Narration and Vividness as Measures of Event-Specificity in Autobiographical Memory

Abstract

The event specificity of autobiographical memories refers to the degree to which retold memories include specific details about a unique personal experience from a variety of representational systems supported by different brain areas. This article proposes 2 text measures as indicators of event specificity: (a) a measure of temporal sequence in narration (Labov & Waletzky, 1967; Nelson & Horowitz, 2001) and (b) referential activity (RA; Bucci, 1997). Temporal sequence in narration measures the degree to which a personal memory includes clauses spoken in the same order as the speaker's representation of events. RA is text vividness, or the extent to which words clearly refer to a speaker's detailed cognitive, sensory, and emotional experiences. This article hypothesizes that temporal sequences and RA are both signs of speaker activation of event-specific memories and should be positively correlated. Using 55 transcripts from high school students interviewed about their “most stressful time,” this article analyzes the first 250 words of each memory for narrative temporal sequences and for RA. Number of temporal sequences and RA scores were positively associated (Spearman's r = .69, p < .001), consistent with the hypothesis.

Notes

^aFemale speaker, age 17; 259 words; number of temporal sequences = 0 (20th percentile), average RA = −0.16 (9th percentile).

^bFemale speaker, age 16; 266 words; number of temporal sequences = 16 (100th percentile), average RA = 0.31 (99th percentile).