Semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming: the role of stimulus processing

It is now well established that semantic processing can cause the activation of memories in the autobiographical memory system. Studies have shown that semantic processing of words, sounds, objects, or pictures primes autobiographical memories on voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory tasks (the Crovitz cue-word task and the vigilance task). Known as semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming, our goal in the current study was to demonstrate that this form of priming occurs under different forms of processing (i.e., shallow versus deep), and that some forms of processing (e.g., visual mental imagery) may enhance priming in this domain. In Experiment 1, equivalent semantic-to-autobiographical priming was obtained on the vigilance task following shallow (e-counting) and deep (meaning judgements) word processing. In Experiment 2, word meaning judgements were compared to visual imagery of word meanings, and visual imagery led to more semantic-to-autobiographical priming on the vigilance task than meaning judgements. The results of these experiments support the idea that semantic-to-autobiographical priming occurs under a wide range of processing conditions, supporting a ubiquity claim, with some conditions producing more priming than others, and they further support the idea that this form of may play an important role in the production of involuntary memories in everyday life.