Autobiographical Memories

Question 1

Define: childhood amnesia

Answer 1

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

Question 2

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

Answer 2

• procedural memories

- semantic memories

Question 3

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

Answer 3

• cognitive development
• brain development
• social development

Question 4

How does deficits in the brain explain childhood amnesia?

Answer 4

-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

Question 5

How does deficits in cognitive development explain childhood amnesia?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

How does deficits in social development explain childhood amnesia?

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

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

Answer 7

-they reflect our current needs, experiences, beliefs

Question 8

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

Answer 8

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

Question 9

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

Answer 9

• 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