Involuntary autobiographical memories
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Involuntary autobiographical memories are memories of personal events that come to mind spontaneously, without any attempt to recall anything. For example, a memory of a holiday may come to mind when seeing palm trees on a postcard or hearing a song may evoke memories of a childhood event many years ago. Because these memories are difficult to capture and study experimentally, they were ignored by psychologists for many years, despite the fascination that novelists such as Proust and Nabokov and lay public had for them.
Empirical research on involuntary autobiographical memories started after the publication of Dorthe Berntsen’s pioneering study in 1996 and has considerably grown since then with numerous publications and several books on the topic. Although originally most of this research was conducted by using a diary method, recently several methods have been developed to capture and study these memories in the laboratory. |
John Mace (Editor), published in 2007
Book by Dorthe Berntsen (2009)
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Synopsis of our research
Research on involuntary autobiographical memories at the University of Hertfordshire has been ongoing since 2000. Primary focus of this research has been the nature of involuntary autobiographical memories and how they differ from voluntary autobiographical memories, what triggers them in everyday life and what effect they have on mood and well being in young and older adults, and people suffering from dysphoria and depression. A recently completed project indicates that even 5-year old children appear to be experiencing these memories in their daily life and are able to meaningfully describe their experiences.
MEthods used
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We use a variety of methods and techniques to study involuntary autobiographical memories.
Diaries In addition to standard paper diaries, we have recently started using and testing smartphone apps which allow the owners of iPhones or Android phones to keep electronic diaries of their involuntary memories. These apps are custom developed by Andrew Laughland who is currently conducting several studies comparing the validity and compliance rates of paper and smartphone diaries. Currently, we are trying to match the format and layout of electronic diary questions to that of paper diaries. In future, however, we plan to test different modes of recording in electronic diaries (e.g., written vs. oral recording, etc.). |
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Laboratory Method
Over the past years we have developed and tested a new laboratory method of involuntary memories (Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008). This method induces involuntary memories in the laboratory by modeling the conditions in which involuntary memories occur in every day life, specifically, by engaging participants in a monotonous target detection task (detecting infrequent slides with vertical lines from slides with horizontal line patterns) and exposing them to hundreds of task irrelevant verbal cues. The method reliably induces involuntary memories which predominantly are reported as being triggered by irrelevant cue words on the screen. The advantage of this method is that it allows to measure the retrieval times of involuntary memories by calculating reaction times from the start of a particular cue word and a button press of a participant to report a memory. Interestingly, results show that involuntary memories are recalled twice as faster than voluntary memories. We believe that laboratory methods of involuntary autobiographical memories will significantly expand and speed up research in this new and exciting area of research.
Slide show below demonstrates non target and target slides presented during the task.
Over the past years we have developed and tested a new laboratory method of involuntary memories (Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008). This method induces involuntary memories in the laboratory by modeling the conditions in which involuntary memories occur in every day life, specifically, by engaging participants in a monotonous target detection task (detecting infrequent slides with vertical lines from slides with horizontal line patterns) and exposing them to hundreds of task irrelevant verbal cues. The method reliably induces involuntary memories which predominantly are reported as being triggered by irrelevant cue words on the screen. The advantage of this method is that it allows to measure the retrieval times of involuntary memories by calculating reaction times from the start of a particular cue word and a button press of a participant to report a memory. Interestingly, results show that involuntary memories are recalled twice as faster than voluntary memories. We believe that laboratory methods of involuntary autobiographical memories will significantly expand and speed up research in this new and exciting area of research.
Slide show below demonstrates non target and target slides presented during the task.
You can download a file containing a list of 600 cue words for the vigilance task here
A file with 40 cue words for a practice trial can be downloaded here
A file with 40 cue words for a practice trial can be downloaded here