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Cited by 53Innovative Human-Technology InteractionNostalgia and Consumer BehaviorInteractive and Immersive Displays

Things That Make Us Reminisce: Everyday Memory Cues as Opportunities for Interaction Design

Open access
van Gennip, Doménique, van den Hoven, Elise, Markopoulos, Panos·2015·Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
DOI 10.1145/2702123.2702460
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Abstract

Interactive devices can support personal remembering to benefit well-being. These designs require insight into what brings the past to mind, and how people relate to such cues. Prior work focused on mementos in the home; instead, this paper presents a diary and interview study of involuntary memory cueing in everyday life. Data was collected from fifteen adult individuals, using sentence completion diaries, combined with debriefing interviews. Qualitative analysis of the data showed that these participants were relying on everyday physical objects like food items for cueing memories during everyday life, locations and (repeated) activities, while digital items and photos were shown to be less frequent stimulants. Meaningful relations to memory cues can be partially explained from a memory cueing perspective. We discuss how design for remembering can benefit from our insights, through careful trade-offs in timing, exposure to cues, and supporting a process of personal attachment with items invoking memories.

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  • Individuals engage in reminiscing when browsing through their social media profiles and the photos stored on their smartphones.

    “It has been observed that individuals engage in reminiscing when browsing through their social media profiles and the photos stored on their smartphones (Cosley et al., 2012;van Gennip et al., 2015).”

    From Understanding Autobiographical Memory in the Digital Age: The AMEDIA-Model (2024) · cites this paper as van Gennip et al., 2015

    The Discussion reports that most social-media users recalled instances of reminiscing prompted by social media. It also says several participants enjoyed browsing photos on their phones, but this produced no diary entries documenting reminiscing; the authors suggest it may have been a voluntary activity. The Digital versus physical cues section describes encounters with social-media posts, not specifically browsing one's own profile. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 23

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Authors
van Gennip, D., van den Hoven, E., & Markopoulos, P.
Affiliations
  • University of Technology, Sydney & Eindhoven University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  • University of Technology Sydney & Eindhoven University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  • Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
ORCID
Markopoulos, Panos
Venue
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2015-04-18
Pages
3443-3452
DOI
10.1145/2702123.2702460
OpenAlex
W2094630547
Cited by
53
References
4
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
FWCI
3.71
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy#Background (vor)
Locations
  • CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
  • TU/e Research Portal (publishedVersion)
  • UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) (submittedVersion)
  • TU/e Research Portal (submittedVersion)
Funders
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (016.128.303)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Interactive and Immersive Displays
Keywords
involuntary memory, memory cues, everyday objects, food items, location, activity, photographs, attachment to objects, well-being

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