Autobiographical Memories Flashcards

1
Q

Define: childhood amnesia

A

-inability to remember events and experiences that occured during the first few years of life

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2
Q

What types of memories do we retain from our toddler stages?

A
  • procedural memories

- semantic memories

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3
Q

What are the 3 developmental deficit areas that can explain childhood amnesia?

A
  • cognitive development
  • brain development
  • social development
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4
Q

How does deficits in the brain explain childhood amnesia?

A

-parts of the brain for formation and storage of events, working memory, and decision making are not developed fully until a few years after birth
(especially the prefrontal cortex)
-they lack the focus needed for proper encoding and remembering

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5
Q

How does deficits in cognitive development explain childhood amnesia?

A
  • lack of self-concept until after 2yrs old
  • limited linguistic abilities
  • lack of cognitive schemas that contain cues necessary for later recall
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6
Q

How does deficits in social development explain childhood amnesia?

A
  • they focus on routine aspects of an experience instead of focusing on distinctive aspects of experience which is what provides cues for later recall
  • little children rely on adult’s questions to provide retrieval cues
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7
Q

What do our life “narratives” tell us about ourselves?

A

-they reflect our current needs, experiences, beliefs

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8
Q

What can influence the way we encode and tell our “stories”?

A
  • the purpose of our story
  • our culture
  • formulating a central “theme” to go by
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9
Q

How does coming up with a theme for our “story” influence how we remember them?

A
  • a theme serves as a cognitive schema that guides what we remember and what we forget
  • it also influences judgments of events and people in the present
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