We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2009
We see a star in the sky if its light reaches our eyes and if there is no light reflected from the sky around it. We understand a spoken message if we hear a certain set of sound stimuli and if we know the language in which it is spoken. Similarly we remember an event if it has left a trace and if something reminds us of it.
(Tulving, 1974, p. 74)This chapter deals with what may be considered as the most intriguing question in relation to involuntary autobiographical memories, namely, how and why they suddenly come to mind. However, some of the challenges associated with this question are not limited to this class of memories. The theoretical problem of how an unconscious state (i.e., an event stored in memory) may at a certain time attain the quality of consciousness, so that we can subjectively relive and re-experience it, of course also pertains to memories that are recalled voluntarily. Voluntary retrieval is often described as a cyclic process, beginning with a search description that specifies the to-be-remembered information in response to a retrieval request (e.g., where did I put my keys?) and gradually narrows in on a set of alternatives, until we think we have found the right answer (Norman and Bobrow, 1979). One puzzle in relation to involuntary memories is how such circling in can take place without an initial search description and without a goal-directed search process.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
