Devitt, AleeaKim, Joy2026-08-242026-08-242026https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18577Remembering the past and simulating the future rely on overlapping constructive processes. Moreover, simulating a future event can influence what is later remembered. However, there are key gaps in our knowledge of this process when it comes to healthy ageing: older adults often report simulations as being more vivid than younger adults despite producing fewer episodic details, and they are less susceptible to simulation-induced memory biases. The present study aimed to address these gaps by manipulating the type of information prioritised during future simulation and examining influences on subjective vividness and subsequent memory across younger and older adults. Younger and older adults simulated future events while focusing on either sensory or emotional information, then read narratives describing the hypothetical outcomes of those events, before finally completing a recognition test for narrative details. Subjective vividness ratings were collected during simulation, and memory performance was assessed using discriminability (d′) and response bias (C). Despite clear differences in the type of details generated across sensory and emotion-focused conditions, neither vividness ratings nor memory accuracy (d′) varied as a function of focus condition. However, older adults demonstrated a more liberal response bias overall, and both age groups showed a more liberal bias following emotion-focused simulation. These findings suggest that the subjective experience of vividness is relatively independent of the specific type of information emphasised during simulation, indicating that vividness may reflect broader evaluative judgements about the simulation rather than the amount or type of episodic details the simulation contained. The absence of focus effects on memory accuracy further indicates that altering simulation content alone may be insufficient to bias later remembering. Instead, the influence of future simulation on memory may depend on whether the simulation meaningfully changes higher-level subjective states that persist into later encoding and retrieval.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.MemoryAgeingPsychologyThesis