Read the given story and classify it as 'imagined', 'recalled', or 'retold'. If a story is imagined, the person who wrote the story is making it up, pretending they experienced it. If a story is recalled, the person who wrote the story really experienced it and is recalling it from memory. If a story is retold, it is a real memory like the 'recalled' stories, but written down much later after previously writing a 'recalled' story about the same events. So, recalled stories and retold stories will be fairly similar, in that they both were real experiences for the writer. Imagined stories have a more linear flow and contain more commonsense knowledge, whereas recalled stories are less connected and contain more specific concrete events. Additionally, higher levels of self reference are found in imagined stories. Between recalled and retold stories, retold stories flow significantly more linearly than recalled stories, and retold stories are significantly higher in scores for cognitive processes and positive tone.

Last week, I was walking down the street and I saw a man that I usually see on my way to work. Today I noticed that he was crying and looking very down. Usually I just walked past him but today I felt like I needed to talk to him. I could feel that he was going through something terrible and needed some help. I slowed down, and I stood next to him and looked at him for a moment. Finally, I mustered up the courage to ask him what was going on. He told me that he and found out that he was ill and would not have long to live. He said that he had always felt like he could manage his life the way it was. He said that after he found out this news he felt that his life was worthless. He told me that he had not wanted to eat for days and that it was hard for him to eat anyway. Due to the fact that he had very little money and very little support it was hard for him to muster up the strength to fend for himself. I sat down next to him and spoke with him for a while about what he was going through and offered to buy him something to eat. He accepted, and told me that I was the only one who had stopped and talked to him in months. He told me that it was a very helpful and that he would try and pick himself up from here on out. I felt so grateful that I had made such a big impact on him. It made me feel like I wanted to do more to help people around me. Not only was I able to uplift his spirits but my own as well.
recalled