The episodic nature of involuntary autobiographical memories

Abstract

Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious and unintended recollections of personal experiences. In Study 1, involuntary memories were compared with voluntary word-cued memories, both retrieved in naturalistic settings via a self-paced procedure. The involuntary memories more frequently referred to specific episodes, came with more physical reaction, had more impact on mood, and dealt with more unusual and less positive events. Study 2 demonstrated that these differences were not due to differences between verbal and nonverbal cues, by using Francis Galton's "memory walk" as a nonverbal method to cue voluntary memories. In both studies, systematic differences were found between specific and nonspecific memories. The findings show that the way autobiographical memories are sampled greatly affects the findings and that involuntary retrieval more often provides access to memories of specific episodes and associated emotional states.

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

“…For example, Berntsen (1998) reported that involuntary memories were more positive and recent but less rehearsed than voluntary memories. These findings were not replicated in a study by Berntsen and Hall (2004); no differences were observed in age of memories or prior rehearsal, but involuntary memories were less positive and more unusual than voluntary memories.…”

“…The second objective was to compare the two types of memories in terms of several important memory characAt present, there are only three studies that have directly compared involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories within one sample of participants (Ball, 2007;Berntsen & Hall, 2004;Mace, 2006). In all three studies, the percentage of reported specific involuntary memories was reliably higher than the percentage of specific voluntary autobiographical memories (see also Berntsen, 1998, who obtained a similar finding using a between-subjects design).…”

“…For example, involuntary memories have been repeatedly found to be of specific events as opposed to general events (Ball & Little, 2006;Berntsen, 1998;Berntsen & Hall, 2004;Schlagman et al, 2007). This predominance of speh cific events is in sharp contrast to mainstream research on voluntary autobiographical memories, whereby people often recall general events, even when explicitly asked to provide specific memories (Barsalou, 1988;Linton, 1986; , ) Williams & Dritschel, 1992).…”

“…second, the majority of memories are elicited by d easily identifiable cues, most of which correspond to and form central features of the memory content (Berntsen, 1998;Berntsen & Hall, 2004;Schlagman et al, 2007). Cues have also been found to be predominantly external (i.e., present in the environment), as opposed to internal thoughts (Ball & Little, 2006;Berntsen, 1998;Berntsen & Hall, 2004;Kvavilashvili & Mandler, 2004;Mace, 2004;Schlagman et al, 2007). Furthermore, Berntsen (2007) reported that the majority of external cues from her 1998 diary study (i.e., 66%) were peripheral aspects of the envit ronment-that is, aspects of the environment that were not directly related to the current activity of the rememberer.…”

The reappearance hypothesis revisited: Recurrent involuntary memories after traumatic events and in everyday life

“…Within the last 10 years, an increasing number of studies have examined characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories-that is, memories of personal experiences that come to mind with no preceding retrieval attempts (e.g., Ball & Little, 2006;Berntsen, 1996Berntsen, , 2001Berntsen & Hall, 2004;Berntsen & Rubin, 2002;Kvavilashvili & Mandler, 2004;Mace, 2007). Involuntary autobiographical memories in everyday life are more often about positive than negative events (e.g., Berntsen, 1996;Bernt sen & Hall, 2004;Berntsen & Rubin, 2002), as is the case for autobiographical memory in general (e.g., Thompson, Skowronski, Larsen, & Betz, 1996;Walker, Skowronski, & Thompson, 2003).…”