Abstract

The act of remembering an everyday experience influences how we interpret the world, how we think about the future, and how we perceive ourselves. It also enhances long-term retention of the recalled content, increasing the likelihood that it will be recalled again. Unfortunately, the ability to recollect event-specific details tends to decline with age, resulting in an impoverished ability to mentally re-experience the past. This shift has been linked to a corresponding decline in the distinctiveness of hippocampal memory representations. Despite these well-established changes, there are few effective cognitive behavioral interventions that target real-world episodic memory. We addressed this gap by developing a smartphone-based application called HippoCamera that allows participants to record labelled videos of everyday events and subsequently replay standardized, high-fidelity autobiographical memory cues. In two experiments with older adults, we found that using HippoCamera to repeatedly reactivate memories for real-world events improved episodic recollection and it evoked more positive autobiographical sentiment at the time of retrieval. Moreover, more detailed recollection was associated with more differentiated memory signals in the hippocampus. In a third experiment, we used HippoCamera to promote engagement in unique events for individuals experiencing social isolation during COVID lockdowns. We found that unique events were not only recalled in richer episodic detail, but that increased uniqueness was associated with greater positive affect, decreased boredom, and the perception of time passing faster for the entire day. These findings highlight the intimate connection between memory for the events of our lives and our well-being overall.