Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories

Bibliographic Data

ID21282140
AuthorsLatoya Wright-Wilson (San Francisco State University), Tala Elsabbagh (San Francisco State University), Ezequiel Morsella (0000-0002-8649-5520, University of California, San Francisco, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume245
Pages104212
Publication date2024-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Psychologica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-6918 • E-ISSN: 1873-6297
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104212
PMID38492356
OpenAlexW4392887568
LanguageEN
References cited40

The reflexive imagery task (RIT) has been used to investigate stimulus-elicited involuntary mental processes. The task has been successful in eliciting involuntary perceptual experiences, urges, and even higher-order cognitions, but it has never been used to elicit autobiographical memories, even though in everyday life these memories are often activated involuntarily by external stimuli. These memories are different in interesting ways from the kinds of mental representations that have been activated involuntarily in the RIT. The memories have properties which might make them insusceptible to such a form of external influence. Perhaps substantive effects will not arise because the mental representations associated with autobiographical memories are complex, poly-sensory, and rich in terms of content. To investigate this matter, we developed a variant of the RIT in which participants were presented with external stimuli (line drawings of everyday objects) and instructed not to recall any autobiographical memories. We investigated whether the nature of the involuntary memories was influenced by the nature of the stimulus. In two experiments, the involuntary memories were associated to the stimulus on a majority of the trials (∼80%). We discuss theoretical implications of this finding and of identifying the conditions in which such involuntary effects will not arise. The boundary conditions of the RIT effect illuminate the limits of unconscious processing and also the role of conscious processing in nervous function

Autobiographical memory · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Everyday life · Perception · Psychoanalysis · Recall · Reflexivity · Stimulus (psychology) · Unconscious mind · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Mind wandering and attention · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology

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