Eight memory researchers grappling with the study of their own autobiographical memory

This contribution aims to offer a critical review of the studies conducted by eight eminent memory scholars who empirically investigated the functioning of their own autobiographical memory: Francis Galton (1822-1911), Madorah Smith (1887-1965), Alan Baddeley (1934-), Richard White (1935-), Marigold Linton (1936-), Willem Wagenaar (1941-2011), Steen Larsen (1944-1999) and Dorthe Berntsen (1962-). Taken together, these eight scholars assessed the ability to recall their personal past by means of a wide range of procedures including cued recall tasks, which are commonly used in laboratory studies of autobiographical memory, and free recall tasks and personal diaries, which are commonly used in naturalistic studies of the same topic. In the course of the conference presentation it has been emphasized how the rigor and temporal duration of the self-studies targeted by the present work have made it possible to obtain relevant, and probably unique, knowledge on some of the main topics animating the contemporary debate on autobiographical memory; these include forgetting, accuracy and phenomenology of personal memories, memory organisation and memory contents. Finally, the limitations, strengths, and future research directions of self-studies of autobiographical memory are discussed.