Shaping our personal past: Assessing the phenomenology of autobiographical memory and its association with object and spatial imagery

Abstract

A new instrument has been developed that allows a comprehensive assessment of the relevant dimensions of the phenomenology of autobiographical memories (Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memory, APAM), and their association with visual object and spatial imagery has been examined. An initial version of APAM consisting of 30 items (the first 28 measured on a seven‐point Likert‐type scale) was developed and administered to a sample of 138 undergraduates. To test whether each item consistently measured the same dimension across different memories, all questions were rated for 12 cues. Results showed that 25 Likert‐type items possessed adequate levels of internal consistency and unidimensionality across cues. We also found that higher levels of visual object imagery were associated with more sensory details and recollective qualities of memory, and with stronger experience of sensory and emotional reliving. The theoretical and practical usefulness of APAM as well as the relevance of visual object imagery in the phenomenology of autobiographical memory are discussed.

Web-Based Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memories in Young and Older Adults

“…To perform this study, we developed a web-version of APAM that provided us the opportunity to administer it in sessions that took place in different days. Vannucci et al [ 6 ] asked participants to rate the phenomenology of their ABMs with respect to twelve cues administered in the same session (day). Although the results supported the relative stability of the scores across cues within a single session/day, it was not possible to provide evidence for their stability also across sessions/days, thus accounting, e.g., for differences in mood and arousal levels.…”

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, the few psychometrically sound measures of the phenomenology of ABMs recently developed consist of paper-and-pencil questionnaires and no investigation of the psychometric properties of web-based versions of these measures has been carried out [ 4 , 5 ]. In the present study, we aimed to overcome this limitation and develop a web-based version of the Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical memory (APAM) [ 6 ] and test it with a sample of young and older adults.…”

“…In healthy young adults, the subjective experience of ABMs is also modulated by individual differences in psychological functioning, such as personality [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], emotion regulation [ 23 ], self-esteem [ 8 , 24 ], and visual imagery [ 6 ]. As for self-esteem, some studies have shown that high self-esteem individuals remembered experiences more positively [ 8 , 24 ] and they rated their memories as more coherent compared to individuals with low levels of self-esteem [ 8 ].…”

“…As for visual imagery, a recent study by Vannucci, Chiorri, and Marchetti [ 6 ] has shown that higher levels of visual object imagery were associated with more sensory details and recollective qualities of memory, and with stronger experience of sensory and emotional reliving. Globally, these studies on individual differences suggested that when ABMs are triggered by a standardized set of cues, their phenomenology shows a characteristic, consistent, and stable pattern within the individual.…”

“…Very recently, Vannucci et al [ 6 ] developed a new measure, the Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memory (APAM), that enables the assessment of the phenomenology of ABMs using this approach. In developing APAM, the authors followed the Rubin et al’s [ 26 ] approach of asking participants to think of a personal memory in response to each of twelve cue words and rate the memory on each of the 27 items tapping into a range of phenomenological properties that is larger and more comprehensive than the one assessed by the MEQ and the AMCQ, while limiting to 5–8 min the administration time.…”