Overgeneral autobiographical memory and older adults: a brief overview of the evidence for its existence and the implications for clinical practice

Autobiographical memories (AM) are recollections of personally experienced past events (Tulving, 1983). They are functional in that they have important social, directive, and self roles. For instance, they assist in developing, maintaining and nurturing social bonds (Bluck et al., 2005) as they provide material for conversation, assist in empathy, provide others with information about one s self, and strengthen the intimacy and social bonds of existing relationships (Bluck et al., 2005).