1 History in Autobiography Tia G. B. Hansen 1, Norman R. Brown 2, Louise Dilling 1 & Mille Kjær 1 1 Cognitive Psychology Unit, Aalborg University, Denmark 2 Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Canada CROIC symposium, Nordic ISCAR, Klækken, Norway, June 2007

2 Theoretical background  Cognitive tradition  Autobiographical Memory (AM) research  ”Everyday memory”  Neisser: Different memoria  AM = Memory for info related to the person themself  This info comes nested  Inter-event relations i AM preserves some of that, i.e. the organisation of AM  Empirically: what cues what

3 Organisation of AM NB Arbitrary example of AM model, not ours Dating pers. exp: Find event or period with time known I.e. employ associations -useful for research Organisers always personal! (e.g., Shum) -?!? A few periods and events organise the rest FIRSTS, landmarks, … Drawing snatched from a presentation (about smt else) that Conway happened to have on the net

4 Method  2-phased experiment  Phase 1:  18 cue-words  personal specific memory (”when I x”)  Phase 2:  Estimate year and month  Think-aloud protocols   unjustified  personal info only  public/historical info included  (Young samples: pts, age M= )

5 Stimulus material: Mundane words Bag Ball Book Box Bread Coat Dog Pencil Piano Pill Radio River (In DK: Å) Snow Spoon Stone Street Tree Window I broke the window in my room I broke a window in my old room at my parents home, with a knife I had gotten when I was on a tour with Per and his parents, and that was the tour in Norway, Sweden, Finland to see the midnight sun …etc. 1 2

6 In Bosnia-Hz, NO civil war Brown, 2005: ”Living In History effect” Re: Organisers always personal? In Canada, yes = traditionally assumed and found

7 Old Danes study  RQ: LIH-effect for WWII?  36 pts (17 men + 19 women), mean age 80.1  Inclusion criteria:  75+ years  mentally ok (subj)  life-long resident  12+ memories

8 LIH effect in old Danes # of participants = 36 # of protocols = 537 Mean age (yrs) = 80.1 Old Danes (Occupied )

9 Alternative expl: national effect?  E.g., ”Denmark is small and dependent, so Danes do have the world in mind” or ”Danes are not self- absorbed, so Danes have the world in mind”, etc.  No, not a valid explanation. Young Danes show no LIH- effect.

10 Alternative 2: cohort effect?  E.g., ”previous generations were more oriented towards the collective than present post-modern youth”  No, not a valid explanation. The LIH-effect is not found in old Danes generally, only for the war period. Of justified datings % 33.00% Of justified datings & % 1.63%

11 Alternative 3: Happens for all strong public events  No, an unlikely explanation. No LIH-effect of 911 in USA (even New York), and none of suicide bombings etc. in Israel. Terror doesn’t do it.  So, when?  Earthquake-related references in Turkey – but only by quake-locals, not in Ankara  And look at some Old Danes’ protocols…

12 Old Danes examples Cue = coat Pt #10: I once borrowed a coat for a wedding because my own was not neat enough. Err, that has been, err (…). It has been while I was young, it has probably been err. It has been, it has been during the war. In those days it was not that easy to get anything. (No). It has been in err, in err (…) it has been in March, 1945.

13 Old Danes examples Cue = river [Danish: å] Pt#18: And that one, that was, then (…). Tootelooteloo. Let me see that was of course before, it was, it was. During the war we were of course not allowed to assemble, and (…) yes… (…) Res: It’s fine if you think out loud. Pt#18: Yes. I wonder of course, when it was. Let’s see, I was competition rower in, and I was youth rower, and uhm uhm uhm. I left home of couse and was 19 then, and (…) when will I have been 19. I am born in ’25 (…).

14 Old Danes examples Cue = piano Pt#26: A piano. Then we also have to go back in time. (Uhm) The piano down at my uncle’s, where I learned to play Prinsesse Toben [melody] (Yes). And of course it actually was, it was my elder cousins who, who taught me that one (Uhm) at the piano there. And as I told before, it stays in your fingers, in mine, still. [section skipped] But err. Otherwise I have never done much piano playing, not at all (Uhmuhm). All kinds of other things. I am going back (Uhm) to err. The 40ies. Yes it’s actually during the occupation, 41, 42, about there (Uhm) I’ll guess. (Yes) (…) Yes.

15 Theoretical conclusions so far  Differentiate public memoria:  Symbolic public events vs.  Public events that alter the fabric of everyday life (Brown, 2006)  Events which change the fabric of everyday life for a large number of people in a social group, for a prolonged period of time, becomes part of the organisational structure of their autobiographical memory  Symbolic events (e.g., 911) are well remembered and mean something for a large numbe of people in a population, too, but they do not become an organisational factor for personal memories  Fabric-changing events … ?

16 Practical issues?  War and natural disaster, if personally experienced for some time, leave a lasting impact on the organisation of autobiographical memory (remembered self)  Even mundane events from the period are often associatively linked

17 Mundane words, but…?  Most mundane words can cue personal memories  which are associatively linked to the war  Does this have any practical significance?  Theoretical significance within a cultural-historical frame of reference? Bag Ball Book Box Bread Coat Dog Pencil Piano Pill Radio River (In DK: Å) Snow Spoon Stone Street Tree Window

18 Thank you for the attention! And thanks to:  Peter J. Lee  Mirna Krslak  Frederick G. Conrad  Jelena Havelka  John Reddon  Nenad Havelka  Bill Hirst  Ilan Yaniv  Frost Hubbard  Anne Dannow  Stine Høyer  Jane Kjær  Anne Christina Møller

19 yt

20 Bos-Hz DK NY Turkey Young samples

21 Old Danes examples Cue = book Pt#18: A book (yes). It must be ”Gone with the wind”. When it ended I cried because it didn’t go on (yes). I thought that it should have been exactly twice as long (yes). (…) yes I’ll probably have been. That, it has probably been err… let me see now. The war it ended when I was (…) Yes but that, the war it ended in ’41, right? (nnna) no it was, what rubbish. It was in ’41 because then was, I came over there in ’40, ’41, no, there of course I was not, I was 16 years, and I finished school, does that fit, in ’44? And then it has probably been in ’46 such about. No that doesn’t fit. It’s been before that. It has probably been (uhm). The war, it ended in ’45, in May ’45 and (…), but it does not fit because it must have been while I went to trade college, because I also read many books then. And I finished school in ’46 so I was out there. No but it can also have been in… it can have been in, yes ’47 didn’t I say that first?

22 General macrostructure of memory for historical events Brown, N. R. (1990). Organization of public events in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 119(3),

23 And as for (not) being self- absorbed…  evt. protokollen med EM og nævne, det er den eneste danske genganger lbandt de unge  Evt sætte både den danske og den bosniske ind, eller den bosniske på ny slide

24 absorbed 2  anyone remember why Denmark could even enter the finals that year?  We flunked the qualifications. But we got the vacant seat, when a country that did qualify, got otherwise (dis)enganged… (unge bosniere)

25 c amn bump recent Actual drawing snatched from Barry Deveraux who happened to have his lecture slides lying about on the net

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27 Young Danes examples Cue = window Pt #12: Yes, a window, I broke a window at the place where I lived in my old room home at my parents, and got wildly scolded for it (laughter). Err … I then did that with a knife I had gotten (laughter), and that knife that I had gotten, that was the one I got when I was on a tour with – again – Per and his parents, around in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and see the midnight sun, and we were up there seeing the midnight sun after Denmark had won EM [European championship in football]. And that was supposedly, as far as I remember 92, right? Now I really need to remember, that must surely be 92, because otherwise I am not very … very good at football any more. Ok the, 1992.