2.1 Souvenir
2.1.3 Souvenir & Memory
Souvenirs’ function of keeping and evoking memories has been broadly discussed. Littrell [14] conducted interviews to study symbolic significance of textile crafts and identified seven contributions that crafts and the memories associated with them offer to the tourists, including helping consumers participate in nonordinary experiences, sampling indigenous lifestyles, expanding a worldview, differentiating the self from or integrate with others, enhancing feelings of confidence, expressing creativity, and experience aesthetic pleasure.
In Hoven and Eggen’s [4] souvenir study, they conducted a focus group to find out souvenir definition. A total of 49 criteria for an object to be a souvenir were gathered, which were categorized after the focus group session. Three main categories were formed, one of which is memory function, covering nearly half of the criteria. Under the main category are six subcategories including general, emotional, location-based, time-based, event based and social relationships. After the focus group they created a quantitative questionnaire to investigate some issues. The conclusion reveals that when people are asked to watch their most cherished souvenirs, memories popping out are the first things they experience, which occur in almost half of the cases.
In the study conducted by Czickscentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton [7], they investigated the objects which people consider “special” and categorized them separately by physical
characteristics and meaning for cherishing. The percentages of meaning classes making up the objects categories are presented and show that “memories” takes a large proportion.
Memories make people cherish the objects and want to keep them. The “memories”
category consists of four sub-categories: memento (general memories), recollection (memories of occasions), heirloom (inherited object), and souvenir (memories of a place).
Meanwhile, findings from this part of research suggest that almost everything can be a target for people to attach meanings to and derive meanings from. However, the significations conveyed are not decided by the physical characteristics of the objects.
In Pritchard and Morgan’s [8] research, they bring out three purposes that individuals reflexively use souvenirs for by auto-ethnography. One of the purposes is to use souvenirs as touchstones of memory. The touchstones are indicated to have the power of bringing the past into the present and making past experience relive. These objects can not only act as symbols of past experiences but also evoke and animate memories which inform people’s present self. Casey [17] claimed that there is no perception of place without memory and souvenirs are totems that trigger specific memories and experiences of travel places.
Generally, people conceptualize the landscape in terms of visual construct. Moreover, Tilley [18] proposed that in addition to visual aspect, places are also heard, felt and smelt.
These multi-sensual memories, such as fragrances, tastes and sounds, can be evoked by material souvenirs, when the souvenirs act as channels for recollecting travel experiences and transporting people across time and space.
Tangibility of souvenirs is an important point for evoking memories. Souvenirs concretize travel experiences and therefore intangible states are incarnated to tangible objects [11].
Tangible objects have various attributes such as colors, textures, shapes and smells.
According to Miller [19], memories can usually be much more powerfully conveyed through these attributes compared with words. Moreover, Bationo et al. [6] described that physical contact with tangible souvenirs is more important for tourists to tell stories than visual presentations, and this might indicate that when sharing memories with others, people prefer recollecting memories by souvenirs rather than photos.
Souvenirs stride across time and space, and provide a strong link form the present to the past because of the memories attached on them. According to Pritchard and Morgan [8], souvenirs should be seen as objects of transition. Souvenirs can mediate the past and the present, the domestic and public. Transformed into household objects and staying in people’s life, souvenirs hold a power that can temporarily bring people back to the past.
They are objects of thresholds, or prisms of remembrance, detaching people from daily life through the meaning attached on them. Whitmore [20] conducted interviews to study
elders’ cherished possessions. He found souvenirs allow people to see their lives retrospectively, therefore fostering feelings of self-continuity. Objects from the past can play a role of reinforcement of the self in the present, and into the future. Through objects, what is known about one’s past experiences can be witness and contemplated.
2.2 Memory
In this section, memory related theories and research from psychology field are reviewed for gaining a preliminary understanding on “memories” from a perspective of psychology.
2.2.1 Memory Process
According to psychology, no matter what type of memory, for using it later, three operations of memory process are needed, namely encoding, storage and retrieval.
Encoding is the first stage for processing information. External stimulus coming in from different channels such as eyes and ears is transformed into mental representation in this stage. Mental representation can be regarded as mental signs for representing external stimulus. The types include visual code, acoustic code, semantic code or others. During the stage of storage the encoded information is stored in memory system. When needed, the stored information is retrieved [21].
2.2.2 Types of Memory Systems
Psychologists have found that memory system consists of two parts long time ago. Two parts of memory are now named short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory is also called working memory. Information stays shortly in short-term memory for people to use, and therefore coherence of the whole information is maintained.
Long-term memory is known as general memory. Events are stored there for a longer time [22].
Various long-term memory systems have been proposed. According to Tulving, memory is divided to procedural memory and propositional memory. Procedural memory refers to
“knowing how”, involving the techniques such as riding a bicycle or knitting.
Propositional memory refers to “knowing what” and is divided to episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic memory stores information about personal experiences, and semantic memory stores general knowledge, concepts or facts such as historical data.
Tulving claimed that episodic memory stores in units of events. The relation of time
between events is the basis for events to be organized in memory, and also the way for events to be recollected [22][23].
Two other types of long-term memory, more related to recalling, are explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory requires conscious recollecting, needing a trigger such as a question, while implicit memory does not require conscious recollecting, memory simply popping out [23].
The last two types of long-term memory concern the future and the past: prospective memory and retrospective memory. The former is defined as remembering to perform an intended action and it is self-initiated, while the latter is for remembering past events. Both of them can be supported by external memories. For example, a souvenir can be a retrospective memory cue [23].
2.2.3 Memory Cue
A cue, also known as “trigger”, is a stimulus that can help people to retrieve information from long-term memory, but the cue must be related to the to-be-retrieved memory. As long as there is a connection between the cue and the to-be-remembered thing, anything could be a cue, e.g., a color, a sound, odor [24].
Evoking memory by cue is deeply related to encoding specificity principle, which was proposed by Tulving. He assumed that memory of an event consists of information about both to-be-remembered thing and the context. Therefore, if the physical context during retrieval is partly the same as the context during encoding, a memory is easier to retrieve [22][23][24].
People usually use objects as cues for remembering without realizing it. A study on external memory aids was conducted by Neisser [25]. He recruited his students as informants, whom are asked what aids they used to remember future or past events. The informants do not know which types of external memory they use unless they are explicitly asked, such as “do you use diaries for remembering”. Hoven and Eggen [4]
found the consistent results that when it came to functions of their souvenirs, people do not mention “remembering”. However, when they looked at their souvenirs, half of them experienced memories popping up or being relived. Therefore obviously people did use their souvenirs as external memory.
2.2.4 Autobiographical Memory
Over the past years, the autobiographical memory, memory for the events of one’s life [26], has been greatly studied. Autobiographical memory and episodic memory are deeply related to the recollection of personal experiences. The relation between two memory systems is still unknown but they have a large overlap in memories [27].
Conway and Pleydell-Pearce [28] proposed a model which describes three levels of specificity of autobiographical memory. The first one, lifetime periods, consist of temporal knowledge and thematic knowledge about common features of a certain period, which usually lasts for years. The second one, general events, contain both repeated and single events, which last for days up to months. The last one, event-specific knowledge (ESK), concerns detailed information unique to a single event, which lasts for seconds or hours.
ESKs are often accompanied by images popping into mind and can be used as evidence showing that one really remembers.
According to Tulving [29], recall may be accompanied by a “recollective experience”, namely the memory containing feelings, having in mind images, highly specific event knowledge and a sense of “pastness”, and therefore ESKs are included in recollective experience. When a memory is not accompanied by a recollective experience, the recalled information is simply “known” and there are no ESKs present.
-Chapter 3-
Methodology
This research aims to discover how tourists keep memories in objects and how objects evoke memories. Tourists’ behavior, memories evoked by souvenirs and the context for evoking needs to be investigated. The researcher should gain ideas about how and why people get the souvenir; what do they tell from it and the environment or occasion for them to recall the memories attached on the souvenir. The research method “contextual inquiry” [30] [31] is therefore used. Through this research method, researcher can go into the real environment people live in and investigate users’ experience by interview and observation. After acquiring information data, a qualitative method “affinity diagram” [31]
is used for analyzing. All the data can be sorted by a hierarchy for further interpretation and discussions.
3.1 Research Structure
The research plan consists of three main parts: collecting data by contextual inquiry, analyzing with qualitative method and proposing implications for design.
At the beginning, the related researches are studied to acquire a sense for listing critical issues so that the script of contextual inquiry and interview can be planned. Next, the criteria of souvenirs are proposed and the informants are profiled for recruiting. After informants are recruited, a pilot contextual inquiry is arranged to examine and improve the script and also activities in the inquiry. Then the contextual inquiry and interview are conducted. The contents of inquiry are audio-recorded and transferred into transcripts. In the interpretation session, affinity diagram is used to sort the data for discussions. Finally, understanding of tourists’ behavior, the meaning encoded to souvenirs and memories evoked context are formed, and the implications for design are delivered. (See Figure 1)
Figure 1 Research structure
3.2 Contextual Inquiry and Interview
The research method contextual inquiry helps the researcher get into the environment to see how souvenirs exist in people’s daily life. The context and process that memories are evoked can also be observed. Meanwhile, by entering the context, it can be efficiently prevented that informants filter off the information which is actually important to the researcher. In addition to contextual inquiries, interviews are also conducted for collecting information.
3.2.1 Introduction of Contextual Inquiry
According to Beyer and Holtzblatt [30], the definition of contextual inquiry is as follows:
Contextual inquiry is a field data-gathering technique that studies a few carefully selected individuals in depth to arrive at a fuller understanding of the work practice across all customers. Through inquiry and interpretation, it reveals commonalties across a system’s customer base.
Through contextual inquiry, what people really do and how they define what is actually valuable to them can be revealed. This technique is based in anthropology and ethnography. Therefore the basic method of research involves visiting and observing people. By doing so the researcher can figure out people’s behavior and realize how the product can fit into their lives [31].
3.2.2 Contextual Inquiry and Interview Plan
There are two contexts studied in this research. One is the context in which tourists encoded their travel experiences to the souvenirs, and the other is the context in which souvenirs evoked the memories. The former context is mainly learned by interviews and the latter one is primarily studied though contextual inquiry.
Following the main spirit of contextual inquiry, it is important to get information from people’s practicing, which reveals experience. The primary “task” for the informants to conduct in contextual inquiry is “using the souvenir as a trigger to recall the memories and tell stories”. The environment in which souvenirs evokes memories can be observed and the memories popping out can be learned. The information got from this session mainly concerns the latter context mentioned above, in which souvenirs evoked the memories.
Narratives of travel experiences can be partly acquired, while they are usually not enough
for leaning the former context, in which memories are encoded onto the souvenirs.
Interviews are therefore conducted to acquire more complete narratives of travel experiences related to souvenirs. The background and reason of getting the souvenirs can therefore be understood. It also allows the researcher to gain a clearer outline of the travel.
The contextual inquiry and interview were conducted where the souvenirs were placed, mostly home. The informants were told not to prepare for researcher’s visit in advance so that the context of memories being evoked could be observed. Each session lasted for one to two hours, depending on the number of souvenirs. Contents of inquiries and interviews were audio-recorded. Photos of souvenirs and surroundings were taken for analysis.
Before the formal contextual inquiry sessions, a pilot one was conducted. It revealed the importance of entering the field where souvenirs are placed. Moreover, it reminded the researcher to avoid discussing photo at the beginning of the inquiry. Some of the informants would like to share the digital photos when it came to travel experiences, which was the former part of the inquiry. Browsing the photos, more or less, influenced the memories evoked in the latter part.
3.3 Research Questions
The whole inquiry is divided into two main parts: travel experience and souvenirs. When it came to travel experience, most of informants became talkative and willing to share their stories. It is suitable to be arranged in the beginning to warm up the conversation.
Most of the questions are open-ended, allowing the researcher to acquire response with depth and encouraging full, meaningful answers. During the inquiry, the term “object”, rather than “souvenir”, was used to avoid giving the prejudicial impression, “tacky souvenirs” [11], to the informants.
Table 1 Set of questions in the interview and contextual inquiry
Issues Questions Travel
Experience
A. General travel experience - How often do you go traveling?
- Are they self-service trips or group tours arranged by a travel agency?
- What do you want to gain from traveling? Talk about your expectation.
- What is your main concern while choosing the destinations and deciding what to do in the journey?
requesting the informants to show the souvenirs B. The journal that souvenirs was brought from
- Which journey did you bring this object from? (destination)
- When did you go there? For how long?
Who did you go with?
- self-service trip? group tour? visiting friends?
- Talk about the “image of the place” in your mind.
- How did you prepare in advance?
- Generally speaking, is it a pleasant journey?
Souvenirs C. How did souvenirs become memories triggers?
- Please introduce the object.
- What does it remind you?
- How did you get it?
- Why did you keep it? Why did you bring it back?
- What’s special? Talk about what it means to you.
D. How do souvenirs evoke memories?
- How do you store this object? (How did you sort these objects?)
- In what circumstance do you take it out for a look?
In what circumstance does it catch your eyes?
Choosing another souvenir and repeat part B~D
3.4 Recruiting
In this research, recruiting had been an especially critical procedure. The informants should match the profile and also be chosen in a purposive manner to increase variety and breadth. The screening is primarily based on two parts: demographic characteristics and screening interviews.
3.4.1 Demographic Characteristics
The related souvenirs studies [7] [14] [15] [32] give the ideas that younger people are more correspondent with “tourists who attach memories to the souvenirs”. For example, Littrell discussed age issue in her research of textile souvenirs and found that the meaning attached to souvenirs by younger tourists is out of action-oriented travel activities, whereas older consumers think that contemplation and use of beautiful textile crafts is pleasant and confidence building. The results also responded to Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton’s [7] research on the meaning of things, which used “doing” versus
“having” to describe age differences in objects meaning.
According to those researches, the younger group is chosen as the target. However, the differences on souvenirs due to tourists’ gender do not emerge in most of the researches.
Therefore, in this research, the numbers of male and female informants are balanced.
3.4.2 Screening Interview
Screening interviews are conducted to understand one’s travel experience and souvenirs he or she brought from travel. Each interview lasts for 20~30 minutes.
In the part of “travel experience”, for acquiring narratives about souvenirs getting and memories attached experience, people who have travel experience during the past three years were preferred. Meanwhile, for observing souvenirs storage and memories evoked context, the journey is better be more than three months ago. Moreover, this research focuses on overseas travel experiences. In summary, people who went abroad for traveling during the period from 2004 to the beginning of 2007 met the criteria.
In the part of “souvenirs possessed”, people were asked if they have any meaningful or special souvenir brought from travel. The term “meaningful and special souvenir” let people understand what kind of souvenir is the main concern in this research, more easily than “souvenirs keeping memories”. A description of souvenirs written according to the
research issues was used for screening the souvenirs mentioned by people.
Description:
- A specific event, place, moment or experience can be told from the souvenir.
- The tourist took part in the experience for acquiring the souvenir.
- The souvenir was brought back from travel area.
- The souvenir has something to do with the travel area.
- There is a sign or clue to show where the souvenir came from.
- The souvenir is tangible.
- The souvenir is tangible.