When I saw me standing there: first-person and third-person memories and future projections, and how they relate to the self

• Published in: Journal of cognitive psychology (Hove, England) Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 438 - 452
• Main Authors: Verhaeghen, Paul, Aikman, Shelley N., Doyle-Portillo, Susann, Bell, Christopher R., Simmons, Nicole
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hove Routledge 19.05.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Autobiographical memory; memory; perspective; point-of-view; self
• ISSN: 2044-5911; 2044-592X
• DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2018.1454451

We studied visual perspective of three autobiographical memories and three projected future events (i.e. whether the events were experienced from a first-person or third-person perspective, or in between) in 117 undergraduate students. Perspective proved to be a reliable individual-differences variable. The majority of narratives trended toward the first-person perspective, with memories more likely to yield first-person perspective than future events. Perspective was predicted by detail (higher level of participant-reported visual detail was more likely to elicit first-person perspective), and temporal distance (events reported as being further away in time were more likely to elicit third-person perspective). Detail, in turn, was explained (among others) by the individual-differences variable of depression/social uncertainty (a factor-derived scale consisting of rumination scales, the inverse of the Sense Of Self Scale, the Social Phobia Scale, and, to a lesser extent, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale). Generally, predictors for memories and future events overlapped. The results underscore the need for including individual-differences variables in research on the determinants of memory perspective.