title: What characterizes life story memories? A diary study of freshmen's first term.
abstract: We investigated whether memories are selected for the life story based on event characteristics. Sixty-one students completed weekly diaries over their first term at university. They described, dated and rated two events each week. Three months after the end of the term they completed an unexpected memory test. They recalled three memories from the diary period that were important to their life story. Three randomly selected events scoring low on importance to the life story functioned as control memories. Life story memories were rated higher on goal relevance, emotional intensity, importance and rehearsal in the diary and maintained their higher ratings at the test session, while ratings for control memories dropped off. Life story memories' content was less consistent over time but they were more accurately dated than control memories. The results suggest that event characteristics play an important role for the selection of life story memories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center on Autobiographical Memory Research (CON AMORE), University of Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark. dorthe.thomsen@psy.au.dk
authors.forename: Dorthe Kirkegaard
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: Martin Hammershøj
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Olesen
authors.forename: Anette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schnieber
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tønnesvang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011996:Records; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology