Involuntary Memory: Concept and Theory

Involuntary autobiographical memories in and outside the laboratory: How different are they from voluntary autobiographical memories?

“…According to Mace (2007), this "is perhaps the most challenging question facing involuntary memory research" (p. 7). Of particular interest is to compare the retrieval times of involuntary and voluntary memories, since this may provide important insights into the underlying mechanisms of involuntary memories, as well as into the structure and organization of the autobiographical memory system.…”

Differential effects of age on involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory.

“…They are distinguished from autobiographical facts, which refer to autobiographical knowledge without remembering any particular episode (e.g., knowing that Mr. Smith was your primary school teacher), and can vary along several dimensions such as specificity, vividness, perspective, etc. Autobiographical memories can also differ in terms of whether they are recalled deliberately or spontaneously, hence the distinction between voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory (Ball, 2007;Berntsen, 1996;Mace, 2007;Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008).While research on voluntary autobiographical memory is long-standing with a growing number of studies on older adults, there is only one diary study, published in two parts, on the effects of age on involuntary memories (Schlagman, Schulz & Kvavilashvili, 2006;Schlagman, Kvavilashvili & Schulz, 2007).1 Moreover, several findings from this study did not replicate the results from research on voluntary autobiographical memories, indicating that age effects obtained on voluntary autobiographical memories cannot be automatically generalised to involuntary memories. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap in research by further examining the effects of age on involuntary autobiographical memory and -for the first time -to directly compare voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory in young and older adults.…”

“…Ball, 2007). While there is an ongoing debate about the extent to which prospective memory is mediated by automatic processes (see Kliegel, McDaniel, & Einstein, 2008), there seems to be a unanimous agreement about the spontaneous nature of involuntary autobiographical memories (Berntsen, 1996;Mace, 2007;Mandler, 1994;Linton, 1986). Thus, at the time of retrieval, people are usually engaged in some fairly mundane activity when, all of a sudden, a memory of a past event pops to mind, often, in response to some cue in the environment or their thoughts (e.g., Berntsen, 1996;Kvavilashvili & Mandler, 2004 …”

Mental Imagery and Psychopathology: Examples of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar Disorder

“…Rather than focusing on the encoding process, this view predicts that the retrieval process determines whether a memory will be experienced as intrusive or not ( Berntsen 2010;Mace 2007 ;Conway and Pleydell-Pearce 2000 ) . That is, memory representations that are activated through cued-retrieval are experienced as intrusive, whereas memories that are activated as a result of a deliberate conscious search are voluntary memories.…”