The characteristics of memories we would save and memories we would erase

Autobiographical memory contains an incomplete yet dynamic and largely adaptive record of a person’s life experiences. Across three experiments we considered the extent to which people have a desire to intervene in the ordinary processes of remembering and forgetting by asking them how likely they would be to “save” or “erase” a memory of their choosing. We then asked people to rate those memories on functions, emotions, and other characteristics. We found that people do have memories they say they would save or erase if they could. The memories people would save were highly positive memories that served self and belonging functions. Half of these memories were of typical cultural milestones whereas the other half were of more idiosyncratic events. The memories people would erase were highly negative memories that served directive functions. These memories mostly concerned idiosyncratic events. When comparing save and erase memories to people’s most positive and negative memories, we found no difference between save and most positive memories. In contrast, erase memories differed from most negative memories by being more associated with shame and less with social and belonging functions. We discuss our findings in terms of our theoretical understanding of the characteristics of adaptive and maladaptive memories.