Autobiographical recall and visual imagery.

Abstract

High visual imagery has been characterized as a major component of successful autobiographical recall of events (Brewer, 1988; Galton, 1880; White, 1989). The present study was an attempt to ascertain if visual imagery had differential effects on autobiographical recall for personal episodic, personal semantic, and nonpersonal semantic information. Thirty undergraduate volunteers (15 high and 15 low imagers) were extracted from a pool of 50 subjects because they scored in excess of ± .5 standard deviation on Bett's Questionnaire Upon Mental Tmagery (Sheehan, 1967). Using time periods (preschool, primary school, and secondary school) as cues, autobiographical recall was 0perationalized as the number of items recalled, in 90 seconds, for personal episodic and personal semantic information. The nonpersonal semantic recall of vegetables and adjectives was time period nonspecific. The statistical analysis revealed significant time period main effects for personal episodic and personal semantic recall. More items from secondary school were recalled relative to primary or preschool, regardless of visual imagery. In addition, there was a significant nonpersonal semantic recall x category interaction supporting the hypothesis that high relative to low imagers would have less recall of adjectives. The lack of a visual imagery x time period interaction does not support the hypothesis that high visual imagery is a necessary component of successful autobiographical memory recall. The results are discussed from the perspective of Paivio's (1986) dual code theory.