Theoretical and applied issues regarding autobiographical belief and recollection

Do you believe that you celebrated your most recent birthday? Probably yes. Do you also believe that you celebrated your first birthday? Probably yes as well. However, do you also vividly recollect both birthday occasions? Probably not. While you may both recollect and believe that you celebrated the recent birthday, your belief that the first event took place is not informed by recollection. This example nicely demonstrates a recent theme in research on remembering. Whereas much previous research has focused on the recollective aspects of autobiographical memory, recent empirical work has emphasised that believing that an event took place plays a central role in remembering the past (Scoboria et al., 2014). The view that a variety of metacognitive appraisals contribute to the experience of remembering is not new. Several theoretical positions examine how the experience of autobiographical remembering is …