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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
Subliminal priming of autobiographical memories
Christopher T Ball1, Jaclyn Hennessey
1Psychology Department, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA. ctball@wm.edu
Abstract:
The current research examined subliminal priming of autobiographical memories. In Experiment 1 the subliminal primes consisted of affect-associated words (positive vs negative) and were presented just before the participants retrieved specific experiences to cue-words. The subliminal primes produced an inhibitory effect on autobiographical memory retrieval, with significantly lower positive ratings given to the emotional content of experiences retrieved after positive primes than given to experiences retrieved after negative primes. The subliminal primes for the second experiment consisted of words that related to specific lifetime periods (early childhood vs late childhood/early adulthood). A negative priming effect resulted again, with earlier life experiences retrieved after the presentation of late childhood/early adulthood primes. We believe the negative priming effects obtained in both experiments are consistent with predictions based on the self-memory system model of autobiographical memory. The results of this research may also explain mood-incongruent recall.
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