It is commonly believed that older people recall events from their distant past better than they recall more recent events. There is some question whether this may be due to a preference for reminiscence, a sense of uneventfulness in the present making past events seem more anecdotal, or simply that older people often live in the past because they have difficulty with recent memories. Another possibility is that the way people use their memory affects their ability to recall. For instance, those who have daily use for recall of recent events, such as young people and older people who live independently, may better recall recent events than older persons who live in residential care. The latter have less of a need to recall recent events because there is less happening for them in the present; more time is spent reminiscing. To test this hypothesis, two groups of elderly people were compared. The first consisted of 16 subjects aged 70 to 85 years living independently. The second group was 35 subjects aged 68 to 97 years and living in residential care. The groups were matched on measures of intelligence. There were 22 cognitively impaired subjects in group two. All subjects were given a three-page form, each page titled for a different third of their life, on which they were asked to list memories from the time period and rate the number of times they recall remembering that event. This was a measure of how rehearsed the memory was. It was found that subjects from residential care tended to recall memories more often from the earlier parts of their lives, and they rehearsed these memories more. The group living independently showed an opposite effect. Unimpaired subjects living under care recalled more recent memories than impaired subjects under care, but still produced mostly past memories. Impaired subjects produced few memories at all, but again the majority were past. In summary, those living in residential care rehearsed earlier memories more than those living independently, and they recalled those memories more frequently than less-rehearsed, more recent memories. It appears that the use people make of their memories has an effect on what material they can recall. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)