Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Ali İzzet Tekcan
10 theses · Boğaziçi University
Examining self-defining parental relationship memories: The role of perceived parenting style and attachment
The present study investigated the core conflictual relationship themes in self-defining relationship memories with mothers and fathers, and their relationship with attachment and perceived parenting styles of mothers and fathers. It was expected that attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, parental acceptance/involvement, parental strict control, and participant's gender would be the predictors of core conflictual relationship themes in parental memories. 228 female and 96 male undergraduate students from Boğaziçi University and Yeditepe University filled out Self-Defining Memory Task about their relationship with their mothers and fathers, Experiences in Close Relationships- Revised (ECR-R) Questionnaire, and Parenting Styles Questionnaire for both parents. The analyses were conducted for mother and father memories separately. The results revealed that not participant's gender, but attachment and perceived parenting of the mother were significant predictors of relationship themes in mother memories. In father memories, on the other hand, only gender was found as a significant predictor of relationship themes in relation with the father. The results were discussed based on attachment theory and different parental roles of mothers and fathers in Turkish culture.
Cognitive processes underlying episodic mental time travel
Episodic mental time travel, the mental construction of the past and future through remembering and imagining, is one of the cognitive abilities that have been extensively studied over the past 20 years. Although a range of component processes was proposed to underlie this unique ability, their relative contributions have remained largely unclear. The current study investigated the role of episodic memory, scene construction, self-projection, and visual imagery in autobiographical memory, episodic future thinking, and episodic counterfactual thinking. Participants recalled and imagined important past, future, and counterfactual events and rated their phenomenological quality, and completed measures of several cognitive functions thought to underlie episodic mental time travel (i.e., episodic memory, scene construction, self-projection, and visual imagery). The number of episodic details found in the narratives of these events was also examined using an adapted version of the Autobiographical Interview. The results indicated that visual imagery and scene construction predicts the phenomenological quality and episodic details of autobiographical memories, respectively, while episodic memory predicts the subjective experience of episodic future events. The results were discussed with reference to the existing theoretical propositions.
Details in hand: How does gesturing relate to autobiographical thinking?
Gestures and speech have different expressive capabilities. When narrating an autobiographical memory, gesturing may reduce the cognitive load of verbal reporting, gestures may function as externalized cues activating episodic details of the memory representation, or gestures might help the construction of event scenes experienced during the original event. Thus, gestures might have a mnemonic role in the retrieval of episodically and phenomenologically rich memories and this potential role might change as a function of age, reflecting the developmental differences in gesturing, memory, and related cognitive systems. Additionally, the use of gestural and verbal modalities, either separately or simultaneously, might vary with age and the episodicity of the information recalled. Using the cue-word technique, 35 children and 46 adults were asked to recall and verbally report six memories, then they rated the recalled memories on three phenomenological properties: visual imagery, spatial imagery, and reliving. Episodic, visuo-motoric and nonepisodic details of autobiographical memories and representational gestures produced during memory narration were coded from video-records. In adult memories, representational gesture production was associated with the recall of more episodic as well as visuo-motoric details, but not with the recall of non-episodic details. However, gesturing did not relate to the phenomenological experience of autobiographical memories via the number of details remembered. When narrating autobiographical events, adults preferred to use gestural and verbal modalities together, whereas children exclusively used the verbal modality. The modality preference of each group was more pronounced when reporting episodic details.
The effect of disability perception on the temporal distribution of emotionally charged autobiographical memories
One of the most common methods to investigate the relationship between autobiographical remembering and the self is to examine life span distribution of such memories. Numerous studies have observed an increase in the number of memories from one's youth when identity formation is said to occur. Studies have shown that significant external events result in development of a new identity; this identity creates a change in temporal distribution of ABMs. In the present study; temporal distribution, narrative and phenomenological qualities of ABMs were investigated by taking disability perception and period of disability identity formation into consideration. Both visually disabled (VD) and sighted participants were asked to recall most important, happiest and saddest memories from their lives. Disabled participants also completed some additional questions about their disability perceptions. The results have demonstrated that VD and sighted show similar memory distributions for their most important and saddest memories. However, for happiest memories, VD group recalled events from predominantly the age between 20-29; whereas sighteds remembered events from the age 30-39. When the age of disability identity formation was used as starting point of memory distribution, the most important memories of VD participants primarily came from the first decade after the disability identity formation. Additionally, most of the happiest memories were related to the concept of achievement for VD participants; for sighted participants a similar relationship was observed in relationship related memories. Finally, VD participants mostly gave lower visual imagery ratings and higher auditory imagery and belief ratings for each type of memories.
Autobiographical memories of first- and second-generation Balkan immigrants and place attachment to the homeland
In the last century, thousands of Turkish and Albanian people immigrated to Turkey from Balkans due to the political and religious oppression. In this study, we investigated the memories of first-generation immigrants who were born in Balkans and immigrated to Turkey and the second-generation immigrants who were born and raised in Turkey. Paired groups of parents (first generation) and their children (second generation) recollected two self-defining memories about their immigrant identity and completed self/identity measures of homeland attachment, homeland identity and immigrant identity. The second generation additionally reported two vicarious memories from their parents' lives. The narrative coding revealed prominent themes in memories such as assimilation in Balkans, adaptation to and alienation in Turkey, and embracing national/immigrant identity. Furthermore, the second generation reported more generic and integrative memories compared to the first generation and the two groups narrated memories of similar events, yet with relatively diverse themes. Further comparison between the two generations revealed no differences in terms of self/identity measures and memory phenomenology ratings except that the second generation rated their memories higher in positivity and sensory detail compared to the first generation. Moreover, the associations between self/identity measures and memory phenomenology ratings in the second generation implied stronger interrelations between self and memory. Lastly, second generation immigrants reported vicarious memories with either comparable or stronger phenomenology compared to the personal memories.
The relation between visual impairment and the earliest autobiographical memories in young adults
Autobiographical memory is a memory system that consists of personal experiences and personal information about an individual's life. Therefore, it performs the function of self-representation and is directly related to self-understanding. The purpose of this study is to address the effects of a condition that affects identity: blindness. Blindness, as a chronic disease, integrates with the self and can affect different aspects of memories. For example, blindness is associated with reduced visual imagery, one of the main components of autobiographical memory. Therefore, this study focuses on the relationship between visual impairment in adults and features of autobiographical memories. This study investigates the onset of childhood amnesia and the phenomenological features of these autobiographical memories. In this context, the participants were asked about their earliest childhood memories. In addition, the participants were asked about their most important memories and used as a control event. On the other hand, the formation of the cognitive self was found to be associated with two achievements: self-recognition in the mirror and the use of personal pronouns. Visual impairment limits or blocks visual input and modulates language development. Due to this low/lack of experience, so participants' visual or verbal style of processing dominance was measured. When we consider these three interrelated concepts (blindness, self, and autobiographical memory) together, it can be argued that low visual experience affects memories through deferred personal development.
Role of cognitive abilities on autobiographical memory performance
How individuals remember their personal past has an impact on daily life functioning since it establishes a context for future actions. However, the cognitive basis underlying autobiographical recollection have been scarcely investigated in empirical designs. Furthermore, literature suffers from the absence of studies regarding how accurately individuals retrieve their original memories and underlying cognitive mechanisms. In this vein, a basic-systems model was proposed, and it asserts that lower-level cognitive systems interact to form autobiographical memories. The current study empirically tested this model and investigated the relative contributions of these basic systems (i.e., explicit memory, search and retrieval, mental imagery, language, emotion, and narrative) to metacognitive judgments (i.e., reliving and belief) and retrieval accuracy of memories. The first experimental session served as an autobiographical experience and participants had predetermined conversations and subsequently performed some cognitive tasks. Following 7 to 15 days, participants recalled the previous session, made metacognitive judgments, and completed the remaining cognitive tasks. Findings suggested that narrative coherence was the strongest predictor of how intensely one relived the original memory, and it was followed by explicit memory and then, search and retrieval. Moreover, belief ratings were solely predicted by explicit memory. Last, retrieval accuracy was explained by a general tendency to reexperience the same emotions with the same intensity. Nonetheless, when considering event characteristics, reminiscing about the previous session independently predicted retrieved correct details above and beyond emotional intensity.
Self-defining memories of change and continuity: The effect of university experience
The present study investigated stability and change in self-concepts in response to a transitional life experience: university experience. Life transitions typically present challenges to the self, in which case individuals use autobiographical reasoning and integration of memories to restore coherence. There is also the tendency to view the self in an improving way (Wilson & Ross, 2003). The phenomenological and narrative characteristics of self-defining memories for changing and stable self-concepts were examined in relation to the change students experienced in transition (psychological and material) and the time passing over the event. To investigate the effect of transitional impact, memories of students from Istanbul and other cities who came to Istanbul to study university were compared. Freshman and junior undergraduates recalled two self-defining memories, one memory representing how they changed after starting university and another one representing how they remained the same after starting university. We found that both change and continuity memories were specific memories. We also found that change memories were more integrative. However, freshmen who experienced less challenge had slightly more integrative memories. Contrary to the expectations, this might indicate that when the challenge is not high, people can complete the meaning making process in shorter time and integrate their memories into self. Additionally, meaning making was related to well-being such that students who retrieved two non-integrative memories had lower life satisfaction compared to students who retrieved at least one integrative memory. Finally, students retrieved relationship/intimacy memories at most for both change and continuity memories. However, they focused more on personal development and achievement memories for change memories while retrieving memories about more stable aspects of self like values.
The relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and autobiographical memory functions
Autobiographical remembering serves three functions: self, social and directive (Bluck, 2003). However, different approaches debate whether emotion regulation (ER) is associated to these three functions or it serves a distinct function of autobiographical memory (Harris, Rasmussen & Berntsen, 2014). In the present study, we asked undergraduate students to recall three negative ABMs in which they employ one of brooding, cognitive reappraisal (CR) and thought suppression (TS) strategies and we compared the nature of ABMs retrieved for each ER strategy. Results showed that young adults prefer to employ all three ER strategies for their negative ABMs mostly in relationship content. In addition, brooding memories were higher in sensory detail and emotional intensity than memories for which CR was employed. Furthermore, CR-employed ABMs were more positive in emotional valence than ABMs in other ER strategy conditions. Regarding ABM functions, retrieving ER-employed ABMs have the purpose of problem solving which is similar to directive function.
Changes in psychological well-being after disclosing negative autobiographical memories
Emotional disclosure of negative experiences has long been associated with improvement in physical and psychological health (Pennebaker, 1997). The present study has three main goals: First, to test whether disclosure of previously undisclosed autobiographical memories (AMs) is more beneficial than disclosed memories. Second, to find whether disclosing shame and guilt memories differs in terms of health consequences. Third, to determine the predictors of well-being. To achieve these goals, participants were randomly assigned to three groups: undisclosed shame, guilt or disclosed negative memory, and attended three writing sessions. Well-being measures were collected before, immediately after writing and one month after the writing sessions. Results revealed that, contrary to our hypotheses, immediate psychological and physical symptoms decreased through writing sessions. However, in long term psychological and physical health deteriorated. Shame and guilt memories did not show any difference, but undisclosed memory groups were affected more negatively by emotional disclosure than disclosed memory group. Finally, negative affect and resolution were found to be significant predictors of well-being. Overall, the present study failed to replicate previous studies with shame and guilt memories. Moreover, the reverse effect demonstrated that benefits of emotional disclosure might be more restricted to certain types of memories and health outcomes.