Autobiographical memory Flashcards
What are self defining memories
Memories that have significance to the working self image
What is the lifespan retrieval curve
Autobiographical memories, the curve occurs with what is remembered
It is made up of period childhood amnesia
The reminiscence bump and period of recency
Conway and pleydell-Pearce
Talk about goal hierarchy and the working self are linked to autobiographical memories, memory construction
They argue that the main focus of the working self is to control memory construction
Fivush et al
Childhood amnesia
Under 5 yrs kids have a range of specific detailed autobiographical memories
Freud
Infant memories are very intense and emotional may affect the adult working self so leads to lack of self
Childhood amnesia
Goals of a child are different to goals of adults
Conway and pleydell-Pearce said this when referring to the childhood amnesia component of the lifespan curve
What is the reminiscence bump
10-30 years remember more autobiographical memories
Rubin et al
Argues memories recalled in this area are more accurate they are judged as been more important to the person
Reminiscence bump this is one explanation for it
Non explanations of the reminiscence bump
NOT first time experiances
NOT more vivid during this time (Holmes and Conway)
NOT that they are more pleasant (Rubin et al)
Explanations of the reminiscence bump
Rubin et al says better remembered coz events at this time occur during rapid change giving way to stability that acts till retrieval
Conway et al says better remembered coz they are self defining moments and have a powerful effect upon the working self which is late teen early adulthood.
What is recency
Forgetting older memories due to decay
They are recently encoded so remain accessible
Other memories become less relevant to the working self goals could be lost forever or may just be put to one side.
What are general events
They are autobiographical memories they are know,edge structures such as single events like a trip to London or repeated events like a staff meeting or extended events like a holiday to Spain. They are used to access lifetime periods
Robinson
General events autobiographical knowledge
Said they can be organised into mini history they are structured around vivid episodic memories goal attachment
Pillemer
General events in autobiographical knowledge
Said they are structured around significance for self
Mcadams
General events autobiographical knowledge
Said they are structured together due to emotion
What are lifetime periods
They are similar to general events but they ENCAPSULATE a period in the memory and provide a way in to autobiographical memories
How do we get a life story schema
This can be created via life time periods as they give autobiographical memories that are then used to form life story schemas
They are stored at different levels like a hierarchy and they are less event specific then general events they are more CONCEPTUAL AND ABSTRACT like big line of little pockets
What is episodic memory
This is the individuals own personal experiance
What is semantic memory
This knowledge is social and universal
What does Tulvings suggest about the episodic and semantic memory?
He says that you cannot have one without the other they are also linked, questions to this is how can we distinguish between the two and how do we define each memory for example a holiday is universal but also personal
What does Conway say about episodic and semantic memory?
He built on the theory by tulving, says that episodic memory are largely sensory perceptual and event specific details of experiances are not given unless they are linked to lifetime memories and said they are rapidly lost as they are not linked to the LTM
What is recollective experiance?
It is the sense of experiance of the self in the past, see images and details, mental representations not a dream however it may not always be true HOWEVER CONWAY et al argues that research has shown that it has a high probability that the event happened.
What is the working self
Conway and pleydell Pearce
It is a hierarchy of interconnect goals, only some entre the consciousness, they contain life periods, life schemas, life stories and active models of the self. Goals are prioritised in terms of encoding, accessability and construction
What do Conway and pleydell Pearce say about PSTD
They suggests that autobiographical memories can direct our attention inwards so can be disruptive to other cognitive functions and this is involuntary
Markus
1977
Showed evidence that accessability to goal related autobiographical memories are linked to certain personalities traits, if strong dependant/ independent showed strong access to memory when behaving this was, people who did not have this trait did not have these memories.
What did mcadams say about personality and memory
He tested two personality types
Strong intimacy and distinctive power motivation
They free recalled FINDINGS WERE each group was link to memories associated with assessed personality
SUGGESTS goal structure of working self makes available knowledgeable base that relate to the most active goals
What did erikson suggest
Looked at personality and memory
Studied generativity type person
They recalled memories linked to this personality type
People who were not generativity did not
Woike
1999
Support the connection between personality and memory
Suggests the working self influence access to sets of goal related memories
Pillemer et al personality
Found that individuals could give very clear accounts of self defining memories when they were both positive and negative for example interactions with professionals such as teachers that have had an impact upon them.
Singer and salovey
Suggests memories are linked to good emotions which are then linked to goal attachment
Memories linked to bad emotions are linked to progressive failure this falls in line with what Pillemer says
Also said that each individual had own self defining memories that had critical knowledge for long term goals
PTSD
Ways to show that a person has this is
Memories will come spontaneous to mind
Intense anxiety
Suffer constantly being thrown into retrieval mode
They have flashbacks
Will avoid areas, situations that set the triggers off
Cues will trigger things
Have to have experianced a trauma
Symptoms - re experiencing memories, avoidance,amnesia, hyper arousal constant red alert.
What do Conway and pleydell Pearce say about PTSD
They say that it is due to the prospect of death affects goals of the working self, so struggles to process the memory, so encodes parts of it causing vivid images.
What is memory construction
It is split into two parts GENERATIVE RETRIEVAL this is where remembering is intentional cues are used to probe knowledge goals of working self are activated, for example cinema, when did I go, I go a lot, when I was a student - link to lifetime period this can be used to access general event link to episodic memory then autobiographical memory is constructed!!!!!!
DIRECT RETRIEVAL is spontaneous the working self can prevent it from fully forming if to much disruption can lead to PTSD which is triggered by cues.
The main idea is that the working self is in control of the two
Hague and Conway in construction
Tested the two areas of construction of memory found that retreaval time increased showed ppl memory words on a computer screen cue words time after the cue word was longer and shorter the memories were then classified as to what type of memory they had give, eg lifetime general etc= generative process ran its course and specific autobiographical memories were formed
