Department of Psychology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA.
Memory. 2012;20(8):923-34. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2012.711838. Epub 2012 Aug 7.
Previous research suggests that autobiographical memories are over-general and are organised according to life periods. One experiment assessed the specificity and organisation of autobiographical memory by manipulating two variables. The retrieval cues were either a set of three words (a theme, a time period, and an emotional valence) or a short narrative that included a specific theme, time period, and emotional valence. The instructions either encouraged the participants to respond as though they were conversing with a friend (social instructions) or did not specify a target audience (standard instructions). Narrative cues and standard instructions elicited more specific responses than word cues and social instructions, respectively. Whereas word cues elicited memories that were most likely to match the cues in terms of time period, narrative cues elicited memories that were most likely to match the cues in terms of theme. These data suggest that previous research underestimated the specificity of the autobiographical knowledge base and overestimated the importance of temporally defined life periods for organising autobiographical memory. Previous conclusions regarding the specificity and organisation of autobiographical memory may reflect the structure of autobiographical narratives and the methodologies used to collect such narratives rather than the content of autobiographical memory itself.
先前的研究表明，自传体记忆具有过度概括性，并按照生活时期进行组织。一项实验通过操纵两个变量来评估自传体记忆的特异性和组织方式。检索线索要么是一组三个单词（主题、时间段和情绪效价），要么是一个包含特定主题、时间段和情绪效价的简短叙述。指令要么鼓励参与者像与朋友交谈一样做出回应（社交指令），要么不指定目标受众（标准指令）。与社交指令相比，叙述线索和标准指令分别引出了更具体的反应。虽然单词线索引出的记忆最有可能与时间段线索相匹配，但叙述线索引出的记忆最有可能与主题线索相匹配。这些数据表明，先前的研究低估了自传体知识库的特异性，高估了时间定义的生活时期对组织自传体记忆的重要性。先前关于自传体记忆特异性和组织的结论可能反映了自传体叙述的结构以及用于收集此类叙述的方法，而不是自传体记忆本身的内容。
