Collaborative object handling supports autobiographical recall in Alzheimer's disease

Autobiographical memory is impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD), particularly episodic richness and phenomenological detail. Grounded in embodied cognition, this study examined whether collaborative object handling, combining sensorimotor and social interaction, could support autobiographical recall in AD. We recruited 22 patients with mild-to-moderate AD and 20 matched older controls to complete two autobiographical memory conditions in a within-subject design: a condition involving autobiographical recall without objects and a condition involving autobiographical recall supported by collaboratively handling objects. Participants recalled four autobiographical memories, with two memories in the autobiographical recall without objects condition and two in the collaborative object handling condition. Memories were scored for autobiographical richness, event specificity, spatiotemporal anchoring, phenomenological details, long-term recall after 15 min, latency to memory recall, and number of prompts before memory recall. Across both participant groups (AD patients and controls), collaborative object handling increased phenomenological richness, reduced event specificity, and facilitated memory access, as shown by shorter retrieval latencies and fewer prompts. AD patients showed lower overall autobiographical richness, spatiotemporal anchoring, phenomenological richness, and long-term recall than controls. These findings suggest that collaborative object handling may facilitate autobiographical recall in AD by enhancing phenomenological richness and memory accessibility, supporting embodied and socially supported reminiscence approaches.