LATENT SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF LIFE NARRATIVES - Vol. 9 - Innovation in Aging 2025

Sep 29, 2026

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Life narratives people share support well-being and self-continuity. Using natural language processing, the study examines between- and within-group differences in cultural and ethnic experiences remembered by an older cohort of Black and White Americans (N=457; 50% Black) raised during the civil rights movement. History-graded influences shape recall, and latent semantic and cluster analyses identify two meaningful memory clusters with differing negativity patterns, informed by master narrative and life script theory.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Study background and aim

Natural language processing approach

Clustering and latent semantic analysis

Comparisons across racial and memory types

Interpretation frameworks

268 Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 memories are combined and analyzed, two clusters would emerge with each cluster respectively reflecting experiences shared by the majority of individuals in each racial group,(b) idiosyncratic experiences would also be recalled, resulting in within-group differences, and (c) the affective qualities of cultural memories (i.e., event valence, use of emotion words, overall sentiment) are shaped by racial background and what was recalled. Latent semantic and cluster analyses identified two meaningful clusters: one cluster encompasses memories about racial division mostly from Black Americans (70 .9%); the other cluster contains memories about family ancestry largely from White Americans (72.2%) . Chi-square tests and independent t-tests revealed that Black (vs. White) Americans and the racial division ([vs. family](vs. family)[ ](vs. family)[ancestry](ancestry)) cluster presented greater memory negativity. Notably, Black Americans who recalled divergent experiences had lower memory negativity than their same-race counterparts who recalled racial division. White Americans who recalled divergent experiences showed greater memory negativity than their same-race counterparts who recalled family ancestry. In discussing these findings, we draw on the master narrative framework and the life script theory. Abstract citation ID: igaf122.898 LATENT SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF LIFE NARRATIVES OF CULTURAL AND ETHNIC EXPERIENCES IN OLDER BLACK AND WHITE AMERICANS Hsiao-Wen Liao1, Siddhi Pandare1, Nikhil Shanbhogue1, Sashank Varma1, Wei Xu1, Hongchen Wu1, and Thomas Oltmanns2, 1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 2. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States The life narratives people tell about themselves are conducive to well-being and a sense of self-continuity. This study utilized natural language processing methods to address between and within-group differences in the cultural and ethnic experiences that were remembered by a cohort of older Black and White Americans (N = 457; 50% Black) who grew up during the civil rights movement. The history-graded influence differentiated the lives of these two groups. We predicted that (a) when all the

FAQs

What do the two memory clusters represent and how do they differ?

One cluster primarily reflects memories about racial division reported by Black Americans, while the other centers on family ancestry memories reported by White Americans, with differences in memory negativity across groups.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by Patrick