Reasons for withdrawing belief in vivid autobiographical memories

Scoboria, Alan; Boucher, Chantal; Mazzoni, Giuliana

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that many people hold personal memories for events that they no longer believe occurred. This study examines the reasons that people provide for choosing to reduce autobiographical belief in vividly recollected autobiographical memories. A body of nonbelieved memories provided by 374 individuals was reviewed to develop a qualitatively derived categorization system. The final scheme consisted of 8 major categories (in descending order of mention): social feedback, event plausibility, alternative attributions, general memory beliefs, internal event features, consistency with external evidence, views of self/others, and personal motivation; and numerous sub-categories. Independent raters coded the reports and judged the primary reason that each person provided for withdrawing belief. The nature of each category, frequency of category endorsement, category overlap, and phenomenological ratings are presented, following which links to related literature and implications are discussed. This study documents that a wide variety of recollective and non-recollective sources of information influence decision-making about the occurrence of autobiographical events.

Citation

Scoboria, A., Boucher, C., & Mazzoni, G. (2015). Reasons for withdrawing belief in vivid autobiographical memories. Memory, 23(4), 545-562. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2014.910530

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 26, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Apr 30, 2014
• Publication Date: May 19, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 28, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 28, 2015
• Journal: Memory
• Print ISSN: 0965-8211
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-0686
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 545-562
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2014.910530
• Keywords: Autobiographical memory; Autobiographical belief; Non-believed memory; Decision making
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/373044
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658211.2014.910530#
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Memory on 30/04/2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/1080/09658211.2014.910530