How special are involuntary autobiographical memories?

Abstract

There are also compelling reasons to conclude that the mechanisms underlying standard measures of recall and recognition are distinct from the mechanisms underlying involuntary memories. (Brewin, 2005, pp. 145–6) “Special, but not so special” is the ironic title of an article on flashbulb memories (Christianson, 1989). The same phrase expresses a relevant characteristic of involuntary autobiographical memories. They are special in some regards, as I will show in Chapter 6. However, they are not so special that they should be explained in terms of their own memory system or in terms of memory mechanisms that pertain only to them. Not all theorists share this view. On the contrary, some researchers argue that involuntary autobiographical memories are governed by processes that are fundamentally different from processes normally characterizing memory, as illustrated by the quotation from Brewin (2005) at the beginning of the chapter. Some researchers with a psychodynamic outlook on involuntary autobiographical memories have pursued the view that involuntary memories are primarily a medium for traumatic or stressful material (e.g., Brewin, 2005; Ehlers et al ., 2004; Horowitz, 1986; van der Kolk and Fisler, 1995; see also Chapter 2). Although these researchers have presented different theories, as we shall see in Chapter 7, a common assumption is that involuntary memories reflect the operations of a special memory system, such as “an active memory storage” dedicated to the processing of unresolved stressful events (Horowitz, 1986), or a memory system for emotional material that can be accessed only through situational cues (Brewin et al ., 1996b; Brewin and Holmes, 2003).