Generation and retrieval of general, specific and autobiographic images representing concrete nouns☆

Abstract The present research studies the distinction between general vs. specific vs. autobiographic images, concerning the specificity of image contents (single in autobiographic images, referring to many or all examples in general images), and the nature of the long-term memory information used for generating images. Four experiments confirmed the introspective evidence of this distinction. Subjects did not encounter difficulties in classifying evoked images into general vs. specific vs. autobiographic (experiment 1), nor in evoking these kinds of images upon request (experiments 2, 3, 4). Furthermore, the results of experiment 1 showed that, when generic instructions to form images were given, general images were the most common. Differences between kinds of images were found in the times necessary to evoke and study them (experiment 3) and reactivate them (experiment 2), since times were subject to a significant increase when passing from general to specific and autobiographic images. Specific images were rated as the most vivid, autobiographic images were the best recalled.