The frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts in relation to daydreaming, emotional distress, and age.
Abstract
We introduce a new scale, the Involuntary Autobiographical Memory Inventory (IAMI),
for measuring the frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and involuntary
future thoughts. Using the scale in relation to other psychometric and demographic
measures provided three important, novel findings. First, the frequency of involuntary
and voluntary memories and future thoughts are similarly related to general measures
of emotional distress. This challenges the idea that the involuntary mode is uniquely
associated with emotional distress. Second, the frequency of involuntary autobiographical
remembering does not decline with age, whereas measures of daydreaming, suppression
of unwanted thoughts and dissociative experiences all do. Thus, involuntary autobiographical
remembering relates differently to aging than daydreaming and other forms of spontaneous
and uncontrollable thoughts. Third, unlike involuntary autobiographical remembering,
the frequency of future thoughts does decrease with age. This finding underscores
the need for examining past and future mental time travel in relation to aging and
life span development.
Type
Journal articleSubject
AgingDaydreaming
Emotional distress
Episodic future thinking
Involuntary autobiographical memories
Adult
Age Factors
Fantasy
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Episodic
Middle Aged
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Stress, Psychological
Surveys and Questionnaires
Thinking
Time Factors
Young Adult
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12024Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.concog.2015.07.007Publication Info
Berntsen, Dorthe; Rubin, David C; & Salgado, Sinue (2015). The frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts in relation
to daydreaming, emotional distress, and age. Conscious Cogn, 36. pp. 352-372. 10.1016/j.concog.2015.07.007. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12024.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David C. Rubin
Juanita M. Kreps Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
For .pdfs of all publications click here My main research interest has been in
long-term memory, especially for complex (or "real-world") stimuli. This work includes
the study of autobiographical memory and oral tra

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