Voluntary Memories Research Articles

Episodic remembering creates access to involuntary conscious memory: Demonstrating involuntary recall on a voluntary recall task

The idea that involuntary memory retrieval might occur during voluntary memory retrieval can be traced back to Ebbinghaus (1885/1964). However, methodological challenges have stood in the way of testing this idea. Recent diary studies of naturally occurring involuntary memories have provided insights into how this idea could be tested (Berntsen, 1998; Mace, 2005b, 2006). These studies have shown that the contents of an involuntary memory sometimes trigger additional involuntary memories, a process called chaining. It was hypothesised that chaining should also occur on autobiographical memory tasks, and this was tested in the present study by asking participants in an autobiographical memory task to report the presence of involuntary memories while they were performing the task. The results showed that involuntary memories did occur when participants were recalling the past. The results also showed involuntary memories dissociating from voluntary memories on two independent measures, thereby enhancing the credibility of the results.

The episodic nature of involuntary autobiographical memories

Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious and unintended recollections of personal experiences. In Study 1, involuntary memories were compared with voluntary word-cued memories, both retrieved in naturalistic settings via a self-paced procedure. The involuntary memories more frequently referred to specific episodes, came with more physical reaction, had more impact on mood, and dealt with more unusual and less positive events. Study 2 demonstrated that these differences were not due to differences between verbal and nonverbal cues, by using Francis Galton's "memory walk" as a nonverbal method to cue voluntary memories. In both studies, systematic differences were found between specific and nonspecific memories. The findings show that the way autobiographical memories are sampled greatly affects the findings and that involuntary retrieval more often provides access to memories of specific episodes and associated emotional states.

Involuntary memories of emotional events: do memories of traumas and extremely happy events differ?

AbstractLaboratory studies of voluntary memories have been criticized for being too insensitive in detecting the impact of trauma. To overcome this, 12 traumatized undergraduates participated in a diary study of involuntary memories (8 females, 4 males, mean age 25 years, range 19–33). Six participants had encountered their trauma more than five years ago, six within the most recent year. No group differences were found on frequency and vividness of involuntary trauma memories, their mood‐impact and ability to trigger a physical reaction. Marked differences were found between traumatic and non‐traumatic involuntary memories on the same variables. The results indicate that trauma memories are extraordinarily persistent. This was confirmed by a comparative study of memory for extremely happy events (9 females, 5 males, 26 years, range 20–38). Further, it was demonstrated that highly vivid involuntary memories—so‐called flashbacks—are not limited to trauma nor even to emotionally negative events. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Posttraumatische Belastungsstörung bei neurogener Amnesie für das traumatische Ereignis

The development of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with neurogenic amnesia for the traumatic event is recorded in 2 own patients and in 19 cases from the clinical literature. With a single exception, all patients were accident victims with closed head injuries. Only about three quarters of the patients completely fulfilled DSM-III-R criteria of PTSD. Nineteen patients displayed involuntary conscious memories of aspects of the traumatic event (presenting as recurrent intrusive thoughts, images or dreams) co-existent with a complete or partial lack of voluntary conscious memories of the trauma, suggesting that different memory systems and distinct brain mechanisms subserve these phenomena. The said clinical observations are discussed against the background of current neuropsychological models of multiple memory systems. The recorded cases demonstrate that declarative episodic memory is not necessary for symptoms of PTSD to emerge, whereas preserved functions of non-declarative memory systems represent a sufficient condition for the development of PTSD symptoms.

Voluntary and Involuntary Access to Autobiographical Memory

Involuntary autobiographical memories recorded in a diary study are compared to voluntary autobiographical memories retrieved in response to verbal cues in a laboratory. The verbal cues were generated to be comparable to the cues that were found to elicit the involuntary memories. The findings demonstrate that voluntary and involuntary retrieval may access different samples of autobiographical memories. The voluntary memories were (1) less specific, (2) more frequently rehearsed, and (3) less emotionally positive than the involuntary memories. A reanalysis of the diary study examined conditions of involuntary retrieval. The memories occurred most frequently when attention was diffuse. They were typically triggered by environmental cues matching central features of the remembered event. The findings are discussed in relation to current models of autobiographical memory.