involuntary memory
9534458
Early, involuntary top down guidance of attention from working memory.
Four experiments explored the interrelations between working memory, attention, and eye movements. Observers had to identify a tilted line amongst vertical distractors. Each line was surrounded by a colored shape that could be precued by a matching item held in memory. Relative to a neutral baseline, in which no shapes matched the memory item, search was more efficient when the memory cue matched the shape containing the target, and it was less efficient when the cued stimulus contained a distractor. Cuing affected the shortest reaction times and the first saccade in search. The effect occurred even when the memory cue was always invalid but not when the cue did not have to be held in memory. There was also no evidence for priming effects between consecutive trials. The results suggest that there can be early, involuntary top down directing of attention to a stimulus matching the contents of working memory.
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
David Soto Dietmar Heinke Glyn W Humphreys Manuel J Blanco
145786916
Involuntary Autobiographical Memories
Results from a diary study of involuntary memories are presented (14 subjects; 7 males, 7 females, average age 23 years) Virtually all of the recorded memories had identifiable cues. Memory access was biased towards (a) mood congruent (b) recent and (c) distinctive (unusual) events. The memories were most frequently rated as emotionally positive and prior rehearsal was rated low. Also, the memories were found to influence current mood consonant with the emotional valence of the memories. Stressful and repetitive involuntary recollections as they are observed in clinical settings subsequent to traumatic events may be viewed as a malignant effect of normal mechanisms of involuntary memories.
Dorthe Berntsen
39189897
Voluntary and involuntary access to autobiographical memory.
Involuntary autobiographical memories recorded in a diary study are compared to voluntary autobiographical memories retrieved in response to verbal cues in a laboratory. The verbal cues were generated to be comparable to the cues that were found to elicit the involuntary memories. The findings demonstrate that voluntary and involuntary retrieval may access different samples of autobiographical memories. The voluntary memories were (1) less specific, (2) more frequently rehearsed, and (3) less emotionally positive than the involuntary memories. A reanalysis of the diary study examined conditions of involuntary retrieval. The memories occurred most frequently when attention was diffuse. They were typically triggered by environmental cues matching central features of the remembered event. The findings are discussed in relation to current models of autobiographical memory.
Memory
Dorthe Berntsen
12288616
Involuntary autobiographical memories in and outside the laboratory: How different are they from voluntary autobiographical memories?
In two studies, we compared the characteristics and retrieval times of involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory under controlled laboratory conditions. A new laboratory task of involuntary autobiographical memories involved detecting vertical lines in a stream of stimuli with horizontal lines (an undemanding vigilance task) and recording any involuntary memories during the session. The majority of these memories were reported as being triggered by irrelevant cue phrases presented on the screen. Voluntary autobiographical memories were sampled via a standard word cue method in Session 2. The results showed that involuntary memories were more specific and were retrieved significantly faster than voluntary memories. They were also more likely to be triggered by negative cues, whereas cue valence did not have any effect on the number of voluntary memories. Furthermore, laboratory involuntary memories did not differ from naturalistic involuntary memories recorded in a diary by the same participants (Study 2) Taken together, these results have important implications for current theories of autobiographical memory, and they open up interesting avenues for future research.
Memory cognition
Simone Schlagman Lia Kvavilashvili
94185
Out of one's mind: A study of involuntary semantic memories
The study of memories that pop into one's mind without any conscious attempt to retrieve them began only recently. While there are some studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (e.g. research on involuntary semantic memories or mind popping is virtually non existent. The latter is defined as an involuntary conscious occurrence of brief items of one's network of semantic knowledge. The recall of these items (e.g. a word, a name, a tune) is not accompanied by additional contextual information and/or involvement of self a standard feature of involuntary autobiographical memories. The paper reports several diary and questionnaire studies which looked into the nature and frequency of occurrence of these memories. The data show that people do experience involuntary semantic memories which tend to occur without any apparent cues while being engaged in relatively automatic activities. Possible mechanisms of involuntary semantic memories are discussed (e.g. very long term priming) and the results of the study provide information on the possible duration of the priming effects in everyday life. Related theoretical and methodological issues and future avenues of research in this neglected area are outlined.
Cognitive Psychology
Lia Kvavilashvili George Mandler
32041360
The episodic nature of involuntary autobiographical memories
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.
Memory cognition
Dorthe Berntsen Nicoline Marie Hall
142167423
Involuntary Autobiographical Memories: An Introduction to the Unbidden Past
1. Introduction to the unbidden past 2. Theoretical backgrounds 3. Ways to study the unbidden past 4. How special are involuntary autobiographical memories? 5. How do they come to mind? 6. Differences between involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories 7. Involuntary memories of traumatic events 8. Future and past.
Dorthe Berntsen
10859616
Emotionally charged autobiographical memories across the life span: the recall of happy, sad, traumatic, and involuntary memories.
A sample of 1,241 respondents between 20 and 93 years old were asked their age in their happiest, saddest, most traumatic, most important memory, and most recent involuntary memory. For older respondents, there was a clear bump in the 20s for the most important and happiest memories. In contrast, saddest and most traumatic memories showed a monotonically decreasing retention function. Happy involuntary memories were over twice as common as unhappy ones, and only happy involuntary memories showed a bump in the 20s. Life scripts favoring positive events in young adulthood can account for the findings. Standard accounts of the bump need to be modified, for example, by repression or reduced rehearsal of negative events due to life change or social censure.
Psychology and aging
Dorthe Berntsen David C Rubin
144698623
The Unbidden Past
Involuntary autobiographical memories are memories of personal experiences that come to mind spontaneously that is, with no preceding attempt at retrieval. They were one of Ebbinghaus's (1885/1964) three basic kinds of memory but have been ignored by modern cognitive psychology. Recent work suggests that involuntary memories are a basic mode of remembering that operates on the same episodic memory system as voluntary (strategic) remembering and thus follows the same rules of encoding and maintenance. Due to their associative and unplanned retrieval, involuntary memories differ from voluntary memories by being more specific, by being less relevant to one's life story and identity, and by involving more emotional reaction at the time of recall. Research on involuntary autobiographical memories has important implications for the understanding of intrusive memories in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Dorthe Berntsen
32279166
Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings.
Four experiments tested a new hypothesis that involuntary attention shifts are contingent on the relationship between the properties of the eliciting event and the properties required for task performance. In a variant of the spatial cuing paradigm, the relation between cue property and the property useful in locating the target was systematically manipulated. In Experiment 1, invalid abrupt onset precues produced costs for targets characterized by an abrupt onset but not for targets characterized by a discontinuity in color. In Experiment 2, invalid color precues produced greater costs for color targets than for abrupt onset targets. Experiment 3 provided converging evidence for this pattern. Experiment 4 investigated the boundary conditions and time course for attention shifts elicited by color discontinuities. The results of these experiments suggest that attention capture is contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands.
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
Charles L Folk Roger W Remington James C Johnston