Autobiographical memories prime semantic memories on the general knowledge task: More evidence of a functional...

Research has shown that the activation of autobiographical memories leads to facilitation on semantic tasks requiring the retrieval of category knowledge or knowledge of associations. Known as autobiographical-to-semantic memory priming, it has been argued that this form of priming reflects the functional role that autobiographical memory can have in semantic processing. In this study, we further examined how autobiographical memory retrieval might facilitate semantic processing, particularly the retrieval of general knowledge (e.g., dogs are related to wolves; cats are feline). In Experiment 1, participants recalled autobiographical memories in response to cue words (e.g., dog, cat, etc.), or they processed words semantically (i.e., made word familiarity judgements), and then they were given the general knowledge task (e.g., what animal is related to a wolf?). The results of this experiment showed that autobiographical memory retrieval led to significant priming on the general knowledge task (relative to controls), and priming following autobiographical memory retrieval was as strong as priming following semantic processing. In Experiment 2, an autobiographical memory recall group and a semantic group also received the general knowledge task, but they had alternatively processed the associates of primes (e.g., mouse in place of cat), and the results of this experiment also showed significant and equivalent priming for both groups. It is argued that the results of this study support the notion that the activation of autobiographical knowledge can facilitate semantic processing, generally, and particularly when such processing requires the retrieval of general knowledge. Further implications are discussed.