Search

Autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is impaired in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Previous studies emphasised the role of cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories in this impairment. This study aimed to examine the association of cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories with specificity, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective. A total of 38 healthy participants were given the revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) and an AM task designed to assess positive and negative memories regarding specificity, autonoetic consciousness (remember/know procedure), and self-perspective (field/observer procedure). Taking into account age, verbal IQ, mood, harm avoidance, and executive resources, the IES-R avoidance subscale was negatively correlated with specificity and remember responses for positive memories, and with remember and field responses for negative memories. These findings suggest that cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories is associated with a decrease of the episodic components of AM retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reviewed studies that have specifically explored the memory deficit hypothesis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) checking, highlighting the methodological differences between these studies that may explain inconsistencies regarding memory deficits in OCD checkers. Based on Conway's proposition that one function of episodic memories is to keep an adaptive record of recent goal processing in order to check that actions have actually been accomplished, we suggest that impaired autonoetic consciousness –one of the main features of episodic memory- may be at the heart of the issue of checking compulsion. Autonoetic consciousness, that can be experimentally assessed by the Remember/Know/Guess paradigm,could be impaired in OCD checkers leading them to be unable to mentally relive their actions in order to be assured that they have been accomplished (e.g., having locked the door). We make methodological suggestions to improve the assessment of autonoetic consciousness deficit in OCD checkers and understand its role in the etiology and maintenance of compulsive checking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earliest memories were examined with respect to recollection type (i.e., remember-know), retrieval type (i.e., direct-generative), retrieval speed, and memory fluency (i.e., phonemic, semantic, and autobiographical). A total of 137 young adults (94 females; Mage = 20.47, SDage = 1.57) reported their earliest memories and specified their recollection and retrieval types for reported memories. They further dated their recollections by reporting the age at event, rated event characteristics and completed the phonemic, semantic, and autobiographical memory fluency tasks. Remembered and known earliest memories were similar in retrieval speed, but remembered memories were more prevalent. For retrieval type, direct and generative retrieval were similar in prevalence, but direct retrieval was faster in recalling the earliest memories. Directly retrieved memories were dated earlier than generated ones, but no such pattern in dating was observed for remember-know distinction. In terms of memory fluency, none of the three fluency tasks predicted the retrieval speed, recollection and retrieval type. For event characteristics, significant differences were observed only for vividness and rehearsal for both retrieval and recollection type. The present study is the first to explore recollection and retrieval type, retrieval speed, memory fluency together with dating and event characteristics in the context of earliest memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most everyday experiences are multisensory, and all senses can trigger the conscious re-experience of unique personal events embedded in their specific spatio-temporal context. Yet, little is known about how a cue's sensory modality influences episodic memory, and which step of this process is impacted. This study investigated recognition and episodic memory across olfactory, auditory and visual sensory modalities in a laboratory-ecological task using a non-immersive virtual reality device. At encoding, participants freely and actively explored unique and rich episodes in a three-room house where boxes delivered odours, musical pieces and pictures of face. At retrieval, participants were presented with modality-specific memory cues and were told to 1) recognise encoded cues among distractors and, 2) go to the room and select the box in which they encountered them at encoding. Memory performance and response times revealed that music and faces outperformed odours in recognition memory, but that odours and faces outperformed music in evoking encoding context. Interestingly, correct recognition of music and faces was accompanied by more profound inspirations than correct rejection. By directly comparing memory performance across sensory modalities, our study demonstrated that despite limited recognition, odours are powerful cues to evoke specific episodic memory retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report three experiments designed to reveal the mechanisms that underlie subjective experiences of recognition by examining effects of how those experiences are measured. Prior research has explored the potential influences of collecting metacognitive measures on memory performance. Building on this work, here we systematically evaluated whether cross-measure contamination occurs when remember-know (RK) and/or confidence (C) judgments are made after old/new recognition decisions. In Experiment 1, making either RK or C judgments did not significantly influence recognition relative to a standard no-judgment condition. In Experiment 2, making RK judgments in addition to C judgments did not significantly affect recognition or confidence. In Experiment 3, making C judgments in addition to RK judgments did not significantly affect recognition or patterns of RK responses. Cross-contamination was not apparent regardless of whether items were studied using a shallow or deep levels-of-processing task – a manipulation that yielded robust effects on recognition, RK judgments, and C. Our results indicate that under some conditions, participants can independently evaluate their recognition, subjective recognition experience, and confidence. Though contamination across measures of metamemory and memory is always possible, it may not be inevitable. This has implications for the mechanisms that underlie subjective experiences that accompany recognition judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to validate a French version of the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART), a 21-item self-report questionnaire developed by Berntsen, D., Hoyle, R. H., & Rubin, D. C. (2019; The Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART): A measure of individual differences in autobiographical memory. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 8(3), 305–318) examining the subjective quality people attribute to their autobiographical memories. It measures seven distinct but correlated dimensions of memories' quality varying between individuals: vividness, narrative coherence, reliving, rehearsal, visual imagery, scene, and life-story relevance. 373 participants aged from 18 to 87 years old were invited to complete the questionnaire by rating on a 7-point Likert scale the degree to which they agree with each item. Demographic data and information about their perception of their memory functioning and satisfaction were also collected. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the initial seven-factor structure of the ART. Moreover, results showed desirable psychometric properties, with good internal consistency (.94) and test-retest reliability (.83). This scale was also correlated with participants' perception of memory functioning in daily life. However, there was no correlation with age, confirming prior studies showing that the subjective quality of autobiographical memories does not decline with age. This study thus provides proof of the good psychometric properties of the French version of the ART and promotes its use to explore the subjective quality of autobiographical memories in clinical populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nostalgia, an autobiographically relevant positive emotion, is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. Autobiographical memory, which is one of the cognitive bases of nostalgia, includes both abstract semantic and detailed episodic memories. Recent studies have defined and classified memories that are located between semantic and episodic memory as personal semantics. Although autobiographical memory and personal semantics range over a continuum, past nostalgia research has not focused on or controlled them. In two experiments, undergraduate students retrieved episodic memory and personal semantics and rated cognitive and affective items. The intensity of nostalgia differed according to the types of memory content and temporal distance of the memory from the present. These results revealed that not only unique events but also repeated events and autobiographical facts induced nostalgia; furthermore, repeated events from both the distant and recent past (primary and high school, respectively) consistently induced relatively greater nostalgia, but in some cases, they were not significantly different from other types of memory (i.e., unique events and autobiographical facts). These findings suggest that both episodic memory and personal semantics are involved in the occurrence of nostalgia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the personal sense of identity in alcohol use disorder (AUD) through the relation between autobiographical memories and individuals' self-conception. The AUD detoxified patients and control participants were asked to create a list of self-statements to which they associated for the three main autobiographical memories illustrating them. The group variable was not associated with the number of positive self-statements, but it was associated with the number of negative self-statements. Furthermore, for the autobiographical memories cued by a positive self-statement, the group was related to the number of positive memories and general memories, while no relation was observed for the memories cued by a negative self-statement. Our results also support that AUD patients' memories cued by self-statements are older and more alcohol-related. Hierarchical regression analyses in the AUD patients demonstrated that the use of adaptive emotional regulation strategies was the only significant predictor of the use of positive or negative self-statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autobiographical memory is severely impaired in schizophrenia, but previous work has largely treated both as unitary concepts. Here, we examined how various dimensions of autobiographical memory relate to different aspects of psychosis. Participants were recruited from the general population (Study 1, N = 264) and a university subject pool (Study 2, N = 305). We examined different measures of autobiographical memory and self (i.e., involuntary memory, autobiographical recollection, self-knowledge and self-awareness), at the trait level in Study 1 and both trait and state levels in Study 2, as a function of positive-and negative-like symptoms of psychosis. Across both studies, positive and negative dimensions of psychosis were found to be related to an increase in involuntary memories (i.e., the spontaneous recall of personal memories), and to lower self-concept clarity and insight. Positive and negative dimensions of psychosis correlated differently with autobiographical recollection characteristics, measured at both trait (Studies 1 and 2) and state levels (Study 2). Positive-like symptoms (in particular hallucination-proneness) showed a stronger and more consistent pattern of correlations than negative-like symptoms. These findings call for a dimensional approach to the relationship between autobiographical memory and psychosis symptoms in clinical and non-clinical individuals, to better understand the breakdown of autobiographical memory in the psychopathology of psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with a negative body image may be more likely to recall negative memories of their body, but also be motivated to avoid retrieving specific memories to prevent triggering aversive emotions (e.g., disgust). Such inclination to retain at a global level of memory recall may hamper the correction of their negative body image. In previous research using Autobiographical Memory Tests (AMTs) with minimal instructions, we failed to find an overgeneral memory bias specific to individuals with a negative body image but observed low specificity overall in response to body cue words. In the present study (N = 153), we included the traditional AMT next to a minimal instructions AMT and explored the idea that sensory reliving may be relevant to avoidance by assessing sensory reliving ratings next to memory specificity. A negative body image was associated with more negative body memories. In both AMTs, the findings failed to support our prediction that a more negative body image would be associated with lower specificity or sensory reliving. The findings are consistent with the view that autobiographical memories might be an important factor in defining one's body image, yet cast doubt on the relevance of avoidant retrieval of body-related memories in non-clinical samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has demonstrated that performing a sequence of saccadic horizontal eye movements prior to retrieval facilitates performance on tests of episodic memory. This has been observed in both laboratory tasks of retention and autobiographical memory. To date, the work has centred on performance in younger individuals. This paper extends previous investigations by examining the effects of saccadic eye movements in older persons. Autobiographical episodic and semantic memory fluency was assessed in younger (age range 18–35, mean = 22.50), and older (age range 55–87, mean = 70.35) participants following saccadic (vs. fixation control) manipulations. The main effects of eye movements and age were found for episodic autobiographical memory (greater fluency after eye movements and in younger participants). Semantic autobiographical memory showed a main effect of age (greater fluency in younger participants), whereas general semantic memory showed no effect of age or eye movement. These findings indicate that saccadic horizontal eye movements can enhance episodic personal memory in older individuals. This has implications as a technique to improve autobiographical recollection in the elderly and as an adjunct in reminiscence therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting to a novel visual perspective during retrieval influences autobiographical memories (AM) and can lead to persistent changes in memories. Adopting an observer-like compared to an own eyes perspective reduces episodic information during AM recall, but less is known regarding how viewpoint influences semantic information. In the current study, we investigated how shifting from an own eyes to an observer-like perspective during narrative recall of AMs influences episodic and semantic information. Shifting perspective reduced the number of episodic details associated with emotions and thoughts, and also led to similar reductions in personal semantics. We replicated prior research showing that shifting perspective reduces emotional intensity in subsequent memories, but these subjective changes were not coupled with objective changes in a narrative recall. Our findings suggest that shifting perspective influences the interplay between episodic and semantic information during proximate recall and subjective changes when memories are later recalled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments investigated differences in short-term storage and processing capacity on the magnitude of eye-closure effects on episodic memory. Experiment 1 compared individuals with high (vs. low) forward and backward spans in the free-recall of words retrieved under both eyes closed and open conditions. Main effects of both forward and backward span capacity (greater recall for the high span group) and eye-closure (higher recall with eyes closed) were found. Eye-closure was also associated with more "remember" responses. Experiment 2 compared individuals with high (vs. low) reading spans and found both main effects for reading span and eye-closure (greater recall for the high span group and with eyes closed). Remember responses were associated with both high reading span and eye-closure. The absence of interactions is discussed in terms of explanations of eye-closure effects that differentiate between modality-general and modality-specific processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recall of factual and contextual information is a core characteristic of episodic memory sensitive to aging effects. The innovative aim of the present study was to assess in a naturalistic context the quantity and quality of correct and false free recalls among younger and older adults considering feature binding (What-Where-When-Details) and recollection (Remembering vs. Knowing). Thanks to virtual reality, we designed a multimodal environment simulating a lively town in which we implemented a variant of a DRM task rich in sets of semantically related items (e.g., fruits on a market stall). We asked 30 young and 30 older participants to navigate in the virtual environment, paying attention to the items, and then recall as many items and as much contextual information as possible and indicate the presence of recollection. As expected, older adults produced fewer correct recall but more intrusions than younger adults, and their correct recall was more deficient in binding and recollection. In both age groups, false recall was associated with the correct context inferred from a related set of items. However, the intrusions produced by older adults were highly recollected compared to those of the younger adults, and they were associated with false item-related contextual information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term Repulsive Body Image (RBI) refers to a schematic construct combining body-directed self-disgust and other negative body image features, that is assumed to bias information processing, including autobiographical memory retrieval. When specific memories about the own body are retrieved, intense self-disgust may arise and trigger urges to escape from those memories. We asked 133 women with high (HRBI; n = 63) and low (LRBI; n = 70) levels of habitual body-directed self-disgust to recall autobiographical memories in response to 11 concrete body-related cue words in a minimal instructions Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Despite an overall low level of memory specificity, we found that RBI levels were associated with stronger disgust reactions and stronger motivations to escape from body-related memories. In addition, disgust reactions to body-related memories accounted for the association between habitual levels of self-disgust and urges to escape from these memories. Thus, the findings indicated that women with body image concerns showed disgust-based urges to escape from body-related memories. This disgust-based urge to avert from body-related autobiographical memories might counteract the correction of an RBI, thereby contributing to the persistence of body image concerns and associated psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments examined the effect of pretesting on target recognition and source memory. In an initial encoding phase, participants attempted to learn the common English definitions of rare English words. For each rare word, the participants either guessed the definition of the rare English word before it was revealed (Pretest condition) or just studied the complete word pair without first guessing the definition (Read-only condition). To manipulate source information, the targets were either presented in different colours (Experiment 1) or lists (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the participants correctly recognised more targets from Pretest trials than Read-only trials, but showed no difference in source memory. Pretesting, therefore, appears to improve target recognition memory, but not memory for contextual information. The results are discussed in relation to semantic and episodic theories of the pretesting effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to execute planned actions, and episodic future thinking (EFT), the ability to imagine future personal events, are two core aspects of future-oriented cognition. The present study aimed for the first time at examining the role of semantic memory loss in PM and EFT in a single case patient (SL) at the early stage of semantic dementia. First, we investigated various types of PM as well as episodic memory of new events using a validated ecological assessment via virtual reality. Second, we examined EFT using a temporally extended version of the TEMPau task, which measures episodic aspects of remembering the past and imagining the future taking temporal distance into account. Patient SL was deficient in semantically linked event-based PM and was unable to provide any EFT for the most distant period but was preserved in other types of PM and near and intermediate EFT. These findings provide new evidence on the role of semantic memory in PM depending on the type of intention and in EFT depending on the temporal distance mirroring autobiographical memory. Finally, they point out a specific link between PM and near EFT in future-oriented cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies pertaining to déjà vu have consistently made a connection with the perirhinal region, a region located below the hippocampus. This idea is strengthened by the fact that déjà vu is an erroneous sense of familiarity and that familiarity appears to largely depend on the perirhinal region in healthy subjects. In this context, the role of the hippocampus is particularly unclear as it is unknown whether or not it plays a role in the genesis of déjà vu. We report on the case of OHVR, an epileptic patient who suffers from severe episodic amnesia related to massive isolated bilateral damage to the hippocampus. In contrast, the perirhinal region is intact structurally and functionally. This patient reports frequent déjà vu but also another experiential phenomenon with a prominent feeling of prescience, which shows some of the characteristics of déjà vécu. She clearly distinguishes both. She also developed a form of synaesthesia by attributing affective valence to numbers. This study shows that déjà vu can occur in cases of amnesia with massively damaged hippocampi and confirms that the perirhinal region is a core region for déjà vu, using a different approach from previous reports. It also provides clues about a potential influence of hippocampal alterations in déjà vécu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vicarious memories are memories that people have in reference to events that they have not directly experienced, rather heard second-hand. Little research has investigated vicarious memory; when it has, it has predominantly focused on vicarious trauma. The purpose of this study was to compare vicarious memories with personal memories. University students (N = 142) completed an in-person interview in which they recalled four memories: a highly positive personal memory, a highly negative personal memory, a highly positive vicarious memory and a highly negative vicarious memory. Personal and vicarious memory reports were compared and contrasted in terms of memory qualities, memory functions and event centrality. The results indicate that vicarious and personal memory reports share many phenomenological and functional properties. Although to a lesser degree than personal memories, vicarious memories do influence decision-making and problem-solving. Current models of episodic memory only include events that individuals have directly experienced. The current study adds to a growing body of literature which suggests that current models of episodic memory are too restrictive and should expand to include vicarious memory reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitions of episodic memory typically emphasise the importance of spatiotemporal frameworks in the contextual reconstruction of episodic retrieval. However, our ability to retrieve specific temporal contexts of experienced episodes is poor. This has bearing on the prominence of temporal context in the definition and evaluation of episodic memory, particularly among non-human animals. Studies demonstrating that rats rely on elapsed time (distance) rather than specific timestamps (location) to disambiguate events have been used to suggest that human episodic memory is qualitatively different to other species. We examined whether humans were more accurate using a distance- or location-based method for judging when an event happened. Participants (n = 57) were exposed to a series of events and then asked either when (e.g., 1:03 pm) or how long ago (HLA; e.g., 33 min) a specific event took place. HLA judgements were significantly more accurate, particularly for the most recently experienced episode. Additionally, a significantly higher proportion of participants making HLA judgements accurately recalled non-temporal episodic features across all episodes. Finally, for participants given the choice of methods for making temporal judgements, a significantly higher proportion chose to use HLA judgements. These findings suggest that human and non-human temporal judgements are not qualitatively different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memories of events from one's personal past that come to mind unintentionally and effortlessly are termed involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs). Recurrent IAMs are known as relevant to many disorders within clinical literature. However, less is known about their links with mental health status in the general population. In the current study, 2184 undergraduate students completed surveys assessing occurrence of any recurrent IAMs. Participants also wrote a description of their most frequently recurring IAM and rated it on phenomenological characteristics, such as frequency, valence, vividness, and centrality. Results showed that the majority of our sample experienced recurrent IAMs, replicating previous findings, but most of these memories were emotionally negative, unlike past work. Importantly, negative recurrent IAMs were associated with significantly more mental health concerns, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. We also found that frequency of IAM recurrence was predicted by the memory's age, level of completeness/detail, emotional intensity, and centrality to one's life story. Further, descriptions of positive recurrent IAMs contained significantly more episodic detail compared to negative or neutral ones, suggesting that emotional regulation may play a role in how recurrent IAMs are recounted. Recurrent IAMs, and their characteristics, serve as a window into mental health status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "Self-Defining Future Projections" (SDFPs) has been recently introduced to better explore the link between future thinking and identity. To date, SDFPs have only been examined in young adults and it remains unknown how self-defining future thoughts evolve in aging. In this cross-sectional study, 43 young adults (age range = 19–28; mean age = 23.06) and 43 older adults (age range 60–80; mean age = 69.46) were asked to generate three SDFPs. Our results indicated that SDFPs were less specific in older adults compared to young adults, but there was no difference between the two groups concerning autobiographical reasoning. However, regarding subjective experience, older adults rated imagined future events as containing more sensory details and contextual information and reported a higher feeling of pre-experiencing the personal future. Additionally, older participants described future events that were more positive and less distant in the future, with fewer narratives about future achievements but more narratives describing leisure time, with a similar probability between the two groups that the event will occur in the future. Our study extends previous aging research and adds to the literature by better understanding how future event representations are formed in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tendency to adopt an observer perspective (OP) when recalling autobiographical memories has been shown to be related to both avoidance and depression in adults. Very little research has examined this relationship in adolescents, however, and none of this work has adopted a longitudinal paradigm. This is an important gap in light of the marked escalation in rates of depression across the adolescent period. The current study therefore examined the concurrent and longitudinal (one year) relationships between observer perspective in the Minimal Instruction Autobiographical Memory Test (Mi-AMT; Debeer, E., Hermans, D., & Raes, F. (2009). Associations between components of rumination and autobiographical memory specificity as measured by a minimal instructions autobiographical memory test. Memory, 17(8), 892–903. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210903376243), avoidance, and depression in a large, longitudinal sample of adolescents (mean age = 15.03 at T1). Consistent with predictions we found a significant but small cross-sectional correlation between OP and higher levels of depressive symptoms, however the relationship with avoidance was not significant. Contrary to predictions, the longitudinal relationships of OP with avoidance and depression were not significant. These findings raise the possibility that OP may be negligibly related to avoidance or depression during adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract ruminative processing and recalling memories from an observer perspective represent two cognitive processes with adverse consequences in depression. However, no study to date has investigated the interrelationship of abstract processing, observer perspective and depression symptoms in the context of recalling personal emotional (positive, negative) memories, nor imagining emotional future events. An unselected online sample (N = 342) of participants was randomly allocated to one of four conditions: to recall a memory of a positive or negative event, or to imagine a future positive or negative event. Participants rated the vantage perspective from which they recalled or imagined the event, and the extent to which they engaged in abstract processing about it. For positive memories, a positive correlation emerged between abstract processing of the memory and observer recall; this relationship remained significant when depression symptoms were controlled. Abstract processing and vantage perspective were unrelated in the remaining three conditions. Whilst our findings await replication with a clinical sample to confirm generalisability to depressed individuals, they underscore the importance of investigating cognitive processes that influence positive memory recall and provide preliminary evidence that abstract processing of a positive memory is related to recalling the memory from an observer perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines predictors of autobiographical memory valence and visual perspective. Participants (N = 144) between the ages of 18–35 years completed an online survey assessing depressive symptoms, and different aspects of subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). Participants retrieved six autobiographical memories cued via positive, negative, and neutral words and completed a questionnaire assessing characteristics of the memories, including memory valence and visual perspective. Using structural equation modelling, we found that the valence of neutral cued memories were significantly negatively associated with depressive symptoms and negative affect, and significantly positively associated with life satisfaction, even after controlling for current mood. Depressive symptoms were generally not significantly related to visual perspective. These results support previous findings that depressive symptoms and well-being are related to differences in memory characteristics but suggest that some of the relationships may be less robust when examined in a non-clinical sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common processes involved in remembering and predicting personal and public events have led researchers to study public events as a part of autobiographical memory. In the present study, we asked for past events and future predictions and examined the temporal distribution and factors that made these salient in event representations. A sample of 1577 individuals reported six most important public events since their birth and six future events that they expected. Past events mostly came from the recent past and were negative in valence. Similarly, future predictions consisted of negative events that are expected to occur in the near past. We did not find a reminiscence bump but there was a strong recency effect. Despite being inconsistent with some literature, this supports the view that remembering the past is largely influenced by the current goals and experiences. Also, in predicting what is remembered from the past and what is expected in the future, what individuals believed others would report appeared as a robust predictor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music is highly efficient at evoking autobiographical memories in both healthy and neurological populations. Music evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) are preserved in people with Alzheimer's Dementia (AD), and occur at the same frequency as in healthy people. To date there has been no investigation of the integrity of MEAMs in people with non-AD dementia. This study provides the first characterisation of the frequency and specificity of MEAMs and photo evoked autobiographical memories (PEAMs) in 6 people with Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (Bv-FTD). We found significantly reduced frequency and specificity of MEAMs and PEAMs in people with Bv-FTD compared with healthy elderly. This supports the known decline in autobiographical memory function in this population, and the integral role of medial frontal regions in the retrieval of MEAMs. Our findings highlight that the mnemonic effects of music vary between people with different types of dementia, which has implications for dementia care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relative to young adults, cognitively normal older adults commonly generate more semantic details and fewer episodic details in their descriptions of unique life events. It remains unclear whether this reflects a specific change to episodic memory or a broader alteration to autobiographical narration. To explore age differences across different types of autobiographical narration, we created a lifetime period narrative task that involves describing extended events. For comparison, participants also described unique life events. All autobiographical narratives were scored for episodic, semantic, and other detail generation. Relative to young adults, older adults generated more detailed narratives for remote and recent lifetime periods, which was driven by their increased retrieval of personal and general semantic details. Older adults also generated more semantic details for unique life event narratives, along with reduced episodic detail. More broadly, in both groups lifetime period narratives were largely based on semantic details, whereas episodic details were more prominent in the descriptions of unique life events. These findings indicate that the elevated generation of semantic details associated with normal cognitive aging is reflected in multiple types of autobiographical narration. We suggest that lifetime period narration is a spared aspect of autobiographical memory among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrusive traumatic recollections suggest an inability in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to control and notably to inhibit memories for trauma-related information. Supported by inhibitory deficits found on experimental settings in PTSD, memory functioning and memory biases in the disorder were usually explained through inhibitory and control deficits in the processing of trauma-related information. The present study aimed to directly assess this hypothesis by investigating memory control abilities for emotional information in PTSD. For this purpose, 34 patients diagnosed with PTSD were compared to 37 non-PTSD controls on an item-cued directed forgetting paradigm for emotional words combined with a Remember/Know recognition procedure. Results revealed enhanced amounts of Remember recognitions for trauma-related words in PTSD. Moreover, we replicated findings of memory control impairments in the disorder. However, such impairments only occurred for non-trauma-related words. Accordingly, it appeared that PTSD patients presented preserved memory control abilities for trauma-related words, at the expenses of other emotional valences. Surprisingly, PTSD patients presented a preserved ability to control and notably to inhibit their memory functioning for trauma-related material. In addition to potential theoretical and clinical relevance, these results are discussed in the light of resource reallocation hypotheses and vigilant-avoidant theories of information processing in PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autobiographical memory is widely posited to serve self, social and directive functions. Recent evidence suggests marked autobiographical memory impairments in Huntington's disease (HD), however, no study to date has determined how the perceived functions of autobiographical reminiscence may be altered in HD. The current study aimed to assess the self-reported frequency and function of autobiographical reminiscence in HD. We assessed autobiographical reminiscence in late premanifest (n = 16) and early stage HD (n = 14), relative to healthy controls (n = 30). Participants completed the Thinking About Life Experiences Scale Revised (TALE-R), which measures three putative functions of autobiographical memory (self, social, directive). People with manifest HD reported talking less frequently about the past compared to controls. In contrast, no group differences were found in terms of thinking about the past. Manifest HD participants further reported using their autobiographical memories for social functions less frequently compared to controls. No other group differences were evident in terms of self or directive functions of autobiographical memory. These self-report findings complement recent reports of autobiographical memory disruption on performance-based tasks in HD. Future studies exploring how changes in autobiographical reminiscence impact a sense of self continuity in HD will be important in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined recall of events by children 4–11 years to inform patterns of retention of autobiographical memories as well as factors that predict their survival. 101 children participated in a 4-year prospective study. At study inception, children were 4, 6, and 8 years. They were tested annually for three more years for a total of four waves of data collection. At each wave, we obtained narrative reports of recent (all waves) and distant (Waves 2–4) events, resulting in virtually continuous sampling of memories formed by 4- to 11-year-olds and recalled after 1–3-year delays. We also measured children's language, and domain-general and memory-specific cognitive skills. Multi-level modelling revealed age-related increases in the likelihood of survival of memories over the delays. Critically, the rate of increase in retention of individual memories was the same across the cohorts. In addition to age, thematic coherence of original memory reports predicted memory survivability. Other factors were not predictive. The dense sampling and prospective tracking of memories across the 4–11-year age period permitted an especially strong test for continuity versus discontinuity in autobiographical memory across the second half of the first decade of life. The data are strongly indicative of continuity and gradual change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a critical developmental period. It involves the construction and consolidation of "the self" and the laying down of autobiographical memories that endure throughout life. There is limited data that examines how young people spontaneously describe their "self". The aim of the current study is to provide normative data of adolescent generated self-images and present this in a freely accessible database. A secondary aim is to compare adult and adolescent self-images. Young people (n = 822) aged 13–18 years completed the Twenty Statements Test a task that requires participants to generate their own self-images. Data were coded into "Self-image norms" according to the method devised by Rathbone and Moulin [2017. Exploring memories of the self: 2412 self-image norms for adults aged 17 to 88. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(1445), doi:]. Descriptive data showed that positive "Traits" were most often used by adolescents to describe "the self". There were few gender differences, but boys generated fewer self-images than girls. Adolescents were more likely to use "Traits" to describe their "self" and adults were more likely to use "Social roles." These data are the first set of self-images generated by adolescents, collated in a freely accessible database. They can be used to understand how "the self" is described by adolescents and will be useful for cueing autobiographical memories in young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focused on individuals with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) and had two main objectives: 1) investigate whether HSAMs have increased recollection performance compared to controls, and 2) investigate whether HSAMs have a reliably different response bias than controls. While previous lab-based recognition tests have shown that HSAMs have normal memory performance, these tests were based on a mixture of both recollection and familiarity. Here, we employed recognition tests specifically designed to separate recollected responses from those based on familiarity. Additionally, we were interested in how HSAMs make their memory decisions. Several studies have shown a great deal of variability between individuals in their response bias. Here, individuals with HSAM and age- matched controls completed a remember/know and a source memory test. HSAMs behaved like controls in both overall and recollection-based memory discrimination. However, HSAMs showed a significantly more liberal response bias, endorsing more items as "old" than controls. These findings contribute to our understanding of how memory processes – especially those related to decision-making – function in those with superior memory abilities and may help elucidate how other (non-HSAM) memory experts make decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a debate over the extent to which personal identity or the self is preserved in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Autobiographical memory deficits at early stages of AD could contribute to altering patients' self. However, the nature of the relationship between autobiographical memory deficits and the self in AD has not been much investigated experimentally. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the integrative meaning of self-defining memories (SDMs) in early stages of AD and to analyse its relationship with the self-concept. The results showed that, when compared to the control group, AD patients less frequently extracted meaning from their SDMs and the meaning was less frequently tied to the self. Patients exhibited some altered aspects of the self-concept (i.e., complexity and strength), though some other components still persisted (i.e., valence and certainty). Correlation analyses showed that the impaired integrative meaning in the AD group was correlated with some changes in self-concept. We suggest that integrative meaning may act as a bridge between autobiographical memories and the self-concept, with reduced integration abilities appearing as a potential mechanism for the deterioration of the self-concept in AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six studies explored the preponderance of people who experience third-person perspective observer memories during autobiographical memory retrieval. The concept of first-person field versus observer memories has been extensively used in the areas of cognitive, social, and clinical psychology. An implicit assumption is the idea that most people use both of these perspectives. What varies are the circumstances that bias people to use one perspective over another for a given autobiographical memory. We challenge that assumption across six studies by showing that, while there are some people who report to regularly have observer memories, there are also those that report to rarely or never have them. These reports were found to be related to levels of reported dissociative experiences. We discuss how this difference in the experience of observer memories may also reflect other innate characteristics, and may correspond to predispositions for various pathologies, including depression, social phobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the effects of a new Immersive Reminiscence Therapy (IRT) programme on cognitive function, including autobiographical memory, in a sample Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. A total of 43 AD patients with mild to moderate disease severity were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 22, MMMSE = 20.77), or a control group (n = 21, MMMSE = 19.24). The intervention group received one weekly group-based session of IRT for five weeks in an authentic 1950s style museum environment, matching the time of the participants' youth. IRT included semi-structured conversations about the past. The control group received standard care. We assessed performance on cognitive function and autobiographical memory at baseline and post-intervention. Five weeks of IRT enhanced subsequent autobiographical memory performance, when participants were cued by concrete objects dated to their youth. Object-cued memories reported post intervention included a significantly higher degree of episodic details and higher word counts. The intervention showed no effect on the Autobiographical Memory Interview or word-cued recall. Global cognitive function and semantic autobiographical memory performance increased across time for both groups. Our findings demonstrate that immersion into a setting, rich on concrete cues dated to the participants' youth can improve autobiographical remembering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments examined the effects of survival processing and delay on true and related false recognition. Experiment 1 used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm and found survival processing to increase true and related false recognition. Extending the delay from 5-mins to 1-day reduced true, but not false memory. Measures of the characteristics of true and false memories showed survival processing increased "remember" and "know" responses for related false memory, "know" responses for true memory and gist processing. Experiment 2 made use of the category repetition procedure and found a broadly similar pattern of results for true memory. However, related false memory was decreased by survival processing. Except for one result, no interactions were found between encoding task and delay. Overall, survival processing produced similar or different effects on true/false memory depending on the nature of the list. The mechanisms that might underpin these are evaluated and considered in relation to future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous studies have consistently shown a telescoping error in children’s dating of earliest childhood memories. Preschool children through adolescents systematically date their earliest memories at older ages, in comparison with the age estimates provided by their parents or by themselves previously. In the current study, we examined the dating of earliest childhood memories in two samples of college adults and collected independent age estimates from their parents. Consistent with our findings with children, adults significantly postdated their earlier memories by approximately 12 months (Study 1) and 6 months (Study 2). The actual age of earliest memories was 2.5 years after adjusted for telescoping errors, 1 year earlier than what is commonly believed at 3.5 years. These findings challenge commonly held theoretical assumptions about childhood amnesia and highlight critical methodological issues in the study of childhood memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of autobiographical memory is as a gradual process beginning in early childhood and continuing through late adolescence. Substantial attention has been paid to early childhood when first personal memories are formed; less attention has been focused on the flourishing of memories from the late preschool years onward. We addressed this void with a three-year cohort-sequential study of age-related changes in the length, completeness, and coherence of autobiographical narratives by children 4-10 years. We also examined the unique and combined variance in autobiographical narrative explained by children’s own language, maternal narrative style, domain-general cognitive abilities, non-autobiographical story recall, and memory-specific skills. There was substantial growth in autobiographical narrative skill across the 4-10-year period. Non-autobiographical story recall was a strong concurrent and cross-lagged predictor for all autobiographical narrative measures. Memory-specific and domain-general cognitive abilities systematically predicted narrative completeness and coherence but not length. Children’s language and maternal narrative style did not contribute additional variance when these predictors were considered. The findings highlight that age-related changes in autobiographical memory are the results of combined contributions of a variety of domain-general and domain-specific predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to assess, through the self-reference effect in memory, whether affective self-representations were modulated by the retrieval conditions and the severity of social anxiety. Three groups (high socially anxious, low socially anxious and non-anxious) were compared on a self-referential task that involved encoding affective trait adjectives under three conditions: self-reference encoding, encoding with reference to the perception of self by others, and other-reference encoding. Memory for trait adjectives was tested on both a free recall task and a Remember/Know/Guess recognition task. The results revealed that while socially anxious individuals explicitly rated as self-descriptive and recalled more positive than negative trait adjectives like non-anxious participants, this positivity bias was respectively reduced and erased among low and high socially anxious participants when recollecting the same adjectives encoded in reference to the self. These findings are discussed in relation to their contribution to the understanding of the emotional memory biases related to the retrieval of self-knowledge in social anxiety. In particular, they highlight the necessity of using the self-reference effect in memory rather than mere self-endorsement of trait adjectives when assessing the efficacy of cognitive therapies for social anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the mechanism of the positive construction of autobiographical memory. Positive construction consists of the spontaneous transformation of memories in the direction of the subjective enhancement of self-competence in past activities to anticipate improvement over time. We speculated that trait anxiety may indicate a failure to exhibit this mechanism that results in a deficit of affirmative self-esteem. We hypothesised that the implantation of positive self-defining memories in anxiety-evoking domains would decrease trait anxiety. One hundred twenty adults recollected three negative self-defining memories. Then, half of the participants imagined episodes of desired behaviour that differed from the originally recollected ones either in discussion or in hypnosis. Thirty participants experienced a hypnotic state without any references to memories, and the rest formed the control group. Subjects from the “Memory Implantation in Hypnosis” group became unable to distinguish the originally reported memories from the imagined ones, exhibited decreased trait anxiety scores after a 4-month delay, and reported enhanced self-esteem. In contrast, the participants from the “Hypnosis with no reference to the past” group exhibited decreased scores at a short delay but later returned to their original scores. These findings highlight the power of cured episodic-like autobiographical memory for updating the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with synaesthesia have enhanced memory on a wide range of laboratory tests of episodic memory, but very little is known about their real-world memory. This study used a standard measure of autobiographical remembering (the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire, AMQ) considering four constructs (Recollection, Belief, Impact and Rehearsal) and two time periods (recent memories from adulthood, remote memories from childhood). Synaesthetes reported more Recollection (e.g., sensory detail) and Belief (e.g., confidence) which interacted with time, such that remote memories are reported to be comparatively better preserved in synaesthetes. This cannot be explained by synaesthetes recalling more salient episodes (the groups did not differ in Impact). It suggests instead that childhood memories have a special status in synaesthesia that reflects the different neurodevelopmental trajectory of this group. With regards to Rehearsal, controls tended to report that more recent memories tend to resurface (i.e., adulthood > childhood), but the synaesthetes showed the opposite dissociation (i.e., childhood > adulthood). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memories for events can be retrieved from visual perspectives that were never experienced, reflecting the dynamic and reconstructive nature of memories. Characteristics of memories can be altered when shifting from anown eyesperspective, the way most events are initially experienced, to anobserverperspective, in which one sees oneself in the memory. Moreover, recent evidence has linked these retrieval-related effects of visual perspective to subsequent changes in memories. Here we examine how shifting visual perspective influences the accuracy of subsequent memories for complex events encoded in the lab. Participants performed a series of mini-events that were experienced from their own eyes, and were later asked to retrieve memories for these events while maintaining the own eyes perspective or shifting to an alternative observer perspective. We then examined how shifting perspective during retrieval modified memories by influencing the accuracy of recall on a final memory test. Across two experiments, we found that shifting visual perspective reduced the accuracy of subsequent memories and that reductions in vividness when shifting visual perspective during retrieval predicted these changes in the accuracy of memories. Our findings suggest that shifting from an own eyes to an observer perspective influences the accuracy of long-term memories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As an individual's life story evolves across adulthood, the subjective experience (phenomenology) of autobiographical memory likely changes. In addition to age at retrieval, both the recency of the memory and the age when a memory is formed may be particularly important to its phenomenology. The present work examines the effect of three temporal factors on phenomenology ratings: (a) age of the participant, (b) age at the event reported in the memory, and (c) memory age (recency). A large sample of Americans (N = 1120), stratified by chronological age, recalled and rated two meaningful memories, a Turning Point and an Early Childhood Memory. Ratings of phenomenology (e.g., vividness of turning points) were higher among older adults compared to younger adults. Memories of events from the reminiscence bump were more positive in valence than events from other time periods but did not differ on other phenomenological dimensions; recent memories had stronger phenomenology than remote memories. In contrast to phenomenology, narrative content was generally unrelated to participant age, age at the event, or memory age. Overall, the findings indicate age-related differences in how meaningful memories are re-experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity representations are higher-order knowledge structures that organise autobiographical memories on the basis of personality and role-based themes of one’s self-concept. In two experiments, the extent to which different types of personal semantic content are reflected in these higher-order networks of memories was investigated. Healthy, young adult participants generated identity representations that varied in remoteness of formation and verbally reflected on these themes in an open-ended narrative task. The narrative responses were scored for retrieval of episodic, experience-near personal semantic and experience-far (i.e., abstract) personal semantic contents. Results revealed that to reflect on remotely formed identity representations, experience-far personal semantic contents were retrieved more than experience-near personal semantic contents. In contrast, to reflect on recently formed identity representations, experience-near personal semantic contents were retrieved more than experience-far personal semantic contents. Although episodic memory contents were retrieved less than both personal semantic content types to reflect on remotely formed identity representations, this content type was retrieved at a similar frequency as experience-far personal semantic content to reflect on recently formed identity representations. These findings indicate that the association of personal semantic content to identity representations is robust and related to time since acquisition of these knowledge structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Episodic memory has been tested in non-human animals using depletion paradigms that assess recollection for the “what”, “where” and “when” (i.e., how long ago). This paradigm has not been used with human children, yet doing so would provide another means to explore their episodic memory development. Using a depletion paradigm, preschool-aged children were presented in two trials with a preferred food that was only edible after a short interval and a less-preferred food that was edible after the short and long intervals. Younger (mean = 40 months) and older (mean = 65 months) children tended to choose their preferred food after the short intervals, but did not switch to selecting their less-preferred food after the long intervals. Importantly, their choices did not differ with age. Although older children better remembered “what”, “where”, and “what is where” than did younger children, neither age group successfully estimated “how long ago” an event occurred. Finally, both age groups spontaneously recalled information about Trial 1. We also analysed the relation between the different measures used in the study but no clear patterns emerged. Results are discussed with respect to the cognitive mechanisms necessary to succeed in depletion paradigms and the measurement of episodic memory more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how personal goals influence age differences in episodic future thinking. Research suggests that personal goals change with age and like autobiographical memory, future thinking is thought to be organised and impacted by personal goals. It was hypothesised that cueing older adults with age-relevant goals should modulate age differences in episodic details and may also influence phenomenological characteristics of imagined scenarios. Healthy younger and older adults completed the Future Thinking Interview [Addis, D. R., Wong, A. T., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). Age-related changes in the episodic simulation of future events.Psychological Science,19(1), 33–41. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02043.x] adapted to activate age-appropriate goals. Narratives were scored with an established protocol to obtain objective measures of episodic and semantic details. Subjective features such as emotionality and personal significance showed age differences as a function of goal domain while other features (e.g., vividness) were unaffected. However, consistent with prior reports, older adults produced fewer episodic details than younger adults and this was not modulated by goal domain. The results do not indicate that goal activation affects level of episodic detail. With respect to phenomenological aspects of future thinking, however, younger adults show more sensitivity to goal activation, compared with older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that some imagined future events are encoded in memory, leading to the formation of “memories of the future”. However, questions remain regarding the exact components of future event simulations that are encoded and the factors that determine their accessibility. To address these questions, the present study investigated memory for previously imagined future events using both free and cued recall tasks. The results showed that most future event simulations were successfully encoded and remained available in memory after a one week delay, but only some of them were readily accessible, whereas others could only be accessed when relevant cues were provided. Persons and locations were particularly well remembered, suggesting that these components are central to the simulation and memorisation of future events. We also found that memory for future event simulations was related to the clarity and familiarity of represented persons, the subjective feelings of pre-experience and mental time travel, the importance of imagined events to personal goals, and their emotional intensity during the initial simulation phase. Taken together, these findings expand our understanding of the formation, accessibility, and characteristics of memories of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Self-reports regarding how people visualise themselves during events that occurred in the past show that for events from the distant past individuals report assuming a more external perspective than for events from the recent past [Nigro, G., & Neisser, U. (1983). Point of view in personal memories.Cognitive Psychology,15, 467–482; Pronin, E., & Ross, L. (2006). Temporal differences in trait self-ascription.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,90, 197–209]. Thus it appears that, with the passage of time, representations of self embodied in memories of past events lose their position of an insider and assume a more ordinary position of self as an object seen from the perspective of an outside observer. The purpose of the present experiment was to examine this shift using a performance-based measure of accessibility. Results showed that self-judgements regarding unobservable, covert characteristics were faster for recent—compared to more distant—autobiographical events. However, self-judgements regarding observable, overt characteristics were faster for more distant events. This suggests an accessibility-based mechanism underlying the shift from internal to the relatively more external perspective in forming self-images related to the distant past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to highlight the underlying process responsible for the age-related deficit in recollection. Through two experiments using the Remember-Know-Guess procedure (Gardiner, J. M., & Richardson-Klavehn, A. [2000]. Remembering and knowing. InThe Oxford handbook of memory(pp. 229–244). New York, NY: Oxford University Press) in recognition, we manipulated the opportunity to update bindings between target items and their encoding context, in young and older adults. In the first experiment we impaired the binding updating process during the encoding of items, while in the second we supported this process. The results indicated that the “Remember” responses in the younger group were specifically reduced by the impairment of the binding updating process (Exp. 1), suggesting that this ability is useful for them to encode a specific episode. Conversely, only the “Remember” responses in the older group were improved in accuracy by supporting the binding updating process (Exp. 2), suggesting that their weakness in this ability is the source of their failure to improve the accuracy of their memories. The overall results support the hypothesis that the age-related decline in episodic memory is partly due to a greater vulnerability to interference on bindings, impairing the ability to update content-context bindings as and when events occur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]