Involuntary autobiographical memories: a pilot study

This pilot study aimed to evaluate the frequency and characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) elicited with or without audio word stimuli among healthy participants.

Healthy participants were recruited via convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to perform a task that assesses the frequency and characteristics of IAMs with or without word stimuli. Recorded characteristics included modality, event date, valence, presence of simultaneous thoughts, and trigger. Visual and auditory vividness, believed accuracy, and spontaneity of the IAM were rated on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely).

In total, 26 healthy participants were randomly assigned to either the no-stimuli group (n = 12) or the word-stimuli group (n = 14). The no-stimuli and word-stimuli groups recalled 75 and 99 IAMs, respectively. For participant-level comparisons, there was no significant group difference. For memory-level comparisons, there was no significant difference between groups in terms of IAM frequencies, modality type, valence, and simultaneous thoughts, as well as auditory vividness, visual vividness, and spontaneity. However, compared with the no-stimuli group, the word-stimuli group recalled more IAMs from the day of the assessment and fewer from the past month (p = 0.039), reported fewer internally and more externally triggered IAMs (p < 0.001), with lower believed accuracy (p = 0.006).

Retrieval conditions could affect the recency, trigger, and accuracy of IAMs. These findings are largely consistent with the literature and support the use of audio stimuli to elicit IAMs.