Department of Psychological Science, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, United States.
Department of Music, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom.
Memory. 2023 Mar;31(3):393-405. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2022.2162084. Epub 2023 Jan 7.
Autobiographical memories frequently occur during everyday life. One of the most common approaches to measuring memories in everyday life is a diary method: Participants record memories as they occur by writing down these memories in a paper diary or typing them on a smartphone. Conversely, many laboratory-based studies of autobiographical memory require participants to describe their memories out loud in a spoken manner. Here, we sought to directly compare memories recorded via typing to those spoken out loud in a smartphone diary study. Participants reported or, autobiographical memories that occurred over a period of four days either by typing (= 43) or recording themselves orally describing memories ( = 39) using a smartphone app. Results indicated that the audio recording group reported memories more frequently and these memories contained a greater number of words, while the text group reported memories more promptly after they occurred. Additionally, the typing group reported memories that were episodically richer and contained a greater proportion of perceptual details. This work has important implications for future autobiographical memory studies in the lab, online, and using diary methods, and suggests that certain reporting modalities may be advantageous depending on the specific research focus.
自传体记忆在日常生活中经常出现。衡量日常生活中记忆的最常见方法之一是日记法：参与者通过在纸质日记中写下或在智能手机上打字来记录发生的记忆。相反，许多基于实验室的自传体记忆研究要求参与者以口语方式大声描述他们的记忆。在这里，我们试图在智能手机日记研究中直接比较通过打字记录的记忆和通过口头说出的记忆。参与者通过打字（=43）或使用智能手机应用程序口头描述记忆（=39）来报告或记录在四天内发生的自传体记忆。结果表明，音频记录组更频繁地报告记忆，并且这些记忆包含更多的单词，而文本组在记忆发生后更迅速地报告记忆。此外，打字组报告的记忆情节更丰富，包含更多的感知细节。这项工作对未来在实验室、在线和使用日记方法进行自传体记忆研究具有重要意义，并表明某些报告方式可能取决于特定的研究重点而具有优势。
