A Memory Arrives With a Thought

A smell comes through a kitchen window. A memory arrives with it: an afternoon years ago. Nobody asked for it. A thought comes in right behind the memory and gives it a meaning: that was better than now. KTT counts that thought as a thought, noticed or not, even when it arrives as a lump or a warmth. Research studies the memory and, less directly, what travels with it. The studies read for this article did not test whether the thought or the memory comes first.

The memory comes uninvited

Researchers call these involuntary autobiographical memories: personal memories that arrive with no attempt to recall them. They are frequent. In diary studies, people record two to five a day. When participants only pressed a counter, one study counted about 22 in a day. In one diary study of 700 memories, about 93 percent had an identifiable cue, such as a smell, a place or a sound. They tend to come when attention is loose, during walking, driving or housework. Researchers describe them as mostly positive in healthy people.

The thought rides along

The thought sits next to the memory and rules on it. It says: that was better than now. Or: I should have called. Or: that was when everything changed. No study in this set measured these rulings. What exists is a link between how people describe themselves and what they remember. In a 2001 study of American and Chinese college students, people who described themselves in more self-focused and positive terms gave more specific, self-focused memories.

The same study found a cultural difference. Americans reported lengthy, specific, self-focused, emotionally elaborate earliest memories, and their earliest memory was on average about six months earlier than that of Chinese students. Chinese students gave briefer accounts centered on collective activities, routines and emotionally neutral events, and described themselves more through social roles. The study had 256 students. The authors tie the difference to cultural views of the self.

What is not known

Whether the thought comes before the feeling or after it is not known.

Whether the thought that rules on a memory changes what is remembered is open. The studies read here link self-description to memory content, but they do not show which shapes which.

How often the thoughts that ride along with a memory are kind, harsh, or neutral has not been counted in these studies.

A higher frequency of involuntary memories has been linked, in some studies, to emotional distress. It is an association, and the studies read here do not show which comes first. Memories that return in a way that hurts or will not stop can call for professional care. This article describes thoughts, not treatment.