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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
Autobiographical remembering and hypermnesia: a comparison of older and younger adults
S Bluck1, L J Levine, T M Laulhere
1Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. bluck@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Abstract:
This study examined age differences in autobiographical memory and extended findings concerning hypermnesia in laboratory tasks to a real world event, the announcement of the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Older and younger adults repeatedly recalled the event in a single session. Interviews were coded for amount and type of accurate information and for errors. The age groups did not differ in ability to recall the gist of the event or in the number of errors made. Younger adults were better at remembering when the event had occurred. Both age groups showed hypermnesia. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of autobiographical memory across the life span and the phenomenon of hypermnesia in everyday memory.
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