Involuntary autobiographical memories: The question of function

Abstract

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.