"The Way We Were" : retrospective evaluations of memory performance by the elderly
Date
1998
Authors
Crow, Carolyn Barnes
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Abstract
Memory aging beliefs are investigated in the present study. A longitudinal sample of older adult volunteers from a medium-sized metropolitan area was tested on word, story and fact recall 4 times over a 9-year period. On the fourth occasion, they were asked to estimate their present and past performance levels and to rate their current performance relative to: (a) hypothetical comparative targets, and (b) their own past performances. Results indicated that: (a) participants believed their memory performance had declined, (b) task performance was systematically overestimated, (c) performance estimation accuracy was greater for current, than for past occasions for word and fact recall, but not for story recall, (d) global memory self-efficacy was only moderately related to a few memory beliefs variables, and (e) current memory performance beliefs combined with memory change beliefs to predict past performances for both word and story recall, but not for fact recall. Results are interpreted in the framework of Ross' ( 1989) implicit theory hypothesis of memory for attributes of the self.