Eight memory researchers investigating their own autobiographical memory

The present article provides a descriptive review of the studies conducted by eight memory researchers who empirically investigated their own autobiographical memory. They are Francis Galton, Madorah Smith, Marigold Linton, Willem Wagenaar, Steen Larsen, Dorthe Berntsen, Alan Baddeley and Richard White. These authors assessed their ability to remember their personal past by means of a range of experimental procedures and materials including personal diaries, letters, cued and free recall tasks. The methods implemented so far allowed memory researchers to obtain relevant findings on a number of issues which are at the heart of the contemporary autobiographical memory debate, that is, forgetting, memory accuracy, phenomenology, memory content and memory organisation. The findings of the individual studies are compared and contrasted with those of conventional autobiographical memory functioning. It is argued that the strengths of the memory researchers' self-studies of autobiographical memory outweigh their weaknesses.