Retrieval of 

Autobiographical Information

Erica Yu and Scott Fricker

FCSM

December 1, 2015

All views expressed in this presentation are those of the 

authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or 

policies of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Checked union/professional registers 

Placed or answered ads 

Looked at ads 

...

The Consumer Expenditure 

Survey

2

Since the first of February, have you or any members of

your household purchased for you or your household or for

someone outside of your household any sofas?

 Organized in sections of similar items

“Home furnishings and related household items”

“Vehicle operating expenses”

“Clothing and clothing expenses”

 The survey is designed for interviewers to 

proceed linearly through the survey in a fixed 

order

 Is this how respondents store and recall from 

memory information about expenses?
 Retrieval is thought to be based on association

 Probability of recall is proportionate to the 

strength of the association

Retrieval of information 

from memory

3
 What happens when personal information 

is relevant?

Retrieval of information 

from memory

4
Participants

 Recruited from Amazon mTurk

 n = 825 Amazon mTurk workers

Excluded n = 79 (9%) based on data 

quality

Age: Mean = 34 years (SD=11.3) 

HH size: Mean = 2.74 people (SD=1.36)

Education: Median = Bachelor’s degree

 Task duration about 10 minutes

 Incentive = $2.20 (effective ~$13/hr)

5
The Task

6

Cue Retrieved 

Expense 1

Retrieved 

Expense 2

Retrieved 

Expense 3

Retrieved 

Expense 4

Retrieved 

Expense 5

Connection Connection Connection Connection Connection

 Each participant is provided a cue to start recall

 Started with one of five retrieval cues, to give us 

a range of retrieval contexts

 Cue assignment varied between groups

 If no more related expenses to report, instructed 

to report whatever comes to mind next
Cooler for 

beverages

Lazy Boy Chair

New HD TV

NFL Direct Ticket

Retrievals driven by 

autobiographical associations

7

Seahawks hoodie

The last item like this I bought was a 

Seahawks hoodie.

[...] I have to order the NFL's direct 

ticket package so I can watch [the 

Seahawks] on tv here in Indiana.

I don't have a cable ready tv, so thinking 

about the direct ticket package made 

me think of buying a tv

Watching tv, especially football made 

me think about relaxing in a new chair

Relaxing in a new lazy boy chair made 

me think about drinking cool beverages.

Shirts
Coding Open-ended Responses

 Two independent coders coded the item 

descriptions and retrieval reasons

Split full data set of participants between 

the two coders; each coded half

20% double coded

Expenditure category overall kappa = 0.894

Reasons overall kappa = 0.633

8
Alignment of Recalled Items 

and Expenditure Category

Mean

Unique Expenditure Categories, Item 1 12.8

Unique Expenditure Categories per Sequence 2.85

Switches Between Expenditure Categories 2.01

Switches Back to Original Expenditure Category 0.17

n = 825

 Participants recalled items from a range of 

expenditure categories other than cued

 Some participants returned to the cued 

expenditure category after switching away

9
Cooler for 

beverages

Lazy Boy Chair

New HD TV

NFL Direct Ticket

Reasons Coding

10

Seahawks hoodie

The last item like this I bought was a 

Seahawks hoodie.

[...] I have to order the NFL's direct ticket 

package so I can watch [the Seahawks] on 

tv here in Indiana.

I don't have a cable ready tv, so thinking 

about the direct ticket package made 

me think of buying a tv

Watching tv, especially football made 

me think about relaxing in a new chair

Relaxing in a new lazy boy chair made 

me think about drinking cool beverages.

Shirts
Reasons Coding

11

The last item like this I bought was a 

Seahawks hoodie.

[...] I have to order the NFL's direct ticket 

package so I can watch [the Seahawks] on 

tv here in Indiana.

I don't have a cable ready tv, so thinking 

about the direct ticket package made 

me think of buying a tv

Watching tv, especially football made 

me think about relaxing in a new chair

Relaxing in a new lazy boy chair made 

me think about drinking cool beverages.

Similarity

Shared Activity

Similarity

Shared Goal

Similarity
Retrieval Strategies

Retrieval Strategy

Similarity

Shared Activity

Shared Goal

Same Shopping Episode

Narrative

Visualization

By or For Same Person

Not Codeable

12
Retrieval Strategies

Retrieval Strategy

Overall

Frequency

Overall

Proportion

Similarity 2499 60.6%

Shared Activity 681 16.5%

Shared Goal 299 7.2%

Same Shopping Episode 258 6.3%

Narrative 151 3.7%

Visualization 91 2.2%

By or For Same Person 75 1.8%

Not Codeable 71 1.7%

13
Retrieval Strategy

Cue = Hospitals

Proportion

Overall

Proportion

Similarity 60.6%

Shared Activity 16.5%

Shared Goal 7.2%

Same Shopping Episode 6.3%

Narrative 3.7%

Visualization 2.2%

By or For Same Person 1.8%

Not Codeable 1.7%

Retrieval Strategies 

Can Be Context-Driven
Retrieval Strategy

Cue = Hospitals

Proportion

Overall

Proportion

Similarity 55.4% 60.6%

Shared Activity 13.1% 16.5%

Shared Goal 11.9% 7.2%

Same Shopping Episode 7.2% 6.3%

Narrative 5.3% 3.7%

Visualization 1.9% 2.2%

By or For Same Person 2.8% 1.8%

Not Codeable 2.4% 1.7%

Retrieval Strategies 

Can Be Context-Driven
Retrieval Strategies 

Can Be Context-Driven

16

Retrieval

Strategy

Expenditure Category 

Most Frequently Used

Expenditure Category 

Least Frequently Used

Shared activity Sports 28.9% Shirts, sweaters,

blouses, or tops

8.5%

Narrative Hospital room or 

hospital services

5.3% Shirts, sweaters, 

blouses, or tops

1.6%

Visualization Room-size rugs or 

other nonpermanent floor 

coverings

5.7% Fitness Centers 0.8%
Retrieval Strategy Burden

17

Retrieval Strategy

Similarity

Shared Activity

Shared Goal

Same Shopping Episode

Narrative

Visualization

By or For Same Person

Not Codeable

Duration of Recall (sec)

0 5 10 15 20 25
Autobiographical Cues to Probe 

Autobiographical Memory

 Retrievals based on goals and activities

Activities and goals connect items in memory 

(Reiser, Black, & Abelson, 1985)

Such cues work best for prompting retrieval from 

memory (Brewer, 1988; Wagenaar, 1986)

 Directing retrieval through “probes” may 

improve recall

Context reinstatement (Fisher & Quigley, 1992)

Memories not activated by one retrieval probe may 

be accessed with another probe (Anderson & 

Pichert, 1978)

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Understanding Retrieval

 Start with a cue

 Identify the relevant set of 

memories

 Search for items that are 

strongly associated with that 

cue

 Choose the items that fit best

 Decide whether satisfactory; 

if not, repeat the process

19

Comprehension Retrieval Judgment Response

Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1981
Contact Information

Erica Yu

Research Psychologist

Office of Survey Methods Research

www.bls.gov/osmr

202-691-7924

yu.erica@bls.gov