Center on Autobiographical Memory Research, Department of Psychology, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Conscious Cogn. 2011 Dec;20(4):1842-6. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2011.07.010. Epub 2011 Aug 17.
Involuntary autobiographical memories are spontaneously arising memories of personal events, whereas voluntary memories are retrieved strategically. Voluntary remembering has been studied in numerous experiments while involuntary remembering has been largely ignored. It is generally assumed that voluntary recall is the standard way of remembering, whereas involuntary recall is the exception. However, little is known about the actual frequency of these two types of remembering in daily life. Here, 48 Danish undergraduates recorded their involuntary versus voluntary autobiographical memories during a day using a mechanical counter. Involuntary memories were reported three times as frequently as voluntary memories. Compared to voluntary memories, they were associated less with problem solving and social sharing and more with day dreaming, periods of boredom, no reasons for remembering and predominantly came to mind during unfocused attention. The findings suggest that involuntary recall is a typical way of accessing the personal past.
无意识自传体记忆是个人事件自发出现的记忆，而自愿记忆是有策略地检索的。自愿记忆在许多实验中得到了研究，而无意识记忆在很大程度上被忽视了。人们普遍认为，自愿回忆是记忆的标准方式，而无意识回忆是例外。然而，对于这两种记忆类型在日常生活中的实际频率知之甚少。在这里，48 名丹麦大学生使用机械计数器在一天中记录了他们的无意识和自愿的自传体记忆。无意识记忆的报告频率是自愿记忆的三倍。与自愿记忆相比，它们与解决问题和社交分享的关联较少，而与白日梦、无聊时间、没有记忆的理由以及主要在注意力不集中时出现的关联较多。这些发现表明，无意识回忆是一种典型的访问个人过去的方式。
