Centenarians: their memories and future ambitions

Research investigating how the recall of one's past functions in maintaining psychological well-being and/or adaptation to the aging process is widely scattered and generally inconclusive with regard to significant findings. One way to address the lack of a systematic research thrust is to replicate previous work. The purpose of the study reported herein was to replicate Costa and Kastenbaum's 1967 study of the relationship between past memories and future ambitions of centenarians using data from the Georgia Centenarian Study. Ninety-seven centenarians and 189 eighty- and sixty-year-olds were asked the same four questions as found in the Costa and Kastenbaum study. Contrary to Costa and Kastenbaum's results, no significant relationship was found between the ability to recall three types of past events and being able to conceive of the future in the Georgia study. Other similarities and differences in findings between the two studies are discussed.