Phenomenology of autobiographical memories: The Memory Experiences Questionnaire

Abstract

The phenomenology of autobiographical memories varies on a number of dimensions: some memories are vivid and others dim; some are emotionally intense and others lack emotional content. The present research sought to develop a psychometrically-sound scale to assess the entire range of dimensions on which autobiographical memories differ. We reviewed the literature on memory experiences and identified 10 relevant dimensions: Vividness, Coherence, Accessibility, Time Perspective, Sensory Details, Visual Perspective, Emotional Intensity, Sharing, Distancing, and Valence. We constructed a comprehensive item pool to assess these dimensions and, using data from several large samples (Ns=941; 510; 212), we showed that: (a) all 10 scales had adequate reliability (median alpha=.87; range=.72 to .97), (b) the 10-factor structure provided a good fit to the data, and (c) gender, personality, and memory recency had theoretically meaningful relations with the 10 scales. For example, gender and ethnicity differences in phenomenology were mediated by memory content, and early and recent memories had distinct phenomenologies. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical utility of the 10 scales.

Notes

¹To test whether there were differences between the correlations for the general and earliest memories, we transformed the correlations to z-scores using Fisher's r-to-z transformation and then divided the difference by the standard error of the difference between the correlations. Only five out of the 80 correlations were significantly different from each other, which is only slightly more than would be expected by chance. The few differences that did emerge were differences in magnitude rather than direction, indicating that the phenomenology of the general and earliest memories share similar relations with memory content and self-esteem.