Autobiographical and event memory for 9/11: changes across one year

Abstract

We tested Turkish participants' (n = 483) autobiographical and event memory for the events of September 11, 2001 3 days, 6 months, and 1 year after the event. The amount of autobiographical detail participants reported was very high after one year. The accuracy of event memory was moderate at 3 days, and declined sharply by 6 months. The consistency of autobiographical memory was higher than that of event memory at all time lags; however, there was no interaction between time lag and memory type. The data also provided partial support for Pezdek's (2003) conceptualization that the degree of involvement has different effects on event and autobiographical memory. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.