Music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) are typically elicited by music that listeners have heard before. While studies that have directly manipulated music familiarity show that familiar music evokes more MEAMs than music listeners have not heard before, music that is unfamiliar to the listener can also sporadically cue autobiographical memory. Here we examined whether music that sounds familiar even without previous exposure can produce spontaneous MEAMs. Cognitively healthy older adults ( = 75, ages 65-80 years) listened to music clips that were chosen by researchers to be either familiar or unfamiliar (i.e., varying by prior exposure). Participants then disclosed whether the clip elicited a MEAM and later provided self-reported familiarity ratings for each. Self-reported familiarity was positively associated with the occurrence of MEAMs in response to familiar, but not the unfamiliar, music. The likelihood of reporting MEAMs for music released during youth (i.e., the "reminiscence bump") relative to young adulthood (20-25 years) included both music released during participants' adolescence (14-18 years) and middle childhood (5-9 years) once self-reported familiarity was accounted for. These developmental effects could not be accounted for by music-evoked affect. Overall, our results suggest that the phenomenon of MEAMs hinges upon both perceptions of familiarity and prior exposure.

The relationship between sports expertise and working memory (WM) has garnered increasing attention in experimental research. However, no meta-analysis has compared WM performance between athletes and non-athletes. This study addresses this gap by comparing WM performance between these groups and investigating potential moderators. A comprehensive literature search identified 21 studies involving 1455 participants from seven databases, including PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest. Athletes primarily engaged in basketball, football, and fencing, while non-athletes included some identified as sedentary. The risk of bias assessment indicated low risk across most domains. Publication bias, assessed through a funnel plot and statistical tests, showed no significant evidence of bias. The forest plot, using a random effects model, revealed moderate heterogeneity. The overall effect size indicated a statistically significant, albeit small, advantage for athletes over non-athletes (Hedges' g = 0.30), persisting across sports types and performance levels. Notably, this advantage was more pronounced when athletes were contrasted with a sedentary population (Hedges' g = 0.63), compared to the analysis where the sedentary population was excluded from the non-athlete reference group (Hedges' g = 0.15). Our findings indicate a consistent link between sports expertise and improved WM performance, while sedentary lifestyles appear to be associated with WM disadvantages.

We know much about people's problematic reactions-such as distressing intrusions-to negative, stressful, or traumatic events. But emerging evidence suggests people react similarly to negative and potentially-traumatic events. Given similar processes underlie remembering the past and imagining the future more generally, we wondered how similar involuntary memories, or intrusions, are for experienced vs. anticipated events. We focused primarily on intrusions because they are a transdiagnostic reaction to traumatic events. We asked subjects to report either a very stressful event they had experienced in the past 6 months, or one they anticipated they could experience in the next 6 months. We measured the frequency of intrusions about these reported events, and intrusions' phenomenological characteristics (such as emotional intensity), negative appraisals about their meaning, and reactions to them more generally. Overall, we found intrusions about experienced vs. anticipated autobiographical events were similarly troubling. This pattern supports the idea that anticipating the future can be aversive and elicit post-traumatic-stress-like symptoms, just as remembering the past can. Our findings have implications for theoretical models of traumatic-stress and treatment of traumatic-stress symptoms.

This research comprises three studies centered on the development and validation of a self-report measure of psychological closure and resolution, the Closure and Resolution Scale (CRS). Study 1 used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in two samples to probe the factor structure for closure using original (Study 1a = 284) and revised (Study 1b = 158) item pools. Study 2 (= 159) examined model fit using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and revealed a good-fitting simple structural solution. The CRS consists of 34 items assessing six facets of event resolution: (1) finality, (2) understanding, (3) felt distance, (4) emotional relief, (5) mental release, and (6) behavioural deactivation. Study 3 (= 182) examined convergent and discriminant validity for the CRS and provided evidence of construct validity. Participants resided in North America and primarily identified as White (68.7%-77.5%), male (44.3%-59.3%) or female (40.1%-55.7%), with post-secondary education (69.3%-71.7%). We offer a novel measure of psychological closure and resolution with preliminary evidence of good psychometric properties.

Despite literature showing that errorful generation with corrective feedback enhances retention better than mere studying, it is unclear if this benefit depends on the composition of the learning list (pure error generation/read versus mixed). Here, we investigated whether the mnemonic advantage and metamnemonic evaluation of errorful generation generalise beyond mixed-list designs. Experiment 1 used a free-recall test, while Experiments 2 and 3 used a cued-recall test, with Experiment 3 also including a judgment of learning (JOL) assessment. Only when memory was tested via free recall did the benefit of errorful generation depend on experimental design, with the effect being most robust in mixed lists. Replicating past research, we too found that despite a clear mnemonic benefit for error generation in cued-recall tests, participants predicted better memory following read-only trials, and that this effect was not contingent on list composition. At the practical level, these findings demonstrate instances in which errorful generation is beneficial for memory and learning. At the theoretical level, the results fit nicely within the item-order framework in accounting for commonly observed design effects in free recall.

Previous research has established that the brain uses episodic memories to make continuous predictions about the world and that prediction errors, so the mismatch between generated predictions and reality, can lead to memory updating. However, it remains unclear whether prediction errors can stimulate updating in memories for naturalistic conversations. Participants encoded naturalistic dialogues, which were later presented in a modified form. We found that larger modifications were associated with increased learning of the modified statement. Moreover, memory for the original version of the statement was weakened after medium-strong prediction errors, which resulted from the interplay of modification extent and strength of previous memory. After strong prediction errors, both original and modification were well-remembered. Prediction errors thus play a role in keeping representations of statements and therefore socially relevant knowledge about others up to date.

During ongoing narratives, event boundaries trigger processes relevant for subsequent memory. Previous work has shown that novel, unrelated input presented at an event boundary can retroactively interfere with short-term retention of the preceding event. This interference was attributed to a perturbation of offset-related processes taking place within seconds after encoding and supporting the binding of elements into a coherent event memory. However, the temporal specificity of this memory interference and whether its impact extends to longer retention delays has not been addressed. Here, participants viewed either individual or pairs of short narrative movie clips. Susceptibility to interference at event boundaries was probed by presenting the second clip either immediately after the first, or with a 2s encoding delay. In free and cued recall, after 20 min and 24 h, only memory for movie clips that were immediately followed by a second clip was reduced compared to clips shown in isolation. Intact offset-related processes (as indexed by successful recall of the first movie) did not negatively affect encoding of the subsequent clip. Together, these results indicate that the 2s time-window immediately after an event is relevant for successful consolidation and long-term retention of memory.

Three experiments examined if deep processing would aid in reducing off-task thoughts during learning. In each experiment, participants learned words or pairs of words under deep or shallow conditions. During learning, participants were periodically presented with thought-probes to examine if they were experiencing off-task thoughts (mind wandering, external distraction, mind blanking). Levels of processing was manipulated both within (Experiment 1) and between subjects (Experiments 2 and 3) using structural, rhyme, and semantic judgements and testing memory with cued-recall (Experiments 1 and 2) or recognition (Experiment 3). All three experiments demonstrated a levels of processing effect on memory with better performance in deep compared to shallow conditions. Importantly, in all three experiments rates of off-task thinking (and mind wandering more specifically) were the same across conditions and Bayes factors suggested moderate evidence in favour of the null hypothesis. The results suggest that deep processing does not necessarily protect against mind wandering and other lapses of attention.

Retelling an event in a social setting often means talking about it less factually than we might if trying to recall it as accurately as possible. These distortions that arise from socially oriented retellings could affect the ability to later recall the same event accurately. Does retelling a story in a social situation impair memory compared to not retelling it at all? Or could retrieving the memory, even with a socially oriented mindset, still improve memory? We explored social retelling's effect on memory in a two-session study. Participants heard two stories twice and, after a distractor task, retold the stories according to one of three randomly assigned conditions: social retelling (retell the stories as if talking to friends), accuracy retelling (retell the stories as accurately as possible), or no retelling. A day later, everyone retold the stories as accurately as possible. Participants in the accuracy retelling group included more specific details in their session two retellings than did the social retelling group, which included more specific details than the no retelling group. Elaborations in session two did not differ across groups. Findings suggest retelling a story in a social situation benefits memory, though not as much as retelling a story accurately does.

The Think/No-Think (TNT) task examines the effects of attempts at suppressing particular stimuli. First, participants learn cue-target word pairs. Subsequently, they either recall (Think trials) or avoid thinking about targets whatsoever (No-Think trials) in response to cues. The critical finding is that No-Think targets are recalled less well than Baseline items (i.e., Suppression-Induced Forgetting; SIF). Wiechert et al.'s [(2023). Suppression-induced forgetting: A pre-registered replication of the think/no-think paradigm. , 31(7), 989-1002] null-findings in Prolific workers using online video calls casted doubts on the robustness of the effect. We adapted their procedure in two replication studies testing undergraduate psychology students. The first study ( = 54) adapted Wiechert's procedure to an in-person laboratory setting using Same Probe (SP) recall and found evidence for SIF. Hypothesizing that an online test should yield SIF in undergraduates as well, study 2 replicated both the in-person laboratory ( = 54) and online ( = 54) procedures. The results suggested evidence for SIF in the in-lab setting, yet no evidence was observed in the online setting. As exploratory Bayesian analyses showed conclusive evidence for a null effect, this pattern of results does not imply that the in-lab and online settings actually differed. Yet, overall, the results cast doubts on the generalisability of the SIF-effect .

According to recent theoretical work, certain event memories are more likely to be remembered or forgotten in their entirety. This prior work focused on collections of concepts, such as person-location-object triples. To explore this idea with complex materials, we created triples of people, locations, objects, or activities from events in real-world novels. People who had read one of the included novels were provided with one element from these triples (the cue) and asked to identify which of six alternatives best went with it. The results revealed that memory for the narrative events remained stable across many years. Moreover, people recalled events in a more holistic manner than would be expected by chance. This was more likely the more causally important an event was. This pattern of performance also remained stable over time. Our results are consistent with the idea that event models involve integrating separate elements into a single coherent representation, and this is likely to stay integrated over long periods of time. However, the degree to which this is so appears to be related to how well-integrated the information is within a larger set of events.

The study aimed to analyse the relationship between the dimensions of the triarchic model of psychopathy (meanness, boldness and disinhibition) and the phenomenological characteristics of Autobiographical Memory (AM) in a sample of university students, examining potential gender differences. Participants ( = 260; 55.4% women; aged 18-25) performed an AM task, followed by the Autobiographical Memory Characteristics Questionnaire and the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. We found gender differences, with men scoring higher than women in meanness and disinhibition as well as in precision, accessibility, sharing and narrative coherence of AM. Correlations showed that boldness was negatively related to the valence and emotional intensity of the memory. Meanness was positively associated with precision, sensory details, accessibility, sharing, narrative coherence, distancing and preoccupation with emotions and negatively with recollection. Disinhibition was positively related to precision, sensory details and accessibility and negatively to intensity, distancing and preoccupation with emotions. Our results suggest that psychopathic traits could predict certain characteristics of AM, highlighting the predictive value of meanness, especially regarding memory quality characteristics (e.g., precision), as well as disinhibition, concerning the emotional content (e.g., preoccupation with emotions). Our results contribute to understanding psychopathy through an autobiographical perspective, showing how psychopathic traits may shape how people remember personal events.

It has been documented that older adults' memory deficits can be reduced for information depicted as personally and socially important (e.g., Hargis & Castel, 2017 [Younger and older adults' associative memory for social information: The role of information importance. , (4), 325-330]). The current study aimed to further assess the effects of both arbitrarily assigned and self-perceived importance in younger and older adults' memory for names (low in schematic support) and occupations (high in schematic support) associated with faces. Participants studied the same 16 face-name-occupation triplets (with neutral facial expressions) across four blocks, each including a free recall of names and occupations. At the end, they completed a cued recall of names and occupations. The faces were arbitrarily cued as socially important (i.e., with an orange frame) or unimportant (e.g., without a frame). The perceived social importance was assessed by rating all the triplets based on a 10-point Likert Scale (1 = least and 10 = most important) at the end. The results showed that age-related memory deficits were reduced or even eliminated for occupations (high in schematic support) relative to names (low in schematic support), especially in the free recall of faces self-perceived as important. In other words, the combination of schematic support and self-perceived importance can effectively mitigate older adults' memory deficit.

Collective memories refer to a group's shared representation of the past, which are slow to change over time. In this study, representative samples of American and German Younger Adults (YAs) and Older Adults (OAs) rated the emotional valence of 12 national historic events. Critically, both age groups were also asked to take on the perspective of the other: OAs imagined how YAs feel, whereas YAs imagined how OAs feel about the same events today. The results replicated previous findings that OAs and YAs hold differing opinions on numerous events. Both age groups successfully recognised these different collective perceptions between generations to some extent. Yet, OAs were more accurate in the perspective-taking task, with YAs consistently underestimating the intensity of OAs' emotional valence. Self-reported perspective-taking strategies suggest that OAs relied more on stereotypes and considered education, while knowledge from specific people was universally used to rate the other age group's perspective.

We compared the benefit of production and drawing on recall of concrete and abstract words, using mixed- and pure-list designs. We varied stimulus and list types to examine whether the memory benefit from these strategies was sustained across these manipulations. For all experiments, the memory retrieval task was free recall. In Experiment 1, participants studied concrete and abstract words sequentially, with prompts to either silently-read, read aloud, write, or draw each target (intermixed). Reading aloud, writing, and drawing improved recall compared to silent reading, with drawing leading to the largest boost. Performance, however, was at floor in all but the drawing condition. In Experiment 2, the number of targets was reduced, and each strategy (between-subjects) was compared to silent-reading. We eliminated floor effects and replicated results from Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, we manipulated strategy in a pure-list-design. The drawing benefit was maintained while that from production was eliminated. In all experiments, recall was higher for concrete than abstract words that were drawn; no such effect was found for words produced. Results suggest that drawing facilitates memory by enhancing semantic elaboration, whereas the production benefit is largely perceptually based. Importantly, the memory benefit conferred by drawing at encoding, unlike production, cannot be explained by a distinctiveness account as it was relatively unaffected by study design.

Most people experience positive involuntary mental imagery (IMI) frequently in daily life; however, evidence for the importance and effects of positive IMI is largely indirect. The current study adapted a paradigm to experimentally induce positive IMI in participants' daily lives. This could in turn provide a means to directly test positive IMI's effects. In a within-subjects design, participants (= 41) generated positive mental images (imagery condition) and sentences (verbal condition) from photo cues, half of which participants provided from their own living environment. Participants then recorded involuntary memories of the previously generated images or sentences in a seven-day diary, before returning to the lab and completing some measures including an involuntary memory task. In the diary, participants reported more involuntary memories from the imagery condition than from the verbal condition, and more involuntary memories from their own photos compared to the other photos. A more mixed pattern of findings was found across other tasks in the lab. The study indicates that the paradigm can be used as a means to induce positive IMI and that using photos as the basis for generating positive imagery increases the amount of IMI in daily life. Theoretical and potential clinical implications are discussed.

The Emerging Adulthood is a complex and chaotic period and depression is one of the main psychological health problems during this period. Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is prevalent among patients with clinical depression. However, the prediction of OGM in groups with non-clinical depression and its influencing mechanisms remain inconclusive. Studies have shown that OGM and early parenting behaviour are vulnerable factors of depression in emerging adulthood, which may be triggered by negative life events. Our longitudinal study included 241 participants ( = 21.88 years). At baseline, participants completed measures of current negative life events, depression, early parenting behaviour and an autobiographical memory test. Thereafter, they were tracked for depression every 35 days. We used the latent class growth model to differentiate levels and trends of depression among non-clinical participants. The analysis showed that the effect of negative life events on depression was moderated by OGM and early parenting behaviour. However, this moderating effect was found only in the low-risk depression group. Our findings indicate that early parenting behaviour might account for the different mechanisms of OGM production in non-clinical groups. Moreover, it underlines the importance of OGM and early parenting behaviour as potential predictors of future depression in non-clinical groups.

Flashbulb memories (FBM) refer to the vivid and detailed retrieval of the reception context of a highly salient event. We examined FBMs and personal memories for one college's sudden transition to remote learning due to COVID-19. We explored whether the announcement of the campus' closure resulted in FBMs, how respondents felt about the decision, and the impacts of the decision. Employing a two-wave longitudinal survey conducted in March and May 2020, participants responded to questions regarding learning about the campus' closure and a control memory (an event from the same week chosen by participants). Participant reports suggested they did form FBMs, and FBMs were more consistent over time than control memories. Confidence did not differ across memory types. Additionally, we observed an initial strong positive response to the decision to close the campus - a sentiment that intensified over time. Lastly, participants' emotional responses transitioned from negative feelings in the first wave of testing to more neutral feelings in the second. This work offers a unique exploration of FBMs within the broader context of a global health crisis that intruded into daily life, effectively merging the typically public and distant nature of flashbulb events with first-hand, personal experience.

Memories for life events are thought to be organised based on their relationships with one another, affecting the order in which events are recalled such that similar events tend to be recalled together. However, less is known about how detailed recall for a given event is affected by its associations to other events. Here, we used a cued autobiographical memory recall task where participants verbally recalled events corresponding to personal photographs. Importantly, we characterised the temporal, spatial, and semantic associations between each event to assess how similarity between adjacently cued events affected detailed recall. We found that participants provided more non-episodic details for cued events when the preceding event was both semantically similar and either temporally or spatially dissimilar. However, similarity along time, space, or semantics between adjacent events did not affect the episodic details recalled. We interpret this by considering organisation at the level of a life narrative, rather than individual events. When recalling a stream of personal events, we may feel obligated to justify seeming discrepancies between adjacent events that are semantically similar, yet simultaneously temporally or spatially dissimilar - to do so, we provide additional supplementary detail to help maintain global coherence across the events in our lives.

The effortful process of retrieving information from memory has been established as an effective strategy for improving student learning. However, we have a limited understanding of the development of retrieval practice in children, including contexts that may scaffold its benefit. In the current pre-registered study, we examined whether the use of hints during retrieval practice improved free recall in an online science learning task in 8- to 13-years-olds ( = 77, = 36). We found partial evidence supporting the provision of hints as boosting the benefit of retrieval practice. Children's long-term retention of science facts was higher when they received hints during an earlier practice test compared to restudying information, but not compared to a test only condition without hints. Furthermore, we found similar effects across both age and levels of confidence, suggesting that retrieval practice remains stable across these factors.