Phenomenological and Subjective Properties Associated with Remembering Autobiographical Memories : Investigation by the Subjective Properties Questionnaire of Autobiographical Episodic Memory.
This study was designed to originally develop the subjective properties questionnaire of autobiographical episodic memory (Study 1), and investigated the subjective properties of autobiographical episodes elicited by olfactory and verbal cues by the questionnaire (Study 2). The result of Study 1 revealed the followings. 1) Exploratory factor analysis of 20 items of the state and emotion during recollection of positive, negative and neutral events showed six factor structures (verbal details /spatial vividness, audio-visual vividness /sense of reliving, emotional intensity, emotional valence, sense of emotional reappearance, olfactory tactile vividness). 2) All the variables were analyzed by regression analysis. Independent variables were gender, memory age, emotional intensity, emotional valence, mood just before recollection, and the remaining variables were dependent variables. The result showed that emotional intensity was more consistent predictor of subjective properties of autobiographical episodic memory. 3) The comparison of subjective properties during recollection of positive, negative and neutral events showed that almost all properties of positive events were significantly higher than those of negative or neutral events. The result of Study 2 revealed that the properties of autobiographical episodes elicited by olfactory cues were the same as those by verbal cues, and could be measured by the modality specific item of the questionnaire
