a Department of Psychology , Boğaziçi University , İstanbul , Turkey.
Memory. 2015;23(3):329-39. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.886702. Epub 2014 Feb 17.
Although visual imagery is argued to be an essential component of autobiographical memory, there have been surprisingly few studies on autobiographical memory processes in blind individuals, who have had no or limited visual input. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how blindness affects retrieval and phenomenology of autobiographical memories. We asked 48 congenital/early blind and 48 sighted participants to recall autobiographical memories in response to six cue words, and to fill out the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire measuring a number of variables including imagery, belief and recollective experience associated with each memory. Blind participants retrieved fewer memories and reported higher auditory imagery at retrieval than sighted participants. Moreover, within the blind group, participants with total blindness reported higher auditory imagery than those with some light perception. Blind participants also assigned higher importance, belief and recollection ratings to their memories than sighted participants. Importantly, these group differences remained the same for recent as well as childhood memories.
虽然视觉意象被认为是自传体记忆的一个重要组成部分，但令人惊讶的是，对于那些没有或只有有限视觉输入的盲人个体的自传体记忆过程，研究却很少。本研究的目的是调查失明如何影响自传体记忆的检索和现象学。我们要求 48 名先天性/早期失明和 48 名视力正常的参与者用六个提示词回忆自传体记忆，并填写自传体记忆问卷，该问卷测量了与每个记忆相关的多种变量，包括意象、信念和回忆体验。与视力正常的参与者相比，失明参与者检索到的记忆更少，在检索时报告的听觉意象更多。此外，在失明组中，全盲的参与者比有光感的参与者报告的听觉意象更多。失明参与者也比视力正常的参与者对自己的记忆赋予更高的重要性、信念和回忆评价。重要的是，这些组间差异在近期记忆和童年记忆中都是一样的。
