Phenomenal characteristics of memories of daily actions in checking-prone individuals

peer reviewedThe purpose of this study was to investigate memories of daily actions in checking-prone participants. A sample of 419 non-clinical participants completed a questionnaire evaluating Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and a questionnaire evaluating sensory details, emotions, vividness, confidence and memory perspective of seven everyday actions such as 'brushing one's teeth'. The main results indicated that checking was related to low levels of visual, kinaesthetic and spatial details in memories for actions, more negative emotions and anxiety when performing actions and low confidence in memory quality. In addition, checking-prone individuals more frequently reported their memories from the perspective of an external observer than non-checking-prone individuals. In general, these results seem to indicate that checking is associated with impersonal memories for everyday actions, as well as low confidence in these memories. The role of anxiety is also evoked, as it was significantly related to poor memory characteristics. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd