The subjective experience and objective content of mental time travel

Reed, Lucie 2023. The subjective experience and objective content of mental time travel. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Mental time travel is characterised by two abilities: autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. Autobiographical memory is the ability to remember one’s past (Tulving, 1972) and episodic future thinking is the capacity to imagine one’s future (Atance & O’Neill, 2001). Both forms of mental time travel are accompanied by subjective experience. To understand these idiosyncrasies, ‘subjective’ or self-report measures are often adopted. ‘Objective’ measures, which allow the experimenter to score autobiographical events, are also commonplace. Yet many studies examine either one type of measurement or temporality of mental time travel. This thesis explores the subjective experience and objective content of autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. All studies adopted a cue word paradigm (Crovitz & Schiffman, 1974) to prompt discussion of autobiographical memories and imagined future events in healthy adults. The Autobiographical Interview scoring system (Levine et al., 2002) was used to objectively score the episodic content of these events. All studies employed phenomenological ratings to assess the participants’ subjective experience of these episodes. One study used a trait-based questionnaire to explore broader subjective experiences. Chapter 2 examined the relationship between subjective ratings and objective content, demonstrating correspondence between these measures in both temporalities. Chapter 3 found that both subjective ratings and objective content were relatively stable across past and future events, presenting compelling evidence that mental time travel is a trait. Chapter 4 evidenced a positive relationship between positive schizotypy and both event-based and trait-based subjective measures. Yet no relationships were observed with the objective measure. The results from this thesis provide novel insights into: i) the constructs of mental time travel different measures are assessing, ii) similarities and differences between autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking, iii) the importance of mental imagery for remembering and imagining, and iv) the value of trial-level analyses for mental time travel research.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 March 2024
Last Modified:	11 Mar 2024 09:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/167058

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