Personality and organizational strategies in episodic memory: The role of Openness to experience on recall and subjective organization in young and older adults

The aim of this study was to examine, in young and older adults, the relationship between Openness to experience, subjective organization strategy abilities and memory performance. Fifty younger and 41 older adults learned a list of unrelated words and had to recall them successively 3 times, in order for us to calculate a subjective organization index (Pair Frequency, PF). Level of Openness was measured with the NEO-PI-R French version (BFI-Fr) of the Big- Five personality questionnaire. Older adults recalled and organized fewer words than younger adults. Openness was positively correlated with recall for both groups and with PF only in the older group. PF and Openness significantly explained recall in younger adults, while in older adults, only Openness accounted for recall. Openness contributed to PF only in older adults. A high score on the Openness trait could be considered as a reserve factor, reducing the age-related memory decline by fostering the accumulation of knowledge and the development of resources throughout life.