Memories elicited by one's imagined death: Effects of the nature of emotional cues on autobiographical remembering

Abundance of research showed that cues that are used to elicit memories affect characteristics of the memories recalled, such as valence, vividness of imagery, link to self, and importance. The present study addresses a specific type of cue: imagining one's death vs. the most important memory. Undergraduate students and adults were given tow cues, one asking about their most important memory and the other asking for the single memory they would take with them to the "other side" (Cyr & Hirst, 2019). After recalling each memory participants filled out the Memory Experiences Questionnaire (Luchetti & Sutin, 2015), Centrality of Events Scale (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006) and were asked to date the memory. Each memory was coded for specificity and integration (Blagov & Singer), and event content (Thorne & McLean). There was no effect of cue-type or age on word length, specificity, and meaning making involved in the narratives. However, there was an effect of age on vividness such that middle aged adults rated their memories more vividly than younger adults. This main effect was qualified by an interaction; older adults death memories were rated more vividly than the important memories, however there was no age difference for important memories.