Larsen and Plunkett’s (1987) participants were given an extremely broad definition of reported events, including public
news reports on radio and television as well as others’ autobiographical stories. In the current study, comparisons focused on
life stories that were shared between individuals who have a close interpersonal connection, either parent–child or
friend-friend. Using these carefully matched pairings, we expected the same phenomenological qualities and functions that
characterize personal memories to be evident in vicarious memories.