Accuracies and inaccuracies in autobiographical memories

Abstract

Records of everyday autobiographical events were gathered from a small group of adults during a 4-month period. This was followed by five memory tests extending over 2% years. Recognition memory, temporal ordering, and dating accuracy declined as the events tested became more remote. Recognition accuracy on original items was high over the entire study; whereas the false recognition of nonevent, foil items increased after a I-to 3-month delay. Confidence ratings of recognition accuracy remained consistently high over all tests, even though recognition accuracy deteriorated. Additional analyses of foil items indicated that false recognitions of nonevents as one's own memories were related positively to the semantic similarity between foils and the original records from which they were constructed. Taken together, the data support the hypothesis that the same autobiographical schemata account for the correct recognition of actual events, the false recognition of certain nonevents as one's own memories, the correct rejection of other nonevents, and an overconfidence in the "facts" of one's life. Cj 19X6 Academic Pre\,. Inc.

Subjective vs. documented reality: A case study of long-term real-life autobiographical memory

“…It is noteworthy that this deterioration is attributed here to commission errors, i.e., endorsing altered details from the events as true. This finding is in agreement with a previous diary study (Barclay and Wellman 1986), and may be construed as resulting from the mental ontogenesis of schemata that augment the tendency to accept false details at the expense of accuracy (Brewer 1996;Gilboa 2004). Although the possibility cannot be excluded that responses at Remote might have been influenced by the past encounter with the same questions, we find this unlikely given the long interval between the tests, the fact that both tests came as a surprise to E.S., and the observation that experience on the first test did not improve performance on the second.…”

Directed forgetting of autobiographical events

“…Half of the forms were pink, designated as practice, and half were white. Each diary form had six sections and was similar to the forms used by Barclay and colleagues (Barclay & Subramaniam, 1987;Barclay & Wellman, 1986).…”

“…We wished to compare ratings on mood and emotional intensity made at recording with those made at test. Because the affective component of autobiographical memories has been shown to be vulnerable to distortion and changes in intensity (Barclay & Wellman, 1986;Levine, 1997;Thomas & Diener, 1990), we hypothesized that directions to forget might accelerate this process.…”

“…Previous work suggests that peripheral details are more likely to be forgotten than are central features (Barclay & Wellman, 1986;Christianson, 1992;Linton, 1986;Neisser, 1981). Likewise, some evidence suggests that there are inaccuracies in memory for emotions related to autobiographical events (Barclay & Wellman, 1986;Levine, 1997;Thomas & Diener, 1990). Evidence also suggests that emotional valence and intensity influence the recall of autobiographical memories (Barnier et al, 2004;Brewer, 1988;Byrne, Hyman, & Scott, 2001;Christianson, 1992;Linton, 1986;Wagenaar, 1986).…”

“…We thought that the forget cue might reduce memory accu-racy for vulnerable aspects of remembered events, such as details and emotional valence. Previous work suggests that peripheral details are more likely to be forgotten than are central features (Barclay & Wellman, 1986;Christianson, 1992;Linton, 1986;Neisser, 1981). Likewise, some evidence suggests that there are inaccuracies in memory for emotions related to autobiographical events (Barclay & Wellman, 1986;Levine, 1997;Thomas & Diener, 1990).…”