Browsing by Author "Barzykowski, Krystian"

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Data from SymSPAN and OSPAN Working Memory Capacity Tasks in Online and Laboratory Settings
(Elsevier, 2025) Wereszczynski, Michal; Chwilka, Paulina; Smolka, Ewa; Ilczuk, Ewa; Oner, Sezin; Barzykowski, Krystian
The present dataset comprises the performance of adult participants on two experimental tasks designed to measure working memory capacity: the Symmetry Span (SymSPAN) and Operation Span (OSPAN) tasks. Initially, a large sample of 566 participants completed these tasks online. From this pool, a random subset of individuals representing low, medium, and high levels of working memory capacity were invited to participate in two laboratory sessions. In these sessions, spaced one week apart, participants completed the same tasks again. The dataset includes complete performance data from both tasks, along with demographic information such as participants' age and gender. This relatively large dataset offers valuable opportunities for exploratory research on working memory capacity, including analyses of its relative stability, variations over time and across testing environments, individual differences, and contributions to meta-analyses. (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A Polish Adaptation of the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART): Toward a Reliable and Valid Measure of Individual Differences in Autobiographical Memory
(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2025) Barzykowski, Krystian; Ilczuk, Ewa; Oner, Sezin; Chwilka, Paulina; Wereszczynski, Michal
Although previous research has extensively examined the characteristics of specific autobiographical memories, few tools have been available to assess how individuals recall their personal past in general. To address this gap, we adapted into Polish the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART), a self-report instrument originally designed to capture general autobiographical remembering across seven components: vividness, narrative coherence, reliving, rehearsal, scene construction, visual imagery, and life story relevance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factorial validity of the Polish version, demonstrating adequate psychometric properties. The Polish adaptation also showed expected correlations with another self-report measure of autobiographical memory ability (Survey of Autobiographical Memory, SAM), supporting its convergent validity. Furthermore, both the full and brief versions of ART showed significant associations with scores on the Involuntary Autobiographical Memory Inventory (IAMI). These findings provide robust support for the Polish adaptation of ART as a reliable tool for assessing the subjective qualities of autobiographical memory, with potential applications in research on diverse populations.
Citation - WoS: 11
Citation - Scopus: 11
Spontaneous Past and Future Thinking About the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 14 Countries: Effects of Individual and Country-Level COVID-19 Impact Indicators
(Amer Psychological Assoc, 2022) Cole, Scott N.; Markostamou, Ioanna; Watson, Lynn Ann; Barzykowski, Krystian; Ergen, Irem; Taylor, Andrea; Oner, Sezin
In 2020, the world was amid a global health crisis-the COVID-19 pandemic. Nations had varying levels of morbidity and mortality and adopted different measures to prevent the spread of infection. Effects of the pandemic on spontaneous (rather than voluntary) past and future thoughts remain unexplored. Here, we report data from a multicountry online study examining how both country- and individual-level factors are associated with this core aspect of human cognition. Results showed that national (stringency of measures) and individual (attention to COVID-related information and worry) factors separately and jointly predicted the frequency of people's pandemic-related spontaneous thoughts. Additionally, no typical positivity biases were found, as both past and future spontaneous thoughts had a negative emotional valence. This large-scale multinational study provides novel insights toward better understanding the emergence and qualities of spontaneous past and future thoughts. Findings are discussed in terms of the determinants and functions of spontaneous thought. General Audience Summary The COVID-19 pandemic was a global phenomenon; people in countries across the world experienced the pandemic similarly, but did it affect the way we perceived the past and future? This study reports whether and how people experienced spontaneous thoughts about the past and future of the pandemic-that is, images of the past or future that appear in mind without warning and with little effort (e.g., remembering a recent lockdown or imagining a future announcement)-during the pandemic's first wave. Spontaneous past and future thoughts are important in daily life and can indicate poor mental health when negative in nature. Here, for the first time, we asked people from 14 different countries across four continents to report the frequency and emotional characteristics of their spontaneous past and future pandemic-related thoughts in the first wave of the pandemic. The study showed that the national context (in particular, COVID regulations) predicted the frequency of people's spontaneous thoughts about the pandemic. Emotional aspects of these thoughts were predicted by individual factors such as isolation, worry, attention to COVID-related information, and impact of COVID-19 on everyday life, in addition to national factors. Finally, in contrast to previous research showing a positive bias, which is thought to be beneficial, past and future spontaneous pandemic-related thoughts had a negative emotional tone. This study allowed us to demonstrate that the tendency to experience spontaneous thoughts about an ongoing international event can be predicted by societal context, which may be valuable for examining the social predictors of spontaneous emotional thoughts about the past and future. The study also characterized the negative tone of past and future spontaneous thoughts about the pandemic, and future studies will be needed to examine the longer term consequences of these effects.