The 3rd International Conference on Memory, 16-20 July, 2001, Valencia (Spain)
Symposium I - Involuntary Conscious Retrieval Processes in Memory and Cognition
The aim of this symposium is to bring together psychologists from such diverse and seemingly unrelated areas of research as involuntary autobiographical memories, involuntary semantic memories or mind popping, intrusive memories, tip-of-the tongue state, incubation effects in problem solving, and prospective memory. Although these are diverse phenomena one thing that they all have in common is a process of conscious involuntary retrieval, i.e., when something just pops into one's mind unexpectedly. The focus of the symposium will be on the underlying mechanisms of these varied phenomena and looking at possible similarities between them.
Paper 1
The unpredictable past: Reliving bygone episodes in involuntary and word-cued autobiographical memories
Dorthe Berntsen & Nicoline Hall (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
Nineteen undergraduates (10 females, 9 males, mean age 23.5 years) recorded 40 involuntary and 40 word-cued autobiographical memories under comparable conditions in their personal environment. Involuntary memories involved more physical and emotional reliving at retrieval and referred more frequently to concrete episodes than did word-cued memories. Involuntary memories dealt with more distinctive, but less important, less emotionally positive and slightly less rehearsed events. No difference was found on event age. The findings suggest preferential access to episodic memories via involuntary retrieval from random environmental cues.
Paper 2
How unique are traumatic memories? Amnesia, flashbacks, nightmares, and dissociation in aging concentration camp survivors
Harald Merckelbach, Theo Dekkers, Ineke Wessel, and Anne Roefs
University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
We examined to what extent war memories of Dutch survivors of Japanese/Indonesian concentration camps (N =29) display the characteristics that are often believed to be unique for traumatic memories, namely poor narrative quality and involuntary intrusions. Survivors were interviewed about amnesia, flashbacks, nightmares, and the sensory quality of their most upsetting war memories. In addition, they completed self-report scales that have to do with post-traumatic stress symptoms and dissociation. In contrast to prevailing notions, amnesia, flashbacks, and nightmares were not typical for this sample. Neither were traumatic memories characterized by a particularly strong sensory loading. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were not related to dissociative experiences. At least for this group of aging survivors, it appears that the uniqueness and pathogenic potential of traumatic memories has more to do with their extremely aversive content than with a different type of organization of these memories.
Paper 3
Out of one's mind: A study of involuntary semantic memories
Lia Kvavilashvili (1) and George Mandler (2)
(1) University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
(2) University of California, San Diego
The study of memories that pop into one's mind without any conscious attempt to retrieve them began in just the past few years. While there are some studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (e.g., Berntsen, 1996, 1998) research on involuntary semantic memories or mind-popping is virtually non existent. We report the results of (a) two questionnaire studies that examined the prevalence of this phenomenon in young and old populations, and (b) two extended diary studies that explored the nature and the circumstances under which these memories occur. Possible underlying mechanisms (e.g., very long-term priming) will be discussed.
Paper 4
Involuntary processes in prospective remembering
Judy A. Ellis (University of Reading, United Kingdom)
Prospective remembering requires the recall of an intention at a timely moment in the future for its execution. In this paper I review the evidence for the spontaneous, involuntary recall of experimental and naturally-occurring intentions and identify some of the factors that appear to facilitate this mode of retrieval. These include available attentional resources, the nature of the retrieval cue for timely retrieval, and the presence of cue-related events in the environment. Theoretical explanations of the operation of these factors will be considered.
Paper 5
Incubation in memory, problem solving, and idea generation: Autonomous unconscious processing vs. contextually influenced restructuring
Steven M. Smith & Hyun Choi (Texas A&M University)
Experimental findings of incubation effects will be reported in general knowledge retrieval, problem solving, and idea generation tasks. Tip-of-the-tongue reports predicted resolution and incubation following initial retrieval failures. Incidentally presented clues failed to enhance resolution of initial failures unless participants were instructed to look for the clues. A shift in the background music (and corresponding mood state) was associated with escape from initial impasses. The results are inconsistent with accounts of incubation that rely on autonomous unconscious processing, such as passive spreading activation, and are consistent with explanations that involve contextually biased restructuring.
Symposium II - Effects of Motivation on Prospective Memory
Research on prospective memory has been growing rapidly over the past few years. Most of this research, however, is focussing on aging and/or the effects of cognitive variables on prospective memory performance. There are very few studies that explore the effects of personality or other non-cognitive factors on prospective memory. The present symposium seeks to remedy this gap by examining the effects of such important variable on prospective memory as motivation. Robust effects of motivation have been documented in some of the earlier studies on prospective memory, and this is in sharp contrast to the findings obtained in research on retrospective memory (e.g., Nillson, 1987). The papers included in the symposium adopt a broad perspective by using very different manipulations of motivation. Latest findings in this underrepresented area of prospective memory research will be reported and possible underlying mechanisms will be discussed.
Discussant Jason Hicks (Louisiana State University)
Paper 1
Task emphasis and the cost of remembering to remember
Rebekah E. Smith (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
In two experiments, participants were slower on a concurrent lexical decision task when they had to perform an embedded event-based prospective memory task than when they performed the lexical decision task alone. Slowing occurred on non-PM-target trials. This within-subjects demonstration of the cost of a prospective memory task on on-going activities occurred for both a single PM target, as well as for six PM targets, and was influenced by an instructional manipulation of motivation. There was no slow down in lexical decision response times when a retrospective task was anticipated.
Paper 2
Facilitating Prospective Memory by Forming Implementation Intentions
Alison L. Chasteen (1), Denise C. Park (2) & Norbert Schwarz (2)
(1) University of Toronto
(2) University of Michigan
Despite their motivation for achieving a goal, people often fail to reach their objectives. However, recent research on implementation intentions, which are detailed intentions that rely on situational cues, has found that these intentions can increase the likelihood that a future objective is actually completed. We investigated whether this implementation effect could improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an intention were more than twice as likely to perform the intended behavior compared to participants who were merely instructed to do so or who actively rehearsed the instruction. Forming an intention, however, did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and require self-initiation.
Paper 3
"It is important that you do not forget": Effects of subtle motivational manipulation interact with preceding task complexity in activity-based prospective memory
Lia Kvavilashvili (1) & Judi A. Ellis (2)
(1) University of Hertfordshire, UK
(2) University of Reading, UK
In two experiments (N = 168) participants were tested in a 1-hour session on several tasks and in addition had to remember to write something down whenever they completed a paper and pencil task (prospective memory task). Participants in the high motivation condition were informed that it was important that they did not forget this task. This relatively subtle manipulation of motivation led to better performance in the high motivation compared to a control condition. Interestingly, motivation interacted with the type of preceding task so that its effect was significant only after performing an apparently attentionally demanding task. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings will be discussed.
Paper 4
Mechanisms underlying motivational effects in prospective remembering
Matthias Kliegel (1), Mike Martin (1), Mark A. McDaniel (2), & Gilles O. Einstein (3)
(1) German Center for Research on Aging at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg
(2) University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
(3) Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina
Only a few studies have examined the influence of motivation on prospective memory performance evoked by perceived importance of the prospective memory task. The present paper reports three experiments examining if variations in the effect of motivation on prospective memory performance can be explained by differences in the attentional resources required for prospective remembering. Our data suggest that the effect of motivation on prospective memory performance is due to attentional trade-off processes between the prospective task and the background activity. Task importance improves prospective memory to the degree the task requires the strategic allocation of attentional resources.