Background and objectives
Involuntary autobiographical memories that spring unbidden into conscious awareness form part of everyday experience. In psychopathology, involuntary memories can be associated with significant distress. However, the cognitive mechanisms associated with the development of involuntary memories require further investigation and understanding. Since involuntary autobiographical memories are image-based, we tested predictions that visuospatial (but not other) established cognitive tasks could disrupt their consolidation when completed post-encoding.
Methods
In Experiment 1, participants watched a stressful film then immediately completed a visuospatial task (complex pattern tapping), a control-task (verbal task) or no-task. Involuntary memories of the film were recorded for 1-week. In Experiment 2, the cognitive tasks were administered 30-min post-film.
Results
Compared to both control and no-task conditions, completing a visuospatial task post-film reduced the frequency of later involuntary memories (Expts 1 and 2) but did not affect voluntary memory performance on a recognition task (Expt 2).
Limitations
Voluntary memory was assessed using a verbal recognition task and a broader range of memory tasks could be used. The relative difficulty of the cognitive tasks used was not directly established.
Cognitive models of autobiographical memory (e.g. Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) make an important distinction between voluntary and involuntary memory. A voluntary memory, for example, could include deliberately recalling a previous event. An involuntary memory would be a seemingly spontaneous recollection without deliberate intention to bring that event to mind (Anderson and Levy, 2009, Berntsen and Jacobsen, 2008, Johannessen and Berntsen, 2010, Mace, 2007, Mandler, 1994, Richardson-Klavehn et al., 1994 and Schacter, 1987). Involuntary memories are a common phenomenon in healthy adults (Bernsten, 1996 and Kvavilashvili and Mandler, 2004). Indeed, Rubin and Berntsen (2009) report that frequencies of voluntary and involuntary recollections of significant events are comparable, making the relative lack of research in the area even more remarkable. Involuntary memories have broad relevance to experimental psychopathology and are highlighted as a critical transdiagnostic treatment target across a range of disorders (Brewin et al., 2010, Holmes and Hackmann, 2004 and Holmes and Mathews, 2010).
Involuntary memories are typically sensory-perceptual rather than verbal (Arntz et al., 2005, Brewer, 1996, Conway, 1990, Conway, 2005, Conway et al., 2004 and Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), relate to specific events rather than summaries across several events (Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008) and are more frequently negative than positive (Bywaters, Andrade, & Turpin, 2004; Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Ritchie, 2009). However, laboratory research in experimental psychology has predominately focussed on memories associated with deliberate, intentional recollection. The basic cognitive processes underlying the development of involuntary memories are relatively under-explored. Improving our understanding of these processes would advance theoretical frameworks of involuntary memory development and inform evidence-based treatment innovation.
