126 older adults was recruited from the community via presentations to churches, older adult organizations (e.g., AARP) and through newspaper announcements. Participants were paid $15 for completing the present study. The sample was 73% female and had a mean age of 73.3 (SD = 7.3, range = 60-93). The sample of older adults rated themselves as generally healthy; when asked “How would you rate your overall health” on a scale of 1 = excellent to 5 = poor, participants rated their health as good, M = 2.1, SD = 0.9. We examined whether the gender composition of the older and younger samples differed, important to the extent that there are age and gender differences in emotional reactivity (see Birditt & Fingerman, 2003). The results revealed a non-significant trend in that the percentage of females was somewhat higher in the younger adult sample (82%) than in the older adult sample (73%), c2 (1) = 2.82, p = .09. Although this difference failed to reach conventional levels of significance, we decided to err on the side of caution and thus a dummy coded variable for gender was created to be included in analyses below comparing differences between older and younger adults. Materials Nomination of Negative Event
Participants were asked to nominate “a very negative event” from their lives and were given two lines to write a description of the event.
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Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ)
The AMQ (Rubin et al., 2003) is a self-report measure used to assess specific properties of a nominated memory. Participants indicate their level of agreement with each item using a 7-point scale, with different endpoints, depending on the item. Higher ratings reflect greater agreement. Each item is designed to measure a different phenomenological property of an autobiographical memory (Rubin, 2005, 2006). Therefore, there are no subscales and items are typically analyzed individually rather than as a composite score. However, items can be grouped conceptually. A list of these items and their conceptual groupings are included in Table 1. PTSD Checklist (PCL-S)
The PCL-S (Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Foneris, 1996) is a 17-item measure of PTSD symptoms in reference to a specific event. Participants rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much an event has produced each of the 17 DSM-IV-TR B symptoms (intrusiveness), C symptoms (avoidance), and D symptoms (hyper-arousal) of PTSD during the past month. The range of the scale is 17-85. In the current study, the mean score was M = 27.2, SD = 11.0. Cronbach’s alpha is reported by Blanchard et al. (1996) as .94. In the current study, Cronbach’s alpha was .83 for the older adult sample and .92 for the younger adult sample. Procedure After completing an informed consent form, all participants began with the nomination of a negative event from their lives. Participants then completed the AMQ and PCL-S in reference to their nominated negative event. Participants nominated a variety of traumatic or stressful events ranging from the death of a friend or family member to physical assaults. As noted above, it is possible that the types of events nominated may differ in important ways between younger and older adults. Event codes were created by the second author and were chosen to represent type of event without giving value to the severity of events reported. The event codes were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
death of loved one; disruption in important relationship; injury or illness to self or loved one; academic, occupational, or financial event; and unclassifiable event or the participant chose to withhold the nature of the event.
In this respect, attention to the death-related nature of events recalled reflects the differential salience of death and loss among younger versus older adults
–.06 –.10 –.03 .08 –.19**
–.02 –.03 –.05 –.07
–.08 –.07 –.12 .12 –.13 –.23*** –.24*** –.22*** –.38***
Sensory I can see it in my mind. I see it out of my own eyes. (field/observer) I can recall the setting where it occurred. I can hear it in my mind.
Emotions I feel the same emotions I felt then. I feel the emotions as strongly as I did them. The emotions are extremely intense. The emotions are extremely positive. The emotions are extremely negative. I feel my heart pound or race. I feel tense all over. I feel sweaty or clammy. I feel knots, cramps, or butterflies in my stomach.
Months since event
Recollection and Belief I am reliving the original event. I travel back to the time when it happened. I remember it rather than just knowing it happened. I believe the event in my memory really occurred. I could be persuaded that my memory was wrong.
AMQ item
–.01 –.04 –.04 .04 –.16* –.11 –.18** –.16* –.15*
.08 .07 –.01 .01
.09 .01 .14* .04 –.21**
Death event
.08 –.01 –.01 –.03 .05 .06 .10 .10 .24***
–.11 –.03 –.04 –.04
–.13* .01 –.21** –.07 .17**
Other event
Covariate
–.02 .06 .02 –.06 .02 .13* .09 .09 .05
.09 .05 .05 .05
–.01 .13* .19** .12 –.12
Gender
Table 1. Correlations between Outcome Measures and Covariates and PCL Scores (PTSD Symptoms)
.28*** .27*** .36*** –.15* .26*** .41*** .50*** .46*** .45***
.19** .08 .05 .22***
.17** .36*** –.01 –.03 .18**
PCL
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–.04 .12 –.08 .09 –.30***
Language, Narrative, and Specifity It comes to me in words. It comes to me as a coherent story. It comes to me in pieces with missing bits. My memory is based on details specific to my life. PTSD Symptoms (from PCL-S)
Note: All correlations involving gender are bivariate correlations. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
–.16* –.15* –.16*
Availability This memory has come to me out of the blue. I have thought about this event. I have talked about this event.
–.01 .15* –.07 .01 –.17**
.11 .15* .08
.01 –.02 .08 –.12 .12
–.05 –.10 –.12
.07 .04 –.08 .06 .08
.11 .08 .12
.15* –.05 .19** .07 —
.41*** .34*** .45***
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(Carstensen et al., 1999; Corr & Corr, 2013), reflecting the importance attached to mortality salience as a motivating influence on the choices older persons make in devaluing instrumental life goals and relationships in favor of those that are emotionally fulfilling and supportive, consistent with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (see also Karp, 1988). In this light, a random sample of approximately 15% of the events nominated was coded by the second author and a graduate-level research assistant. The Kappa measure of agreement value was .84. The second author coded the remaining events. Reflecting the differential priority attached to the loss of others in later life, as reported in Boals et al. (2012), older adults were more likely to nominate the death of a loved one (n = 44 vs. 20), while younger adults were more likely to nominate events that fell into the “other” category (e.g., war, drug use, etc.; n = 33 vs. 10), c2 (4) = 22.01, p < .001. To control for these differences in our analyses, events were coded as a death of a loved one (dummy coded as 1, the death of a loved one) or 0 (all others), as was the “other category” (1 = coded as “other,” 0 = all others). An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the recency of events nominated for older and younger adults. There was a significant difference in recency, where the months-since-event for older adults was much greater (M = 295.6, SD = 218.8) than for younger adults (M = 47.0, SD = 50.1), t (237) = 11.90, p < .001, d = 1.25. Because our older and younger adult samples differed in terms of the type of events nominated (both death related or not and other or not), how long ago the event occurred, and to an extent by gender, it is important to include these variables as covariates when examining differences in recall of autobiographical memories between younger and older adults in our sample. RESULTS To address the question of the relationship between age, autobiographical memory, and positivity, we examined age-related differences in the ratings of phenomenological properties of the negative autobiographical memories, as measured by the AMQ and PCL. We first examined the correlations between the covariates and the outcome measures. As can be seen in Table 1, time since event and whether the event was death-related or not evidenced relationships with emotional reactions and PTSD symptoms. In addition, correlations between PTSD symptoms and items on the AMQ generally replicated previous findings (Rubin et al., 2004, 2008). That is, PTSD symptoms were significantly related to items measuring recollection and belief and availability, but the strongest correlations were with items reflecting emotional reactions. These correlations did not differ significantly between younger and older adults. A one-way (by age group membership) MANOVA examined whether older and younger adults rated their memories differently on the outcome measures. This analysis yielded a main effect for age group membership, Wilk’s
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Lambda = .53, F(25, 205) = 7.38, p < .001. Table 2 indicates that when no covariates were included, older adults rated their memories lower on back to the time, persuaded, negative emotions, all four measures of visceral emotions (heart, tense, sweaty, and butterflies), and PTSD symptoms (from the PCL-S), and higher on coherent story, positive emotions, and specific to my life. We next conducted a similar one-way MANCOVA in which type of events nominated (both death related or not and other or not), how long ago the event occurred, and gender were included as covariates. This analysis yielded a Wilk’s Lambda = .64, F(25, 194) = 4.24, p < .001. As shown in Table 2, this analysis suggested a very similar pattern of results speaking to age effects in autobiographical memory. However, for some outcomes, the inclusion of these covariates reduced the effect size of age’s impact in this respect. The reduction in effect size was most pronounced for persuaded, positive emotions, negative emotions, tense, sweaty, and coherent story. However, back to the time, heart, butterflies, and most importantly, PCL-S scores evidenced little change in effect sizes when the covariates were included. Thus, even after controlling for a number of potentially confounding variables, findings suggested that older adults still rated negative autobiographical memories as less negative. DISCUSSION In this study, we set out to examine whether the cognitive biases observed in older adults to maximize the experience of pleasant emotions would extend to the active process of recollecting autobiographical memories of negative events. This goal reflects the importance attached to adaptive role of emotional regulation in appraising events as less negative in nature and/or as less emotionally intense among older persons (see Charles, 2011) to minimize the potentially negative and/or dysfunctional emotional experiences that may accompany the recall of such events. The primary findings here supported our hypothesis, in that older adults rated their recollections of a past negative experience in a manner that reduced unpleasant emotional experiences. Specifically, in comparison to younger adults, older adults rated their memories as having less of a sense of traveling back to the time the event occurred, less visceral emotional reactions, fewer associated negative emotions, and they reported fewer PTSD symptoms (intrusive thoughts, avoidance, hyper-arousal). This might suggest that older adults’ ability to: a) remain in the present, emotionally speaking, b) minimize the physiological/ visceral aspects of the recall of negative life events, and c) to respond in a less intense manner to the recall of such events are all adaptive. As an inability to regulate one’s emotions can have adverse consequences for one’s relationships with others, one’s physical health, and one’s response to both acute and chronic illness in later life (see Charles, 2011), the findings here have implications for minimizing the adverse effects of negative life events on older persons. Such
4.0 (1.7) 3.7 (1.8) 5.7 (1.7) 6.5 (1.1) 1.7 (1.2)
4.8 (1.7) 5.5 (1.7) 5.9 (1.4) 4.1 (1.9)
3.8 (1.7) 3.7 (1.8) 4.1 (2.0) 2.9 (2.0) 4.4 (2.1) 2.4 (1.7) 2.6 (1.8) 1.6 (1.1) 1.7 (1.3)
Sensory I can see it in my mind. I see it out of my own eyes. (field/observer) I can recall the setting where it occurred. I can hear it in my mind.
Emotions I feel the same emotions I felt then. I feel the emotions as strongly as I did them. The emotions are extremely intense. The emotions are extremely positive. The emotions are extremely negative. I feel my heart pound or race. I feel tense all over. I feel sweaty or clammy. I feel knots, cramps, or butterflies in my stomach.
Older
Recollection and Belief I am reliving the original event. I travel back to the time when it happened. I remember it rather than just knowing it happened. I believe the event in my memory really occurred. I could be persuaded that my memory was wrong.
AMQ item
4.0 (1.6) 3.8 (1.6) 4.4 (1.5) 2.3 (1.5) 5.2 (1.5) 3.5 (1.7) 3.6 (1.7) 2.4 (1.4) 3.3 (1.8)
5.0 (1.5) 5.4 (1.6) 6.1 (1.1) 4.5 (1.7)
3.6 (1.8) 4.5 (1.7) 5.7 (1.7) 6.2 (1.2) 2.4 (1.5)
Younger
Without covariates
1.20 0.25 2.44 8.72*** 11.39*** 29.15*** 20.61*** 24.44*** 74.72***
0.44 0.04 2.02 2.11
1.75 13.40*** 0.01 2.75 18.05***
F
.01 .01 .02 .06 .08 .17 .13 .08 .35
.01 .01 .01 .01
.01 .05 .01 .01 .07
h2
0.09 0.14 0.73 3.90* 5.80* 12.45*** 4.19* 6.31* 25.26***
1.48 0.59 1.61 1.22
1.89 12.32*** 0.26 2.30 6.25*
F
With covariates
Table 2. Differences between Older and Younger Adults, With and Without Covariates
.01 .01 .01 .03 .04 .08 .03 .02 .12
.01 .01 .01 .01
.01 .08 .01 .01 .03
h2
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3.7 (2.0) 5.1 (1.8) 3.1 (1.8) 5.7 (1.7) 23.4 (7.4)
3.4 (1.7) 4.9 (1.6) 4.0 (1.6)
3.6 (1.7) 4.4 (1.7) 3.2 (1.9) 5.2 (1.5) 30.5 (11.8)
3.8 (1.7) 5.2 (1.4) 3.9 (1.6)
Note: Covariates = death-related event; “other” event; gender; and months-since-event. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
Language, Narrative, and Specificity It comes to me in words. It comes to me as a coherent story. It comes to me in pieces with missing bits. My memory is based on details specific to my life. PTSD Symptoms (from PCL-S)
Availability This memory has come to me out of the blue. I have thought about this event. I have talked about this event.
0.01 12.22*** 0.28 4.85* 37.79***
3.38 2.78 0.02
.01 .08 .01 .03 .13
.02 .01 .01
0.38 10.09** 0.37 2.43 10.57***
1.40 0.35 5.18*
.01 .07 .01 .01 .04
.01 .01 .03
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events are likely to principally reflect losses of many types, that is, widowhood, illness, retirement, especially when such losses are unpredictable and/or imposed upon the individual (Danish, 1981; Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996). Viewed in the broader context of successful aging (see Rowe & Kahn, 1995, 1997, 1999), although older adults are often viewed in stereotypically negative terms (see Hummert, 2011), much work suggests that older adults can indeed utilize a variety of coping strategies to preserve their self esteem and protect their emotional health. In this respect, previous work has pointed to differing motivations in attention (Kennedy et al., 2004), the utilization of secondary coping strategies (Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996, Schulz, Wrosch, & Heckhausen, 2003), and the influence of memory recall biases (Ready, Weinberger, & Jones, 2007) in explaining the positivity effect. While our findings are consistent with attention to such processes, more work is necessary to explicitly link such processes to the autobiographical memory of negative life events and/or study longitudinally the relationship between the actual exposure to negative life events and the manner in which such events are later recalled among younger and older adults (see Charles, 2011). Collectively, these findings are consistent with the ability of older persons to regulate their emotions in an adaptive manner in the face of the recall of negative life events (see Charles, 2011). It is to be noted that Mickley and Kensigner (2009) found a similar pattern of results, but their findings were limited to events associated with low arousal and their study examined responses to affectively charged pictures. In contrast, the current study examined autobiographical memories elicited in the absence of stimuli specifically presented to persons, that is, negative events which they themselves nominated. In the present study, older adults, in comparison to younger adults, also recalled more positive emotions associated with the event, a finding which replicates the findings of Comblain et al. (2005). Importantly, our findings extend previous work findings in including measures of visceral emotional reactions and PTSD symptoms. These two sets of outcomes evidenced the largest age-related differences in the present study, significant in that they are important in understanding older persons’ potential physiological vulnerability in responding emotionally to negative experiences as well as their potential differential sensitivity to trauma (Charles, 2011; Harvey & Miller, 2000). It is to be noted that some of these age-related differences were smaller after controlling for type of event and time-since-event, each of which are salient concerns in understanding the impact of recalled events across the adult life span. The current finding that older adults experience fewer PTSD symptoms having evoked a negative memory is also consistent with previous research dealing with the relationship between exposure to trauma and PTSD among older persons (Creamer & Parslow, 2008). Importantly, in the present study, it is not the case that older adults had more difficulty remembering the event, as evidenced by their
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higher ratings of belief in the accuracy of their memory (as measured by the persuaded item) and that the memory comes as a coherent story. There were also no differences between older and younger adults on items measuring sensory features (visual, auditory, etc.). This finding is consistent with the observation by Charles (2011) that attending to the potential role of visual and/or auditory in understanding the differential response to emotional stimuli among younger and older persons is important. Perhaps most importantly, the differences we observed here regarding younger and older persons’ autobiographical memory for negative events are consistent with the Strength and Vulnerability Integration Theory (SAVI) of emotional regulation espoused by Charles (2011) in emphasizing the adaptive role of event appraisal and the prioritizing of positive emotional states over negative ones when negative and/or stressful life events are encountered. Despite its contribution to the literature on emotional regulation and aging, the current study contains some limitations of note. First, the older and younger adult samples differed in terms of recruitment source: the younger adults were recruited from a college campus whereas the older adults were recruited from the community. However, rates of trauma exposure and associated symptoms in college student samples are comparable to that of the general population (Bernat, Ronfeldt, Calhoun, & Arias, 1998; Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008). While no autobiographical memories of positive or neutral events were included for comparison here, the findings of Schryer and Ross (2012) suggest that age-related positive rating biases generalize across event valence. Also, the outcome measures were self-reports of phenomenological characteristics, and thus, the observed age differences here may be a result of response biases, as opposed to actual experiences. The present study’s findings implicate an additional means of promoting emotional well-being in later life, wherein regarding the recall of autobiographical events of a negative nature, older adults imbue such events with more positive emotions and consequently our findings point to the adaptive significance of this phenomenon, key to the definition of the self at present and in the future in later life (McAdams et al., 2006; Singer, 1995). These findings are also consistent in this respect with our work illustrating that older persons minimize less negative emotional reactivity in relation to traumatic and stressful events by not construing these events as a central part of their identity (Boals, Hayslip, Knowles, & Banks, 2012). Importantly, the present pattern of findings held, even when controlling for the type of and recency of the remembered event. Our findings may suggest an additional avenue for cognitive therapeutic interventions with older adults focusing on the purposeful reinforcement of and/or the facilitation of recall bias as a means of coping with adversity (see Boals et al., 2012; Laidlaw, Thompson, Dick-Siskin, & Gallagher-Thompson, 2003; Zarit, 2009). In this respect, such age-related recall biases are consistent with the notion that older adults are indeed emotionally resilient in the face of negative life
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experiences that have the potential to undermine well-being and compromise one’s ability to cope with stressful everyday life events (see Diehl, Hay, & Chui, 2012; Smith & Hayslip, 2012). REFERENCES Baltes, P. B. (1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: Selection, optimiziation, and compensation in developmental theory. American Psychologist, 52, 366-379. Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. (1990). Successful aging: Perspectives from the social sciences. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Baltes, P. B., Smith, J., Staudinger, U., & Sowarka, D. (1990). Wisdom: One facet of successful aging? In M. Perlmutter (Ed.), Late life potential (pp. 63-82). Washington, DC: Gerontological Society of America. Bernat, J., Ronfeldt, H., Calhoun, K., & Arias, I. (1998). Prevalence of traumatic events and peritraumatic predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms in a nonclinical sample of college students. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 11, 645-664. Berntsen, D., Rubin, D. C., & Siegler, I. C. (2011). Two versions of life: Emotionally negative and positive life events have different roles in the organization of life story and identity. Emotion, 11, 1190-1201. Birditt, K. S., & Fingerman, K. L. (2003). Age and gender differences in adults’ descriptions of emotional reactions to interpersonal problems. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 237-245. Blanchard, E. B., Jones-Alexander, J., Buckley, T. C., & Foneris, C. A. (1996). Psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 669-673. Blanchard-Fields, F. (2007). Everyday problem solving and emotion: An adult developmental perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 26-31. Boals, A. (2010). Autobiographical memories that have become central to identity: Gender differences in the Centrality of Events Scale for positive and negative events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 107-121. Boals, A., Banks, J. B., & Hayslip, B. (2012). A self-administered, mild form of exposure therapy for older adults. Aging and Mental Health, 16, 154-161. Boals, A., Hayslip, B., Knowles, L., & Banks, J. B. (2012). Perceiving a negative event as central to one’s identity partially mediates age differences in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Journal of Aging and Health, 24, 459-474. Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73-99. Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D., & Charles, S. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54, 165-181. Carstensen, L. L., Pasupathi, M., Mayr, U., & Nesselroade, J. (2000). Emotional experience in everyday life across the adult life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 644-655. Charles, S. T. (2011). Emotional experience and regulation in later life. In K. W. Schaie & S. L. Willis (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 295-310). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Charles, S. T., Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2003). Aging and emotional memory: The forgettable nature of negative images for older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132, 310-324.
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Charles, S. T., Reynolds, C. A., & Gatz, M. (2001). Age-related differences and change in positive and negative affect over 23 years. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 136-151. Comblain, C., D’Argembeau, A., & Van der Linden, M. (2005). Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for emotional and neutral events in older and younger adults. Experimental Aging Research, 31, 173-189. Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261-288. Corr, C., & Corr, D. (2013). Death and dying: Life and living. Belmont, CA: Thomson. Creamer, M., & Parslow, R. (2008). Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in the elderly: A community prevalence study. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16, 853-856. Danish, S. J. (1981). Life-span development and intervention; A necessary link. Counseling Psychologist, 9, 40-43. Diehl, M., Hay, E. L., & Chui, H. (2012). Personal risk and resilience factors in the context of daily stress. In B. Hayslip & G. Smith (Eds.), Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics: Emerging Perspectives on Resilience in Adulthood and Later Life (pp. 251-274). New York, NY: Springer. Foa, E. B., Molnar, C., & Cashman, L. (1995). Change in rape narratives during exposure to therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8, 675-690. Gross, J. J., Carstensen, L. L., Pasupathi, M., Tsai, J. L., Goetestam Skorpen, C., & Hsu, A. Y. C. (1997). Emotion and aging: Experience, expression, and control. Psychology and Aging, 12, 590-599. Grühn, D., Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (2005). No aging bias favoring memory for positive material: Evidence from a heterogeneity-homogeneity list paradigm using emotionally toned words. Psychology and Aging, 20, 579-588. Hansson, R., & Hayslip, B. (2000). Widowhood in later life. In J. H. Harvey & E. D. Miller (Eds.), Loss and trauma: General and close relationship perspectives (pp. 343-355). Philadelphia, PA: Brunner/Mazel. Harvey, A. G., & Bryant, R. A. (1999). A qualitative investigation of the organization of traumatic memories. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 401-405. Harvey, J. H., & Miller, E. D. (2000). Loss and trauma: General and close relationship perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: Brunner/Mazel. Hayslip, B., Hicks-Patrick, J., & Panek, P. (2011). Adult development and aging (5th ed.). Melbourne, FL: Krieger. Horowitz, M. J. (1975). Intrusive and repetitive thoughts after experimental stress. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 1457-1463. Hummert, M. L. (2011). Age stereotypes and aging. In K. W. Schaie & S. L. Willis (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging: (7th ed.; pp. 249-262). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. Karp, D. A. (1988). A decade of reminders: Changing age consciousness between fifty and sixty years old. The Gerontologist, 28, 727-738. Kennedy, Q., Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2004). The role of motivation in the age-related positivity effect in autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15, 208-214. Keightly, M. L., Wincour, G., Burianova, H., Hongwanishkul, D., & Grady, C. (2006). Age effects on social cognition: Faces tell as different story. Psychology and Aging, 21, 558-572.
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Laidlaw, K., Thompson, L. W., Dick-Siskin, L., & Gallagher-Thompson, D. (2003). Cognitive behaviour therapy with older people. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155-184. Levenson, R. W. (2000). Expressive, physiological, and subjective changes in emotion across adulthood. In S. Qualls & N. Abeles (Eds.), How we adapt to a longer life (pp. 123-140). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Levine, L. J., & Bluck, S. (1997). Experienced and remembered emotional intensity in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 12, 514-523. Loftus, E. F. (2004). Memories of things unseen. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 145-147. Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Deiner, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855. Magai, C., Consedine, N., Krivoshekova, Y., Kudadjie-Gyamfi, E., & McPherson, R. (2006). Emotional experience and expression across the adult life span: Insights from a multimodal assessment study. Psychology and Aging, 21, 203-217. Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2003). Aging and attentional biases for emotional faces. Psychological Science, 14, 409-415. Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2005). Aging and motivated cognition: The positivity effect in attention and memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 496-502. McAdams, D. P., Josselson, R., & Lieblich, A. (2006). Identity and story: Creating self in narrative. Washington, DC: APA Books. Mickley, K. R., & Kensinger, E. A. (2009). Phenomenological characteristics of emotional memories in younger and older adults. Memory, 17, 528-543. Mitchell, R. (2007). Age-related decline in the ability to decode emotional prosody: Primary or secondary phenomenon. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 1435-1454. Mroczek, D. K., & Kolarz, C. M. (1998). The effect of age on positive and negative affect: A developmental perspective on happiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1333-1349. Pennebaker, J. W., Mayne, T. J., & Francis, M. E. (1997). Linguistic predictors of adaptive bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 863-871. Ready, R. E., Weinberger, M. I., & Jones, K. M. (2007). How happy have you felt lately? Two diary studies of emotion recall in older and younger adults. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 728-757. Rowe, J., & Kahn, R. (1995). Successful aging. New York, NY: Dell. Rowe, J., & Kahn, R. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37, 433-440. Rowe, J., & Kahn, R. (1999). Successful aging: The MacArthur Foundation Report. New York, NY: Pantheon. Rubin, D. C. (2005). A basic-systems approach to autobiographical memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 79-83. Rubin, D. C. (2006). The basic-systems model of episodic memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 277-311. Rubin, D. C., Boals, A., & Berntsen, D. (2008). Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: Properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and non-traumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without PTSD symptoms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137, 591-614.
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Rubin, D. C., Feldman, M. E., & Beckham, J. C. (2004). Reliving, emotions, and fragmentation in the autobiographical memories of veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 17-35. Rubin, D. C., Schrauf, R. W., & Greenburg, D. L. (2003). Belief and recollection of autobiographical memories. Memory & Cognition, 31, 887-901. Schlagman, S., Schulz, J., & Kvavilashvili, L. (2006). A content analysis of involuntary autobiographical memories: Examining the positivity effect in old age. Memory, 14, 161-175. Schryer, E., & Ross, M. (2012). Evaluating the valence of remembered events: The importance of age and self-relevance. Psychology and Aging, 27, 237-242. Schulz, R., & Heckhausen, J. (1996). A life span model of successful aging. American Psychologist, 51, 702-714. Schulz, R., Wrosch, C., & Heckhausen, J. (2003). The life span theory of control: Issues and evidence. In S. H. Zarit, L. I. Pearlin, K. Schaie, S. H. Zarit, L. I. Pearlin, K. Schaie (Eds.), Personal control in social and life course contexts (pp. 233-262). New York, NY: Springer. Singer, J. A. (1995). Seeing one’s self: Locating narrative memory in a framework of personality. Journal of Personality, 63, 429-457. Smith, G., & Hayslip, B. (2012). Resilience in adulthood and later life: What is it and why are we going? In B. Hayslip & G. Smith (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: Emerging perspectives on resilience in adulthood and later life (pp. 3-28). New York, NY: Springer. Smyth, J. M., Hockemeyer, J. R., Heron, K. E., Wonderlich, S. A., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Prevalence, type, disclosure, and severity of adverse life events in college students. Journal of American College Health, 57, 69-76. Sutin, A. R., & Robins, R. W. (2008). Going forward by drawing from the past: Personal strivings, personally meaningful memories, and personality traits. Journal of Personality, 76, 631-664. Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Zarit, S. H. (2009). A good old age: Theories of mental health and aging. In V. L. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N. Putney, & D. Gans (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (pp. 675-692.). New York, NY: Springer.
Direct reprint requests to: Adriel Boals Dept. of Psychology University of North Texas Box 311280 Denton, TX 76203 e-mail: [email protected]
AGE DIFFERENCES IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES OF NEGATIVE EVENTS
ADRIEL BOALS BERT HAYSLIP JR. JONATHAN B. BANKS University of North Texas, Denton
ABSTRACT
This study examined whether older adults recollect autobiographical memories of negative events so as to minimize unpleasant emotions to a greater extent than do younger adults. A sample of healthy older adults (N = 126) and younger adults (N = 119) completed the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire and a measure of PTSD symptoms in response to their most negative recalled event. Results supported the hypothesis that older adults rated their negative memories as having: 1) less of a sense of traveling back to the time the event occurred, 2) less associated visceral emotional reactions, 3) fewer associated negative emotions, and 4) fewer PTSD symptoms, all relative to younger adults. In addition, older adults exhibited higher ratings of belief in accuracy, higher ratings that the memory comes as a coherent story, and more associated positive emotions, again all relative to younger adults. After controlling for differences between the types of events younger and older adults reported and how long ago the event occurred, the above age differences remained statistically significant, though the effect sizes were attenuated in some cases. These results are consistent in their support for the positivity effect, and suggest that older adults modify their recollections of negative events in a manner that is emotionally adaptive for them. 47 Ó 2014, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/AG.78.1.d http://baywood.com
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INTRODUCTION Numerous studies have documented that the frequency of experiencing negative emotions varies with age, such that older adults report fewer negative emotions than do younger adults (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000; Charles, Reynolds, & Gatz, 2001). One possible reason for this phenomenon is that adults appear to improve their ability to regulate their emotions with increasing age (Gross, Carstensen, Pasupathi, Tsai, Goetestam Skorpen, & Hsu, 1997). This reduction in negative emotions extends to areas of memory and cognition. For example, older adults are less likely to pay attention to negative information (Mather & Carstensen, 2003) and to recall or recognize negative information (Charles, Mather, & Cartstensen, 2003). Although younger and older adults experience roughly equivalent frequencies of involuntary memories (memories not intentionally retrieved), older adults tend to report very few negative involuntary memories (Schlagman, Schulz, & Kvavilashvili, 2006). These biases reflecting a preference of the positive over the negative are referred to as the positivity effect (Mather & Carstensen, 2005; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998; Schryer & Ross, 2012) or alternatively the reduced negativity effect (Grühn, Smith, & Baltes, 2005). The above reported age-related biases that reflect the positivity effect also impact the recollection of autobiographical memories. Recollecting autobiographical memories is an active reconstructive process that combines various features of memory such as sensory information, narrative features, language, and emotion (Rubin, 2005, 2006). Which details of an event are recalled can vary each time memories of that event are elicited, often times based on the current goals of the self (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and as such are prone to distortions (Loftus, 2004). The importance attached to the positivity effect as it relates to autobiographical memory is underscored by the fact that memories of one’s personal past are a core component of the self and play a central role in defining oneself (Singer, 1995). They give meaning and continuity to one’s sense of self and life story (McAdams, Josselson, & Lieblich, 2006). In addition, the manner in which autobiographical memories are recalled can influence behavior and goals (Sutin & Robins, 2008) and affect both mental and physical health (Boals, 2010; Rubin, Boals, & Berntsen, 2008). As do younger adults, older adults who construe a negative experience as central to their life story experience worse mental health outcomes (Berntsen, Rubin, & Siegler, 2011). Given that older adults have a bias toward the positive and strategically employ emotion regulation strategies, it is possible that older adults utilize biases and cognitive distortions when recollecting autobiographical memories as a means of coping with the otherwise negative emotional impact of doing so. Indeed, it has been suggested that remembering past personal events in a positive light can be an effective emotion regulation strategy and contribute to the positivity effect (Mather & Carstensen,
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2005). For example, recalling a past negative event as less emotionally intense over time may reflect the evocation of a coping strategy, in contrast to the possibility that the event itself decreases in intensity over time, making it more difficult to recall. In this respect, the use of such selectivity as a coping strategy in the recall of negative events has been documented in older adults (Levine & Bluck, 1997). Autobiographical memory may be a useful way to examine the positivity effect. Once an event has ended, it is the memory of the event that allows that event to continue to affect an individual’s psychological state. Past research has found that highly emotional memories can be difficult to forget (Brown & Kulik, 1977; LeDoux, 2000) and can be frequently brought into conscious awareness without volition (Horowitz, 1975). Stressful memories may be well-remembered due to phenomenological and organization features in memory. Generally speaking, the degree of aberration in memory features has been linked with both physical and mental health outcomes (Foa, Molnar, & Cashman, 1995; Harvey & Bryant, 1999; Pennebaker, Mayne, & Francis, 1997). Evidence contributing to the utility of the positivity effect in younger versus older adults can speak to the manner in which older persons cope with emotionally painful and/or stressful experiences in either preferring to remember events in positive terms or in minimizing their affective intensity. This generally positive orientation to the understanding of the emotional experiences of older persons has been discussed in the context of the theory of Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) (Charles, 2011). This theory stresses the coexistence of strengths, that is, positive adaptive capacities (e.g., appraising events as less emotionally intense or less negative in tone; remembering events in a manner which minimizes negative feelings) and age-related physiological vulnerabilities (e.g., higher blood pressure, increased reaction time, neurologically-based changes in the processing of emotional stimuli) in understanding older adults’ emotional arousal in the face of stress, loss, or change (see Levenson, 2000; Mitchell, 2007; Keightly, Wincour, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006). In this light, among older adults, a propensity to experience positive emotions predicts more rapid recovery from illness, better physical health, and stronger relationships with others (Lyubomirsky, King, & Deiner, 2005). Each of these factors is key to successful aging (Rowe & Kahn, 1995, 1997, 1998). This age-related ability to emphasize positive well-being via emotional regulation is also consistent with discussions about the adaptive role of wisdom in later life (Baltes, Smith, Staudinger, & Sowarka, 1990) and with the tenets of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, wherein as a function of an awareness of time left to live, there is an age-related shift in relationships; those that are intimate in nature are increasingly valued and preferred to those which are knowledgebased in nature (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). The positivity effect among older persons is also consistent with Selection, Optimization, and Compensation Theory (Baltes & Baltes, 1990), which stresses the purposeful
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narrowing of one’s life space and the attainment of expertise as a means of coping with age-related losses in function. In the context of the above discussion of emotional regulation and aging, it is important to point out that to date, studies designed to explain the positivity effect as it relates to autobiographical memory in later life have been limited. In one case, in comparison to memories of positive or neutral events, older adults were found to recall negative memories with more positive emotions and a less complex storyline (Comblain, D’Argembeau, & Van der Linden, 2005). The results of this study suggest older adults may reappraise negative events in a more positive manner. Another study found that older adults are less likely to construe a negative event as central to their identity (Boals, Banks, & Hayslip, 2012), again reflecting a positivity reporting bias. A study of nuns who reported their health behaviors and then attempted to recollect these behaviors 14 years later found that older nuns were more likely than younger nuns to inaccurately remember their past behaviors as more positive (Kennedy, Mather, & Carstensen, 2004). Rationale for the Present Study The goal of the present study was to add to our understanding of possible biases in the recollection of autobiographical memories for negative events between older and younger adults. While the present design is similar to the above discussed Comblain, D’Argembeau, and Van der Linden (2005) study, that is, persons nominated a negative life event and then completed a questionnaire about the phenomenal characteristics of its memory, that is, vividness, sensory details, ability to recall the setting, the present study builds upon Comblain et al. in incorporating several potentially important control variables, that is, the nature of the negative events nominated. In this respect, the negative events nominated by older adults may vary in important ways from those nominated by younger adults, such as whether the event was death-related or not and how long ago the event occurred. This is important in that older adults will likely have experienced more death-related events than younger adults (Corr & Corr, 2013; Hansson & Hayslip, 2000; Hayslip, Hicks-Patrick, & Panek, 2011). Given the greater age of older persons, the likelihood that these events as well as others that do not involve loss are more temporally distant is greater. In addition, although Comblain et al. (2005) included two indices of emotions (positive feelings and negative feelings), in the current study we included four measures of visceral emotional reactions, important in light of the increased physiological vulnerability (e.g., greater reactivity, poorer physical health) of older adults in dealing with negative emotional experiences (see Charles, 2011). Additionally, to increase the statistical power of our findings, in contrast to the relatively small samples (N = 40) of younger and older adults in the Comblain
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et al. (2005) study, larger samples (exceeding 100 in each case) of younger and older persons were utilized here. To examine the extent to which negative experiences are recalled in a manner that minimize unpleasant recollections, we included the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ) (Rubin, Schrauf, & Greenberg, 2003). The AMQ measures all known phenomenological properties of autobiographical memories. These properties include recollection and belief, which measure the extent to which the individuals have a sense of reliving when they recall the event and the extent to which they are confident in the accuracy of their memory. Reliving is viewed as a defining property of autobiographical memory (Tulving, 1983). The AMQ also assesses sensory features of autobiographical memory, which include the extent to which the memory comes with visual imagery, auditory sounds, visual perspective, and recall of the setting. The AMQ includes several items relevant to one’s emotions, including emotional intensity, positive/negative emotions, and visceral reactions. In this light, it is important to include visceral reactions in addition to ratings of emotional intensity because visceral reactions commonly occur independently of cognitive judgments (Rubin, Feldman, & Beckham, 2004). In addition, the AMQ assesses properties of a memory’s availability which include the extent to which the individual has thought and talked about the event. Last, the AMQ includes properties of narrative, language, and specificity. These properties include measures of coherence and event centrality. All of these features are basic components of autobiographical memory (Rubin, 2005, 2006) and are especially relevant to emotion regulation. Importantly, they speak to potential qualitative differences in autobiographical recall that may differentiate younger and older adults (see Charles, 2011). These phenomenological properties as measured by the AMQ have also distinguished between trauma memories resulting in PTSD or not (Rubin et al., 2008), where memories associated with PTSD have higher ratings of recollection and belief and more sensory features. Greater amounts of reliving and emotional responses reflect a greater impact of the event on the individual and greater concurrent distress (Rubin et al., 2003). We also included a measure of PTSD symptoms associated with the nominated negative event to assess the level of distress caused by the event. PTSD symptoms are an important outcome measure of the distressing nature of autobiographical memories for negative events (Berntsen et al., 2011; Rubin et al., 2008). In the context of the present study, assessing PTSD symptoms that might mirror the potentially maladaptive consequences of events that reflect, for example, the impact of differential losses across adulthood whose occurrence cannot be predicted, i.e., nonnormative events (see Baltes, 1997). Indeed, older adults may be especially vulnerable in their ability to deal with events they cannot predict and/or control (Danish, 1981; Harvey & Miller, 2000).
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In light of the greater experience with negative events among older persons and their impact on them in light of the ability of older persons to regulate their emotions to minimize the impact of negative events on them (see BlanchardFields, 2007; Charles, 2011; Magai, Consedine, Krivoshekova, Kudadjie-Gyamfi, & McPherson, 2006), we hypothesize that older adults will rate their negative memory as less emotionally arousing (as measured by the emotion items on the AMQ) and report fewer PTSD symptoms. We believe that each of these outcomes reflects an age-related tendency to recall past negative events with a bias toward more positivity. METHOD Participants The younger adult sample consisted of 119 participants (82% female) recruited from the psychology subject pool at the University of North Texas who participated for partial course credit. The mean age was 19.4 (SD = 1.9), with a range of 18-29. While the data here were collected as part of a project dealing with the benefits of expressive writing for older adults (Boals et al., 2012), they have not been published elsewhere. A sample of 126 older adults was recruited from the community via presentations to churches, older adult organizations (e.g., AARP) and through newspaper announcements. Participants were paid $15 for completing the present study. The sample was 73% female and had a mean age of 73.3 (SD = 7.3, range = 60-93). The sample of older adults rated themselves as generally healthy; when asked “How would you rate your overall health” on a scale of 1 = excellent to 5 = poor, participants rated their health as good, M = 2.1, SD = 0.9. We examined whether the gender composition of the older and younger samples differed, important to the extent that there are age and gender differences in emotional reactivity (see Birditt & Fingerman, 2003). The results revealed a non-significant trend in that the percentage of females was somewhat higher in the younger adult sample (82%) than in the older adult sample (73%), c2 (1) = 2.82, p = .09. Although this difference failed to reach conventional levels of significance, we decided to err on the side of caution and thus a dummy coded variable for gender was created to be included in analyses below comparing differences between older and younger adults. Materials Nomination of Negative Event
Participants were asked to nominate “a very negative event” from their lives and were given two lines to write a description of the event.
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Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ)
The AMQ (Rubin et al., 2003) is a self-report measure used to assess specific properties of a nominated memory. Participants indicate their level of agreement with each item using a 7-point scale, with different endpoints, depending on the item. Higher ratings reflect greater agreement. Each item is designed to measure a different phenomenological property of an autobiographical memory (Rubin, 2005, 2006). Therefore, there are no subscales and items are typically analyzed individually rather than as a composite score. However, items can be grouped conceptually. A list of these items and their conceptual groupings are included in Table 1. PTSD Checklist (PCL-S)
The PCL-S (Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Foneris, 1996) is a 17-item measure of PTSD symptoms in reference to a specific event. Participants rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much an event has produced each of the 17 DSM-IV-TR B symptoms (intrusiveness), C symptoms (avoidance), and D symptoms (hyper-arousal) of PTSD during the past month. The range of the scale is 17-85. In the current study, the mean score was M = 27.2, SD = 11.0. Cronbach’s alpha is reported by Blanchard et al. (1996) as .94. In the current study, Cronbach’s alpha was .83 for the older adult sample and .92 for the younger adult sample. Procedure After completing an informed consent form, all participants began with the nomination of a negative event from their lives. Participants then completed the AMQ and PCL-S in reference to their nominated negative event. Participants nominated a variety of traumatic or stressful events ranging from the death of a friend or family member to physical assaults. As noted above, it is possible that the types of events nominated may differ in important ways between younger and older adults. Event codes were created by the second author and were chosen to represent type of event without giving value to the severity of events reported. The event codes were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
death of loved one; disruption in important relationship; injury or illness to self or loved one; academic, occupational, or financial event; and unclassifiable event or the participant chose to withhold the nature of the event.
In this respect, attention to the death-related nature of events recalled reflects the differential salience of death and loss among younger versus older adults
–.06 –.10 –.03 .08 –.19**
–.02 –.03 –.05 –.07
–.08 –.07 –.12 .12 –.13 –.23*** –.24*** –.22*** –.38***
Sensory I can see it in my mind. I see it out of my own eyes. (field/observer) I can recall the setting where it occurred. I can hear it in my mind.
Emotions I feel the same emotions I felt then. I feel the emotions as strongly as I did them. The emotions are extremely intense. The emotions are extremely positive. The emotions are extremely negative. I feel my heart pound or race. I feel tense all over. I feel sweaty or clammy. I feel knots, cramps, or butterflies in my stomach.
Months since event
Recollection and Belief I am reliving the original event. I travel back to the time when it happened. I remember it rather than just knowing it happened. I believe the event in my memory really occurred. I could be persuaded that my memory was wrong.
AMQ item
–.01 –.04 –.04 .04 –.16* –.11 –.18** –.16* –.15*
.08 .07 –.01 .01
.09 .01 .14* .04 –.21**
Death event
.08 –.01 –.01 –.03 .05 .06 .10 .10 .24***
–.11 –.03 –.04 –.04
–.13* .01 –.21** –.07 .17**
Other event
Covariate
–.02 .06 .02 –.06 .02 .13* .09 .09 .05
.09 .05 .05 .05
–.01 .13* .19** .12 –.12
Gender
Table 1. Correlations between Outcome Measures and Covariates and PCL Scores (PTSD Symptoms)
.28*** .27*** .36*** –.15* .26*** .41*** .50*** .46*** .45***
.19** .08 .05 .22***
.17** .36*** –.01 –.03 .18**
PCL
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–.04 .12 –.08 .09 –.30***
Language, Narrative, and Specifity It comes to me in words. It comes to me as a coherent story. It comes to me in pieces with missing bits. My memory is based on details specific to my life. PTSD Symptoms (from PCL-S)
Note: All correlations involving gender are bivariate correlations. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
–.16* –.15* –.16*
Availability This memory has come to me out of the blue. I have thought about this event. I have talked about this event.
–.01 .15* –.07 .01 –.17**
.11 .15* .08
.01 –.02 .08 –.12 .12
–.05 –.10 –.12
.07 .04 –.08 .06 .08
.11 .08 .12
.15* –.05 .19** .07 —
.41*** .34*** .45***
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(Carstensen et al., 1999; Corr & Corr, 2013), reflecting the importance attached to mortality salience as a motivating influence on the choices older persons make in devaluing instrumental life goals and relationships in favor of those that are emotionally fulfilling and supportive, consistent with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (see also Karp, 1988). In this light, a random sample of approximately 15% of the events nominated was coded by the second author and a graduate-level research assistant. The Kappa measure of agreement value was .84. The second author coded the remaining events. Reflecting the differential priority attached to the loss of others in later life, as reported in Boals et al. (2012), older adults were more likely to nominate the death of a loved one (n = 44 vs. 20), while younger adults were more likely to nominate events that fell into the “other” category (e.g., war, drug use, etc.; n = 33 vs. 10), c2 (4) = 22.01, p < .001. To control for these differences in our analyses, events were coded as a death of a loved one (dummy coded as 1, the death of a loved one) or 0 (all others), as was the “other category” (1 = coded as “other,” 0 = all others). An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the recency of events nominated for older and younger adults. There was a significant difference in recency, where the months-since-event for older adults was much greater (M = 295.6, SD = 218.8) than for younger adults (M = 47.0, SD = 50.1), t (237) = 11.90, p < .001, d = 1.25. Because our older and younger adult samples differed in terms of the type of events nominated (both death related or not and other or not), how long ago the event occurred, and to an extent by gender, it is important to include these variables as covariates when examining differences in recall of autobiographical memories between younger and older adults in our sample. RESULTS To address the question of the relationship between age, autobiographical memory, and positivity, we examined age-related differences in the ratings of phenomenological properties of the negative autobiographical memories, as measured by the AMQ and PCL. We first examined the correlations between the covariates and the outcome measures. As can be seen in Table 1, time since event and whether the event was death-related or not evidenced relationships with emotional reactions and PTSD symptoms. In addition, correlations between PTSD symptoms and items on the AMQ generally replicated previous findings (Rubin et al., 2004, 2008). That is, PTSD symptoms were significantly related to items measuring recollection and belief and availability, but the strongest correlations were with items reflecting emotional reactions. These correlations did not differ significantly between younger and older adults. A one-way (by age group membership) MANOVA examined whether older and younger adults rated their memories differently on the outcome measures. This analysis yielded a main effect for age group membership, Wilk’s
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Lambda = .53, F(25, 205) = 7.38, p < .001. Table 2 indicates that when no covariates were included, older adults rated their memories lower on back to the time, persuaded, negative emotions, all four measures of visceral emotions (heart, tense, sweaty, and butterflies), and PTSD symptoms (from the PCL-S), and higher on coherent story, positive emotions, and specific to my life. We next conducted a similar one-way MANCOVA in which type of events nominated (both death related or not and other or not), how long ago the event occurred, and gender were included as covariates. This analysis yielded a Wilk’s Lambda = .64, F(25, 194) = 4.24, p < .001. As shown in Table 2, this analysis suggested a very similar pattern of results speaking to age effects in autobiographical memory. However, for some outcomes, the inclusion of these covariates reduced the effect size of age’s impact in this respect. The reduction in effect size was most pronounced for persuaded, positive emotions, negative emotions, tense, sweaty, and coherent story. However, back to the time, heart, butterflies, and most importantly, PCL-S scores evidenced little change in effect sizes when the covariates were included. Thus, even after controlling for a number of potentially confounding variables, findings suggested that older adults still rated negative autobiographical memories as less negative. DISCUSSION In this study, we set out to examine whether the cognitive biases observed in older adults to maximize the experience of pleasant emotions would extend to the active process of recollecting autobiographical memories of negative events. This goal reflects the importance attached to adaptive role of emotional regulation in appraising events as less negative in nature and/or as less emotionally intense among older persons (see Charles, 2011) to minimize the potentially negative and/or dysfunctional emotional experiences that may accompany the recall of such events. The primary findings here supported our hypothesis, in that older adults rated their recollections of a past negative experience in a manner that reduced unpleasant emotional experiences. Specifically, in comparison to younger adults, older adults rated their memories as having less of a sense of traveling back to the time the event occurred, less visceral emotional reactions, fewer associated negative emotions, and they reported fewer PTSD symptoms (intrusive thoughts, avoidance, hyper-arousal). This might suggest that older adults’ ability to: a) remain in the present, emotionally speaking, b) minimize the physiological/ visceral aspects of the recall of negative life events, and c) to respond in a less intense manner to the recall of such events are all adaptive. As an inability to regulate one’s emotions can have adverse consequences for one’s relationships with others, one’s physical health, and one’s response to both acute and chronic illness in later life (see Charles, 2011), the findings here have implications for minimizing the adverse effects of negative life events on older persons. Such
4.0 (1.7) 3.7 (1.8) 5.7 (1.7) 6.5 (1.1) 1.7 (1.2)
4.8 (1.7) 5.5 (1.7) 5.9 (1.4) 4.1 (1.9)
3.8 (1.7) 3.7 (1.8) 4.1 (2.0) 2.9 (2.0) 4.4 (2.1) 2.4 (1.7) 2.6 (1.8) 1.6 (1.1) 1.7 (1.3)
Sensory I can see it in my mind. I see it out of my own eyes. (field/observer) I can recall the setting where it occurred. I can hear it in my mind.
Emotions I feel the same emotions I felt then. I feel the emotions as strongly as I did them. The emotions are extremely intense. The emotions are extremely positive. The emotions are extremely negative. I feel my heart pound or race. I feel tense all over. I feel sweaty or clammy. I feel knots, cramps, or butterflies in my stomach.
Older
Recollection and Belief I am reliving the original event. I travel back to the time when it happened. I remember it rather than just knowing it happened. I believe the event in my memory really occurred. I could be persuaded that my memory was wrong.
AMQ item
4.0 (1.6) 3.8 (1.6) 4.4 (1.5) 2.3 (1.5) 5.2 (1.5) 3.5 (1.7) 3.6 (1.7) 2.4 (1.4) 3.3 (1.8)
5.0 (1.5) 5.4 (1.6) 6.1 (1.1) 4.5 (1.7)
3.6 (1.8) 4.5 (1.7) 5.7 (1.7) 6.2 (1.2) 2.4 (1.5)
Younger
Without covariates
1.20 0.25 2.44 8.72*** 11.39*** 29.15*** 20.61*** 24.44*** 74.72***
0.44 0.04 2.02 2.11
1.75 13.40*** 0.01 2.75 18.05***
F
.01 .01 .02 .06 .08 .17 .13 .08 .35
.01 .01 .01 .01
.01 .05 .01 .01 .07
h2
0.09 0.14 0.73 3.90* 5.80* 12.45*** 4.19* 6.31* 25.26***
1.48 0.59 1.61 1.22
1.89 12.32*** 0.26 2.30 6.25*
F
With covariates
Table 2. Differences between Older and Younger Adults, With and Without Covariates
.01 .01 .01 .03 .04 .08 .03 .02 .12
.01 .01 .01 .01
.01 .08 .01 .01 .03
h2
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3.7 (2.0) 5.1 (1.8) 3.1 (1.8) 5.7 (1.7) 23.4 (7.4)
3.4 (1.7) 4.9 (1.6) 4.0 (1.6)
3.6 (1.7) 4.4 (1.7) 3.2 (1.9) 5.2 (1.5) 30.5 (11.8)
3.8 (1.7) 5.2 (1.4) 3.9 (1.6)
Note: Covariates = death-related event; “other” event; gender; and months-since-event. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
Language, Narrative, and Specificity It comes to me in words. It comes to me as a coherent story. It comes to me in pieces with missing bits. My memory is based on details specific to my life. PTSD Symptoms (from PCL-S)
Availability This memory has come to me out of the blue. I have thought about this event. I have talked about this event.
0.01 12.22*** 0.28 4.85* 37.79***
3.38 2.78 0.02
.01 .08 .01 .03 .13
.02 .01 .01
0.38 10.09** 0.37 2.43 10.57***
1.40 0.35 5.18*
.01 .07 .01 .01 .04
.01 .01 .03
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events are likely to principally reflect losses of many types, that is, widowhood, illness, retirement, especially when such losses are unpredictable and/or imposed upon the individual (Danish, 1981; Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996). Viewed in the broader context of successful aging (see Rowe & Kahn, 1995, 1997, 1999), although older adults are often viewed in stereotypically negative terms (see Hummert, 2011), much work suggests that older adults can indeed utilize a variety of coping strategies to preserve their self esteem and protect their emotional health. In this respect, previous work has pointed to differing motivations in attention (Kennedy et al., 2004), the utilization of secondary coping strategies (Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996, Schulz, Wrosch, & Heckhausen, 2003), and the influence of memory recall biases (Ready, Weinberger, & Jones, 2007) in explaining the positivity effect. While our findings are consistent with attention to such processes, more work is necessary to explicitly link such processes to the autobiographical memory of negative life events and/or study longitudinally the relationship between the actual exposure to negative life events and the manner in which such events are later recalled among younger and older adults (see Charles, 2011). Collectively, these findings are consistent with the ability of older persons to regulate their emotions in an adaptive manner in the face of the recall of negative life events (see Charles, 2011). It is to be noted that Mickley and Kensigner (2009) found a similar pattern of results, but their findings were limited to events associated with low arousal and their study examined responses to affectively charged pictures. In contrast, the current study examined autobiographical memories elicited in the absence of stimuli specifically presented to persons, that is, negative events which they themselves nominated. In the present study, older adults, in comparison to younger adults, also recalled more positive emotions associated with the event, a finding which replicates the findings of Comblain et al. (2005). Importantly, our findings extend previous work findings in including measures of visceral emotional reactions and PTSD symptoms. These two sets of outcomes evidenced the largest age-related differences in the present study, significant in that they are important in understanding older persons’ potential physiological vulnerability in responding emotionally to negative experiences as well as their potential differential sensitivity to trauma (Charles, 2011; Harvey & Miller, 2000). It is to be noted that some of these age-related differences were smaller after controlling for type of event and time-since-event, each of which are salient concerns in understanding the impact of recalled events across the adult life span. The current finding that older adults experience fewer PTSD symptoms having evoked a negative memory is also consistent with previous research dealing with the relationship between exposure to trauma and PTSD among older persons (Creamer & Parslow, 2008). Importantly, in the present study, it is not the case that older adults had more difficulty remembering the event, as evidenced by their
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higher ratings of belief in the accuracy of their memory (as measured by the persuaded item) and that the memory comes as a coherent story. There were also no differences between older and younger adults on items measuring sensory features (visual, auditory, etc.). This finding is consistent with the observation by Charles (2011) that attending to the potential role of visual and/or auditory in understanding the differential response to emotional stimuli among younger and older persons is important. Perhaps most importantly, the differences we observed here regarding younger and older persons’ autobiographical memory for negative events are consistent with the Strength and Vulnerability Integration Theory (SAVI) of emotional regulation espoused by Charles (2011) in emphasizing the adaptive role of event appraisal and the prioritizing of positive emotional states over negative ones when negative and/or stressful life events are encountered. Despite its contribution to the literature on emotional regulation and aging, the current study contains some limitations of note. First, the older and younger adult samples differed in terms of recruitment source: the younger adults were recruited from a college campus whereas the older adults were recruited from the community. However, rates of trauma exposure and associated symptoms in college student samples are comparable to that of the general population (Bernat, Ronfeldt, Calhoun, & Arias, 1998; Smyth, Hockemeyer, Heron, Wonderlich, & Pennebaker, 2008). While no autobiographical memories of positive or neutral events were included for comparison here, the findings of Schryer and Ross (2012) suggest that age-related positive rating biases generalize across event valence. Also, the outcome measures were self-reports of phenomenological characteristics, and thus, the observed age differences here may be a result of response biases, as opposed to actual experiences. The present study’s findings implicate an additional means of promoting emotional well-being in later life, wherein regarding the recall of autobiographical events of a negative nature, older adults imbue such events with more positive emotions and consequently our findings point to the adaptive significance of this phenomenon, key to the definition of the self at present and in the future in later life (McAdams et al., 2006; Singer, 1995). These findings are also consistent in this respect with our work illustrating that older persons minimize less negative emotional reactivity in relation to traumatic and stressful events by not construing these events as a central part of their identity (Boals, Hayslip, Knowles, & Banks, 2012). Importantly, the present pattern of findings held, even when controlling for the type of and recency of the remembered event. Our findings may suggest an additional avenue for cognitive therapeutic interventions with older adults focusing on the purposeful reinforcement of and/or the facilitation of recall bias as a means of coping with adversity (see Boals et al., 2012; Laidlaw, Thompson, Dick-Siskin, & Gallagher-Thompson, 2003; Zarit, 2009). In this respect, such age-related recall biases are consistent with the notion that older adults are indeed emotionally resilient in the face of negative life
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Rubin, D. C., Feldman, M. E., & Beckham, J. C. (2004). Reliving, emotions, and fragmentation in the autobiographical memories of veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 17-35. Rubin, D. C., Schrauf, R. W., & Greenburg, D. L. (2003). Belief and recollection of autobiographical memories. Memory & Cognition, 31, 887-901. Schlagman, S., Schulz, J., & Kvavilashvili, L. (2006). A content analysis of involuntary autobiographical memories: Examining the positivity effect in old age. Memory, 14, 161-175. Schryer, E., & Ross, M. (2012). Evaluating the valence of remembered events: The importance of age and self-relevance. Psychology and Aging, 27, 237-242. Schulz, R., & Heckhausen, J. (1996). A life span model of successful aging. American Psychologist, 51, 702-714. Schulz, R., Wrosch, C., & Heckhausen, J. (2003). The life span theory of control: Issues and evidence. In S. H. Zarit, L. I. Pearlin, K. Schaie, S. H. Zarit, L. I. Pearlin, K. Schaie (Eds.), Personal control in social and life course contexts (pp. 233-262). New York, NY: Springer. Singer, J. A. (1995). Seeing one’s self: Locating narrative memory in a framework of personality. Journal of Personality, 63, 429-457. Smith, G., & Hayslip, B. (2012). Resilience in adulthood and later life: What is it and why are we going? In B. Hayslip & G. Smith (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: Emerging perspectives on resilience in adulthood and later life (pp. 3-28). New York, NY: Springer. Smyth, J. M., Hockemeyer, J. R., Heron, K. E., Wonderlich, S. A., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Prevalence, type, disclosure, and severity of adverse life events in college students. Journal of American College Health, 57, 69-76. Sutin, A. R., & Robins, R. W. (2008). Going forward by drawing from the past: Personal strivings, personally meaningful memories, and personality traits. Journal of Personality, 76, 631-664. Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Zarit, S. H. (2009). A good old age: Theories of mental health and aging. In V. L. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N. Putney, & D. Gans (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (pp. 675-692.). New York, NY: Springer.
Direct reprint requests to: Adriel Boals Dept. of Psychology University of North Texas Box 311280 Denton, TX 76203 e-mail: [email protected]
