Event Characteristics and Autobiographical Memory Consistency in Adolescence Open Access

Abstract

Autobiographical memories serve important aspects of development in adolescence, contributing to a stable sense of self and identity and comprising one’s life story. However, these memories are subject to change, as individuals may be inconsistent in the details they recall over time. The present research examined event characteristics as potential predictors of memory consistency in adolescents’ (12- to 14-year-olds) autobiographical memory narratives. Event characteristics and consistency were also assessed as a function of the time period in which the event occurred, as participants provided memories for early and recent events, as well as a “most significant” event. The event characteristics emotion, duration, culturally shared, location change, and impact showed significant main effects of time period. Consistency also showed significant main effects of time period, such that early memories were more consistent than those occurring more recently. This finding is in line with previous research and suggests that the details of early memories are perhaps more fixed than recent memories, as there is more opportunity for rehearsal. Finally, only two event characteristics, emotion and location change, were significant predictors of consistency in one time period, ages 6 to 10. These findings suggest that, for adolescents, event characteristics may not be predictive of consistency in autobiographical memories. The relevance of these memories to one’s sense of self, especially during adolescence, further supports this interpretation, suggesting that factors salient to self-identity may be more predictive of consistency in autobiographical memories.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1

Methods......................................................................................................................................... 11

Participants................................................................................................................................ 11

Materials and Procedure............................................................................................................ 12

Coding and Data Reduction....................................................................................................... 14

Consistency............................................................................................................................ 14

Event Characteristics............................................................................................................. 16

Data Analytic Plan..................................................................................................................... 17

Results........................................................................................................................................... 17

Event characteristics.................................................................................................................. 18

Consistency................................................................................................................................ 21

Discussion..................................................................................................................................... 22

Limitations and Future Directions............................................................................................. 26

Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 27

References..................................................................................................................................... 29

Appendix A. Coding Scheme........................................................................................................ 35

Appendix B. Example Narratives.................................................................................................. 36

 List of Tables

Table 1........................................................................................................................................... 18

Means and Standard Deviations of Event Characteristics

 

 

 List of Figures

Figure 1.......................................................................................................................................... 20

Event Characteristics with Significant Mean Differences Across Time Periods

Figure 2.......................................................................................................................................... 21

Mean Proportion of Consistent Details of Narratives Across Time Periods

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental
Keyword	Adolescence Autobiographical memory
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Patricia Bauer , Emory University
Committee Members	Robyn Fivush , Emory University Marshall Duke, Emory University

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