Abstract
We investigated how language usage when thinking about the self affects memory in healthy aging and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Participants either narrated autobiographical memories (self-mode) or described pictures (non-self-mode), then completed an unrelated memory task for words encoded using a self-referencing or semantic strategy. We probed narrative language usage with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis program, then tested the degree to which language containing emotion or first-person references predicted recognition hits and false alarms across narrative type, groups and encoding strategies. We found that during the self-mode of thought, when there was less negative emotion language usage, there was a lower false alarm rate predicted by both positive emotion language and people with aMCI. When there was lower first-person reference usage, positive emotion usage predicted an increase in the false alarm rate. People with aMCI had poorer memory for words encoded using the self-reference strategy during both self and non-self-modes of thought. Further positive emotion language usage and first-person reference usage predicted poorer recognition hit rate for words encoded using the semantic strategy during the self-mode of thought.