1. Remembering the Personal Past
Seminar Week 6
Remembering the Personal Past
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2. Autobiographical Memory Overview
Memory for a specific life experience
Autobiographical Fact
General (context-free) knowledge about oneself and one’s personal history
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3. Autobiographical Memory Autobiographical Retention Function
Lifespan recall of autobiographical memories reveals a consistent pattern
Features:
Forgetting curve
Reminiscence Bump
Childhood Amnesia
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4. Question What is your first memory? Hold were you in this memory?
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5. Autobiographical Retention Function Childhood Amnesia
Childhood amnesia refers to a relative paucity of memories from early childhood
Virtually no memories from prior to age 3 or 4
Usher and Neisser (1993) had subjects recall events that could be corroborated
Varying patterns as a function of event
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6. Autobiographical Retention Function Childhood Amnesia
Possible reasons for childhood amnesia:
Brain development
Declarative memory (basis for episodic memory) slow to develop, relative to procedural
Doesn’t account for finding that episodic memories can be formed well before age 3-4
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7. Autobiographical Retention Function Childhood Amnesia
Possible reasons for childhood amnesia:
Development of Language
Remembering personal past depends on ability to converse with others about it
Development of Self
Remembering personal past depends on the knowledge that one has unique set of experiences
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8. Autobiographical Retention Function Childhood Amnesia
Social-Cognitive Development
Nelson & Fivush emphasize the gradual emergence of autobiographical memory
Emergence depends upon memory talk, a developing sense of time and “theory of mind”
Emergence of autobiographical memory will vary across individuals and cultures as a function of these variables.
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9. Autobiographical Retention Function Reminiscence Bump
Autobiographical retention function features disproportionate recall from ages
A “reminiscence bump”
Accounts of the reminiscence bump:
Important and distinctive events, often-rehearsed
Peak brain functioning occurs in early adulthood
Identity formation occurs
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10. Autobiographical Memory Retrieval Factors
Encoding specificity in autobiographical memory
Cues for personal memories will be more effective to the degree that they provide overlap with encoding circumstances
Marian and Neisser (2000) investigated autobiographical memory in Russian-English bilinguals
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11. Autobiographical Memory Methods of Investigation
Targeted Event Recall
Subjects recall particular events or life periods
Diary Technique
Subjects keep track of daily events;
Allows for assessment of memory accuracy
Cue-Word Technique
Memories generated in response to word cues
Allows for assessment of autobiographical retention function
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12. Autobiographical Memory Retrieval Factors
Wagenaar (1986) and Brewer (1986) investigated “W” cues for autobiographical memory
“What” – activity cues; most effective
“Where” – location cues
“When” – time cues
“Who” – people cues
Odors tend to be effective cues for personal memories
Proust phenomenon: the apparent power of odors to elicit memories that are especially old and vivid
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13. Question
What strategies do you use to retrieve memories from long term memory?
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14. Autobiographical Memory Self-Memory System
Conway and colleagues propose a self-memory system
Autobiographical memories as constructed from personal knowledge base with three levels
Lifetime Periods
General Events
Event-Specific Knowledge
Particular construction depends on plans and goals
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15. Autobiographical Memory Involuntary Memories
Many autobiographical memories occur spontaneously, in the absence of an explicit cue
Relative to voluntary memories, involuntary memories are more likely to be:
For specific rather than general events
For positive events rather than negative events (a Pollyanna Effect)
For recent events
Associated with a vivid “re-living”
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16. Autobiographical Memory Emotion and Autobiographical Memory
Flashbulb Memory
a detailed, vivid, and confidently held memory for the circumstances surrounding when you heard some startling bit of news
They typically contain five components
Location
Activity
Source
Emotion
Aftermath
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17. Question Do you have any flashbulb memories?
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18. Emotion and Autobiographical Memory Flashbulb Memory
What produces a flashbulb memory?
Special physiological mechanism? Not likely: flashbulb errors can include (serious) inaccuracies
Neisser and Harsch studied flashbulb memories for the 1986 Challenger disaster
“Phantom flashbulbs”
Distortions revealed TV priority and time-slice errors.
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19. Emotion and Autobiographical Memory Flashbulb Memory
Vividness of flashbulb memories is most likely due to:
Distinctiveness
Rehearsal
Personal Salience
Emotion
Memories for September 11 attacks
Pezdek (2004) investigated flashbulb memory in subjects differing in proximity to the attacks
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20. Emotion and Autobiographical Memory Flashbulb Memory
Pezdek (2004) compared New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers on two types of memory
Event memory – Aspects of the actual event
Autobiographical memory – How a person learned about the event
Found that stress enhanced memory for aspects of event being closely monitored
New Yorkers: The event itself
Non-New Yorkers: How they heard about the event
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21. Emotion and Autobiographical Memory Mood and Autobiographical Memory
Mood-Dependent Memory
Retrieval of a previously encoded event is enhanced when the mood experienced at retrieval matches the mood present at encoding
Depressed individuals are more likely to retrieve negative memories
Tendency is to recall overly general memories
Obstructs problem solving?
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22. Autobiographical Memory Functions of Autobiographical Memory
Autobiographical remembering serves a number of important functions:
Communicative
Offer a greater sense of intimacy and connection
Emotional
Helps us think through life problems
Directive
Can serve to guide future life course
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23. Question
How can knowledge of strategies benefit clients of different ages (e.g., children) in various settings (e.g., drug treatment)?
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24. Wrap-up Any last questions or Questions that were missed?
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