Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Sami Gülgöz
14 theses · Koç University
Seeing with the mind's eye: how the scene changes with cognitive avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties
Autobiographical memory (AM) has certain qualities that change depending on mood, cognitive capacity, age, and organic brain function. One of those qualities, episodic detail, is studied extensively in the aging literature and in relation to different types of medial-temporal lobe distortions. On the other hand, AM specificity is highly investigated in mood and anxiety disorders. Additionally, phenomenological qualities of AM, such as vividness and vantage point, are influenced by neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although traditionally studied separately, these qualities seem to be regulated by the same underlying mechanisms which are similarly affected in both functional distorsions that accompany affective problems and structural damages that occur as a result of neurological disorders or healthy aging. The clinical science literature focuses on avoidance of negative affect as a mechanism affecting changes in memory characteristics, however, the transdiagnostic changes might be better explained by a core dysfunction that is observed in psychiatric problems more broadly. This study aimed to investigate difficulties with negative emotion regulation and avoidance in relation to AM characteristics. Data collected from 96 undergraduate students revealed that emotion regulation difficulties predicted increase in emotional details in both positive and negative memories. However, avoidance was not related to a shift in vantage point, number of episodic details or memory specificity during the recall of personal memories. These findings provide new insights into how subclinical levels of cognitive and affective processes are related to the experience of autobiographical remembering.
Bilinguals' logical inference-making and language tagging
Inference-making is a critical process in understanding and processing information daily. People synthesize inputs into a whole and retain the whole (gist) instead of specific parts (verbatim). False recognition of inferred information offers evidence for it. We conducted two studies to examine whether memory errors occur similarly when bilinguals are tested concurrently on two languages, and whether bilinguals remember the language in which the information is received (language tag). In two experiments, we tested Turkish-English bilingual students with Turkish, English, and dual-language sentence groups, which induced spatial inferences about objects. In Experiment 1, we found inferences were falsely recognized in Turkish and English conditions, but not in dual-language. We found no effect of individual cognitive differences. In Experiment 2, we found that false recognition of inferred sentences was predicted more by lower EF and higher L2. In both experiments, tag identification was overall accurate and partially predicted by higher cognitive functions. We conclude that inferring in L2 induces memory errors, and inferences are tagged with the language of encoding.
The predictive function of autobiographical memory
Memory is a cornerstone of human cognition, allowing us to navigate the complexities of life by drawing upon past experiences to inform present decisions and anticipate future events. While the traditional view of memory has predominantly focused on its role in recollecting past events, recent research has increasingly highlighted its potential for future-oriented functions. This thesis seeks to expand our understanding of autobiographical memory functions, with a particular emphasis on the predictive function, which involves using past experiences to anticipate and prepare for future events. The foundation of this thesis lies in the tripartite model of autobiographical memory functions proposed by Bluck (2003), which identifies three main functions: self, social, and directive. While these functions provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the role of memory in shaping identity, relationships, and behavior, they have traditionally overlooked the predictive aspect of memory. By introducing the predictive function as a distinct component of autobiographical memory, this thesis aims to address this gap in the literature and explore its implications for human cognition and behavior. Chapter 2 focuses on establishing the validity of the predictive function through exploratory factor analyses. Drawing on data from both Turkish and American samples, the study identifies a distinct factor representing the predictive function within the autobiographical memory framework. Despite challenges in measurement, such as poor model fits in structural equation modeling, the findings provide preliminary evidence for the existence of the predictive function and underscore its importance in shaping memory processes. Subsequent studies in Chapter 3, 4, and 5 delve deeper into the characteristics of memories serving different functions and the interplay between past experiences and future simulations. These studies reveal that memories serving the predictive function exhibit unique features, including a positive valence and a focus on recent events. Moreover, they highlight the intertwined nature of predictive and directive functions, suggesting that memory-based predictions play a crucial role in guiding future behavior. The findings of this thesis have significant implications for our understanding of human cognition and behavior. By recognizing the predictive function as an integral aspect of autobiographical memory, we gain insights into how individuals use past experiences to anticipate and prepare for future events. This not only enhances our understanding of memory processes but also has practical implications for fields such as education, therapy, and decision-making. In conclusion, this thesis provides a novel perspective on autobiographical memory functions by introducing and exploring the predictive function. While further research is needed to validate and expand upon these initial findings, the insights gained from this thesis contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of memory and its role in shaping human cognition and behavior.
Closure in autobiographical memories: Involuntary recall and spontaneous future thinking related to open life experiences
Emotional closure is a subjective feeling of resolution and completion associated to the past experiences. Personal events on which an individual does not have closure are called open autobiographical memories, so these memories are still incomplete and arouse more intense negative feelings than closed events (Crawley, 2010). The autobiographical memory literature surprisingly neglected this line of research, with only a few studies explicitly investigating open memories. This thesis extensively examines open and closed memories and compares their phenomenological experience and other memory characteristics. Additionally, this thesis aimed to explore future closure possibility as a separate feature of open memories, building a link between past and future events in relation to feelings of openness. More specifically, this thesis aimed to demonstrate involuntary thinking frequency and phenomenological properties of open and closed memories for the first time in the literature. Chapter 2 introduces a novel scale measuring the need for emotional closure over past events as a personality tendency. This study provided the literature a valid and usable Turkish scale and an English version with an adequate model fit. Moreover, a strong correlational relationship between need for emotional closure and rumination was reported that might inspire future studies to examine its association with certain clinical disorders. Throughout the studies in this thesis, this scale was repeatedly used to determine its link with open memory recall. Chapter 3 introduced closure potential and demonstrated the key differences between different types of open memories, revealing that open memories without closure potential evoke more feelings of regret and more negative valence upon involuntary recall than open memories with such potential. Chapter 4 delved into future thinking related to open experiences, namely future resolution events through which people can have closure over open events in the future. In line with the theories of spontaneous thinking of past and future events, frequent spontaneous thinking of open past experiences and future resolution events was reported. This study illustrated substantial similarities between these past and future events. Differently from previous studies, the last study experimentally manipulated event closure and closure possibility on a controlled setting by creating artificial laboratory events and measured their involuntary retrieval in the laboratory. In addition to replicating past findings on differences between open and closed memories, these studies provide critical implications for autobiographical memory theories. This thesis theoretically and methodologically contributes to the memory literature through significant findings in memory phenomenology and spontaneous thinking, a novel scale, and complex manipulation techniques. Introducing a novel perspective with a solid theoretical background, this thesis generates a pioneering line of research for cognitive, experimental, and clinical psychology.
Involuntary mental time travel occurrences: Differences between self-caught and probe-caught paradigms
Involuntary mental time travel refers to the spontaneous reliving of past events or the envisioning of future scenarios without conscious effort. We explored the phenomenological characteristics, temporal directions, and contents of self-caught and probe-caught spontaneous thoughts, with a focus on involuntary mental time travel. Self-caught and probe-caught paradigms differ in the level of meta-awareness they demand, which may affect the nature of the captured thoughts. Additionally, we investigated the influence of attentional load on these characteristics and examined the association between involuntary mental time travel and participants' Beck Depression Inventory scores. Participants engaged in self-caught and probe-caught paradigms to report their spontaneous thoughts while performing a vigilance task under high or low attentional load. Results indicated self-caught thoughts to be significantly more self-relevant compared to probe-caught thoughts, highlighting the role of meta-awareness in reported thoughts. Contrary to expectations, attentional load did not influence the phenomenological qualities of thoughts. Additionally, no significant correlations were found between Beck Depression Inventory scores and thought characteristics, potentially due to limited variance in depressive symptoms within our sample. These findings contribute to the understanding of how different methodologies capture the contents of spontaneous thoughts.
The influence of event type and frequency on episodic details and gesture production
In this study, we investigated episodic details and gesture use when people talk about past and future events that were experienced a single time or repeatedly. Furthermore, we investigated whether individual differences in visual imagery affected episodic details, gesture use, and phenomenological ratings of events. Earlier research showed that past events were narrated with more episodic details and received higher phenomenological ratings compared to future events. Moreover, episodic details and gesture use were associated in past event conditions. On the other hand, people produced more details about events in single-time events and rated those events as more vivid than repeated events. Lastly, visual imagery ability is associated with details and phenomenological ratings. Therefore, we asked how episodic details and gesture use change in different event types and frequencies. Participants produced more internal episodic details and non-representational gestures in past events compared to future events. They produced more external episodic details in single-time conditions compared to repeated event conditions. Our participants used significantly more gestures in past and single-time conditions. Those results were in line with earlier findings, showing the role of episodic details and gesture use in different event types and event frequencies, and contributed to a growing body of knowledge in this young area of research.
Otobiyografik belleğin ortaya çıkışı ve gelişimsel süreci
The Emergence and Developmental Progress of Autobiographical Memory-Jale KazezABSTRACTThe present study mainly tries to confirm the predicted developmental progress forautobiographical memory. The predicted developmental progress of autobiographical memoryis expected to involve seven levels and each level necessitates the completion of the precedinglevel. In order for autobiographical memory to emerge, an individual has to reach to the fifth,sixth and seventh levels. However, there have been inconsistencies about the fact that the firstfour levels have to be completed in order to pass to fifth, sixth and seventh level. Therefore,the present study tries to find out if it is possible to develop autobiographical memory withoutthe completion of first four levels. The sample of the present study comprised of 120 children,between 2 and 6 years old. The children were visited at their homes twice with a 4-weekinterval. In the first visit, the child met and played a game with the researcher and received agift from the researcher. 4 weeks later, in the second visit, the child was required to recall theresearcher and gift. The child was also asked to recall the game that he played with theresearcher and also to behaviorally enact it. Since narrative structure development also hasbeen stated to influence the emergence of autobiographical memory, the levels of children?snarrative structure development were also investigated for this purpose. In the second visit,the researcher also asked the children two questions about one of their past doctor visits andbirthdays. Results of the study have confirmed that autobiographical memory developmentfollows the predicted developmental progress.Keywords: Autobiographical Memory, Developmental Progress of Memory, NarrativeStructure, Recall, Recognition
İşin farklı yönlerinden duyulan tatmin ile işi bırakma eğilimi arasındaki ilişki: Kişiliğin, işin farklı yönlerine verilen önem üzerinden dolaylı etkisi
The present study investigates the relationship between satisfaction with different facets of thejob and the intention to quit from an individual differences perspective. The aim of the studyis to understand (a) whether the importance attributed to the facet is influenced by thepersonality of the individual, and (b) whether the importance attributed to the facet moderatesthe relationship between facet satisfaction and the intention to quit. A total of 140 whitecollar employees with different positions, including sales, marketing, research anddevelopment, production, human resources, and accounting from 36 different organizationsparticipated in this research. Results revealed that Neuroticism explained significant variancein perceived importance of supervision, fringe benefits, coworkers, nature of work andcommunication. Agreeableness explained significant variance in perceived importance ofsupervision, and it had a positive correlation with perceived importance of fringe benefits.Conscientiousness explained significant variance in perceived importance of operatingprocedures and it had a positive correlation with perceived importance of communication,Openness explained significant variance in perceived importance of communication and had apositive correlation with perceived importance of nature of work, and Extraversion explainedsignificant variance in perceived importance of communication. It was also found that onlyperceived importance of communication had a moderated effect on the relationship betweensatisfaction with communication and intention to quit. However, this result was in theopposite direction of the hypothesis.Keywords: Facet Satisfaction, Intention to quit, Personality, Perceived Facet Importance
Benlik tanımlayıcı anılar: Özellikleri, benlik ve hedeflerle ilişkileri
The aim of this study was to investigate the existence and the characteristics of self-defining memories, as well as their link with goals and with self. In this study, participants reported self-defining, non self-defining, affective and persistent, non affective and non persistent memories and they rated these memories first in terms of their phenomenological characteristics, second in terms of their relevance to participants? own goals, third in terms of their relevance to participants? self-concept. The results supported the claim that self-defining memories are vivid, affectively intense, repetitively recalled autobiographical memories which are linked to other similar memories and related to individuals? current issues and concerns. These memories were also found to be more relevant to one?s self-concept and current goals than non self-defining memories. Besides, several memory characteristics were found to predict self-definition: the extent to which an autobiographical memory is important, the extent to which this memory is constructed in relation with other similar memories, first person perspective and visual imagery. This is the first study which compares self-defining memories to non self-defining memories and which is based on self-reports in investigating the link between self-defining memories and self-concept.
Otobiyografik bellek süreçleri
The purpose of the current dissertation was to examine effects of highly scripted frequent life events on lifespan autobiographical remembering in addition to investigate how life events become typical and scripted further affecting memory for repeated events. For that aim, three individual studies were conducted. The first one applied a novel manipulation by instructing the participant to exclude the most frequently reported life events in their reports. This novel manipulation resulted in the disappearance of the regularly observed reminiscence bump in the lifespan distribution of autobiographical memories. Suppression of typical life events also weakened the bump in the life script distribution. Thus, it was argued that characteristics of typical life events themselves may have a role in the emergence of the reminiscence bump by corresponding to that particular period of life as a result of certain biological and social constraints. The second study, questioned the possibility of inhibition in the results of the first study. More specifically, the disappearance of the bump might have resulted from an overall inhibition of the life events from the bump period as the events to be excluded were mainly coming from that period. Different from the first study, no manipulation was applied. Rather, exactly the same list of events was removed after the data collection. Once more, the robust reminiscence bump disappeared in the distribution of life scripts and autobiographical memories. Thus, the second study supported and extended the findings of the first study by showing that they were not an artifact of inhibitory processes. Finally, the third study examined memory for repeated event in a special sample with two different event types with different repetition rates. Dancers reported memories of competitions and shows and further rated their report with respect to several event qualities (e.g., importance, emotional valence). Results displayed that with repetition competitions and shows became as ordinary as watching a movie for dancers as they were similar in all event qualities at the time of retrieval. Furthermore, events remembered first were rated higher in all event qualities than the ones reported third. Likewise, event qualities displayed a steady decline with the passage of time between encoding and retrieval. The mechanisms underlying the retrieval of particular instances among several repeated instances were discussed based on the relevant theoretical approaches. Overall, the present dissertation contributed to autobiographical memory research by showing the impact of characteristics of typical life events on the emergence of the reminiscence bump and exploring the possible mechanisms active during retrieval of recurring events.
Pişmanlık ve memnuniyet uyandıran olaylara dair karşılaştırmalı otobiyografik bellek süreçleri
The role of positive and negative emotions on autobiographical memory processes has been widely investigated. However, literature on memories of events which are later regretted is very limited. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate autobiographical memory characteristics for regret-evoking events in comparison with contentment-evoking events which have not been studied before. Data were collected from 71 participants via interview and online survey to investigate the effects of the shared characteristics of regret and contentment events - feeling of responsibility over a life decision - on memory processes by comparing those events with other negative and positive memories, respectively. The role of the regret and contentment-evoking memories being action or inaction events, or open or closed events were addressed in terms of memory phenomenology and temporal distribution of memories. The effect of perfectionism and rumination were also examined in relation to memory characteristics of those events. Some of the general results revealed significant difference of memory age between regret-evoking and negative, and contentment-evoking and positive events, which supported the distinction between cognitively driven emotions – regret and contentment - and other emotions. Contentment memories were found to be more accessible compared to regret memories. However, there were no major effects of individual differences in perfectionism and rumination levels on the relationship between emotions in question and autobiographical remembering. Temporal distribution of action and inaction regrets did not support previous findings that suggested that memories of inaction events were older in age compared to memories of action event. A series of comparisons on the effect of regret and contentment events on memory phenomenology were also discussed.
Empati kaynağı olarak otobiyografik bellek paylaşımı: Suçluluk ve utanç duyguları
The present study explored the effect of autobiographical memory sharing on empathy elicitation using autobiographical memory transcripts of a person who is experiencing emotions of guilt or shame in comparison to the same story narrated without the features that qualify it as an autobiographical event. Empathy levels were assessed while controlling for general empathic tendencies after participants (N = 109) were assigned to one of the three conditions: (1) shared event in the form of autobiographical memory narrative with emotions of guilt or shame, (2) shared event in the form of autobiographical memory narrative without the emotion indicating terms, (3) shared event in the form of descriptive third person narrative. Analyses of covariance showed that participants in the first condition displayed higher empathic response than other conditions, but this difference was more emphasized in males than females. Empathy in males was significantly influenced by emotional autobiographical narratives. Moreover, different dimensions of empathy were compared for the guilt and shame narratives. Empathic concern was significantly higher after reading guilt than shame containing narratives. Correlational analyses demonstrated that similarity of the shared event with the listener's past experiences was positively associated with personal distress in the reader, especially after reading shame narratives. Results are discussed in terms of gender differences and empathy elicitation function of autobiographical memory.
Neden hatırlıyoruz? Değişken koşullarda otobiyografik bellek işlevleri
Three studies in this dissertation focused on the individual differences in autobiographical remembering across different contexts. First, higher-order mechanisms of remembering were characterized and three memory components were proposed, indicating encoding, rehearsal and recollection. Then, individual differences in adult attachment were examined to test whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance was differentially reflected on the components of remembering. The second study examined the rehearsal function to characterize the role of distinct rehearsal patterns (i.e. involuntary and voluntary) in the way failures and achievements are represented over time. Ruminative tendency, as a construct, is very much related to rehearsal, therefore, specific forms of rumination, brooding and reflection, were investigated to characterize their relative influence on the link between rehearsal and memory experience. Results showed that the way each rehearsal function operated was distinguished in relation with ruminative tendencies, pointing out the individual differences in what is functional and how this variation shapes remembering. The third study specifically examined the emotion regulation function of autobiographical memory. After participants were induced negative emotions, they were asked to report any memory to test whether autobiographical remembering operates to down-regulate negative affect with the retrieval of positive memories. Supporting for a counter-regulation mechanism, the more negative individuals were feeling, the more positive memories they recalled subsequently. Overall, the three studies provided complimentary evidence explaining the link between the individual and autobiographical remembering. What is functional may not be identical for every individual and every context, which underlines an idiosyncratic approach especially when studying memory functions.
Otobiyografik bellekte ket vurmaya bağlı bozulma
Interference plays an important role in reorganization of memories. Yet, the direction of this reorganization was left unexplained as well as the factors that lead to interference in autobiographical memory. This study aimed at investigating the types of memories that are more or less susceptible to interference. One hundred and forty-seven participants reported two holiday memories (one recent and one remote), and one accident memory in the first session, and retrieved the same event memories in the second session. In the beginning of the second session, participants were randomly assigned to four different interference conditions. One group had interference that was induced by telling a third holiday memory of theirs. One group was asked to imagine a future holiday. In third group, interference was manipulated by making participants read another person's holiday memory. In the last experimental group, interference was induced by asking participants to read the school memory of another person. The control group did not have any interference condition. Results revealed that the groups did not differ in terms of how they remembered the details, thus our interference manipulations were not successful. Recent memories compared to remote memories were found to be less prone to errors in remembering month, year, and other people in the event details. Also, repeated events (holidays) compared to unique events (accidents) were more prone to errors in remembering year and other people details, but less prone to errors in retrieving month details. Place detail was protected against interference in all types of memories.