Collaborative Remembering and Reminiscence in Older Adults

This chapter explores the ways in which remembering alone or with others shapes what older adults remember and what they forget, and how such memory activities impact their mental health and well-being. Two related but largely separate bodies of research on older adults are examined, one using a primarily laboratory approach to understand how and when collaborative remembering helps or hinders memory, and the other using descriptive and correlational studies about the functions and values of reminiscing and sharing one’s personal memories with other people. We examine the use and value of reminiscence in healthy community-dwelling older adults, as well as in older adults with some degree of cognitive impairment living in long-term care nursing facilities.