School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Apr;52(3):509-524. doi: 10.3758/s13421-023-01480-w. Epub 2023 Oct 24.
Why do we have autobiographical memory and how is it useful? Researchers have proposed a directive function; our experiences guide our behavior, particularly when faced with an open-ended problem. Two experiments (one between-participant and one mixed design) were therefore conducted to test whether success autobiographical memories - any experience when the participant felt successful and competent - are helpful for generating solutions to problem scenarios. One research aim was to experimentally test the directive function as current experimental evidence is limited and results are mixed. Consequently, it is unclear if and how autobiographical memory is helpful for open-ended problem solving. Another aim was to test whether self-efficacy is an important factor that supports open-ended problem solving and thus the directive function. Although success memories enhanced self-ratings of self-efficacy across both experiments, in samples of undergraduate students there was no experimental effect of success autobiographical memories on problem solving. Instead, some participants across the memory and control conditions in both experiments, even when not instructed, recalled autobiographical memories related to the problem scenarios presented in the problem-solving task, and these participants did better at problem solving than those who did not. This may hint to a directive function and is perhaps one reason why there is no experimental effect. Sample and experimental design differences are discussed as potential factors that may contribute to non-significant effects in this study but significant effects in others. Our results highlight the complexity of the directive function, and the difficulty of experimentally testing how autobiographical memory directs behavior.
为什么我们会有自传体记忆，它有什么作用？研究人员提出了一个指令功能；我们的经验指导我们的行为，尤其是在面对开放式问题时。因此，进行了两项实验（一项是参与者之间的实验，另一项是混合设计实验），以测试成功的自传体记忆（即参与者感到成功和有能力的任何经历）是否有助于生成问题情景的解决方案。一个研究目的是通过实验来检验指令功能，因为当前的实验证据有限且结果不一。因此，尚不清楚自传体记忆是否以及如何有助于解决开放式问题。另一个目的是测试自我效能感是否是支持开放式问题解决和指令功能的重要因素。尽管成功记忆在两项实验中都提高了自我效能感的自评，但在本科生样本中，成功的自传体记忆对解决问题没有实验影响。相反，在两项实验的记忆和控制条件下的一些参与者，即使没有被指示，也会回忆起与解决问题任务中呈现的问题情景相关的自传体记忆，而这些参与者在解决问题方面比那些没有回忆的参与者表现更好。这可能暗示了一种指令功能，也许是本研究中没有实验效果但在其他研究中却有显著效果的原因之一。样本和实验设计的差异被讨论为可能导致本研究中无显著效果但在其他研究中却有显著效果的潜在因素。我们的结果强调了指令功能的复杂性，以及实验测试自传体记忆如何指导行为的困难性。
