Comparing two perceived characteristics of autobiographical memory: Perceptions of memory detail and perceptions of accessibility

Ritchie, Timothy D., Skowronski, John J., Walker, W. Richard and Wood, Sarah E. (2006) Comparing two perceived characteristics of autobiographical memory: Perceptions of memory detail and perceptions of accessibility. Memory, 14 (4), 471-485. (doi:10.1080/09658210500478434).

Abstract

Four samples of participants recalled autobiographical memories. While some evidence emerged from regression analyses suggesting that judgements of the amount of detail contained in each memory and judgements of the ease with which events could be recalled were partially independent, the analyses generally showed that these judgements were similarly predicted by various event characteristics (age, typicality, self-importance, emotional intensity at event occurrence, rehearsal types). Co-occurrence frequency data yielded similar conclusions, showing that while ease ratings and detail ratings occasionally diverged, they were more often consistent with each other. Finally, the data also suggested that events that prompted emotional ambivalence were not judged to be more easily recalled, or to contain more detail, than non-ambivalent events.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics