Inside and outside the mind: The effects of age,organization, and access to external sources on retrieval of life events

Older and middle-aged adults recorded autobiographical events on one of two forms of a Personal History Calendar, organized either by year-of-occurrence or by life event category. In Experiment 1, calendars were completed in three stages. In Stage 1, subjects completed the calendar from memory (half were told to expect Stage 2). In Stage 2, each subject reviewed Stage 1 responses with his/her spouse. In Stage 3, subjects could consult external sources. The Event Calendar yielded the most complete Stage 1 recall only for the older group. The Year Calendar generally yielded the greatest number of events, but only when members of a couple did not expect Stage 2. In Experiment 2, subjects completed the calendars in one stage, during which they had access to external sources. The Year Calendar elicited more events than the Event Calendar, but only for older subjects. The results are discussed in terms of retrieval processes in autobiographical memory, and implicatons for survey-based research.