Аннотация:Typically, scholars assess autobiographical memory by examining unrelated memories that people report in response to cue-words or by the interview method. Alternatively, in a lifeline task participants get a standard sheet of paper with a horizontal arrow line printed across, accompanying by the following instruction: “Consider this paper as representing your past / future / life of a typical person, locate the most important events with respect to the timeline, give brief titles, put the age when each event happened / will happen, and indicate the valence and intensity of the emotions associated with each event by the distance from the arrow to the top (positive) or to the bottom (negative)”. This method provides a holistic perspective on the personal past and future, allowing the visualization of the entire structure of autobiographical memory. When people draw a picture of their past and future they get a chance to express graphically more than it is possible to do through a verbal report, e.g. to structure a temporal sequence of memories and future prospects, to convey relative intensity of emotions, and to control occasional associations. This symposium provides an overview of the empirical findings, which were obtained by the lifeline drawing methodology.