Individual differences in autobiographical memory: The autobiographical recollection test predicts ratings of specific memories across cueing conditions.

Abstract

The Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART;Berntsen et al., 2019) measures individual differences in autobiographical memory. We here examined whether the ART correlates with characteristics of people's specific autobiographical memories. Participants (Ns ≥ 475) completed the ART and rated recollective qualities of autobiographical memories cued by words (Study 1), by positive and negative emotional valence (Study 2), and by future and past temporal direction (Study 3). Scores on the ART consistently correlated with recollective qualities of specific memories and future thoughts, both immediately and after a 1-week delay. The magnitude of these correlations was at the same level as the correlations between individual memory items, underscoring the ability of the ART, as a trait measure to predict ratings of individual memories. The findings support the construct validity of the ART and demonstrate that people's evaluation of their autobiographical memory, in general, is reliably related to how they remember specific events.

Individual differences in autobiographical memory predict memory confidence but not memory accuracy.

“…Finally, the finding that the ART was consistently associated with memory ratings of the simulated events extends previous findings of robust correlations between the ART and ratings of autobiographical memories (Gehrt et al, 2022) to memory for a simulated event. This supports the construct validity of the ART and adds validity to the analogue paradigm used in the present experiments as a way of investigating individual differences in the recollective experience of past events.…”

“…Due to the lack of prior research in this area, we had no firm predictions regarding possible associations between the ART and the objective accuracy of the remembered events. Based on the findings of Gehrt et al (2022), we predicted positive correlations between the ART and rated recollective qualities of the remembered events, as well as their rated confidence (Brewer & Sampaio, 2012; Roediger et al, 2012).…”

Effects of mental context reinstatement on accuracy and recollective experience

“…We also ran correlation analyses within each of the two experimental conditions, observing that ratings of the Autobiographical Rec- Finally, we hypothesized that individual differences would correlate positively with the memory characteristics relating to the specific event. This hypothesis was strongly supported in the obtained data, replicating the findings by Gehrt et al (2022) and Nielsen et al (2022).…”

Moderated digital social therapy for young people with emerging mental health problems: A user-centered mixed-method design and usability study

“…Possibly, men tend to acknowledge mental health problems at a later or more advanced stage than women ( 77 , 78 ), tend to experience more mental health stigma ( 79 ), or the content these initiatives offer might better match the complaints women experience (e.g., more internalizing vs. externalizing problems ( 80 ). Third, the difference in participants' platform experience based on time spent on the platform may have yielded a recall bias ( 81 ). Interviewees had a maximum of six months of not being on the ENYOY-platform, hence for those who have not been using it for a significant period of time (about one third of the participants were offline for four or more months), their autobiographical recollection and opinions may have changed as time passed and poses a risk of forgetting.…”