Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Rising Stars | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Influence of Involuntary Autobiographical Memories on Episodic Memory

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Catherine Bosyj¹ (bosyj@uwindsor.ca), Renée Biss¹; ¹University of Windsor

Introduction: Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are memories for personal experiences that come to mind effortlessly and without intention of their retrieval. These memories are ubiquitous, but their role in memory encoding and retrieval dynamics is far less understood than voluntary memories. IAMs are emotionally impactful, and emotion has a well-established influence on encoding. Therefore, this research investigated the influence of IAMs on one’s ability to simultaneously encode incoming information. Methods: 68 undergraduate students watched positive, neutral, and negative videos and reported whether they retrieved an IAM while watching. Later, participants recalled the videos, including each video’s emotional valence. Participants also provided details of their IAMs. Results: A linear mixed effects regression revealed that when participants had IAMs while watching neutral videos, they rated the videos more positively, and when participants had IAMs while watching negative videos, they rated the videos more negatively. An ordinal mixed effects regression found that overall, the more positively participants rated their IAMs, the more positively they rated the videos. There were no differences in the number of accurate or inaccurate details participants recalled according to whether they recalled an IAM during encoding. Conclusions: Experiencing an IAM while encoding neutral and negative material can influence memory for the emotional tone of the material. This effect may be related to associative network processes driven by the amygdala and hippocampal complex. Future research should validate the underlying neural correlates of this association using neuroimaging techniques.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic