Robert W. Schrauf

Belief and recollection of autobiographical memories.

In three experiments, undergraduates rated autobiographical memories on scales derived from existing theories of memory. In multiple regression analyses, ratings of the degree to which subjects recollected (i.e., relived) their memories were predicted by visual imagery, auditory imagery, and emotions, whereas ratings of belief in the accuracy of their memories were predicted by knowledge of the setting. Recollection was predicted equally well in between- and within-subjects analyses, but belief consistently had smaller correlations and multiple regression predictions between subjects; individual differences in the cognitive scales that we measured could not account well for individual differences in belief. In contrast, measures of mood (Beck Depression Index) and dissociation (Dissociative Experience Scale) added predictive value for belief, but not for recollection. We also found that highly relived memories almost always had strong visual images and thatremember/know judgments made on autobiographical memories were more closely related to belief than to recollection.

Bilingual Autobiographical Memory: Experimental Studies and Clinical Cases

This paper argues that the consecutive bilingual’s dual cultural-linguistic self-representations act as filters for memory retrieval of events from the personal past. Examination of work in experimental psychology on bilingual autobiographical memory and clinical case reports from psychoanalytic therapy with bilinguals suggests that memory retrievals for events from childhood and youth (in the country of origin) are more numerous, more detailed and more emotionally marked when remembering is done in the first language (‘mother tongue’) rather than in the second language. The mechanism accounting for this phenomenon has been identified as encoding specificity and state-dependent learning, where the bilingual’s languages are considered the operative ‘states’ at encoding and retrieval. The paper suggests that this notion of ‘states’ be refined to include cultural-linguistic self-representations attending language socialization in first and second cultures. Such language-specific self-representations act as linguistically mediated ‘states’ that may or may not match similar states at encoding and thus account for qualitative and quantitative differences in retrieval.

Internal languages of retrieval: The bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past

In contrast to most research on bilingual memory that focuses on how words in either lexicon are mapped onto memory for objects and concepts, we focus on memory for events in the personal past. Using a word-cue technique in sessions devoted exclusively to one language, we found that older Hispanic immigrants who had come to the United States as adults internally retrieved autobiographical memories in Spanish for events in the country of origin and in English for events in the U.S. These participants were consistently capable of discerning whether a memory had come to them “in words” or not, reflecting the distinction between purely imagistic or conceptual memories and specifically linguistic memories. Via examination of other phenomenological features of these memories (sense of reliving, sensory detail, emotionality, and rehearsal), we conclude that the linguistic/nonlinguistic distinction is fundamental and independent of these other characteristics. Bilinguals encode and retrieve certain autobiographical memories in one or the other language according to the context of encoding, and these linguistic characteristics are stable properties of those memories over time.

Inner speech and bilingual autobiographical memory: a Polish-Danish cross-cultural study.

Thirty years after fleeing from Poland to Denmark, 20 immigrants were enlisted in a study of bilingual autobiographical memory. Ten “early immigrators” averaged 24 years old at the time of immigration, and ten “late immigrators” averaged 34 years old at immigration. Although all 20 had spent 30 years in Denmark, early immigrators reported more current inner speech behaviours in Danish, whereas late immigrators showed more use of Polish. Both groups displayed proportionally more numerous autobiographical retrievals that were reported as coming to them internally in Polish (vs Danish) for the decades prior to immigration and more in Danish (vs Polish) after immigration. We propose a culture- and language-specific shaping of semantic and conceptual stores that underpins autobiographical and world knowledge.

A pancultural perspective on the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory

The fading affect bias (FAB) refers to the negative affect associated with autobiographical events fading faster than the positive affect associated with such events, a reliable and valid valence effect established by researchers in the USA. The present study examined the idea that the FAB is a ubiquitous emotion regulating phenomenon in autobiographical memory that is present in people from a variety of cultures. We tested for evidence of the FAB by sampling more than 2400 autobiographical event descriptions from 562 participants in 10 cultures around the world. Using variations on a common method, each sample evidenced a FAB: positive affect faded slower than negative affect did. Results suggest that in tandem with local norms and customs, the FAB may foster recovery from negative life events and promote the retention of the positive emotions, within and outside of the USA. We discuss these findings in the context of Keltner and Haidts levels of analysis theory of emotion and culture.

English Use Among Older Bilingual Immigrants in Linguistically Concentrated Neighborhoods: Social Proficiency and Internal Speech as Intracultural Variation

This research focuses on patterns of English proficiency and use-of-English among older immigrants living in linguistically concentrated, ethnic neighborhoods. A sample (n = 60) of older Puerto Ricans, who moved from the island to the mainland in their twenties, were divided into English proficiency groups (fluent, high intermediate, low intermediate) via the Adult Language Assessment Scales. Participants then provided self-ratings of their English proficiency (understanding, speaking, reading, and writing), their use of English in social domains (language spoken with own-family, in-laws, spouse, children, neighbors, and workmates), and their use of English in private psychological domains (language of talking to oneself, counting, writing notes to oneself, thinking, dreaming, praying, and expressing feelings). Finally, all participants completed the Puerto Rican Bicultural Scale. Results show a cohort of immigrant elders whose first language is protected by their ethnic neighborhoods but whose domestic and private lives are increasingly permeated by English. In particular, children emerge as powerful forces of language socialization in English for their parents. Further, there are important individual differences by level of proficiency, with a lowest proficiency group that is less acculturated, lower in socioeconomic status, and even more linguistically isolated than groups with higher proficiency. In essence, level of second language proficiency is a potent source of intracultural variation. Methodologically, the paper makes the important point that self-rated patterns of language use are consistent with scores on formal measures of proficiency. The paper also provides empirical verification of the logic of dividing language use into external, social speech and internal, psychological speech.

Cross-cultural variability of component processes in autobiographical remembering: Japan, Turkey, and the USA.

Although the underlying mechanics of autobiographical memory may be identical across cultures, the processing of information differs. Undergraduates from Japan, Turkey, and the USA rated 30 autobiographical memories on 15 phenomenological and cognitive properties. Mean values were similar across cultures, with means from the Japanese sample being lower on most measures but higher on belief in the accuracy of their memories. Correlations within individuals were also similar across cultures, with correlations from the Turkish sample being higher between measures of language and measures of recollection and belief. For all three cultures, in multiple regression analyses, measures of recollection were predicted by visual imagery, auditory imagery, and emotions, whereas measures of belief were predicted by knowledge of the setting. These results show subtle cultural differences in the experience of remembering.

Bilingual Episodic Memory: An Introduction

Our current models of bilingual memory are essentially accounts of semantic memory whose goal is to explain bilingual lexical access to underlying imagistic and conceptual referents. While this research has included episodic memory, it has focused largely on recall for words, phrases, and sentences in the service of understanding the structure of semantic memory. Building on the four papers in this special issue, this article focuses on larger units of episodic memory(from quotidian events with simple narrative form to complex autobiographical memories) in service of developing a model of bilingual episodic memory. This requires integrating theory and research on how culture-specific narrative traditions inform encoding and retrieval with theory and research on the relation between(monolingual) semantic and episodic memory(Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1995; Tulving, 2002). Then, taking a cue from memory-based text processing studies in psycholinguistics(McKoon & Ratcliff, 1998), we suggest that as language forms surface in the progressive retrieval of features of an event, they trigger further forms within the same language serving to guide a within-language/ within-culture retrieval.

A protocol analysis of retrieval in bilingual autobiographical memory

Effortful retrieval of specific memories may be characterized as a step-wise procedure in which a chain of associations(imagery, language, feelings, concepts) is activated and the information matched to search requirements until a target memory is triggered. This paper addresses the issue of how a bilingual might employ both languages to trigger a sought-after memory. Ten Spanish-English speaking bilinguals were cued with words in Spanish and English in blocked conditions on separate days and asked to “think aloud” while searching for an autobiographical incident related to the cue word. Protocols were transcribed and coded for kinds of mental states(visual imagery, emotion, concepts, and linguistic elements) intervening between the cue and the final memory. A Friedman ANOVA indicated that visual imagery was the most frequent state accessed. Inspection of the protocols in which language played a role suggested that bilinguals both consciously translated cues and made automatic associations within-and across-languages at morphological, lexical, and semantic levels to trigger memories.

Age Effects and Sample Size in Free Listing

The literature in the psychology of aging shows cognitive declines among older adults in many abilities. This study addresses the question of whether informant age affects production in free listing. The study compares numbers of free-listed items across four quotidian domains by groups of older (n = 30) versus younger ( n = 31) adults. Smaller samples of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five were also analyzed to assess age by sample size interaction at smaller sample sizes. Results show that at the level of the group and at every sample size, older adults produce more unique items than younger adults but that when idiosyncratic items (mentioned by only one person) are eliminated from the analysis, older and younger adults produce equivalent numbers of items. Finally, we varied the size of target sets (ten, fifteen, twenty) of most frequently cited items at thirty participants and examined the percentage of those items present for sample sizes of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five participants. For all set sizes and for both age groups, approximately 74—79% of items were present at n = 20 and 80—87% were present at n = 25. No effects were found for either different target set sizes or for age groups. These results suggest a modest advantage for older versus younger adults in free listing.