Spanish Adaptation of the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ)

Abstract

The Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ) was developed by Johnson, Foley, Suengas, and Raye (1988) to assess the characteristics of memories of external and internal origin, postulated in the source monitoring model (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). The MCQ was translated into Spanish using a back-translation method. Psychometric properties of the translated MCQ were tested using responses collected from an experimental study simulating a forensic context. Ten police officers and 8 psychologists individually interviewed 240 university students who completed the MCQ after reporting what they had seen in a film. Half of the participants were asked to tell the truth, while the other half were asked to lie. The results have shown adequate psychometric properties of the Spanish MCQ items for the total sample and across experimental conditions. Cronbach's alpha value was .79 for the total sample, .78 for the honest condition, and .76 for the lie condition. Validity evidence of dimensionality supports that the factor structure of Spanish MCQ was equivalent to that proposed by the authors of the original version. Also, a two-factor ANOVA (video clip x condition) was performed to analyze experimental data. Neither interaction effects, F(236) = 1.189; p = .277, nor main effects were found to be significant between those asked to tell the truth and those asked to lie. These results demonstrate that the Spanish MCQ has adequate psychometric properties.

The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Recall of Negative Autobiographical Memories

“…You should try to describe and write down the event as it is currently in your mind. Do not worry about the description you gave at the weblink last week/last month: Just describe how much you remember about the episode right at this moment.” Participants were asked to rate the negativity of the episode retrospectively using the same VAS scale as for the momentary assessment (“On a scale from 0 (not unpleasant) to 100 (completely unpleasant), how would you rate the valence of event?”) and to complete the Spanish adaptation [ 59 ] of the Memory Characteristic Questionnaire (MCQ) [ 53 ], which explores the phenomenological characteristics of a retrieved memory. The MCQ provides five sub-scores: (1) Clarity, which refers to the recall of visual and spatial details of the event; (2) Sensory information, which includes sensory details related to the memory, except the visual ones; (3) Temporal information, which refers to the recall of temporal details about the memory; (4) Emotional involvement, which refers to aspects related to the intensity of feelings, the negative valence of the memory, and the implications/consequences of the event; (5) Thoughts and feelings, which refers to the recall of qualitative features of thoughts and feelings from the episode as well as memories before and after the event.…”

“…Participants were asked to rate the negativity of the episode retrospectively using the same VAS scale as for the momentary assessment ("On a scale from 0 (not unpleasant) to 100 (completely unpleasant), how would you rate the valence of event?") and to complete the Spanish adaptation [59] of the Memory Characteristic Questionnaire (MCQ) [53], which explores the phenomenological characteristics of a retrieved memory. The MCQ provides five sub-scores: (1) Clarity, which refers to the recall of visual and spatial details of the event;…”

Recalling Tough Times: Exploring the Effect of Acceptance on Autobiographical Memory in Daily Life

“…Both follow-up assessments had the same structure. The participants were asked to recall and write down the event, and to complete the Spanish adaptation (Pegalajar et al, 2015) of the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ) (Johnson et al, 1988), a self-report measure with good psychometric properties that explores the details of a recalled memory. The MCQ includes five dimensions: (1) clarity (i.e., recall of visual and spatial details); (2) sensory information (i.e., recall of sensory details, except the visual ones); (3) temporal information (i.e., recall of temporal details); (4) emotional involvement (i.e., recall of the intensity of the feelings, the negative valence of the memory, and the implications/ consequences of the event); (5) thoughts and feelings (i.e., recall of the qualitative features of the thoughts and feelings associated with the episode, as well as supporting memories).…”

Understanding how a smoking cessation intervention changes beliefs, self-efficacy, and intention to quit: a secondary analysis of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial

“…Consequently, a process of back-translation with two bilingual people was undertaken. Lastly, to decide on the final Spanish version of the scale, both English versions (original and back translated), were compared item by item by a panel of experts to evaluate whether they measured the same [31].…”