New research from Rice University finds retirement can make individuals more likely to recall positive events and forget more ordinary ones, highlighting a growing concern about the cognitive effects of retirement, particularly as the global population ages and more individuals transition out of the workforce.
“Retirement through rose-colored glasses: greater positivity bias in retired relative to working older adults” will appear in an upcoming edition of Work, Aging and Retirement. The study, conducted with 86 cognitively normal older adults, compares memory performance between retirees and their working counterparts and examines how retirement might accelerate age-related cognitive decline.
The researchers found that retirees exhibit a greater “positivity bias” — a tendency to remember positive experiences more vividly than ordinary ones. They said this may be due to a retired individual’s awareness of a limited remaining lifespan; therefore, they prioritize emotionally fulfilling experiences.
At the same time, the researchers found that retirees struggle to differentiate between similar but not identical memories. This was tested with an experiment that required participants to discern between new and previously seen but slightly altered images.
“The findings underscore the importance of understanding the complex effects of retirement on memory and cognition,” said Stephanie Leal, an adjunct assistant professor of psychological sciences and one of the study’s authors.
The researchers said early detection of cognitive decline linked to retirement could be key to preventing or slowing conditions like dementia. They said traditional memory tasks may not be sensitive enough to detect these subtle changes, but mnemonic discrimination tasks, which assess the ability to differentiate between closely related memories, have shown promise.
“Detecting these early changes can help us create strategies to keep older adults cognitively engaged postretirement,” said Lorena Ferguson, a graduate student in psychological sciences at Rice. “These could include mental exercises, cognitive training or unique new activities that challenge the brain.”
Retirement’s impact on well-being and cognition is not uniform across individuals, the researchers noted, saying that individual lifestyle factors such as part-time work or engagement in stimulating activities could play a crucial role in determining individual outcomes. The researchers added that they hope future work will examine how lifestyle factors before and after retirement affect memory and cognition.
Amritha Harikumar from Georgia State University, who worked at Rice when the study was conducted, is a co-author of the study.
The study abstract is online at https://academic.oup.com/workar/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/workar/waae014/7821884. To request a copy of the full study, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at amym@rice.edu or 217-417-2901.