If My Memory Serves Me Well: Investigating My Memory for the Past 24 Years

Gert Storms

doi:10.5334/joc.334

Figures & Tables

Number of Entries as a Function of the Age of the Events Expressed in Number of Years.

Two examples of entries as presented during the memory study.

Table 1

Content Categories of the Entries and Their Share in the Complete Data Base.

CONTENT CATEGORY	NUMBER OF ENTRIES (%)
Work	541 (21.3 %)
Literature	329 (12.9 %)
Health/Existential Meaning	247 (9.7 %)
Traveling	261 (10.3 %)
My children	260 (10.2 %)
Public Events	141 (5.5 %)
Friends from Leuven	137 (5.4 %)
My Wife	125 (4.9 %)
Dreams	118 (4.6 %)
House/Neighbors	104 (4.1 %)
Extended Family	94 (3.7 %)
Movie/TV/Theater	83 (3.3 %)
Music	58 (2.3 %)
Weather/Nature	54 (2.1 %)
Friends from my Hometown	48 (1.9 %)
Ex Romantic Partners	46 (1.8 %)

Average Retention Rating on the 7-Point Scale as a Function of the Years Passed Since the Event.

Table 2

Correlations Between Dependent Variables, Entry Length, Entry Age, and the Rating Scales.

	0/1	1/7	EST.ERR.	LENGTH	AGE	SAL.	EMOT.	PLEAS.	INTIM.	EV.REH.
1/7	0.86*
Est.err.	–0.25*	–0.28*
Length	0.20*	0.24*	–0.11*
Mem. Age	–0.17*	–0.24*	0.17*	0.02
Salience	0.12*	0.17*	–0.10*	0.16*	0.19*
Emot. Involv.	0.08*	0.16*	–0.04	0.23*	0.01	0.22*
Pleasantness	0.19*	0.23*	–0.07*	–0.05	0.12*	–0.04	–0.04
Intimacy	–0.05	–0.02	0.04	0.06	0.09*	0.11*	0.49*	0.03
Event rehear.	0.42*	0.51*	–0.20*	0.25*	0.04	0.29*	0.41*	0.28*	0.07*
Self Relatedness	0.05	0.09*	–0.03	0.14*	0.06*	0.19*	0.70*	0.17*	0.52*	0.33*

[i] Note: 0/1 is the all-or-none retention variable. 1/7 is the gradual retention score. Est.err. refers to the absolute time estimation error. Length is the number of lines of the entry. Mem.Age is the age of the memory, expressed in days, that is, the number of days past between noting the entry and testing my memory for it. Salience, Emotional involvement, Pleasant, Intimacy, Event Rehearsal, and Self Relatedness are the rating on the 7-point Likert scales. Values in bold are significant at p < .05 level and values with an asterisk a p < .01 (2-tailed, N = 2542).

Table 3

Mean Gradual Retention Scores, R² and Significant Predictors of the Regression Analysis with Gradual Retention as Dependent Variable.

	TOTAL SET	WORK	LITERATURE	HEALTH/MEANING	MY CHILDREN	TRAVELLING	PUBLIC EVENT	FRIENDS LEUVEN	MY WIFE	DREAMS	HOUSE/NEIGHBORS	EXTENDED FAMILY	MOVIE/TV/THEATER	MUSIC	EX ROMANTIC PARTNER	WEATHER/NATURE	FRIENDS/HOMETOWN
Mean	3.32	3.59	3.56	2.59	2.87	4.25	3.43	3.98	2.7	1.39	3.66	4.4	3.73	3.91	3.17	1.46	4.02
St.Dev.	1.85	1.85	1.15	1.86	1.88	1.7	1.7	1.78	1.76	1.02	1.86	1.67	1.82	1.77	1.77	1.01	1.66
R squared	0.38	0.38	0.29	0.36	0.45	0.43	0.34	0.33	0.48	0.35	0.33	0.43	0.61	0.53	0.45	0.55	0.49
Adjusted	0.38	0.37	0.27	0.35	0.43	0.41	0.31	0.29	0.44	0.3	0.28	0.37	0.57	0.45	0.33	0.46	0.39
Entry Length	•	•		•	•		•	○
Memory Age	•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•		•
Rehearsal	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		○	•
Salience	•	•				•
Emot.lnv.					•	○							○			○
Pleas.	•	•				○	•					○	•		•
Intimacy					•									○		•
Self-relat.	•	○	•			○									○

[i] Note: Significant contributions at the .01 level and at the .05 level in the regression are indicated, respectively with the symbols • and ○.

Table 4

Mean Absolute Dating Error, R² and Significant Predictors of the Regression Analysis with Absolute Dating Error as Dependent Variable.

	TOTAL SET	WORK	LITERATURE	HEALTH/MEANING	MY CHILDREN	TRAVELLING	PUBLIC EVENT	FRIENDS LEUVEN	MY WIFE	DREAMS	HOUSE/NEIGHBORS	EXTENDED FAMILY	MOVIE/TV/THEATER	MUSIC	EX ROMANTIC PARTNER	WEATHER/NATURE	FRIENDS/HOMETOWN
Mean	545	461	581	764	269	420	421	544	452	1364	322	249	422	773	922	1153	561
St. Dev.	839	639	790	990	479	883	887	728	645	1329	729	532	508	857	1440	1023	736
R squared	0.09	0.19	0.17	0.17	0.05	0.05	0.31	0.14	0.09	0.06	0.08	0.16	0.32	0.62	0.08	0.27	0.45
Adjusted	0.08	0.18	0.15	0.14	0.02	0.02	0.27	0.09	0.03	0	0	0.08	0.25	0.56	0	0.14	0.34
Entry Length	•	•		○
Memory Age	•	•	•	•			•					•	•	•		•	•
Rehearsal	•	•	○								○			○		○
Salience	•	•					○	○				○					○
Emot.lnv.														•
Pleas.	•
Intimacy													•
Self-relat.				○										○

[i] Note: Significant contributions at the .01 level and at the .05 level in the regression are indicated, respectively with the symbols • and ○.

If My Memory Serves Me Well: Investigating My Memory for the Past 24 Years

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Figure 2

Table 1

Figure 3

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Paradigm

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