Memory & Cognition 1997,25 (6),859-866 The distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan

Words were used to cue autobiographical memories from 20-and 70-year-old subjects. Both groups showed a decrease in memories from the childhood years and a power-function retention function for their most recent 10years. Older subjects also had an increase in the number of memories from the ages 10to 30. These results held for individual subjects as well as grouped data and held when either 124or 921 memories were cued. Reaction times to produce memories were constant across decades except for childhood where they were longer. The goals of this project were to study the distribution of autobiographical memories across the adult lifespan in order to (I) test the reliability ofearlier findings while excluding artifactual explanations, (2) quantify such find-ings as precisely as possible while assessing the scope of individual differences that would limit general statements, and (3) try to understand the recall of autobiographical memories in terms ofcurrent methods and theories ofcog-nitive psychology. In past research, similar distribution