Destination memory for emotional information in older adults

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Destination memory, remembering the destination of the information that one tells, shows significant age-related decline. In the present paper, the authors sought to determine whether destination memory can be improved in older adults using emotional stimuli. This aim was motivated by findings showing better context memory for emotional than for neutral information in older adults.

Younger and older adults were asked to tell neutral facts to three types of faces: a neutral one, an emotionally positive one, and an emotionally negative one. On a later recognition test, participants were asked to associate each previously told fact with the face to whom it was told.

Destination memory performance was better for facts told to negative than to positive faces, and the latter memory was better than for neutral faces in older adults.

Older adults seem to place higher emphasis on emotional material relative to neutral faces, showing better memory for the association between statements and emotional faces.