Autobiographical phenomenology of memories of fiction

Our PhD student Osman Görkem Çetin  and Prof. Sami Gülgöz from the Department of Psychology published a study in the journal Memory, which aimed to examine the similarities and differences between real-life memories and fictional memories. The researchers collected one real-life memory and one fictional memory (book, movie, or video game) from 291 people and asked them to rate these memories in terms of emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and confidence about the recall. They also asked why they were attracted to fictional stories. The results revealed that there are variations in these aspects across different types of media, absorbtion level can be a good indicator of immersion and escapism correlates with the frequency of engaging with fiction.

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