Using memories to motivate future behaviour: An experimental exercise intervention

Abstract

This study tested a novel memory-based experimental intervention to increase exercise activity. Undergraduate students completed a two-part online survey ostensibly regarding college activity choices. At Time 1, they completed questionnaires that included assessments of exercise-related attitudes, motivation and self-reported behaviours. Next, they described a memory of a positive or negative experience that would increase their motivation to exercise; students in a control condition did not receive a memory prompt. Finally, they rated their intentions to exercise in the future. Eight days following Time 1, students received a Time 2 survey that included an assessment of their self-reported exercise during the prior week. Students in the positive memory condition reported higher levels of subsequent exercise than those in the control condition; students in the negative memory condition reported intermediate levels of exercise. Activating a positive motivational memory had a significant effect on students' self-reported exercise activity even after controlling for prior attitudes, motivation and exercise activity.

Undermining belief in false memories leads to less efficient problem-solving behaviour

“…For instance, in studies investigating how believed memories impact behavior, participants exhibited superior public speaking performance and higher levels of exercise if believed memories of relevant positive experiences were activated (see Biondolillo & Pillemer, 2015;Pezdek & Salim, 2011). However, because these 'memories' were both believed and recollected, it is hard to know whether it was recollection, belief, or both that were responsible for the changes in subsequent behavior.…”

On Avoidance: Reflections on Processes of Socio-spatial Structuring

“…That is, a 'dark tunnel' can come to stand for danger not because it is dangerous as such, but because it holds a metonymic relationship to a range of 12 It should be noted that Lofland questions the extent to which the discourse affects actual behaviour, although she does it primarily by pointing out that the evidence for either case was lacking. While not unambiguously, others have shown effects on behaviour to be real [3,20,53]. It is worth to stress that effects depend on both contextual (where, when, in what location, concerning what) and individual (who) factors as well as what discourse is considered.…”

“…As Ferguson notes [45], memory is also always contemporary, in that it is the concurrent way in which past events are recollected and made sense of, rather than past events themselves. At the same time, it has both direct and indirect purchase on behaviour [53]. As a concrete example, Augoyard [20] discusses how an elderly woman prefers not to go through the suburb's centre because she has experienced that certain groups of youths tend to hang out there.…”

“…16 In reoccurring sequences they relate to imperfect, simplified, abstracted, or generalized figures, sometimes in the form of concrete places as representative of these, and at other times in relation to specific understandings of others or the Other, which is what has been developed above as memory, myth and metonymy on the one hand, and as the world in front of the work, on the other, as an intermediate between the concrete, material 'real' and the situated act of individual or collective meaning-making. It is, however, important to keep in mind that conscious referral to such figures is only one piece of the puzzle, and that subconscious or affective effects need also to be considered [53] even though there is not space currently to further elaborate.…”

Construction of academic success and failure in school memories

“…Therefore, autobiographical knowledge shared in memories contains self-related past, present and future constructions in terms of goals, plans, decisions, problem-solving strategies etc (Bluck, 2003). Since the autobiographical memories reflect personal beliefs, goals, motives, and identity constructions (Conway and Jobson, 2012;Fivush et al, 2011;McAdams, 2003), they may influence future decisions and pre-service life stories of people (Biondolillo, and Pillemer, 2015;Kuwabara and Pillemer, 2010;Pezdek andSalim, 2011). So, although, Lortie (1975) was cautious about the inhibitory role of apprenticeship of observation on the education of preservice teachers, on the ground of directive and selffunctions that are served by autobiographical memories, critical autobiographical reflections may help them to negotiate professional teacher identities.…”