Differential effects of age on involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory

"This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record." Original article can be found at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pag/24/2/397/ Copyright American Psychological Association. DOI: 10.1037/a0015785Research on aging and autobiographical memory has focused almost exclusively on voluntary autobiographical memory. However, in everyday life, autobiographical memories often come to mind spontaneously without deliberate attempt to retrieve anything. In the present study, diary and word-cue methods were used to compare the involuntary and voluntary memories of 44 young and 38 older adults. The results showed that older adults reported fewer involuntary and voluntary memories than did younger adults. Additionally, the life span distribution of involuntary and voluntary memories did not differ in young adults (a clear recency effect) or in older adults (a recency effect and a reminiscence bump). Despite these similarities between involuntary and voluntary memories, there were also important differences in terms of the effects of age on some memory characteristics. Thus, older adults’ voluntary memories were less specific and were recalled more slowly than those of young adults, but there were no reliable age differences in the specificity of involuntary memories. Moreover, older adults rated their involuntary memories as more positive than did young adults, but this positivity effect was not found for voluntary memories. Theoretical implications of these findings for research on autobiographical memory and cognitive aging are discussedPeer reviewe

Green Comparable Alternatives of Hydrazines-Based Monopropellant and Bipropellant Rocket Systems

Concepts are presented for “green” (with reduced hazards) replacements for monopropellant hydrazine propulsion systems and for hypergolic bipropellant systems while maintaining similar performance. At the onset of the “green propulsion” age, “green” alternatives to hydrazine propulsion have been emerging. The introduction rate of these into space systems is very slow due to the conservatism of the space propulsion industry. The concept presented here for monopropellant hydrazine systems offers gradual conversion to “green propellants” by dual capability of conventional hydrazine systems and ammonium dinitramide (ADN)-based systems. An initial risk reduction program has been carried out for materializing the concept. It includes proof of concept of dual use of all propulsion system parts. Materials compatibility and actual operation have been demonstrated. For bipropellants, we present the emerging “green” hypergolic system based on kerosene and peroxide, similar in performance to MMH/N2O4. Results of the proof-of-concept and development model systems are presented. The experimental results of various engine types demonstrate the capability to operate in both pulse and steady-state modes and the ability to produce different thrust levels. The fuel and oxidizer show very robust hypergolicity and short ignition delay times, as well as characteristic velocity efficiency exceeding 98%

Should Participants be Left to their Own Devices? Comparing Paper and Smartphone Diaries in Psychological Research

Growing smartphone ownership creates unprecedented opportunities for using participants’ own smartphones as diaries to record transient phenomena in daily life. In three studies, we assessed the hypothesis that participant-owned smartphone diaries would result in superior compliance and higher number of recorded entries than the traditional paper-diary method. Paper and smartphone diaries were compared for self-initiated recording of involuntary autobiographical memories (Studies 1 and 2) and everyday memory failures (Study 3). Diary-recording period (7-day, 1-day) was also examined by comparing results of Studies 1 and 2. Smartphone owners were highly compliant, carrying diaries and making entries sooner. Nevertheless, significantly fewer memory events were recorded in smartphones than paper diaries in all studies. Moreover, the number of memories recorded in Study 2 (1-day) was significantly higher than recorded on day 1 of Study 1 (7-day), suggesting that shorter diary-keeping periods may be preferable. Implications and opportunities for improving smartphone-diary functionality are discussed.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

© The Author(s) 2018In everyday life, involuntary thoughts about future plans and events occur as often as involuntary thoughts about the past. However, compared to involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), such episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) have become a focus of study only recently. The aim of the present investigation was to examine why we are not constantly flooded by IFTs and IAMs given that they are often triggered by incidental cues while performing undemanding activities. One possibility is that activated thoughts are suppressed by the inhibitory control mechanism, and therefore depleting inhibitory control should enhance the frequency of both IFTs and IAMs. We report an experiment with a between-subjects design, in which participants in the depleted inhibition condition performed a 60-min high-conflict Stroop task before completing a laboratory vigilance task measuring the frequency of IFTs and IAMs. Participants in the intact inhibition condition performed a version of the Stroop task that did not deplete inhibitory control. To control for physical and mental fatigue resulting from performing the 60-min Stroop tasks in experimental conditions, participants in the control condition completed only the vigilance task. Contrary to predictions, the number of IFTs and IAMs reported during the vigilance task, using the probe-caught method, did not differ across conditions. However, manipulation checks showed that participants’ inhibitory resources were reduced in the depleted inhibition condition, and participants were more tired in the experimental than in the control conditions. These initial findings suggest that neither inhibitory control nor physical and mental fatigue affect the frequency of IFTs and IAMs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Autobiographical memory specificity in response to verbal and pictorial cues in clinical depression

Background Depressed individuals have been consistently shown to exhibit problems in accessing specific memories of events from their past and instead tend to retrieve categorical summaries of events. The majority of studies examining autobiographical memory changes associated with psychopathology have tended to use word cues, but only one study to date has used images (with PTSD patients). Objective to determine if using images to cue autobiographical memories would reduce the memory specificity deficit exhibited by patients with depression in comparison to healthy controls. Methods Twenty-five clinically depressed patients and twenty-five healthy controls were assessed on two versions of the autobiographical memory test; cued with emotional words and images. Results Depressed patients retrieved significantly fewer specific memories, and a greater number of categorical, than did the controls. Controls retrieved a greater proportion of specific memories to images compared to words, whereas depressed patients retrieved a similar proportion of specific memories to both images and words. Limitations no information about the presence and severity of past trauma was collected. Conclusions results suggest that the overgeneral memory style in depression generalises from verbal to pictorial cues. This is important because retrieval to images may provide a more ecologically valid test of everyday memory experiences than word-cued retrieval

Autobiographical memory and well-being in aging: the central role of semantic self-images

Higher levels of well-being are associated with longer life expectancies and better physical health. Previous studies suggest that processes involving the self and autobiographical memory are related to well-being, yet these relationships are poorly understood. The present study tested 32 older and 32 younger adults using scales measuring well-being and the affective valence of two types of autobiographical memory: episodic autobiographical memories and semantic self-images. Results showed that valence of semantic self-images, but not episodic autobiographical memories, was highly correlated with well-being,particularly in older adults. In contrast, well-being in older adults was unrelated to performance across a range of standardised memory tasks. These results highlight the role of semantic self-images in well-being, and have implications for the development of therapeutic interventions for well-being in aging

Involuntary autobiographical memories in dysphoric mood: a laboratory study

Original article can be found at : http://www.tandfonline.com/ Copyright Taylor & FrancisThe frequency and characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories were compared in 25 stable dysphoric and 28 non-dysphoric participants, using a new laboratory-based task (Schlagman Kvavilashvili, 2008). Participants detected infrequent target stimuli (vertical lines) in a simple vigilance task and recorded any involuntary autobiographical memories that came to mind, mostly in response to irrelevant words presented on the screen. Dysphoric participants reported involuntary memories as frequently and as quickly as non-dysphoric participants and their memories were not repetitive intrusive memories of negative or traumatic events. Additional content analysis showed that dysphoric participants did not recall more memories of objectively negative events (e.g., accidents, illnesses, deaths) than non-dysphoric participants. However, significant group differences emerged in terms of a mood congruency effect whereby dysphoric participants rated their memories as more negative than non-dysphoric participants. Moreover, the proportion of negatively rated involuntary memories was related to lower mood ratings at the end of the session in the dysphoric but not in the non-dysphoric group. Finally, groups did not differ on several memory characteristics such as vividness, specificity (high in both groups) and rates of rehearsal (low in both groups). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for research on depression and autobiographical memory are discussed.Peer reviewe

Involuntary autobiographical memories in and outside the laboratory: How different are they from voluntary autobiographical memories?

Original article can be found at: http://www.psychonomic.org/ Copyright Psychonomic Society. DOI: 10.3758/MC.36.5.920Two studies compared the characteristics and retrieval times of involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory under controlled laboratory conditions. A new laboratory task of involuntary autobiographical memories involved detecting vertical lines in a stream of stimuli with horizontal lines (an undemanding vigilance task) and recording any involuntary memories during the session. The majority of these memories were reported as being triggered by irrelevant cue-phrases presented on the screen. Voluntary autobiographical memories were sampled via a standard word-cue method in Session 2. The results showed that involuntary memories were more specific and retrieved significantly faster than voluntary memories. They were also more likely to be triggered by negative cues while cue valence did not have any effect on the number of voluntary memories. Furthermore, laboratory involuntary memories did not differ from naturalistic involuntary memories recorded in a diary by the same participants (Study 2). Taken together, these results have important implications for current theories of autobiographical memory and open up interesting avenues for future research.Peer reviewe

A content analysis of involuntary autobiographical memories : examining the positivity effect in old age

Although research on autobiographical memory is growing steadily, very little is known about involuntary autobiographical memories that are spontaneously recalled in everyday life. In addition, very few studies have examined the actual content of autobiographical memories and how the content might change as a function of age. The present study carried out a content analysis of involuntary autobiographical memories recorded by young (N = 11) and old (N = 10) volunteers over a period of 1 week. A total of 224 memories were classified into 17 categories according to the type of content recalled (e.g., births, holidays, school). The results support the socioemotional theory of ageing (Carstensen, Isaacowitz & Charles, 1999) by showing that although young and old adults recalled a similar number of memories with a typically positive content (e.g., holidays, special occasions), older adults recalled very few memories with a typically negative content (e.g., accidents, stressful events). Moreover, even when such negative memories were recalled, they were rated by older adults as neutral or even positive. This so-called positivity effect in old age could not be entirely explained by participants' ratings of mood at the time of recall. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for ageing and autobiographical memory research are discussedPeer reviewedSubmitted Versio