Testing order effects in autobiographical memory research

This study aimed to test whether changing the administration order of instruments assessing autobiographical memory has an effect on the responses that participants give when filling in these instruments. We employed a between-subjects experimental design involving two groups of undergraduates: participants in the “narrative-first group” (n = 149) recounted an autobiographical event in writing and then completed questionnaires assessing memory phenomenology and event centrality; participants in the “questionnaire-first group” (n = 152) carried out the same tasks but in reverse order. Results showed no significant group differences in autobiographical memory measures derived from questionnaires or in narrative organisation. However, compared with participants in the narrative-first group, participants in the questionnaire-first group formulated longer narratives with a greater number of memory details, while producing a lower percentage of words indicating affective processes. Implications of our findings, study limitations, and future research directions are discussed.