Autobiographical Memory Performance Research Articles

Memory and motivation in language revitalization practice

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between collective memory and individual second‐language (L2) learning motivation as articulated in a qualitative research study with language revitalization practitioners. These practitioners learn and teach their languages and engage in other activities in order to bring Indigenous or ancestral languages into new use following a period of loss. In this study, 28 revitalization practitioners from eight language communities were interviewed about why they choose to learn their languages, what challenges they face, and what supports them in their practice. Interviews were first analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and were subsequently analyzed deductively to engage with research on the functions of autobiographical memory. Findings show how collective memories are made salient in the language revitalization experience, how individuals grapple with painful memories of what their communities and families endured as a result of colonization, and how these collective memories impact individual L2 motivation. These findings illustrate the importance of collective memory in theorizing L2 motivation in order to enhance understanding of context, dismantle overly individualistic interpretations of L2 motivation models, and open avenues for critically engaging with historical trauma and resistance.

Autobiographical Memory Functions of Tattoo Event Memories

ABSTRACT Autobiographical memories are known to possess two features: they are tied to memory objects such as photos, diaries, or music, and they serve three main functions: the self, social, and directive function. The self-function uses memories for the sense of self-continuity, the social function uses memories for social bonds, and the directive function uses memories for future guidance. Although autobiographical memories are known to serve these functions and to be allied with memory objects, research has yet to merge these two features. Therefore, this study investigated the memory functions of tattoo event memories, designating memories of life events that motivated tattooing and are hence perpetuated in the form of permanent embodied memory objects, the tattoos. We analyzed the tattoo event narratives of 20 adults for autobiographical memory functions. Results indicate that tattoo event memories serve the three memory functions to a similar extent as autobiographical memories in the previous research. Overall, our study suggests a broader view on autobiographical memory functions by linking them to memory objects.

Autobiographical memory functions as a stable property of narrative identity

The functionalist approach claims that autobiographical memory functions could be part of narrative identity. If so, the use of memory functions in personal narratives should be as stable as other properties of narrative identity. Testing this claim, the present study elicited repeated narratives and functional self-ratings for turning point and low point memories from 145 undergraduates (68.90 % female) in a two-wave eight-month longitudinal study. Stability of memory functions in specific memories was conceptualized in terms of mean-level and rank-order stability. Results showed little mean-level stability, yet substantial rank-order stability for memory functions regardless of assessment. The later use of the same memory functions in repeated narratives was predicted by baseline of functions at T1, age of event, valence, and frequency of rehearsal. Combining these results with theories on autobiographical memory and narrative identity suggests that memory functions might be a stable property of narrative identity hitherto overlooked.

ПОДХОДЫ К РЕШЕНИЮ ПРОБЛЕМЫ ДОСТОВЕРНОСТИ ВОСПОМИНАНИЙ О ПЕРЕЖИТОМ В ДЕТСКОМ ВОЗРАСТЕ ЖЕСТОКОМ ОБРАЩЕНИИ

The article provides an overview of the theoretical foundations that allow a reasonable approach to assessing the reliability and accuracy of memories of traumatic events, in particular, abuse experienced in childhood. Solving the problem of accuracy and reliability of memories of abuse experienced in childhood requires simultaneous taking into account both the patterns of functioning of autobiographical memory and the peculiarities of the formation of individual traumatic memory. The most plastic components of autobiographical memory are the temporal localization of specific memories and the plot sequence of individual events within an entire episode. Autobiographical recollections of characters within a certain personally significant situation in the past are little subject to change. Victims of repeated violent acts may not remember the details of each specific episode, but they form a kind of ‘scheme’ or ‘script’ that includes characteristic elements of what happened to them. Such a ‘script’ has a high degree of accuracy and is subject to little change over time. The study of the basis for assessing the accuracy and reliability of memories of traumatic events is relevant for various areas of science and practice: from statistical estimates of the prevalence of violence against children and adolescents to law enforcement practice in situations of violent acts against children.

Language and autobiographical memory development from 5 to 12 years: A longitudinal perspective

The main aim of this study, with two repeated measurements, was to analyze the development of autobiographical memory in a sample of 78 Spanish participants at ages 5 (Time 1; M = 62.43 months, range: 50–74 months) and 12 (Time 2; M = 142.71 months, range: 132–155 months). Data were collected on autobiographical memory and verbal functions. We analyzed the relation between language and autobiographical memory specificity from a longitudinal perspective and assessed the indirect effect of vocabulary in the relationship between age and specific memory at both temporal moments. The results showed that language skills were positively related with autobiographical memory specificity at preschool age, but not at the second measurement. Furthermore, vocabulary scores appear to mediate the relationship between age and autobiographical specificity when children are in the preschool years, but not later. These findings agree with previous research that consider preschool age to be a crucial period for the development of autobiographical memory and its relations with language, but once basic command of language is acquired, linguistic differences impact much less on individual differences in autobiographical specificity.

Remembering our darkest moments: Reminiscence bumps for highly negative life events.

Prior research has shown that the lifetime age distribution of adults' personal memories peaks in late adolescence and early adulthood, and that this reminiscence bump is apparent primarily for positive rather than negative events. Inspired by sociological research on the crime-age curve, four new studies tested the idea that adults' negative memories of moral transgressions and behavioral missteps also would show a reminiscence bump. A secondary goal was to determine if the ages and content of actual memories recounted by older adults aligned closely with people's expectations for memories provided by an imaginary "typical" older adult. In Study 1, college students were asked to estimate the ages at which people are most likely to have committed crimes and minor moral transgressions; estimated ages peaked sharply during adolescence and early adulthood. Participants also listed emotions that they thought would accompany these misdeeds. In Study 2, college students were asked to describe memories that they expected a typical older adult to recall in response to distinctive emotion cues, including the negative emotions identified in Study 1. Study 3 was a replication of Study 2 using middle-aged participants. In Study 4, older adults provided their own personal memories in response to the emotion cues used in Study 2 and Study 3. The studies identified, for the first time, prominent reminiscence bumps for both expected and actual memories cued by negative emotions. Implications for new research on autobiographical memory functions and age-related memory declines are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Relationship between personal recovery, autobiographical memory, and clinical recovery in people with mental illness in the acute phase

AimNarratives are important in psychiatric rehabilitation. People with a psychiatric diagnosis find it difficult to recall specific autobiographical memories of events that lasted less than a day. Although personal narratives play a central role in personal recovery, the factors influencing personal and clinical recovery, such as psychiatric symptoms and cognitive function, have not been fully explored. Therefore, this study examined the associations between personal recovery and autobiographical memory, age, psychiatric symptoms, and neurocognitive function. MethodThe Self-Identified Stage of Recovery, Parts A and B (SISR-A, SISR-B), Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), Japanese version of the Brief Assessment Scale of Schizophrenia Cognitive Function, and Brief Psychiatric Symptom Rating Scale were administered to 40 individuals with psychiatric disorders who were undergoing psychiatric rehabilitation. ResultsA significant positive correlation was found between the total number of specific memories in the AMT and total SISR-B scores. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that the total number of specific memories, especially high responsiveness to negative cue words, significantly predicted greater personal recovery. Age, psychiatric symptoms, and neurocognitive function did not significantly predict higher personal recovery. ConclusionIn psychiatric rehabilitation, negative episodes should be treated with caution; however, they may also facilitate personal recovery.

Validating the Korean version of the Thinking About Life Experiences Scale

AbstractThe Thinking about Life Experiences (TALE) Scale is well‐used in the autobiographical memory literature. Through rigorous examination of its psychometric properties, this study aimed to validate a Korean version of the Thinking About Life Experiences Scale (TALE‐K) with Korean adults. Data were collected through an online survey. The TALE‐K, and for convergent validity purposes the Korean‐Reminiscence Functions Scale for the Elderly (K‐RFS‐E), were administered to participants aged 19 years to 77. Data from 440 community participants were analyzed. Structural validity and convergent validity were confirmed. Measurement invariance was confirmed across gender but it was partially confirmed across age group. Overall, Cronbach's αs for the three subscales and intra‐class correlation coefficients were good to excellent. The TALE‐K seems to be a reliable, valid self‐report instrument for measuring three autobiographical memory functions (i.e., self‐continuity, social‐bonding, and directing‐behavior functions) in Korean adults. Further studies to better understand autobiographical memory functions in different age groups are recommended.

The functions of remembering the past and imagining the future during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractIn this study, we explored how the COVID‐19 pandemic affected the functions of autobiographical memory and future projection over time. Between May and June 2020, we asked people (N = 286) to recall or imagine personal events from four time periods: past before the pandemic, past during the pandemic, future during the pandemic, and future after the pandemic ends. Participants rated self, social, directive, predictive, and emotion regulation functions, and the phenomenological characteristics of these events. We found that ratings for all functions decreased for the pandemic and increased for the future. Overall, this study revealed that the COVID‐19 pandemic created a breaking point, with memories being less functional at the beginning of the pandemic compared to the pre‐pandemic times and the future. However, imagined events that would occur after the pandemic ended were rated most functional, suggesting that people were still optimistic about a pandemic‐free future.

An experimental approach: Investigating the directive function of autobiographical memory

Why do we have autobiographical memory and how is it useful? Researchers have proposed a directive function; our experiences guide our behavior, particularly when faced with an open-ended problem. Two experiments (one between-participant and one mixed design) were therefore conducted to test whether success autobiographical memories – any experience when the participant felt successful and competent – are helpful for generating solutions to problem scenarios. One research aim was to experimentally test the directive function as current experimental evidence is limited and results are mixed. Consequently, it is unclear if and how autobiographical memory is helpful for open-ended problem solving. Another aim was to test whether self-efficacy is an important factor that supports open-ended problem solving and thus the directive function. Although success memories enhanced self-ratings of self-efficacy across both experiments, in samples of undergraduate students there was no experimental effect of success autobiographical memories on problem solving. Instead, some participants across the memory and control conditions in both experiments, even when not instructed, recalled autobiographical memories related to the problem scenarios presented in the problem-solving task, and these participants did better at problem solving than those who did not. This may hint to a directive function and is perhaps one reason why there is no experimental effect. Sample and experimental design differences are discussed as potential factors that may contribute to non-significant effects in this study but significant effects in others. Our results highlight the complexity of the directive function, and the difficulty of experimentally testing how autobiographical memory directs behavior.

Predictors of diachronic disunity measures in the general population: An assessment of dissociation, autobiographical memory functions, well-being, and sense and clarity of self.

Predictors of diachronic disunity measures in the general population: An assessment of dissociation, autobiographical memory functions, well-being, and sense and clarity of self.

Autobiographical Memory Functions of Healthy Older Adults & Their Associations With Self-Rated Health

Abstract Date Presented 04/22/2023 Autobiographical memory function is categorized into three types according to the purpose of recalling personal episodic memories. We found a negative association between autobiographical memory function and self-rated health of healthy older adults. Primary Author and Speaker: Inhye Kim Additional Authors and Speakers: Hyunseo An, Sangmi Park Contributing Authors: Jiwon Shin

Autobiographical Memory Function as a Related Factor to Resilience of Older Adults

Autobiographical Memory Function as a Related Factor to Resilience of Older Adults

Semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming is ubiquitous.

It is now well established that the activation of semantic memories leads to the activation of autobiographical memories. Studies have shown that semantic processing of words or pictures primes autobiographical memories on voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory tasks (the Crovitz cue-word task and the vigilance task). Known as semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming, our goal in the current study was to demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of this form of priming by showing that a wide variety of stimuli will prime involuntary autobiographical memories on the vigilance task. In Experiment 1, semantic-to-autobiographical priming was obtained on the vigilance task following the processing of sounds (e.g., the sound of bowling) and spoken words (e.g., the word bowling). In Experiment 2, semantic-to-autobiographical priming was observed on the vigilance task following tactile processing (e.g., the objects ball, glasses) and visual word processing (e.g., the words ball, glasses). In Experiment 3, semantic-to-autobiographical priming was observed on the vigilance task following the processing of videos (e.g., videos of a marching parade) and visual word processing (e.g., the word parade). The results of these experiments support the idea that semantic-to-autobiographical activations occur across a wide variety of stimuli (e.g., linguistic, perceptual). The results also further support the idea that semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming may play an important role in the production of involuntary memories in everyday life. Additional implications (for priming theory and autobiographical memory functions) are discussed.

Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): A Systematic Review.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a syndrome defined as a decline in cognitive performance greater than expected for an individual according to age and education level, not interfering notably with daily life activities. Many studies have focused on the memory domain in the analysis of MCI and more severe cases of dementia. One specific memory system is represented by autobiographical memory (AM), which has been largely studied in Alzheimer's disease and its effect on AM; however, the impairment of AM in moderate forms of decline, such as MCI, is still controversial. The main aim of this systematic review is to analyze the functioning of autobiographical memory in patients with MCI, considering both the semantic and the episodic components. The review process was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. The search was conducted until 20 February 2023 in the following bibliographical databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycInfo, and twenty-one articles were included. The results highlight controversial findings concerning the semantic component of AM since only seven studies have found a worse semantic AM performance in patients with MCI compared to the HC group. The results of impaired episodic AM in individuals with MCI are more consistent than those concerning semantic AM. Starting from the evidence of this systematic review, further studies should detect and investigate the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that undermine AM performance, allowing the development of specific interventions targeting these mechanisms.

How Do Women and Men Look at the Past? Large Scanpath in Women during Autobiographical Retrieval—A Preliminary Study

While research has consistently demonstrated how autobiographical memory triggers visual exploration, prior studies did not investigate gender differences in this domain. We thus compared eye movement between women and men while performing an autobiographical retrieval task. We invited 35 women and 35 men to retrieve autobiographical memories while their gaze was monitored by an eye tracker. We further investigated gender differences in eye movement and autobiographical specificity, that is, the ability to retrieve detailed memories. The analysis demonstrated shorter fixations, larger duration and amplitude of saccades, and higher autobiographical specificity in women than in men. The significant gender differences in eye movement disappeared after controlling for autobiographical specificity. When retrieving autobiographical memory, female participants generated a large scan with short fixation and high saccade amplitude, while male participants increased their fixation duration and showed poorer gaze scan. The large saccades in women during autobiographical retrieval may constitute an exploratory gaze behavior enabling better autobiographical memory functioning, which is reflected by the larger number of autobiographical details retrieved compared to men.

Yes, no, maybe so: Caregiver autonomy support, conversation context, and children's memory performance.

The extant literature on the use of autonomy support during caregiver-child conversations has focused primarily on conversations about fun, shared experiences, with limited consideration of unshared experiences or attention toward the role of conversation context. The present study examined how autonomy support, conversation context, and child age interact to predict 3-to-5-year-old children's disclosure of accurate information when discussing an unshared past event with their caregiver and an experimenter. Dyads (N = 111) were recruited from two locations (Miami, Florida and Orange County, California) by research recruitment firms. Children completed a standardized activity alone and then discussed the activity with their caregiver. The context of the discussion was manipulated so that dyads focused on either accumulating facts (Fact condition) or having fun (Fun condition). Afterward, children discussed the activity with a neutral interviewer. Caregivers in the fact condition were less autonomy supportive when discussing the activity than those in the fun condition. During the caregiver-child interview, caregiver autonomy support was negatively associated with children's disclosure of correct event details for those in the fun condition only. Caregiver autonomy support was negatively associated with children's correct details during the experiment-child interview across both context conditions. While older children provided more correct details during both interviews, there were no other age-related effects. These results demonstrate that conversation context moderates the link between autonomy support and children's autobiographical memory performance. Past contradictory findings in the field are discussed in light of these results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Phenomena related to autobiographical memory during initial consultations in couple psychotherapy

Objective The aim of this article is to seek the possibility of applying the conclusions of current research on the functioning of autobiographical memory to diagnostic practice in couple psychotherapy. The nature of memory processes determines the type of data that diagnosticians obtain from couples during consultation. Another aim is to support the development of methodological competencies of psychologists-diagnosticians working with couples, by providing knowledge about the operation of memory mechanisms during initial consultation meetings. Theses Research on autobiographical memory shows that the content of memories significantly depends on the purpose, context, and audience for which it is recalled. A thesis explored in this article is that in the specific context of the consultations for couple psychotherapy, memories are recalled by partners under the influence of strong emotions, and in order to talk about the couple’s problems partners often protect each person against negative evaluations by therapists. At the same time partners try to introduce and maintain elements of relational identity of each partner. Conclusions Autobiographical memory is a valuable source of information about the couple’s past. Knowledge about memory mechanisms allows therapists to adequately assess the quality of collected data and then formulate appropriate diagnostic hypotheses. At the same time, consulting sessions are specific environments for recalling memories. For proper assessment, it is necessary to analyze both the content of memories and the way they were introduced into consultation. Collecting important information about the mental life of each partner is also possible thanks to a good diagnostic alliance.

Collective memory and autobiographical memory: Perspectives from the humanities and cognitive sciences.

The current overview provides an interdisciplinary synthesis of autobiographical and collective memory studies, focusing on history and cognitive psychology, to help other scholars bridge the disciplinary gap. We describe the various interpretative frameworks used to build theoretical knowledge on how autobiographical memory and collective memory are intertwined. We expose how research exploring self, social and directive functions of autobiographical memory echoes three main functions that can be identified for collective memory, that is, social identity, social schemata, and means for actions, or a political decision tool of research in these fields. In doing so, we hope to stimulate opportunities for more interdisciplinary research. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory Psychology > Theory and Methods.

Autobiographical memory functions in the recall of authentic moments

Authenticity, or being true to oneself, relies on integrating autobiographical memories into a coherent life-story. These autobiographical memories serve three adaptive functions: self-identity, social connection and directing behaviour in the future. But little is known about how memory and the subjective sense of authenticity interact. Using a between-subjects experimental design, we compared memories of authentic and inauthentic moments with controls. Memories of in/authentic events were more likely to use the self function and less likely to use the social function than controls. In addition, we noted a trend for memories of inauthentic events to be more likely than controls to use the directive function. These results highlight the importance of an ecological approach to memory as well as the potential adaptive value of recalling inauthentic experiences in developing a coherent sense of self.