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Memories of life transitions: The first year in college
Abstract
Examined characteristics of highly accessible personal memories of 137 undergraduates who recounted experiences occurring during 1 of 3 intervals (freshman year in college, sophomore year, or the transition from high school to college). Ss described the 1st 4 memories that came to mind and rated each experience for intensity of emotion, surprise, life impact, frequency of retelling, clarity , and date of occurrence. Most memories focused on social, nonacademic themes. The temporal distribution of memories showed a marked clustering in September. Ratings of emotional intensity were uniformly high, while ratings of life impact and surprise were lower. Results suggest that vivid episodic memories are overrepresented at periods of life transition and that they are triggered by the intense emotions experienced at such times. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... When given unrestrictive cues and a short and relatively recent response period such as "recall events from the past year," these students tend to retrieve more events from around the beginnings and ends of academic terms than from any other time. This calendar effect (Kurbat et al., 1998) was initially discovered in independent studies by Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White (1986) and Robinson (1986). When asked to recall and date four events from their freshman year, Pillemer et al. found that their upperclassmen recalled three times as many events from September (the beginning of the fall semester at Wellesley) than from any other month during the year. ...
... As was the case for results from long-term sampling procedures, the distribution of temporal landmarks can explain the calendar effect. In the Pillemer et al. (1986) study, the initial month of college is loaded with many first experiences', especially because students may be away from home for the first time in their lives. Robinson's (1986) and Kurbat et al.'s (1998) results can be explained by the importance of academic calendars in students' lives: It structures their year and determines when and where they will be at any particular moment of time. ...
... A second factor that has received its own share of attention in the literature is emotionality. Pillemer in his series of studies (i.e., Pillemer et al., 1986Pillemer et al., , 1988) explained the recall peaks found for events during the first month of college as occurring because many highly emotional events occur during this time. As mentioned previously, Pillemer (1984) also found that flashbulb memories were rated as high in emotionality. ...
The prevalence of temporal landmarks has been revealed in a wide range of tasks associated with autobiographical memory, such as recall and dating of personal events. The author examined 3 types of events that have usually been considered landmarks: flashbulb memories, 1st experiences, and reference points in personal histories. The differences between landmark events and nonlandmark events are considered, and evidence is presented showing the effect of these landmarks on memory tasks. It is suggested that the effect of temporal landmarks on these tasks is twofold: (a) performance on the tasks is intricately linked with how our autobiographical memory system is structured, and temporal landmarks may play a critical role in this organization; and (b) landmarks may be actively and spontaneously used by individuals as cues when performing recall and dating tasks (the cuing hypothesis). Both of these factors serve to systematically bias performance, leading to robust phenomena such as calendar effects and reminiscence peaks in recall and improvements in accuracy in dating.
... Despite individuals spending a significant part of their lives in school environments, only a few studies focus on memories of schooling. Both quantitative (Pillemer et al., 1986(Pillemer et al., , 1988Walls et al., 2001) and qualitative (e.g., Rothenberg, 1994;Turunen, 2012) studies have found that one of the prevalent themes of school memories is school transitions. ...
... Growing evidence indicates that (a) during transitional periods, people usually encode personal facts more efficiently (Conway, 1996;Pillemer et al., 1986;Robinson, 1992;Shum, MEMORIES OF HIGH SCHOOL TRANSITION 7 1998; Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005) and (b) life transitions are frequently used as landmarks by individuals to date life events (Burt, 2011;Svob & Brown, 2012). ...
... This study has four purposes: First, we examine the features of high school transition memories in terms of structure, narrative themes, integrative meaning, as well as the evaluation of importance, vividness, and emotional valence. Studies on adults' memories of schooling and of school transitions report that these kinds of recollections tend to be specific (Pillemer et al., 1986;Walls et al., 2001); thus, we expect a higher mean for specific memories than for general and mixed recollections. Moreover, life transition memories are frequently rated by study participants as being highly vivid and important when they refer to school (Pillemer, 2009) or to other life domains (Enz & Talarico, 2016). ...
Grounded in literature on school transitions and autobiographical memory, this study focuses on the personal memories of a sample of 112 young Italian adults facing their transition to university. Participants were asked to recall five memories of their high school transition experience and, subsequently, the students were assessed in terms of resilience, future orientation, academic motivation, university transition experience, and subjective well-being since attending university. The memories were coded for narrative themes, structure, and integrative meaning. The results, consistent with prior studies on school memories, indicate that memory narratives are, on average, specific and focused on interpersonal relationships. Tension, redemption sequences, and autobiographical integration were other important dimensions of most of the memories. The number of integrative memories (i.e., those that connect a certain memory with a broader meaning) is correlated with important individual factors that influence university transition (resilience, future orientation, and academic intrinsic motivation) and predict both perceived difficulty in the university transition and subjective well-being. Results are discussed in light of prior studies on autobiographical memory and school transitions.
... Several studies have shown that specific memories from the beginning and sometimes the end of autobiographical periods are more frequently retrieved. In two studies, Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White (1986), asked students to recall memories from their first term at university. They found that most memories were from the beginning of the first term. ...
... The stronger associations between specific memories at starts/ends and autobiographical periods are established through rehearsal. First, specific memories at the beginning and end may be rehearsed more in relation to the autobiographical periods, either because the individual recognizes their significance to the autobiographical periods or because they are nonscripted and thus less likely to be processed in relation to categoric memories (Pillemer et al., 1986;Schank, 1999). Second, specific memories at the beginning and end of autobiographical periods may be more distinct, emotional, and goal-relevant and because of this rehearsed more (Pillemer et al., 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005). ...
... First, specific memories at the beginning and end may be rehearsed more in relation to the autobiographical periods, either because the individual recognizes their significance to the autobiographical periods or because they are nonscripted and thus less likely to be processed in relation to categoric memories (Pillemer et al., 1986;Schank, 1999). Second, specific memories at the beginning and end of autobiographical periods may be more distinct, emotional, and goal-relevant and because of this rehearsed more (Pillemer et al., 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005). Because rehearsal includes relations between the specific memory and the autobiographical period, the association between them will be strengthened. ...
Autobiographical periods refer to subjectively defined life periods with perceived beginnings and endings, including information about the people, places, activities, and objects associated with the period. Autobiographical periods are serial, parallel, and hierarchical and are associated with specific and categoric memories. Individuals construct autobiographical periods for the future and have knowledge of periods in other people's lives. The review shows that (a) autobiographical periods may facilitate the recall of specific memories; (b) specific memories from the beginning and end of autobiographical periods are more often recalled compared with specific memories from other time points; (c) autobiographical periods are used to place specific memories in time; (d) autobiographical periods play an important role in the construction of life stories; and (e) autobiographical periods are related to personality traits and well-being. The central components of a theory of autobiographical periods are outlined. Thinking of life as extended time periods is suggested to be the central process through which autobiographical periods are constructed. Sociocultural processes, experience, and goals are assumed to inform life period thinking, and thus the construction of autobiographical periods.
... In this study 20-year-old participants were selected to closely examine autobiographical memory in the core of this significant stage of life because this age group has already gone through adolescence and are at a stage in life marked by change and relevant decisions for the future in all walks of life. In contrast with earlier studies that examined traumatic experiences (Christianson & Loftus, 1990), specific periods of life (e.g., Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986) or important autobiographical memories elicited by singleword prompts (Rubin & Schulkind, 1997), in this study we were interested in collecting as many positive and negative emotional experiences as possible up to the age of 20. This unrestricted search will provide us with the most representative emotional experiences of the first quarter of life, allowing us to organize them into thematic categories, age and emotional intensity. ...
... What experiences mark our lives and what do they represent? Pillemer et al. (1986) asked university students to recall memories from their freshman year in college. The memories were grouped into four categories: recreation and leisure (40%), housing, academics, and romance (each 19%). ...
... produced by the participants. Following the criteria and organization established in previous studies (e.g., Berntsen, 2002;Bohanek et al., 2005;Butler & Wolfner, 2000;Christianson & Loftus, 1990;Pillemer et al., 1986), both the positive and negative experiences generated by the participants were organized into 14 thematic categories (see Table 1). Two independent judges categorized the experiences and the limited discrepancies were cleared up by a third independent judge. ...
In this study we examined autobiographical memory for emotional experiences from an integrative perspective, analyzing nature, distribution, content and phenomenological assessment of the experiences. Undergraduate students produced positive or negative life experiences, dated them and indicated their emotional level. Afterwards, they chose an experience to narrate, and rated their memory for the experience. The positive and negative experiences were grouped into 14 categories, although most of them fell into four areas: studies, family, friends and couple. The number of positive and negative experiences progressively increased from very few childhood memories to a larger percentage of more recent events. The distribution was equivalent, except during adolescence, in which a greater number of negative than positive experiences were recorded. The negative narratives included more emotional details, references to cognitive processes, mental rehearsal and justifications than the positive narratives. But the positive experiences obtained higher ratings in vividness and sensorial details than the negative experiences.
... Respondents were not asked to recount particular college activities, but rather to describe the first memories to come to mind. The research extends a previous series of studies of memories reported by current college students (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). ...
... The second research issue concerns memory structure and contents. Pillemer et al. (1986) found that freely chosen memories of college shared certain characteristics. When asked for the first memories of freshman year to come to mind, current students usually described specific episodes rather than general or recurring events. ...
... Yet, neither high consequentiality nor frequent overt rehearsal seemed necessary: Many people reporting memories had judged the event to have little impact on their lives and had not recounted the memory previously. Pillemcr's (1984) findings are consistent with a growing collection of psychological studies that have identified heightened emotionality as an attribute of readily accessible, vivid, elaborate, or persistent episodic memories (Bower, 1981;Goldsmith & Pillemer, in press;Master, Lishman, & Smith, 1983;Pillemer et al, 1986;Reisberg, Heuer, & O'Shaughnessy, 1984;Robinson, 1980;Rubin & Kozin, 1984). Recent neurobiological analyses also supported this connection (Gold, 1987;Pettigrew, 1978). ...
College alumnae who had graduated 2, 12, or 22 years earlier completed questionnaires in which they recounted the first four memories to come to mind of their freshman year and provided ratings of each remembered experience. For all three alumnae groups, the temporal distribution of memories peaked in September, the beginning of college. Mean ratings of emotional intensity were high, mean ratings of surprise and life impact were below the moderate level and substantial numbers of memories had never been recounted previously. The proportion of memories that focused on specific episodes rather than on general experiences decreased as the number of years since graduation increased. The incidence of specific memories also declined as a function of memory order: Memories reported first were more likely to be specific than memories reported later. The results suggest that transitional and emotional episodes are especially likely to persist in memory for many years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... . When individuals are asked to recall specific memories from their life course, chapters may be activated first, which then direct the search for specific memories (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). Since the beginning age of chapters shows a bump (Thomsen & Berntsen, 2008), and specific memories are over-represented around the beginnings of chapters (e.g., Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panter, & White, 1988;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005), a hierarchical search strategy should result in a bump for specific memories. ...
... When individuals are asked to freely recall specific memories from an extended period, specific memories cluster around the beginning of the chapter. For example, Pillemer and colleagues found that college students more often recalled memories from the beginning of their first academic term compared to later parts of the term (Pillemer et al., 1986(Pillemer et al., , 1988; for similar findings see also Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Robinson, 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005). The effect is not due to students simply starting their memory search at the beginning of the academic term, as recall cued by the period February of senior year in high school to October of the first year in college also showed an increased recall of memories from 268 KIRKEGAARD THOMSEN, PILLEMER, IVCEVIC September, the beginning of college (Pillemer et al., 1986; but see Anderson, 2005, for results supporting a bounded retrieval explanation). ...
... For example, Pillemer and colleagues found that college students more often recalled memories from the beginning of their first academic term compared to later parts of the term (Pillemer et al., 1986(Pillemer et al., , 1988; for similar findings see also Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Robinson, 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005). The effect is not due to students simply starting their memory search at the beginning of the academic term, as recall cued by the period February of senior year in high school to October of the first year in college also showed an increased recall of memories from 268 KIRKEGAARD THOMSEN, PILLEMER, IVCEVIC September, the beginning of college (Pillemer et al., 1986; but see Anderson, 2005, for results supporting a bounded retrieval explanation). ...
Theories of autobiographical memory posit that extended time periods (here termed chapters) and memories are organised hierarchically. If chapters organise memories and guide their recall, then chapters and memories should show similar temporal distributions over the life course. Previous research demonstrates that positive but not negative memories show a reminiscence bump and that memories cluster at the beginning of extended time periods. The current study tested the hypotheses that (1) ages marking the beginning of positive but not negative chapters produce a bump, and that (2) specific memories are over-represented at the beginning of chapters. Potential connections between chapters and the cultural life script are also examined. Adult participants first divided their life story into chapters and identified their most positive and most negative chapter. They then recalled a specific memory from both their most positive and most negative chapter. As predicted, the beginning age of positive but not negative chapters produced a bump and specific memories tended to cluster at chapter beginnings. The results support the idea that chapters guide the search for specific memories and that the cultural life script contributes to the search process.
... Instead, what is important is how much change has followed in its wake. Consistent with this point, both script-consistent transitions and script-divergent ones are frequently used as temporal landmarks (e.g., Bohn and Habermas, 2016;Shi and Brown, 2016;Gu et al., 2017;Camia et al., 2019) and give rise to a relatively large number of memorable personal experiences (Pillemer et al., 1986(Pillemer et al., , 1988Kurbat et al., 1998;Thomsen and Berntsen, 2005;Uzer and Brown, 2015;Brown et al., 2016;Shi and Brown, 2016;Gu et al., 2017;Thomsen et al., 2021). In addition, both types of events are often mentioned when participants are asked to recall important events from their own lives (Glück and Bluck, 2007;Thomsen and Berntsen, 2008;Rubin et al., 2009;Bohn, 2010;Haque and Hasking, 2010;Dickson et al., 2011;Thomsen et al., 2011;Gu et al., 2017Gu et al., , 2019 and from the lives of their parents (Svob and Brown, 2012;Svob et al., 2016;Gu et al., 2019). ...
... Prior research has demonstrated that script-consistent and script-divergent events organize autobiographical memory and spawn memorable experiences. As noted in the introduction, both types of events serve as temporal landmarks (e.g., Bohn and Habermas, 2016;Shi and Brown, 2016;Gu et al., 2017;Camia et al., 2019), can give rise to "bumps" in the temporal distributions of recalled events (e.g., Pillemer et al., 1986Pillemer et al., , 1988Kurbat et al., 1998;Thomsen and Berntsen, 2005;Uzer and Brown, 2015;Brown et al., 2016;Shi and Brown, 2016;Gu et al., 2017;Thomsen et al., 2021) and are mentioned when people narrate their life stories (Glück and Bluck, 2007;Thomsen and Berntsen, 2008;Rubin et al., 2009;Bohn, 2010;Haque and Hasking, 2010;Dickson et al., 2011;Thomsen et al., 2011;Gu et al., 2017Gu et al., , 2019 and when adult children recall their parents' lives (Svob and Brown, 2012;Svob et al., 2016;Gu et al., 2019). Transition Theory Brown, 2016Brown, , 2021 contends that these phenomena reflect the degree of change engendered by the transitions in question. ...
The present study examined the beliefs about two types of important life transitions: transitions that are consistent with the cultural life script (e.g., getting married) and transitions that diverge from it (e.g., relocating). Data were collected from two conditions: individuals in the experienced condition only responded to transitions they had experienced; individuals in the hypothetical condition provided ratings only for transitions they had not experienced. Participants rated the likelihood and typical age of occurrence, importance, transitional impact, and valence for an individualized set of condition-appropriate events. We found that script-consistent events were considered more normative and positive than script-divergent events. The two types of events, however, differed little in terms of importance or transitional impact. We conclude by arguing that although script-consistent and script-divergent transitions have much in common from a mnemonic perspective, the distinction is still warranted in the context of lifetime planning and evaluation.
... Memory for events around a temporal landmark can therefore be improved relative to other memories. For example, students' recall for events peaks around the beginning and end of the academic calendar (Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986): they retrieved almost three times as many memories from the beginning of the academic year than of any other time (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). Likewise, the reminiscence peak for memories in the second and third decade of life (e.g., Rubin, Wetzler, & Nebes, 1985) might be explained by the density of first-time experiences (i.e., landmark experiences) during this time. ...
... Memory for events around a temporal landmark can therefore be improved relative to other memories. For example, students' recall for events peaks around the beginning and end of the academic calendar (Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986): they retrieved almost three times as many memories from the beginning of the academic year than of any other time (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). Likewise, the reminiscence peak for memories in the second and third decade of life (e.g., Rubin, Wetzler, & Nebes, 1985) might be explained by the density of first-time experiences (i.e., landmark experiences) during this time. ...
Peetz, J., & Davydenko, M. (in press). Temporal landmarks. In F. Grouzet (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Psychology of Time Travel and Temporality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
... The term accessibility refers to how easily or readily thoughts come to mind (Higgins & King, 1981). Because people tend to think about, elaborate on, and rehearse highly emotional events, emotional events tend be highly accessible in memory (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). High accessibility, in turn, results in vivid memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977). ...
... For example, among both men and women, negative emotions at exposure increased accessibility. That is, both men and women indicated thinking about violent media that was especially upsetting, which supports numerous studies in the memory literature demonstrating a strong link between emotions and accessibility (Pillemer et al., 1986). Furthermore, among both men and women, accessibility positively predicted memory vividness. ...
This study explores gender differences in memories for graphic media violence. More specifically, this project measures the level of complexity in men’s and women’s situation models for violent movies and TV programs seen in the past. Using the theory of vivid media violence, negative emotions, accessibility, and memory vividness are tested as predictors of situation model complexity. In a nationwide survey, 254 participants wrote essays describing memorable violent movies and TV programs. The essays suggest more similarities than differences among men’s and women’s situation models, although men described more details about blood and gore. Among both men and women, negative emotions at the time of exposure indirectly predicted situation model complexity as mediated by accessibility and memory vividness. Implications for scholars studying media violence effects are discussed.
... Pillemer and colleagues (1988) found that students rated the emotional intensity of their memories for the transition to college higher than the life impact of the event. Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White (1986) and Talarico (2009) also found that memories of events during the transition to college were rated as highly vivid. Pillemer (1998Pillemer ( , 2001 further suggested that memories for 'momentous events' (consistent with turning points as defined here) tend to be highly vivid, and momentous novel events (which Pillemer called 'originating events') could serve a directive function in AM. ...
... Many of the events reported were considered transitions: high school graduation, acceptance to college/university, went on a vacation, and so on. Freely recalled autobiographical events from within an academic calendar time frame also tend to cluster around periods of transition to and from semesters (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White 1986;Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panter, & White, 1988;Robinson, 1986). Kurbat, Shevell, and Rips (1998) found enhanced recall only for the ends of terms when followed by a break period, suggesting that the transitional nature of these periods [i.e., shifting from one situation (school) to another (vacation)], is necessary for the effect to occur. ...
Turning points and transitions are both life events marked by significant change. Whereas turning points are personal changes in life direction, transitions are external changes in daily circumstances. Transition-linked turning points are events that fit both of these definitions. Although transitions and turning points have been examined separately, the current study is the first empirical comparison of these types of events and their overlap. Differences in the characteristics of adults' autobiographical memories of turning points, transitions, and transition-linked turning points were compared using a within-subjects design. Memories of transition-linked turning points and turning points were more central to participants' life stories than transitions, whereas memories of transitions had more similarities in content, particularly location, with related memories. These results suggest that transitions organize autobiographical memory whereas turning points anchor the life story. Copyright
... A lack of specificity would have implications for understanding the phenomenology of the memories solicited (e.g., differences might suggest that memories of fiction are more semanticized than memories of lived experience). We used a coding scheme from previously published research (Pillemer et al., 1986), which coded memories as specific (containing an explicit description of a 'one-momenttime' event) or general (often going beyond a single event and presenting a theme for numerous, often recurring events). The first author and a trained research assistant coded the descriptions as specific, general, or mixed (clearly containing elements of both specific and general events). ...
People consume, remember, and discuss not only memories of lived experiences, but also events from works of fiction, such as books, movies, and TV shows. We argue that these memories of fiction represent an important category of event memory, best understood within an autobiographical memory framework. How do fictional events yield psychological realities even when they are known to be invented? We explored this question in three studies by comparing the memory content, phenomenological qualities, and functional roles of naturally occurring personal memories to memories of fiction. In Studies 1 and 2, we characterized the subjective experience of memories of fiction by adapting established measures of autobiographical remembering, such as the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (Rubin et al., 2003), Centrality of Event Scale (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006), and items from the Thinking About Life Experiences Scale (Bluck et al., 2005; Pillemer et al., 2015). In Study 3, we investigated similarities and differences in personal memories and memories of fiction for events from childhood or the recent past. In doing so, we observed the impact of a unique property of memories of fiction: their ability to be repeatedly reexperienced in their original form. Taken together, we argue that memories of fiction can be considered similar to other forms of autobiographical remembering and describe a theoretical framework for understanding memories of fiction in the context of other event memories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... More concretely, consider a study that requires participants, in this case first-year undergraduates in their second term of university, to recall a dozen memorable events from the previous calendar year. This method is known to produce a calendar effect (Kurbat et al., 1998;Pillemer et al., 1988;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986), which is the tendency to recall more events from the 1 The focus here is on people who have retained their jobs or continued with their studies during the Pandemic, but have been forced to work or study from home. Other scenarios are considered below. ...
The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.
... More concretely, consider a study that requires participants, in this case first-year undergraduates in their second term of university, to recall a dozen memorable events from the previous calendar year. This method is known to produce a calendar effect (Kurbat et al., 1998;Pillemer et al., 1988;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986), which is the tendency to recall more events from the beginning and the end of the academic year than from other times 2 . ...
The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a Lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.
... As in Mullen's (1994) study, not only the timing but also the content of these earliest memories differed across cultures. Wang used a coding scheme developed by Pillemer, Rhinehart & White (1986) to code memories as specific, one-point-in-time events (e.g., "the day I got an A on my English exam") as opposed to routines or scripted activities (e.g., "writing at school"). When evaluated according to this scheme, American participants provided more detailed memories of distinct, one-point-in-time events. ...
As ecological and cultural theorists have noted, developmental processes are best studied as a function of the rich, synergistic and interactive contextual factors that constitute children's physical and social environments (eg, Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Super & Harkness, 1986). The myriad processes involved in memory are a case in point. Despite a formidable history of memory research in psychology (eg, Bartlett, 1932; Ebbinghaus, 1885), the specific parameters that determine encoding, retention and retrieval performance are still being explored across a variety of paradigms (eg, Schacter, 1996; Wright & Loftus, 1998). A developmental perspective highlights the inherent complexity of these processes. In particular, considering how memory develops in the natural world underscores its essential relationship with a complex set of environmental features.
... This may impact recall reli-ability. There is evidence on increased accuracy of memory with emotive experiences, 26,27 although whether this translates into accurate long-term recall is not as clear. 28 Potential participants may not have responded if there was no recall of a pediatric palliative care patient; therefore, identification of pediatric palliative patients by officers may be poorer than results suggest. ...
Background:
Pediatric palliative care occurs across contexts through the child's illness trajectory, including within the child or young person's community. Interactions with the ambulance service may occur with a child's deterioration, crisis, or when needing transfer, but there is little research on this interaction.
Aim:
To explore the experiences and attitudes of ambulance officers in managing pediatric patients with palliative care needs.
Design:
A targeted e-mail survey was sent exploring perceptions of the involvement with these patients including exposure, comfort, resuscitation topics, and supports available.
Setting/Participants:
Participants were Queensland ambulance officers known to have had an interaction with one of the last 50 pediatric palliative care referrals across Queensland.
Results:
Twenty-two survey responses were received. Most of the palliative group accessed ambulances for the 13-month study period. Most ambulance officers did not easily identify patients as receiving palliative care. Many participants felt these cases were challenging, confidence levels varied, and staff counselling services were felt to be relevant. Ambulance officers were most likely to use correspondence provided by the family from their usual team as a guide for emergency management. Half of the participants felt patients receiving pediatric palliative care should have a "not for resuscitation" order. Respondents suggested officer support could be improved through increased patient documentation and promotion of existing officer supports.
Conclusions:
These findings demonstrate challenges experienced by ambulance officers and suggest practical ways in which pediatric palliative care services can better support emergency services.
... In line with the perspective that memory is an adaptive cognitive function, it is predicted that recall will be superior for emotionally valenced information because positive and negative events are more related to survival and reproduction than neutral events (Adolphs & Damasio, 2000;McGaugh, 2000). Crucially, one of the most persistent findings in memory literaturethe emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) effectconcerns the extent to which emotional information is recalled quicker and more accurately than neutral information (Cahill & McGaugh, 1995;Ferré, Fraga, Comesaña, & Sánchez-Casas, 2015;Kensinger & Corkin, 2003;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986; for reviews, see Buchanan & Adolphs, 2002;Hamann, 2001;LeBlanc et al., 2015). For example, Kensinger and Corkin (2003) asked participants to perform recognition tasks for neutral and negative words that had previously been encountered in a semantic judgement task. ...
How is the strength of a memory determined? This review discusses three main factors that contribute to memory enhancement - 1) emotion, 2) targeted memory reactivation, and 3) neural reinstatement. Whilst the mechanisms through which memories become enhanced vary, this review demonstrates that activation of the basolateral amygdala and hippocampal formation are crucial for facilitating encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. Here we suggest methodological factors to consider in future studies, and discuss several unanswered questions that should be pursued in order to clarify selective memory enhancement.
... These include living away from their parents, trying to manage their finances, establishing new friendships, and trying to understand the college system, and along the way, they encounter many other challenges. In studying what they call the "longest year of college life," Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White (1986) collected narratives of freshmen students and found that they referred more and more diversely to their social lives compared with more experienced college students. ...
This study aimed to examine freshmen and senior college students' episodic and semantic memory use in classroom context regarding short and long time delays and college experience level. Data were collected in 2014 and 2017, right after students' final exams (T1) and 5 weeks later (T2). Students were given exemplar ques- tions from their final exams and asked whether they remembered a specific learning episode (episodic memory), if they knew the information (semantic memory), or they guessed the answer while answering exam questions. Senior students in 2017 were asked the same set of questions that they had answered in 2014 as T3. The analyses revealed that the ratio of remember responses to all types of responses decreased within 3 years, whereas know ratio remained stable. Moreover, remember‐to‐know shift occurred only for senior students. This study is important for demonstrating endurance of semantic memory longitudinally, and salience of college experience level cohort sequentially.
... Moreover, although the uniqueness of each child's experience results in differences in content, the power of individual differences is primarily in how children learn to select information for encoding and under what conditions it can be retrieved. In the context of mental reorganization, other people may have more influence on development of self models than during periods of developmental stability (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Trzebinska, 1992). Moreover, because the models of self that are created are a joint function of children and others, especially attachment figures, the models are open to distortion. ...
... We also expected that our participants would retrieve more events from the year of immigration than from the years preceding or following it. This prediction is based on the findings that memorable personal events tend to "pile-up" around important life transitions, and that this occurs regardless of whether the transitions are personal, normative, and positive (the Calendar Effect, Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panter, & White, 1988;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986; End-point Effect, Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005) or collective, unexpected, and negative (Brown et al., in press;Zebian & Brown, 2014). Consistent with these observations, the existence of an immigration bump has been documented by researchers interested in bilingual memory (Esposito & Baker-Ward, 2015;Schrauf & Rubin, 1998. ...
This study examined the how immigration affects the organization and contents of autobiographical memory. The 40 middle-aged individuals who participated in this study were at least in their 30s when relocating from China to Canada. The participants retrieved personal memories in response to neutral cue words, thought aloud as they dated the retrieved memories, assessed the phenomenal properties of retrieved memories, and finally rated the transitional impacts of their relocation to Canada. We observed a robust Living-through-Immigration effect (i.e., frequent reference to relocation in event dating) and a large Immigration Bump. We also confirmed that relocation to Canada was perceived to be a major life transition. Regardless of when they occurred, the recalled events received roughly same mid-scale ratings on importance, self-relevance, distinctiveness and emotional intensity. The findings support the transition-theory prediction that important personal transitions should affect autobiographical memory in much the same way that important collective transitions do.
... Similarly, Brown, Shevell, and Rips (1986) found that the temporal-ordering of non-political public events was faster and more accurate when it was based on life periods (i.e., high school versus college) than on presidential periods (i.e., Reagan versus Carter). The boundaries between lifetime periods (i.e., end of graduate school, start of post-doctorate) are particularly important for structuring and temporally orienting autobiographical experiences, such that more events are retrieved from boundaries, and these transition points often serve as temporal landmarks in dating autobiographical memories (Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986; for review, see Shum, 1998). ...
Understanding time in autobiographical memory has been the focus of much behavioral and neuropsychological research, and researchers have examined the neural underpinnings of this capacity. This chapter aims to synthesize what we know about memory for temporal information associated with personal past events by drawing from both the adult and developmental literatures, and to point out areas for future research for understanding the development of memory for temporal information of autobiographical events. Investigations targeting the medial temporal lobe and frontal cortex are the logical places to start. However, given the suggestions that memory for autobiographical events and temporal memory may recruit a larger network of areas, it also examines how other brain regions and the interactions between regions develop across childhood and into adolescence.
... Early on, several accounts of the bump were developed. Some emphasized the importance of first or new experiences as formative events, which begin the development of nascent memory structures known as schemas (Fitzgerald, 1988;Fromholt & Larsen, 1991;Linton, 1986;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). Rubin, Rahaal, & Poon (1998) offered both a cognitive account and a biological account. ...
The reminiscence effect, in which people aged 40 and over remember more autobiographical memories from between ages 10 to 30 than from adjacent periods, producing a "bump" in lifespan distributions, is a highly robust effect. When it was discovered to occur for highly positive emotional memories, but not negative ones, the cultural life script account of reminiscence was proposed. The cultural life script account asserts that individuals possess scripts for important events in the normative life that structure autobiographical recall. The reminiscence effect is explained by the fact that in life scripts, positive events have highly prescribed timings and cluster between ages 10 and 30, while negative events, which do not have prescribed timings, are more evenly distributed across the lifespan. The life story account outlines additional properties of bump memories. The life story account attributes reminiscence to the differential recall of life story events, i.e., events that provide coherence to one's life story. Four studies are reported testing these accounts. Chapter 2 reports a test of the life script with African Americans. Research suggests that life scripts are highly stable, varying little across cultures. The findings indicate that, overall, the properties of the life script were replicated. However, minor cross-cultural differences similar to those observed in prior research were exacerbated with a minority sample. In Chapter 3, the effect of minority status on the recall of emotionally negative memories is examined. Contrary to expectations, the findings failed to contradict the predictions of either account of reminiscence. In Chapter 4, the typicality effect is tested with life scripts in an attempt to present an additional class of evidence for their existence. Finally, in Chapter 5, the life story account is tested. The findings support the life story account by showing that the bump occurs for life story, but not non-life story, events. These studies add to our understanding of the cultural life script and life story accounts and the reminiscence effect in autobiographical memory.
... For example, unless the CE question elicits memories of different histories in different interviews, it is hard to explain why changes in responses should be greater across the seam than within it. 2 Second, there is evidence that people's ability to recall events depends on the structure of the calendar they live under (Kurbat, Shevell, and Rips 1998;Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White 1986;Robinson 1986). For example, when students recall events from the last year or two, they tend to recall more incidents from the period at the beginning or end of semesters, especially if these transition points are accompanied by a change in activity or locale. ...
Panel surveys, such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, interview respondents
every 3 or 4 months, but ask the respondents for monthly data. A typical finding in such surveys is that changes in responses
to a question are relatively small for adjacent months within a reference period but much more abrupt for adjacent months
across reference periods. Previous studies have attributed this "seam effect" either to underreporting of changes within the
periods or to overreporting of changes across them. In the present studies, we attempt to distinguish these possibilities,
using an experimental method that allows us to gauge respondents' accuracy as well as the number of times they change their
answers. The studies produced seam effects and accompanying evidence for forgetting of queried information and bias toward
constant responses within the reference period. In general, seam effects appear to increase as a function of the demands on
memory. We also find that separating questions with the same content in the survey instrument decreases the seam effect. To
account for these data, we propose a model in which respondents' answers are initially based on attempted memory retrieval.
Inability to recall leads to (possibly biased) guessing or subsequent repetition of an earlier answer.
... 2 COGNITION AND EMOTION, 2013 events (Thomsen, Pillemer, et al., 2011). The increased recall from the beginning of chapters may occur, because these events contain important information about role and self-changes (e.g., Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Rathbone, Moulin, & Conway, 2008;Thomsen, Pillemer, et al., 2011). Such past events may be more likely to become self-defining memories included in the life story (Singer, 2004). ...
We examined whether past and future negative life story events, compared to past and future positive events, were less likely to be related to life story chapters and situated at a greater temporal distance from the present. We also examined relations between life stories and personality traits. Three hundred ten students and 160 middle-aged adults completed a measure of personality traits and identified chapters as well as past and future events in their life story. All life story components were rated on emotion and age. Negative future events were less likely to be a continuation of chapters and were more temporally distant than positive future events. Extraversion and Conscientiousness were related to more positive life stories, and Neuroticism was related to more negative life stories. This suggests that the life story is positively biased by minimising the negative future, and that the construction of life stories is related to personality traits.
... The consistency of memories for the terrorist attacks , and for everyday events, declined over time at a similar rate. In contrast, other studies have shown that greater emotional intensity is associated with greater (though not perfect) memory consistency over time (e.g., Conway 1995; Pillemer, 1984; Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). For example, Conway et al. (1994) assessed people's memories for learning of the resignation of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. ...
A great deal of research on emotion and memory has focused on the question of whether emotion enhances memory. Based on this research, investigators have variously claimed that emotional memories are indelible; that emotion has no special effects on memory at all; and that emotion leads to enhanced memory for either congruent or central information. In this overview, we review the current status of these claims. Although considerable progress has been made toward understanding whether and how emotion enhances memory, much of this research has been limited by its treatment of emotion as merely "arousal." Evidence is presented that people process, encode, and retrieve information differently depending upon whether they are feeling happy, fearful, angry, or sad. We argue that a more complete understanding of the effects of emotion on memory will depend upon taking into account the differing motivations and problemsolving strategies associated with discrete emotions.
... Thus, it seems that certain memories may play an important role when an extended course of events is told and organized as a narrative. This is supported by studies showing that memories from the start and the end of academic terms and romantic relationships (memories that would seem particularly critical in the narratives) are overrepresented relative to memories from the middle periods (Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panter, & White, 1988;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Robinson, 1986;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005). Only one study has directly investigated the relationship between narratives and memories: Robinson & Taylor (1998) interviewed 15 women about their life stories and asked them to recall their four most vivid memories. ...
Turning points are considered to refer to emotional and important events. The present study compared turning point memories to other memories on several ratings and investigated the association between turning points, distress and meaning. Memories may act as organising units in extended narratives, hence the study also tested whether overlap between memories and extended illness narrative was associated with a more coherent narrative. Fifteen patients with breast cancer were asked to tell a 10-minute narrative about their illness course and describe meaning in their illness.
Each patient was asked to recall five memories, to state whether or not the memories were turning points, and to rate memories on both event and phenomenological variables.
Lastly, the patients were asked to rate distress. The narratives were scored for coherence and the memories were scored for thematic content as well as thematic overlap with the narratives. The results showed that all participants rated the mammography as a turning point and that turning points were rated higher on both event and phenomenological variables. Patients reporting more turning points also reported more distress and not finding meaning in the illness and treatment. High degree of overlap between memories and narratives showed a trend towards an association with a more coherent narrative. The present article discusses processes, which may be involved in the interaction between memories and narratives.
... My colleagues and I found support for this hypothesis in a series of questionnaire studies examining memories of college. When current students were asked to write out memories of their 1st year and then date the remembered events by month of occurrence, the temporal distribution showed a sharp peak at the beginning of the school year: Approximately 30% of all lst-year memories described events that had occurred in the month of September (Pillemer, Picariello, Law, & Reichman, 1996;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986). A similar pattern was observed when Wellesley alumnae who had graduated up to 22 years earlier described memories of their 1st college year: About 40% of remembered events occurred in September ( Pillemer et al., 1988). ...
Memories of specific life episodes, termed
personal event memories, have only recently become a focus of systematic research. In this article, memories of momentous events are analyzed from a functional perspective. First, personal event memory is defined. Second, research on the temporal organization of specific memories across the life span is described. Third, psychological functions served by remembering momentous events are illustrated. Fourth, variations in the structure and content of autobiographical memory are identified. Finally, potential connections to clinical and educational practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Temporal landmarks can organize autobiographical memories and the reconstruction of time (Shum, 1998 ). For example, students recall a greater number of events that fall around landmarks like the beginning and end of the academic year (Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998; Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986; J. A. Robinson, 1986), and providing people with temporal landmarks (e.g., Did this occur before, or after, the assassination of Kennedy?) can facilitate the speed and accuracy of dating other events (Loftus & Marburger, 1983). Along similar lines, when asked to describe their life, adults tend to organize the narrative in chapters, rather than along a purely linear progression (Skowronski et al., 2007; Thomsen, 2009; Thomsen & Berntsen, 2008). ...
Much as physical landmarks help structure our representation of space, temporal landmarks such as birthdays and significant calendar dates structure our perception of time, such that people may organize or categorize their lives into "chunks" separated by these markers. Categories on the temporal landscape may vary depending on what landmarks are salient at a given time. We suggest these landmarks have implications for identity and motivation. The present research examined consequences of salient temporal landmarks for perceptions of the self across time and motivation to pursue successful future selves. Studies 1 and 2 show that temporally extended selves are perceived as less connected to, and more dissimilar from, the current self when an intervening landmark event has been made salient. Study 3 addresses the proposed mechanism, demonstrating that intervening landmarks lead people to categorize pre- and postlandmark selves into separate categories more often than when the same time period contains no salient landmarks. Finally, we examined whether landmark-induced mental contrasting of present state and future desired state could increase goal-pursuit motivation (in an effort to bridge the gap between inferior present and better future states). Studies 4-6 demonstrate that landmark-induced discrepancies between current health and hoped-for future health increased participants' motivation to exercise and increased the likelihood that they acted in line with their future-oriented goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
... At least two types of temporal information in memory appear relevant: the temporal cycles that regularly occur in people's lives, and temporal landmarks. First, natural temporal structures or cycles are encoded that later guide memory; examples include the academic calendar (Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986) and the weekday-weekend cycle (Huttenlocher, Hedges, & Prohaska, 1992). Second, people have a better sense of the dates of consequential landmark events, and thus both public and private landmarks can be used to guide date reconstruction (e.g., Brown, Shevell, & Rips, 1986;Loftus & Marburger, 1983; for a review, see Shum, 1998). ...
In this chapter we list and discuss the primary distinctions among types of memory. We first identify four possible bases for distinguishing types of memory: introspective evidence, various types of memory tests, dissociations among memory measures, and neural differences underlying kinds of memory. Several useful broad distinctions between classes of memory or tests of memory are also discussed, including those between declarative and procedural memory, episodic and semantic memory, explicit and implicit memory, conscious and unconscious memory, voluntary and involuntary recollection, and retrospective and prospective memory.
We provide an overview of memory research using one possible categorization system based loosely on persistence of memories and their temporal course. First, we discuss brief sensory memories; then short‐term or working memory; and finally, we describe some of the many different types of long‐term memory. Topics covered include iconic and echoic memories; Baddeley's model of working memory; as well as phenomena of episodic, autobiographical, and semantic memory. We discuss the concepts of implicit memory and procedural memory. We conclude by discussing the usefulness of this and other categorization schemes for the study of memory.
... In our view, impatience over a given time period for an individual is determined not only by the length of the time interval and the economic circumstances (availability of money, opportunity costs entailed by consuming sooner) but also by the changes to the self anticipated to occur in that time period. In particular, important life events-marriage, divorce, entry or exit from college, the death of a loved one, and so on-can impart changes to the properties that define the self in ways that go beyond changes due to the mere passing of time ( Liu and Aaker 2007;Pillemer, Rhinehart, and White 1986). ...
How does the anticipated connectedness between one’s current and future identity help explain impatience in intertemporal preferences? The less consumers are closely connected psychologically to their future selves, the less willing they will be to forgo immediate benefits in order to ensure larger deferred benefits to be received by that future self. When consumers’ measured or manipulated sense of continuity with their future selves is lower, they accept smaller-sooner rewards, wait less in order to save money on a purchase, require a larger premium to delay receiving a gift card, and have lower long-term discount rates.
... Although it is often true that arousing events are thought about more frequently than other events (Betz & Skowronski, 1995), a number of studies now suggest that rehearsal is not sufficient to explain the retention of emotional experiences. Vivid memories can be maintained even when frequent rehearsal has not occurred Rubin & Kozin, 1984;Sheingold & Tenney, 1982;Winograd & Killinger, 1983) and the strength of an emotional reaction has been shown to correspond with the likelihood of remembering an autobiographical event, even while the frequency of rehearsal does not ; see also Pillemer et al., 1986). ...
Autobiographical memory encompasses our recollections of specific, personal events. In this article, we review the interactions between emotion and autobiographical memory, focusing on two broad ways in which these interactions occur. First, the emotional content of an experience can influence the way in which the event is remembered. Second, emotions and emotional goals experienced at the time of autobiographical retrieval can influence the information recalled. We discuss the behavioral manifestations of each of these types of interactions and describe the neural mechanisms that may support those interactions. We discuss how findings from the clinical literature (e.g., regarding depression) and the social psychology literature (e.g., on emotion regulation) might inform future investigations of the interplay between the emotions experienced at the time of retrieval and the memories recalled, and we present ideas for future research in this domain.
... Although the difference between our current and future selves normally increases with the temporal distance between them, the correlation is not perfect. Many landmark events in life-marriage or divorce, entry into college or the workforce-can change our psychological make-up in ways that go beyond changes due to the mere passing of time (e.g., Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Liu & Aaker, 2007;Pillemer, Rhinehart, & White, 1986;Shum, 1998). Anticipation of such events may likewise lead to an expected change between present and future selves that exceeds that due to time alone (a point to which we will return in Studies 3-5). ...
People tend to attach less value to a good if they know a delay will occur before they obtain it. For example, people value receiving 100 in 10 years. We explored one reason for this tendency (due to Parfit, 1984): In terms of psychological properties, such as beliefs, values, and goals, the decision maker is more closely linked to the person (his or her future self) receiving 100 in 10 years. For this reason, he or she prefers his or her nearer self to have the $100 rather than his or her more remote self. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the greater the rated psychological connection between 2 parts of a participant's life, the less he or she discounted future monetary and nonmonetary benefits (e.g., good days at work) over that interval. In Studies 3-5, participants read about characters who undergo large life-changing (and connectedness-weakening) events at different points in their lives and then made decisions about the timing of benefits on behalf of these characters. All 5 studies revealed a relation between perceived psychological connectedness and intertemporal choice: Participants preferred benefits to occur before large changes in connectedness but preferred costs to occur after these changes.
Şizofreni hastalarının hastalık temalı anılarını sağlıklı insanlardan daha sık, başarı ile ilgili anılarını ise nadiren hatırladıkları gözlemlenmektedir. Ancak bugüne kadar şizofreni hastalarının bu hatırlama örüntüsüne konu olan hastalık ve başarı anılarını nasıl ve ne amaçla hatırladıklarını anlamaya yönelik bir araştırma yapılmamıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, şizofreni hastalarının hastalık ve başarı temalı anılarını özgüllük, anıdan anlam çıkarma, bellek işlevleri, fenomenolojik özellikler ve anının merkeziyeti bazında karşılaştırmalı olarak incelemektir. Araştırmada şizofreni hastası katılımcılardan (n = 30) hastalık ve başarı ile ilgili birer anı anlatmaları ve her anıyı işlevleri (Yaşam Deneyimleri Hakkında Düşünme Ölçeği/YDHDÖ), fenomenolojik özellikleri (Otobiyografik Anı Anketi/OAA) ve anının merkeziliği (Olayların Merkeziliği Ölçeği/OMÖ) bakımından değerlendirmeleri istenmiştir. Bulgular, hastalık anılarının başarı anılarına kıyasla (1) daha özgül anlatılarla aktarıldığını; (2) daha olumsuz duygularla, zamanda geriye dönme hissinin daha yoğun deneyimlenerek ve sınırlı mekân bilgisi eşliğinde hatırlandığını göstermektedir. Ayrıca şizofreni hastalarında hem hastalık hem de başarı anılarının benlik ve sosyal işlevlerden ziyade yönlendirme işlevine hizmet ettiği bulunmuştur. Anı türüne göre bellek işlevleri, anının merkeziyeti ve anıdan anlam çıkarma bakımından farklılaşma saptanmamıştır. Bu bulgular, şizofreni hastalarının hastalık temalı anılarını bellekte daha erişilebilir durumda tutabildiklerine ve bu anılar söz konusu olduğunda güçlü bir bilinçli hatırlama deneyimi yaşayabildiklerine işaret etmektedir. Anı türünden bağımsız olarak, anıların benlik ve sosyal işlevlerle daha az ilişkilendirilmesi ve anlam çıkarma düzeyinin çok düşük olması, şizofreni hastalarının anılarını benlikle ilişkilendirme ve anlamlandırma süreçlerinde sorunlar yaşayabildiklerini gösteren diğer çalışmaları destekler niteliktedir. Bulgularımızın şizofreni hastalarının deneyimlerini benliklerine nasıl entegre ettiklerini ve şizofreninin altında yatan mekanizmaları anlamak bakımından ufuk açıcı olması ümit edilmektedir.
When adults are asked to recall personal past events, transitional episodes occurring in late adolescence and early adulthood are especially likely to be remembered. In addition, recent research has shown that older adults' memories of middle adulthood tend to cluster around the transitional event of moving to a new residence. In the present research, adults recalled five memories of events that occurred between ages 7 and 13, and they subsequently identified family moves that occurred during the same age interval. As hypothesised, participants' event memories were over-represented in the year of their most important childhood move. Memory clustering was enhanced for moves that were linked retrospectively to other salient coinciding events (e.g., a parental divorce). The results provide additional support for the idea that prominent life transitions provide an organising structure for autobiographical memory.
When people recall specific events in response to word cues, they often give overgeneral memories. These are either “categoric” (e.g., “Times I have fallen downstairs”) or “extended” memories (e.g., “The years I spent in Oxford”). Three studies showed that these two types of overgenerality were functionally independent of each other. Categoric memories were more likely to arise from deficient operation of the Supervisory Attentional System which normally formulates intermediate descriptions for searching memory. Extended memories were more likely to be given in response to emotional cues, and to be older and more unique, suggesting that they arise from a search for distinctiveness. Consistent with these distinctions, a study of depressed suicidal people showed that their greater overgenerality was wholely due to an excess of categoric memories.
Thirty college students provided 20-min oral accounts of their first year in college. One week later, each participant divided a typed transcript of his or her memory narrative into self-defined chapters. Two independent coders also "chapterized" all 30 narratives according to their own self-defined criteria. There was considerable agreement among coders and participants in both the number of chapters per narrative and the location of chapter breaks within the narrative. The chapters were approximately the same length as written individual memories obtained in earlier questionnaire studies using similar subjects. In follow-up interviews about the chapterizing process, men were more likely than women to define memory chapters by topics, whereas women were more likely than men to define chapters by emotions. Although the overall incidence of specific memo-ries in the oral histories was low, specific memories were overrepresented in opening chapters and they tended to occur in close proximity to each other throughout the narratives. The memory chapter appears to be a useful and meaningful unit for detailed analysis of extended narratives.
(Psychology)
This study used ecological momentary assessment data from adult daily smokers attempting to quit smoking to assess relations between exposure to contextual risk factors and cessation failure, latency to a first smoking lapse, or progression from lapse to relapse (smoking 7 days in a row). Participants were adult, daily smokers enrolled in a randomized controlled clinical trial of bupropion SR and individual counseling who were followed to 1 year postquit. Participants reported exposure to high-risk contexts and behaviors, including being where cigarettes were available or smoking was permitted, being around others smoking in prospective, real-time assessment for 2 weeks pre- and 4 weeks postquit. Results showed that greater exposure to contextual risk factors during the prequit did not predict cessation failure. However, Cox regression survival analyses revealed that spending a greater proportion of time where cigarettes were easily available following at least 1 day of abstinence predicted shorter latency to a first lapse, even after controlling for baseline risk factors such as gender, nicotine dependence, depressive symptoms, and living with a smoker. Greater cigarette availability following a lapse was not associated with progression from lapse to relapse with or without baseline risk factors in the model. This suggests that postquit environmental risk factors, such as cigarette availability, increase lapse risk, and stable risk factors, such as living with smokers and higher baseline carbon monoxide level or depressive symptoms, remain potent predictors of progression to relapse. Real-time contextual risk assessments postquit predict lapse above and beyond stable, baseline risk factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Escalating pressures for self-development require people of all ages to posses increasingly sophisticated levels of self-knowledge. From a career planning perspective, this means knowing more about one's strengths and weaknesses. Although some people acquire knowledge about themselves from instruments and assessment processes, many more look to their personal histories, including career histories, for evidence confirming competence. Research examining failures and setbacks recalled by a diverse sample of artists, athletes and business people is reported. It is concluded that people often hold distorted interpretations of life's disappointments, underscoring the need for informed guidance.
Although distortion is commonly present in memory, the relation between the emotionality of a witnessed scene and susceptibility to mistaken memories is controversial. Participants (N = 90; aged 17-43 years) were recruited for research focusing on "emotional processing" and were not informed that their memories were being investigated. Then, they viewed either a highly positive, neutral, or highly negative emotional scene (e.g., graphic fatal accident) from the International Affective Picture System (e.g., Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1999). Half of participants were exposed to misleading questions--one of which included a major false suggestion (i.e., large animal in the scene). An hour later all participants were asked to recall the scene and asked 10 direct questions, five of which related to the misinformation provided earlier. Overall, misleading questions impaired recall accuracy by 37%. Further, negative emotion increased susceptibility to false memories for the major misinformation. Whereas 0% of nonmisled participants in any condition recalled seeing the major false detail, misled participants in the negative condition recalled seeing the major false detail more often (80%) than those in the positive (40%) and neutral (40%) conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The commentaries indicate a general agreement that one source of reduction of base-rate neglect involves making structural relations among relevant sets transparent. There is much less agreement, however, that this entails dual systems of reasoning. In this response, we make the case for our perspective on dual systems. We compare and contrast our view to the natural frequency hypothesis as formulated in the commentaries.
This study examined personal memories of statements spoken in everyday contexts. Eighty college students completed a questionnaire in which they recounted the first spoken statement to come to mind, and statements made by a parent, teacher, sibling and friend. Respondents also provided information about the speakers and the circumstances of transmission. Content analyses identified six primary statement types: rules, evaluations, speaker information, pronouncements, unusual phrases and everyday speech. The incidence of different statement types varied across speakers. Memorability of a specific verbalization appears to be related to the statement's communicative function, the listener's reactions to the utterance, the speaker's gender, and the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
First-year students in college who had participated in a study of college-decision-making 8 to 20 months earlier were asked to recall the criteria they had used and the alternatives they had considered in making the decision. They were also asked to describe the criteria they thought, in retrospect, that they ought to have used, and to rate their satisfaction with the decision-making process and its outcome. Two hundred and seven of the original 322 participants responded to a follow-up questionnaire through the mail. Participants recalled about half of the criteria they originally reported using, and about two-thirds of the schools they originally reported considering. Their recall of criteria was affected by their current view of teh criteria they should have used, providing a replication for previous findings. No gender or academic ability effects were found. Somewhat surprisingly, given existing literature, recall was unaffected by emotional responses to the decision, either those reported during the decision-making process or those reported retrospectively. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that memory is affected by a decision-maker's current cognitive framework of the decision, specifically, their retrospective view of how they ought to have made the decision. Moreover, memory is far from perfect, even for stimuli that the decision-maker generated her- or himself, and to which presumably, they gave significant amounts of thought.
Three studies investigated the role of event salience in the validity of metamemory reports for naturally occurring events. Two studies investigated metamemory for daily forgetting behaviours as recorded on memory diaries for either 10 days (Study 1) or a month (Study 2). A third study examined metamemory for remembering recent events (consisting of the first day of class, the most recent weekend, and the first experimental session). The results indicated that metamemory validity was higher for the more salient memory events, e. g. rote memory failures and memory of the first day of class.
Episodic memory is about recollection of events in one's past. Autobiographical memory is one's personal history that may include episodic memories in addition to other facts about oneself (such as one's place and date of birth). The concepts are related but not identical and have been studied in different research traditions. In discussing both episodic and autobiographical memory, we consider sets of factors that occur (a) prior to the to-be-remembered events, (b) during encoding of the event, (c) during the retention interval between encoding and retrieval, and (d) during retrieval of the event in response to some query or test. Despite the fact that the types of research on these concepts arise from different methods, there is convergence in many outcomes and principles that emerge from both types of research. However, results from the two research traditions do not always converge and the methods have different strengths. Episodic memory tasks allow for manipulation of prior events, whereas autobiographical memory methods allow for investigations in more natural contexts. Episodic and autobiographical memory are best viewed as overlapping concepts with both similarities and differences in their operation. Each domain of inquiry provides an important contribution to the larger understanding of human memory.
Keywords:
autobiographical memory;
encoding;
episodic memory;
forgetting;
memory;
retention;
retrieval
State legislatures increasingly are mandating standardized tests that students must pass to graduate. This chapter suggests that an evaluative technique, autobiographical memory research using narrative reports from students, can help teachers enrich instructionand learning.
The characteristics and organization of memories from World War II (WWII) were examined in relation to posttraumatic stress reactions. In Study 1, 145 Danes recalled and rated four memories from WWII. They rated the WWII period for posttraumatic stress reactions and importance to identity and life story. Memory clarity, rehearsal and consequences correlated positively with posttraumatic stress reactions and with WWII importance to identity and life story. In Study 2, a subgroup of 58 participants nominated five life story memories, divided their life story into chapters and rated WWII for posttraumatic stress reactions and importance to identity and life story. Posttraumatic stress reactions correlated positively with percentage of life story chapters about WWII, the tendency to connect non-WWII memories with the WWII period and subjective clarity and rehearsal of WWII memories. The results contradict the idea that posttraumatic stress reactions are associated with vague and poorly integrated trauma memories. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Only a couple of previous investigations have examined the possibility that spermarche, or the first male ejaculation of seminal
fluid, could serve as a salient biological marker in adolescent development. Since investigations of spermarche with adolescent
males are virtually impossible to conduct, retrospective reports from adult males appear to be the only viable option for
studying the phenomenon. Fortunately, strong arguments have been advanced for the retrospective approach to this area. A diverse
group of 412 adult men completed a demographic inventory and the Spermarche Questionnaire that was designed for this study.
The results indicated that most men recalled spermarche as a clear and distinct event. Men tended to not be aware that spermarche
was going to occur prior to its occurrence, and usually told no one that it had occurred afterward. Men reported that following
spermarche, they tended to be moderately happy, excited, curious, and felt more grown up. They didnot tend to experience pride, upset, embarrassment, shame, fear, or feelings of becoming a man. Men also reported that they were
very surprised by the occurrence of spermarche, but did not believe that they had hurt themselves or that they were either
physically or mentally ill. Some differences emerged based on the ages and ethnic backgrounds of the men. The results are
discussed and suggestions for additional research are offered.
We investigated whether memories are selected for the life story based on event characteristics. Sixty-one students completed weekly diaries over their first term at university. They described, dated and rated two events each week. Three months after the end of the term they completed an unexpected memory test. They recalled three memories from the diary period that were important to their life story. Three randomly selected events scoring low on importance to the life story functioned as control memories. Life story memories were rated higher on goal relevance, emotional intensity, importance and rehearsal in the diary and maintained their higher ratings at the test session, while ratings for control memories dropped off. Life story memories' content was less consistent over time but they were more accurately dated than control memories. The results suggest that event characteristics play an important role for the selection of life story memories.
This paper presents a novel Semantic-Based Conversational Agent (CA) using memory simulation to create self-awareness and character. Semantics has been identified as an important memory system within human cognition. The proposed semantic-based CA interprets scripts consisting of natural language sentences by means of a sentence similarity measure. User input is measured semantically against the content of the scripts in order to respond with an appropriate output string. Scripts are organized into contexts consisting of rules possessing a select number of natural language sentences. Through the application of semantics, a mechanism to human-like memory simulation is proposed. Currently, traditional CAs employ very primitive memory mechanisms. Such CAs use only the structural form of a sentence and take no consideration of semantic content. The semantic-based CA has produced results with mimicry akin to that of an autobiographical memory-base, thus highlighting its potential application to memory simulation.
This study concerns topic selection in conversational reports of a personal event, the birth of a baby. Ninety phone calls from 12 fathers and 7 mothers were ana- lyzed in terms of the subject's prior concerns (prenatal questionnaire) and the outcome of events (postpartum questionnaire). Four analyses were conducted. The first showed that subjects were likely to mention topics of high, rather than low, prior concern, and unusual, rather than ordinary, outcome. The second showed that chronologically early topics were discussed before late topics. These findings were compatible with either a memory (i.e., "knowledge telling") or a communi- cation (i.e., "knowledge processing") model of topic selection. Two additional analyses were conducted to evaluate predictions derived from each of these models. The first analysis showed that the conversations also contained a small set of pro forma topics that appeared earlier and mare frequently than other topics. The second showed that these topics were more likely to be recipient- initiated. These results suggest that reporters deviated from an optimal retrieval plan to take the recipient into account. The results as a whole support a commu- nication-based, "knowledge processing" (Bereiter 8 Scardamolio, 1980) model of topic selection.
Survey respondents were asked to provide knowledge responses to public events and names that occurred as long ago as the 1930s and as recently as the 1980s. Respondents made errors that reflect the use of semantic and lexical memory systems, and reconstructive processes based on a semantic theme. Errors, as well as correct responses, are affected by whether the events originally occurred during the transition phase (early teens to mid-twenties). Responses indicate that events that occur during the transition phase are remembered better than events that occur during other life phases (in contradiction to the differential sampling hypothesis), but that events that occur during the transition phase can also promote error-prone reporting by interfering with other events or by promoting inaccurate reconstructions. The evidence suggests that the transition phase is not a monolithic entity, but that young adolescence differs from older transition phase ages by having a greater concentration on determining general properties of the world. Support is strongest for cognitive accounts of transition phase effects such as the first experience hypothesis, and results challenge physiological and evolutionary accounts that are tied to the transition phase promoting better memory. Finally, the more dramatic observed errors (such as inverting the subject and object of an event) point to possible undocumented instances of autobiographical misremembering. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35009/1/446_ftp.pdf
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