Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Destination memory for self-generated actions

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background and aims

There is a substantial body of literature showing memory enhancement for self-generated information in normal aging. The present paper investigated this outcome for destination memory or memory for outputted information.

Methods

In Experiment 1, younger adults and older adults had to place (self-generated actions) and observe an experimenter placing (experiment-generated actions) items into two different destinations (i.e., a black circular box and a white square box). On a subsequent recognition task, the participants had to decide into which box each item had originally been placed. These procedures showed better destination memory for self- than experimenter-generated actions. In Experiment 2, destination and source memory were assessed for self-generated actions. Younger adults and older adults had to place items into the two boxes (self-generated actions), take items out of the boxes (self-generated actions), and observe an experimenter taking items out of the boxes (experiment-generated actions). On a subsequent recognition task, they had to decide into which box (destination memory)/from which box (source memory) each item had originally been placed/taken.

Results

For both populations, source memory was better than destination memory for self-generated actions, and both were better than source memory for experimenter-generated actions.

Discussions and conclusions

Taken together, these findings highlight the beneficial effect of self-generation on destination memory in older adults.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Reference

  1. El Haj M, Moroni C, Luyat M et al (2014) To what extent does destination recall induce episodic reliving? Evidence from Alzheimer’s disease. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 36:127–136

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. El Haj M, Allain P (2014) Role of context recall in destination memory decline in normal aging. Geriatr Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil 12:432–439

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Spencer WD, Raz N (1995) Differential effects of aging on memory for content and context: a meta-analysis. Psychol Aging 10:527–539

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Rajah MN, Kromas M, Han JE (2010) Group differences in anterior hippocampal volume and in the retrieval of spatial and temporal context memory in healthy young versus older adults. Neuropsychologia 48:4020–4030

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Gopie N, Craik FI, Hasher L (2010) Destination memory impairment in older people. Psychol Aging 25:922–928

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. El Haj M, Fasotti L, Allain P (2015) Destination memory for emotional information in older adults. Exp Aging Res 41:204–219

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. El Haj M, Omigie D, Samson S (2015) Destination memory and familiarity: better memory for conversations with Elvis Presley than with unknown people. Aging Clin Exp Res 27:337–344. doi:10.1007/s40520-014-0286-z

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. El Haj M, Raffard S, Gely-Nargeot MC (2015) Destination memory and cognitive theory of mind in normal ageing. Memory 13:1–9. doi:10.1080/09658211.2015.1021257

    Google Scholar 

  9. El Haj M, Postal V, Allain P (2013) Destination memory in Alzheimer’s disease: when I imagine telling Ronald Reagan about Paris. Cortex; A J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 49:82–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. El Haj M, Postal V, Le Gall D (2013) Destination memory in mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Behav Neurol 26:215–216

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Mulligan NW, Lozito JP, Rosner ZA (2006) Generation and context memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 32:836–846

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Slamecka NJ, Graf P (1978) The generation effect: delineation of a phenomenon. J Exp Psychol Hum Learn 4:592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Brown AS, Jones EM, Davis TL (1995) Age differences in conversational source monitoring. Psychol Aging 10:111–122

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. El Haj M, Fasotti L, Allain P (2012) Source monitoring in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Cogn 80:185–191

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR (1975) Mini-mental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 12:189–198

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Deltour J (1993) Echelle de vocabulaire de Mill Hill de JC Raven. Vocabulay scale of JC Raven. Adaptation française et normes européennes du Mill Hill et du Standard Progressive Matrices de Raven (PM38) Braine-le-Château: Editions l’application des techniques modernes

  17. Content A, Mousty P, Radeau M (1990) BRULEX. Une base de données lexicales informatisée pour le français écrit et parlé. = BRULEX: A computerized lexical data base for the French language. L’Année Psychologique 90:551–66

  18. Gopie N, Macleod CM (2009) Destination memory: stop me if I’ve told you this before. Psychol Sci 20:1492–1499

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Marsh EJ, Edelman G, Bower GH (2001) Demonstrations of a generation effect in context memory. Mem Cogn 29:798–805

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Symons CS, Johnson BT (1997) The self-reference effect in memory: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull 121:371–394

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Gutchess AH, Kensinger EA, Schacter DL (2010) Functional neuroimaging of self-referential encoding with age. Neuropsychologia 48:211–219

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Gutchess AH, Kensinger EA, Yoon C (2007) Ageing and the self-reference effect in memory. Memory 15:822–837

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Hamami A, Serbun SJ, Gutchess AH (2011) Self-referencing enhances memory specificity with age. Psychol Aging 26:636–646

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. Ray Cooke for linguistic assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Lille, CNRS, CHU Lille, UMR 9193-SCALab-Sciences Cognitives Et, Sciences Affectives, 59000, Lille, France

    Mohamad El Haj

Authors
  1. Mohamad El Haj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohamad El Haj.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Statement of human and animal rights

Research ethics were applied in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

El Haj, M. Destination memory for self-generated actions. Aging Clin Exp Res 28, 935–941 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0505-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0505-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation