[931][932][933][934][935][936][937][938][939][940][941] 2020) have demonstrated that the activation of semantic memories leads to the activation of autobiographical memories on an involuntary memory task (the vigilance task; Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, Memory & Cognition, 36, 920-932, 2008), suggesting that this form of priming (semantic-to-autobiographical) plays a role in the production of involuntary autobiographical memories in everyday life. In the current study, we investigated the effects of prime repetition on involuntary memory production in the vigilance task. Primed participants were either treated to one priming session, where they judged the familiarity of words (e.g., parade), or three priming sessions, where they also judged the familiarity of words as well as decided whether sentences containing the words made sense (e.g., the parade dragged on for hours), and if their corresponding images were sensible (e.g., an image of a parade). The results showed that primed participants produced more involuntary memories with primed content on the vigilance task than control participants, and three-session primed participants produced more memories than one-session primed participants. Similar to other areas where prime repetition has been investigated (e.g., implicit memory, semantic priming), the results show that prime repetition enhances semanticto-autobiographical memory priming. The results also further support the idea that semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming may play a significant role in the production of involuntary memories in everyday life, as concept repetition is a likely part of everyday experience. These implications, as well as others, are discussed.

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Research on involuntary autobiographical memories has made significant progress over the past two decades. One question in this area concerns whether involuntary memories are functional, or merely cognitive failures. Survey methods have been used to assess the question of involuntary memory functionality, but with mixed results, with some suggesting that most involuntary memories are functional, and others suggesting the opposite. In this study, we argued that the variable findings were due to differences in survey design. In Study 1, we showed that closed-ended questionnaires on function (where participants select from a number of function choices) produce significantly more positive function responses than open-ended questionnaires (where participants freely articulate perceived functions). Study 2 showed that allowing participants to select more than one function greatly inflated positive function responses. We used these findings to outline a number of possible answers to the question of involuntary memory functions.