Making history: intentional capture of future memories

Lifelogging' technology makes it possible to amass digital data about every aspect of our everyday lives. Instead of focusing on such technical possibilities, here we investigate the way people compose long-term mnemonic representations of their lives. We asked 10 families to create a time capsule, a collection of objects used to trigger remembering in the distant future. Our results show that contrary to the lifelogging view, people are less interested in exhaustively digitally recording their past than in reconstructing it from carefully selected cues that are often physical objects. Time capsules were highly expressive and personal, many objects were made explicitly for inclusion, however with little object annotation. We use these findings to propose principles for designing technology that supports the active reconstruction of our future past

Multiple multimodal mobile devices: Lessons learned from engineering lifelog solutions

For lifelogging, or the recording of one’s life history through digital means, to be successful, a range of separate multimodal mobile devices must be employed. These include smartphones such as the N95, the Microsoft SenseCam – a wearable passive photo capture device, or wearable biometric devices. Each collects a facet of the bigger picture, through, for example, personal digital photos, mobile messages and documents access history, but unfortunately, they operate independently and unaware of each other. This creates significant challenges for the practical application of these devices, the use and integration of their data and their operation by a user. In this chapter we discuss the software engineering challenges and their implications for individuals working on integration of data from multiple ubiquitous mobile devices drawing on our experiences working with such technology over the past several years for the development of integrated personal lifelogs. The chapter serves as an engineering guide to those considering working in the domain of lifelogging and more generally to those working with multiple multimodal devices and integration of their data

Down memory lane : a mixed method investigation of the reminiscence bump in the dynamics of autobiographical memory

Research into the reminiscence bump aims to improve our understanding of how the memories formed during our adolescence and early adulthood subsequently influence our autobiographical recollections later in life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal dynamics of autobiographical memory in a sample involving two different age groups of adult South African participants. The main objective of the research was to explore the participants’ memories for salient events and to determine whether these memories exhibit the typical reminiscence bump that has been found in autobiographical memory research. This sample consisted of two sets of cohorts, totalling 48 research participants. The first group comprised participants ranging between the ages of 40 and 59 years, and the second group involved participants ranging between the ages of 60 to 79 years. A convergent parallel mixed method approach was adopted in this study. Both quantitative and qualitative data, on the distribution, valence and life domain importance of the reminiscence bump, were collected through the lifeline interview method. The results confirmed that reminiscence bumps are reflected in the memories of both age groups between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Most life events recalled were of positive affect thus confirming the positivity bias in older adults. The family and home life domains were indicated as the most important life domains in the autobiographical memories of both groups. The main conclusion drawn from the study was that there was not a significant difference in the dynamics of the autobiographical memories between the two groups, as reflected in the temporal characteristics of their reminiscence bumps. Future research could further explore the patterns of memories, and researchers could in particular investigate the semantic and affective aspects of these autobiographical memories in more depth.PsychologyM.A. (Psychology

Recall and recognition of dreams and waking events: A diary paradigm

Summary: Dream recall is often considered to be poor, although it is rarely systematically compared to the retrieval of waking event memories. A diary paradigm was implemented to explore the memory profile of recalled dreams over time, in comparison to recalled waking experiences. Twenty-five participants completed a dream and waking-event diary over two weeks. Titles of reports were re-presented in a surprise recall task. Subsequently, extracts of the reports were represented for recognition. No significant differences were found between dream and waking event memories in terms of either recall or recognition although some differences were found in terms of recollective experience, with waking-events being "remembered"as episodic memories more than dreams. Diary dream memories that are recalled, reported and to some extent rehearsed are therefore accessible and detailed in a similar manner to waking experiences, providing that they are adequately encoded close to their time of occurrence. The continuity of retrieval processes over sleep and wake is outlined

Involuntary retrieval from autobiographical memory and the nature of cues

The present thesis starts by exploring the possibility of eliciting involuntary autobiographical memories (ABMs) in the laboratory, as a preliminary step in studying the retrieval process of involuntary ABMs. The main aim of the thesis is to test whether involuntary AMBs (IAMs) can be successfully elicited in the lab, to assess whether cue manipulation changes the patterns of memories reported, and to compare IAMs and voluntary ABMs. We adopted the basic experimental paradigm recently developed by Schlagman & Kvavilashvili (2008) with a slight but important modification to it. A series of seven experiments were conducted and a total of 310 participants, participated in these experiments. Results of Experiments 1 indicate that instructing participants about involuntary memories increased significantly the number of involuntary memories reported. A clear increase in memories was obtained also when the interruptions were scheduled by the experimenter. These results indicate that the amount and type of involuntary memories depends strongly on the method used to elicit these memories. Three subsequent experiments (Exp, 2, 3, 4) have been devised to examine whether it is possible that by manipulating the cues in an experimental setting, different numbers of involuntary autobiographical memories are elicited, and memories have different qualities. The results of both experiments 2 and 3 confirm that pictorial cues are less effective in triggering IAMs than the verbal cues of the same items. In Experiment 4 we tested the possibility that concrete verbal material elicits more memories than abstract verbal material. The results of this study indicated that concrete verbal cues elicited more than twice as many IAMs than abstract verbal cues, showing that a clear concreteness effect was found when retrieval is involuntary. To explore the role of additional visual details and the distinctiveness of the items in a visual cue in triggering involuntary autobiographical memories, Experiment 5 was conducted. We found that the addition of visual details did not have a significant effect on the number of reported IAMs. In Experiment 6 we examined if adding a relatively specific detail to the cue would enhance the likelihood for that cue to trigger an involuntary memory. The results of this study showed that adding specific details to a cue tends to enhance the possibility to retrieve involuntary memories for personal events, although the results are not significant. To assess whether the effect of the concreteness/imageability of the cues observed in involuntary memory retrieval can be obtained in a parallel task in which autobiographical memories are obtained through voluntary retrieval we ran the last experiment (Exp 7) in the dissertation. The results of this experiment confirm the difference in effectiveness between concrete/high imagery and abstract/low imagery cues already found in Experiment 4. The results of Experiment 7 show that concrete cues are more effective in general, independently of the type of retrieval, whether involuntary or voluntary. Overall, these results indicate that involuntary memories can be elicited in a lab setting, that by manipulating the cues one manipulates also the number and characteristics of involuntary memories. In addition and unexpectedly, involuntary memories are about general and single events. This result is the opposite of what has been known from diary studies about IAMs, which have been reported as being more specific compared to voluntary memories. We offer a number of explanations of why IAMs are less specific than voluntary memories. However, being post-hoc explanations, work still needs to be done to assess them in a direct way

Using sensory cues to curate, study and support autobiographical remembering across the lifespan

Autobiographical memory is integral to who we are and how we connect with the world around us. One intriguing feature of personal memories is that people typically find it easier to access memories from late adolescence and early adulthood. This phenomenon, the reminiscence bump, has been riddled with inconsistencies in the methodology. This has implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms, which in turn impacts on both the theoretical models of memory and the clinical practices that rely on personal narrative. This programme of research specifically addresses key confounds within the literature by systematically exploring the effect of different task instructions on the temporal location of memories. Study 1 explored secondary data of 55 interview guests from a popular radio programme, in which they chose eight songs to take to a desert island in a free recall setting. Despite no explicit instruction to describe a specific memory, self-selected songs produced a reminiscence bump and particularly included memories of people. Study 2 developed this methodology for an experimental setting and also compared music with tangible stimuli, which produced distinctive retrieval curves. These distinctions may have been due to the wording and order of instructions therefore this was addressed in Study 3. The refined procedure was carried out with an older group, which also directly compared self-selected with experimenter-provided stimuli as memory cues. Self-selected stimuli produced more specific memories overall and once again, the different stimuli evoked memories that reflected distinctive lifespan retrieval curves. Given that the musical reminiscence bump remained reliable in all studies, Study 4 examined this across different choice conditions and cue modalities. Freely chosen music evoked higher nostalgia and a greater number of specific and self-defining memories than music selected from a fixed list. Lastly, Study 5 explored this methodology in an applied setting for an individual with mild cognitive impairment. The findings revealed the positive but unexpected impact of collaborative remembering with a cognitively healthy partner, who facilitated memory retrieval. While the reminiscence bump has been considered a robust finding, these experiments have shown that it is significantly influenced by the nature of retrieval, in particular the degree of choice and cue type. Personally curated cues evoke important memories including those that are self and relationship-defining. This has significant implications for clinical interventions and social policy

A quantified past : fieldwork and design for remembering a data-driven life

PhD ThesisA ‘data-driven life’ has become an established feature of present and future technological visions. Smart homes, smart cities, an Internet of Things, and particularly the Quantified Self movement are all premised on the pervasive datafication of many aspects of everyday life. This thesis interrogates the human experience of such a data-driven life, by conceptualising, investigating, and speculating about these personal informatics tools as new technologies of memory. With respect to existing discourses in Human-Computer Interaction, Memory Studies and Critical Data Studies, I argue that the prevalence of quantified data and metrics is creating fundamentally new and distinct records of everyday life: a quantified past. To address this, I first conduct qualitative, and idiographic fieldwork – with long-term self-trackers, and subsequently with users of ‘smart journals’ – to investigate how this data-driven record mediates the experience of remembering. Further, I undertake a speculative and design-led inquiry to explore context of a ’quantified wedding’. Adopting a context where remembering is centrally valued, this Research through Design project demonstrates opportunities and develops considerations for the design of data-driven tools for remembering. Crucially, while speculative, this project maintains a central focus on individual experience, and introduces an innovative methodological approach ‘Speculative Enactments’ for engaging participants meaningfully in speculative inquiry. The outcomes of this conceptual, empirical and speculative inquiry are multiple. I present, and interpret, a variety of rich descriptions of existing and anticipated practices of remembering with data. Introducing six experiential qualities of data, and reflecting on how data requires selectivity and construction to meaningfully account for one’s life, I argue for the design of ‘Documentary Informatics’. This perspective fundamentally reimagines the roles and possibilities for personal informatics tools; it looks beyond the current present-focused and goal-oriented paradigm of a data-driven life, to propose a more poetic orientation to recording one’s life with quantified data

Interventions to improve autobiographical memory specificity in older adults:a strategy to prevent decline in wellbeing

Autobiographical memory (AM) is related to social problem-solving, depression, and independence. However, older adults often have difficulty recalling specific AMs, and this over-general memory (OGM) style is a vulnerability factor for depression. The main aim of this thesis was to examine how useful AM training methods are for reducing OGM in non-depressed older adults. Firstly, the effect of an intervention based on improving flexibility in AM retrieval (MemFlex) was examined in healthy older adults. Next, two AM training interventions were compared in order to investigate the underlying mechanisms that would be most suitable as targets for an older population: Memory Specificity Training (MEST) which targets systematic practice in the executive control process of retrieval, and life review which focuses on enhancing positive memories more related to the concept of self. Finally, the intervention which was found to be most suitable was examined in a clinical sample of older adults with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and acceptability of the intervention was assessed via semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrated that OGM was modifiable in healthy older adults via both MEST and life review, however it was not differentially affected by the MemFlex intervention compared to controls. Life review was considered to be the most appropriate for older adults, however, it did not have any significant quantitative effects in the aMCI sample. Qualitative analysis suggested the element of meaning-making and taking an integrative approach was particularly relevant to them. Narrative coherence should therefore be examined as a potential underlying mechanism that could be further incorporated into the life review programme to enhance its’ effectiveness. A consistent finding throughout this body of work was a relationship between change in AM specificity and change in social problem-solving ability, supporting the suggested role of specific retrieval in generating solutions to social problems