Memory fragments as components of autobiographical knowledge

Abstract

Adults described and dated two kinds of personal remembrances: a fragment-a memory moment that is largely bereft of context-and an episodic, personal event memory-a narrative that consists of a number of related events. In Experiment 1 subjects reported memories from when they were 0-8 years of age and in Experiment 2, from when they were 0-16 years of age. Fragments were judged to be older than event memories, especially in Experiment 2 where the estimated ages of most fragments were from 0 to 8 years and of most episodic memories, from 8 to 16 years. Ratings of various features of the two kinds of memories also differed. We conclude that isolated memory moments possess validity and that although they are most likely to arise when the autobiographical memory system is not fully developed, they can also originate during a time when it is.

Manipulating the reported age in earliest memories in a Dutch community sample

“…Following Wessel et al[16], we solely focused on snapshot and event memories in the remainder of the analyses. Consistent with previous findings [16], [19], we observed that snapshot memories were dated significantly younger than event memories. However, contrary to Wessel et al [16]’s first study, we did not find that the age manipulation affected age estimates differently for snapshots and event memories.…”

“…Further, the memory as well as the situation as it happened at the time were rated as more positive in case of snapshots. These results replicate previous findings that the characteristics of fragment and event memories differ on multiple characteristics [19]. It should be noted, however, that again, overall the present effect sizes were rather small.…”

“…Wessel and colleagues categorized 45% of the memories in their sample as snapshot memories. Similar to earlier findings for fragment memories [19], they found that overall, the age in snapshot memories was significantly younger than in event memories [16]. In addition, in their first experiment, Wessel et al [16] observed that the effect of the age manipulation varied with memory type (i.e.…”

Adults’ earliest memories of songs and melodies based on a large stratified sample

“…No expectations were formulated for fragmentation , but the obtained results are in accordance with other results on earliest memories in this respect (Bruce et al, 2005, 2007). Thus, when respondents reported their earliest musical memories, the events they reported were typically not recalled as coherent episodes with a clear beginning and end, but tended to appear more like one or more fragments.…”

Adults’ earliest memories as a function of age, gender, and education in a large stratified sample.

“…These tests revealed that the participants assessed the earliest memories as significantly vivid and clear as well as significantly nontypical . In accordance with the findings from Bruce and colleagues (Bruce et al, 2005; Bruce et al, 2007), the earliest event remembered was evaluated as being significantly fragmented . Finally, the valence of the earliest memory was considered to be significantly positive, which is consistent with the general positivity bias in autobiographical remembering (Walker, Skowronski & Thompson, 2003).…”