Abstract
Eight hundred ninety-three students completed statements from a questionnaire concerning their perceptions of their memory abilities. Twenty-nine memory domains and experiences, such as memory for smells or memory for names, were distributed across 60 statements in the questionnaire. A factor analysis yielded three meaningful factors: (1) a verbal memory factor, which included memory for names, trivia, and words; (2)a personal past memory factor, which included memory for childhood, dreams, painful experiences, and smells; and (3) an appointments factor, which included memory for appointments, personal articles, anniversaries, and so on. Factor scores from the first factor were used in two subsequent experiments: In one, factor scores correlated with performance on a trivia questionnaire; in the other, factor scores correlated with the amount of play money wagered in a twocontestant trivia quiz. Results of both studies suggested that attempts to validate the factors with behavioral measures would succeed. The framework of self-theory of memory was used in discussing the results and in suggesting directions for future inquiry.
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Reference Notes
Sehulster, J.Memory, trust, and reality. Paper presented at a conference for Psychologists of Upstate New York, Hamilton, New York, October 1979.
Herrmann, D.Know thy memory: The use of questionnaires to assess and study memory. Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
Herrmann, D.How people answer memory questionnaires: A theory of memory introspection. Paper presented at a conference for Psychologists of Upstate New York, Hamilton, New York, October 1979.
Sehulster, J.Phenomenological correlates of a self-theory of memory. Manuscript submitted for publication, 1980.
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Sehulster, J.R. Structure and pragmatics of a self-theory of memory. Memory & Cognition 9, 263–276 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196960
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196960