Phenomenal characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined autobiographical events.

TLDR

Reality monitoring of autobiographical events is a key cognitive process that distinguishes perceived from imagined experiences. The authors conducted two studies: in Study 1 participants rated phenomenal characteristics of recent and childhood memories, while in Study 2 they described how they determined whether events had actually occurred. Perceived events were rated higher on perceptual, contextual, and supporting memory characteristics—especially for recent memories—and participants were more likely to mention perceptual and contextual details for perceived events versus reasoning based on prior knowledge for imagined events, supporting the reality‑monitoring hypothesis.

Abstract

Two studies explored potential bases for reality monitoring (Johnson & Raye, 1981) of naturally occurring autobiographical events. In Study 1, subjects rated phenomenal characteristics of recent and childhood memories. Compared with imagined events, perceived events were given higher ratings on several characteristics, including perceptual information, contextual information, and supporting memories. This was especially true for recent memories. In Study 2, subjects described how they knew autobiographical events had (or had not) happened. For perceived events, subjects were likely to mention perceptual and contextual details of the memory and to refer to other supporting memories. For imagined events, subjects were likely to engage in reasoning based on prior knowledge. The results are consistent with the idea that reality monitoring draws on differences in qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined events (Johnson & Raye, 1981) and augment findings from more controlled laboratory studies of complex events (Johnson & Suengas, in press; Suengas & Johnson, 1988).