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. 2023 Aug;114(3):580-604.
doi: 10.1111/bjop.12639. Epub 2023 Feb 13.

Comparing music- and food-evoked autobiographical memories in young and older adults: A diary study

Kelly Jakubowski  1 , Amy M Belfi  2 , Lia Kvavilashvili  3 , Abbigail Ely  2 , Mark Gill  4 , Gemma Herbert  4
Affiliations

Comparing music- and food-evoked autobiographical memories in young and older adults: A diary study

Kelly Jakubowski et al. Br J Psychol. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Previous research has found that music brings back more vivid and emotional autobiographical memories than various other retrieval cues. However, such studies have often been low in ecological validity and constrained by relatively limited cue selection and predominantly young adult samples. Here, we compared music to food as cues for autobiographical memories in everyday life in young and older adults. In two separate four-day periods, 39 younger (ages 18-34) and 39 older (ages 60-77) adults recorded their music- and food-evoked autobiographical memories in paper diaries. Across both age groups, music triggered more frequent autobiographical memories, a greater proportion of involuntary memories, and memories rated as more personally important in comparison to food cues. Age differences impacted music- and food-evoked memories similarly, with older adults consistently recalling older and less specific memories, which they rated as more positive, vivid, and rehearsed. However, young and older adults did not differ in the number or involuntary nature of their recorded memories. This work represents an important step in understanding the phenomenology of naturally occurring music-evoked autobiographical memories across adulthood and provides new insights into how and why music may be a more effective trigger for personally valued memories than certain other everyday cues.

Keywords: ageing; autobiographical memory; diary methods; involuntary memory; music-evoked autobiographical memory; retrieval cues.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Activities during which autobiographical memories occurred, by cue type. Only activities mentioned 5 or more times are displayed here.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Age at remembered event by cue type and age group. Dotted vertical lines show the current age of the youngest participant in each group (thereby denoting the maximum age for which all participants in the sample would be able to report a memory).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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