Autobiographical Memory Flashcards
INTRO
- Autobiographical memory
Autographical memory
Specific memories
Self-knowledge
Our self= life narrative, from series of episodic memories with semantic memory
DIARY STUDIES
- Wagenaar (1986)
- Evaluation
Wagenaar (1968)
2400 events over 6 yrs
Who, where, when, who
Pleasantness, emotion, importance
Different features used as cue for later recall
Recall to 80% of cues
Highly emotion pleasant events remembered better
Evaluation
- Diaries useful written record to compare memories later
- Measures memory for events that rlly happen in persons life & recorded that day
- At longer retention intervals, tend to depend on diaries of interested parties, so may record in different way
- Only tests one persons memory & he was professional memory researcher
- Later studies with students confirmed the results (Larsen & Thompson, 1995)
THEORY OF REPRESENTATION
- Theory of Representation
- Conway’s ToR
- General event memories
Theory of Representation
Hierarchal model of AM used to organise research
Representation of AM- how our memories are stored & organised for retrieval
Lifetime periods- individual ways we organise our past, personal ways we organise our autobiographical past, usually by common theme, overlaps in time periods
Conway’s ToR
- General event memories- combined & cumulative memory of similar events
- A general event script that can be used to fill in details
- Event specific memories- individual events stored in episodic memories
- Both serve as good cues to retrieve general of episodic events
- When lifetime periods used as cues, retrieve AM faster
Conway’s ToR: Levels of AM
AM levels correspond to event-specific memories, general events & lifetime periods
Create an interacting but hierarchal representation structure in our memory system
Specific events organised into general organised into lifetime
Accessing lifetime period should unlock host of general & specific events associated with that lifetime period
General event memories
- Combined- integrate & interpret across individual events
- Generalised memory of all similar events
- Cognitive scheme guide us in forming these generalised events
- Extended events- long series of episodic events
- Different from average memory as is single sequence of events that only occur once
- Require integrative processes to join units together into coherent scheme
- Each of these is unique event but joined to form one memory
- These extended memories require integrating the individual events into general memory
REMINISCENCE BUMP
- Reminiscence burp
- Walker et al (2003)
- Explanations
- Janssen et al (2011)
Reminiscence bump
Reported memories peak between 16-25 yrs then decline
Recency effect- lots of memories recalled from past 2 years
Walker et al (2003)
Across cultures & cues, pollyanna principle present
PP- focus on positive aspects of events
Most reported memories in RB are positive
Adaptive- depressed people more likely to remember -ve events or have negative interpretation
Response bias- pp only choosing to report particular events?
Explanations for RB: Memory-fluency
- Memory-fluency- events taking place during RB are novel & highly memorable
- But only 20% of memories retrieved are first time experiences
- Doesn’t account for other cultures when bump at same time but many of these first experiences don’t happen at same age
Explanations for RB: Neurological views
Maximal maturity for frontal-hippocampal circuitry
Young adults have most efficient encoding system
Maybe memories more salient because brain mechanisms response for creation working optimally to create strongest memories
Supported by cultural universality of phenomena
