Where did I put my keys? - a 'we' intervention to promote memory in healthy older adults: a controlled pilot study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Numerous behavioural studies have shown that older adults have more difficulty in binding things together and have underlined the corresponding importance of this function in everyday memory tasks. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to test a new brief inter-dependent self-knowledge intervention on memory functions in aging. METHODS: Before engaging in a working memory task based on binding objects and their locations, half of the participants read a series of paragraphs that focused on the individual self and were written in the first person singular 'I' (in-dependent self-knowledge), whereas the other half read paragraphs that focused on the relational self and were written in the first person plural 'We' (inter-dependent self-knowledge). RESULTS: Results showed that older adults who were trained with 'We' passages were more successful in remembering objects and their location compared to the group of participants who were trained with 'I' passages. CONCLUSION: These findings are discussed in terms of the role that social factors may have in favouring memory functions in aging and delineate a new cognitive clinical protocol based on an inter-dependent self-knowledge approach.