Methodological Aspects in the Study of Autobiographical Memory

Although the last three decades have seen an increased use of objective assessments of autobiographical memory, contemporary memory researchers agree that self-report instruments remain a fundamental method for investigating autobiographical memory phenomena. The present article focuses on two specific types of self-report instruments used in the field of autobiographical memory psychology: narrative tasks and questionnaires. The author carefully retraces the development of these instruments throughout the history of scientific psychology, paying particular attention to those most commonly used in contemporary cognitive psychology research. Finally, the findings of a recent methodological study investigating the relationship between narrative and questionnaire assessments of autobiographical memory are presented and critically discussed.