Autobiographical memory: Reports in adolescence

A prompt word technique was used to investigate the processes of autobiographical memory in 40 adolescents (aged 12-15 yrs) and 40 undergraduates. Three types of prompts were used: object, action, and affect. Prompt type was found to interact with age for both response time and the reported event age of the memories. Results indicate that affect prompts were responded to differentially by college students but not by adolescents. Affective terms were responded to more slowly and with more recent memories by college students. Changes in the nature of conceptual systems, e.g., levels of abstraction, are suggested as a possible explanation for changes in episodic memory performance. (French abstract) (11 ref)