Characteristics of self-consistent and self-discrepant autobiographical memories

Abstract

Although the relationship between self and autobiographical memory has been examined in the previous literature, the nature of self-consistent and self-discrepant memories has not been explored. The purpose of the present study was to examine self-consistent and self-discrepant autobiographical memories in terms of memory characteristics. Forty seven participants reported one self-consistent and one self-discrepant memory and completed the Turkish version of the Memory Experiences Questionnaire, which measures aspects of participants’ phenomenological experiences at retrieval, for each. Results revealed that self-consistent memories were more vivid and coherent, involved more sensory details, were closer to the self concept, more positively valenced and remembered more from a first person’s (field) perspective than self-discrepant memories. The two types of memories did not differ in terms of the characteristics of emotional intensity, accessibility, sharing and time clarity. Also both memories were highly vivid, coherent, had high emotional intensity and sensory details, were accessible, had time clarity and were not shared. The findings indicate that although the consistency of memories with the self concept provides them with a privileged condition over self-discrepant memories in many aspects, self-discrepant memories may also benefit from these aspects just by being related to the self, even if this relationship is in terms of discrepancy.|Key words: autobiographical memory, self, self-consistent memory, self-discrepant memory