MEMORY FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF MENTAL IMAGES - ROLE OF CONTEXTUAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL VARIABLES

A set of three experiments analyzed the possibility of distinguishing between different kinds of mental images and their effects in improving memory performance. Single vs contextualized images, impersonal vs autobiographic, autobiographic vs episodic-autobiographic images were compared on recall, generation times, vividness and goodness rates. Results showed that the relational processes offered by contextualized images give better performance than single images, also when they are well-detailed ones (specific images). The longest evocation times and the highest goodness and vividness judgements of episodic-autobiographic images showed the peculiarity of these kind of images that were also better recalled than contextual ones.