Memory & Cognition 1981, Vol. 9 (6), 566-579 Directed search through autobiographical memory WILLIAM B. WHITTEN II BellLaboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey 07733 and JANET MAURIELLO LEONARD State University ofNew York, Albany, New York 12203 Two experiments were designed to study retrieval from a well-ordered set of overlearned information in long-term autobiographical memory. In Experiment 1, each of 161 university students was asked to recall the name of one teacher from each of the 12 preuniversity school years. Recall was cued in forward (Grades 1-12), backward (Grades 12-1), or random order. Backward-ordered search proved most efficient: Fewer students failed to complete the task in that search order, and those who did complete the task were faster than the successful students in the other search orders. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1, except that the 148 students tested were asked to "think aloud" as they attempted recall. From the resulting protocols. 25 categories of verbal reports were identified, including four that reflected retrieval strategies. Omission errors (failures to recall teachers' names) and, with one exception, frequencies of verbal reports decreased as recency increased. Taken together, the results of both experiments show that the recall of one item can indirectly aid the recall of contiguous items and that the probability of recalling an item from autobiographical memory is primarily a function of recency. Who was your third-grade teacher? Such questions seem to be easily remembered while other events seem tap information that we usually describe as autobio­ hopelessly forgotten. graphical. While the term "autobiographical memory" With few exceptions (e.g., Waldfogel,1948),mostnon­ could be used as a synonym for episodic memory clinical studies of autobiographical memory have been (Tulving, 1972), it is more useful to define autobio­ reported since 1970. These recent studies fall into two graphical memory as that set of information pertaining broad categories. The first category uses Galton's (1907) to extraexperimentally experienced events.' So defined, technique of open-ended association to each of a series the most certain statements that can be made about of words. On each trial, a single word is presented, and autobiographical memory are that we know relatively the subject is told to report the first autobiographical little about its dynamics and that it is of great interest episode that the word brings to mind. Five such studies to psychologists and nonpsychologists alike. The reasons have been published. Testing college students with this we know little about autobiographical memory are procedure, Crovitz and Schiffman (1974) found a obvious: It is difficult to do experiments over very long linear relation between the log of report frequency and intervals, and it is even more difficult to exert experi­ the log of report recency such that more reports were mental control over what is, by definition, information from the more recent time periods. Crovitz and Quina­ stored idiosyncratically throughout one's life. Neverthe­ Holland (1976) found that the reports of college stu­ less, autobiographical memory is of interest to psycholo­ dents increased as a function of recency over the first gists who would like to determine the generalizability of 7 years of life. Franklin and Holding (1977) tested typical episodic laboratory phenomena to extraexperi­ subjects whose ages ranged from 25 to 74 years and also mental situations. In addition, this class of memory is of found recency effects. McCormack (1979), however, interest to anyone who ever wondered by some events found check-mark-shaped functions when the reminis­ cences of older people (from 53 to 102 years of age) were plotted against quartiles of the life span. Robinson This report is an extension of a paper presented at the meetings of the Psychonomic Society, Phoenix, November 1979. (1976) tested college students with this paradigm to We wish to thank several people who helped with this project. study word-class effects and found that affect words Stephanie Sorrentino collected the data for Experiment 1. elicited more recent memories, on the average, than did Taren Chaiet and Nancy Downey helped with Experiment 2. object or activity words, but that affect-cued events Janice Bauhoff helped with a pilot study. Sandra Whitten typed the manuscript. Requests for reprints should be sent to William were reported more slowly than were object-cued or B. Whitten II, Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey activity-cued episodes. 07733. The second category of studies includes a variety of Copyright 1981 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 566 0090-502X/81!060566-14$01.65/0 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY 567 techniques used to assesssubjects' memories for particu­ extent of information stored during a person's life, it is lar events, such as news items (Botwinick & Storandt, possible to manipulate the conditions of retrieval. In 1974; Linton, 1975; Sanders & Warrington, 1971; order to learn about the relative efficiency of various Squire, 1974; Underwood, 1977; Warrington & Sanders, retrieval strategies, it is only necessary to identify some 1971; Warrington & Silberstein, 1970), television shows ordered set of information that is guaranteed to have (Squire, Chace, & Slater, 1975; Squire & Slater, 1975; been stored by all subjects in the experiment. Major Squire, Slater, & Chace, 1975), famous race horses news events constitute one possible set of information. (Squire & Slater, 1975), famous faces (Sanders & Unfortunately, however, we cannot guarantee that all Warrington, 1971; Warrington & Sanders, 1971), class­ subjects will have experienced all the news events mates [Bahrick, Bahrick, & Wittlinger, 1975; Williams, equally or that their knowledge of the events will date Note 1), teachers (Schonfield, 1969), and all people from the events' occurrences rather than from later known personally (Riegel, 1973). Several of these discussions. In addition, it is probable that news events studies have found that memory is better for more are mostly ignored by young children, so only those recent events (Linton, 1975; Riegel, 1973; Squire, events occurring during the adolescent and adult years Chace, & Slater, 1975; Squire & Slater, 1975;Warrington can be tested. Similar criticisms can be levied against & Sanders, 1971; Warrington & Silberstein, 1970). the use of television shows, race horses, sporting events, Underwood (1977) has reported that subjects' accuracy and so on. In fact, it is very difficult to think of any for temporally ordering events in pairs increases as the ordered set of information that is guaranteed to be time between the events increases. Squire, Chace, and shared equally by all people. The main source of such Slater (1975) have found the complementary result, shared experience would be a function of a culture's that correct temporal ordering of equidistant events institutions. In the United States, the dominant institu­ in pairs decreases with increasing retention intervals. tion is probably the educational system, and it is true And Linton (1975), using herself as the sole subject, that the vast majority of university students have experi­ found both of these results. Some studies have shown enced 12 years of preuniversity schooling. Furthermore, differences between recall and recognition performance during each of those school years, the majority of (e.g., Bahrick et al., 1975; Warrington & Sanders, 1971; students have had one or more teachers with whom daily Warrington & Silberstein, 1970), and one study has or semidaily contact occurred. This repeated contact attempted to capture the character of extended retrieval with teachers during the course of a school year surely by describing recurrent phenomena found in verbal results in overlearning to the extent that an occasional protocols (Williams,Note 1). remembrance of any particular teacher should have Summarizing this previous research, we can say that relatively small long-term consequences for subsequent we now have some information on the frequency of retrieval. In addition, it is typical for a student to have freely recalled memories from the fractions of one's had different teachers each year, and for each year to life, the frequency and speed of retrieving events asso­ have been punctuated by a 3-month summer vacation. ciated with various classes of words, the forgetting func­ Consequently, for the majority of university students, tions for recall and recognition over very long time teachers from these 12 years of school constitute an intervals, the ability to order events along the temporal ordered set of information in memory. Thus, in spite dimension, and some descriptions of the retrieval process of some minor problems that will be detailed below, as gleaned from self-reports. The type of information teachers from the 12 years of preuniversity schooling missing from the literature thus far is information that constitute a viable set of information for autobiographi­ would enable a description of retrieval dynamics, infor­ cal memory experiments, since this information is mation that would allow a prescription for an optimal ordered, is overlearned, and is in the experience of most retrieval strategy, and information that would allow of our subject population. For these reasons, teachers' extension of laboratory models of storage-retrieval names were the target memories sought by subjects in interactions to the realm of autobiographical memory. our experiments. Consider again the