The memory metaphors held by ordinary people: an exploratory study

Metaphors are widely used by researchers to communicate ideas in cognitive psychology. This is the first study to systematically explore the naïve psychology of human memory metaphors. We attained this goal by surveying a large sample of the adult population resident in Northern and Central Italy (N = 846). Participants were administered four self-report questionnaires assessing their favourite memory metaphor, memory beliefs, autobiographical memory experience, and metamemory. Overall, the memory metaphors most endorsed by our sample were store, camera, computer, and map. Personal motives underlying these choices significantly varied across the metaphors. Multinomial logistic regressions showed that the choice of store, camera, and map was significantly influenced by a series of sociodemographic and psychological variables (e.g., age, education, satisfaction with one’s memory), which varied depending on the chosen metaphor. We argue that some metaphors, better than others, are able to reflect the characteristics and functions that ordinary people attribute, implicitly or explicitly, to human memory. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.