Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb;86(1):170-195.
doi: 10.1007/s00426-020-01465-3. Epub 2021 Feb 13.

Do intuitive ideas of the qualities that should characterize involuntary and voluntary memories affect their classification?

Krystian Barzykowski  1 , Giuliana Mazzoni  2
Affiliations

Do intuitive ideas of the qualities that should characterize involuntary and voluntary memories affect their classification?

Krystian Barzykowski et al. Psychol Res. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

It is assumed that the difference between voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memories lies in the intentionality to retrieve a memory assigned by the experimenter. Memories that are retrieved when people are instructed to do so in response to cues are considered voluntary (VAMs), those that pop up spontaneously are considered involuntary (IAMs). VAMs and IAMs so classified are also found to differ in terms of phenomenological characteristics, such as perceived accessibility, vividness etc. These differences are assumed to be due to differences in intentionality and the different retrieval processes at play. It is possible, however, that these differences (which are subjective attributions of phenomenological characteristics) are the result of metacognitive beliefs of what IAMs and VAMs should be. In two experiments, we investigated the possible role of these metacognitive beliefs. Participants rated IAMs and VAMs on a number of phenomenological characteristics in two conditions, when these memories were presented in blocks that specified whether they were retrieved in a voluntary or involuntary task, or when presented in a mixed list with no information provided. If metacognitive beliefs influence the reporting of memory properties, then the block presentation would increase the differences between the characteristics of the two types of memories. The results showed that, besides replicating the characteristics of IAMs and VAMs already observed in the literature, there were almost no differences between the blocked and the mixed lists. We discuss the results as supporting the idea that the difference in characteristics attributed to IAMs and VAMs reflect a genuine difference in the nature of the retrieval and is not the result of pre-existing metacognitive belief on what a voluntary and an involuntary memory should be.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The percentage of accuracy of recognition of involuntary and voluntary memory as a function of memory retrieval phase across studies
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The effects of information about the memory origin on the phenomenological characteristics of memories in Study 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Baird B, Smallwood J, Fishman DJF, Mrazek MD, Schooler JW. Unnoticed intrusions: Dissociations of meta-consciousness in thought suppression. Consciousness and Cognition. 2013;22(3):1003–1012. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2013.06.009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ball CT, Hennessey J. Subliminal priming of autobiographical memories. Memory (Hove, England) 2009;17(3):311–322. doi: 10.1080/09658210902729483. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barzykowski, K. (2014). How can we catch spontaneous memories: A review of methodological issues in involuntary autobiographical memories studies. In: SAGE research methods cases. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd. DOI: /10.4135/978144627305013517801.
    1. Barzykowski K, Niedźwieńska A. Przegląd badań nad mimowolnymi wspomnieniami autobiograficznymi. Perspektywy badawcze. [Review of studies on involuntary autobiographical memories. Research perspectives] Roczniki Psychologiczne [Annals of Psychology] 2012;1(XV):55–74.
    1. Barzykowski K, Niedźwieńska A. The effects of instruction on the frequency and characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories. PLoS ONE. 2016 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157121. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources