Everyday Remembering

Question 1

Episodic memory

Answer 1

Memory for the past events in our lives

• distinctly human ability
• in lives ability to mentally travel back in time whilst a ‘self’ can exist in the present
• separate from semantic memory (facts)
• often trivial events extending back a few hours

Question 2

Autobiographical memory

Answer 2

Defines identity, linking personal history to public history

• supporting a network of personal goals and projects
• personally significant events helping define identity extending back years

Question 3

Autobiographical memory’s 3 levels of specificity

Answer 3

1. Life time periods -substantial periods of time defined by major ongoing situations
2. General events - repeated and single events
3. Event specific knowledge - images, feelings and other details relating to general events

Question 4

The working self

Answer 4

A complex set of active goals and self images through which information is filtered and encoded

• compromised of: -conceptual self knowledge - personal details - professional aims
• ideally should be coherent and largely grounded in reality

Question 5

Autobiographical knowledge base

Answer 5

Life story made up of: main themes in which are:
Lifetime periods which contain:
General events which are made up of:
episodic memories

Question 6

Accessing Autobiographical Memory

Generative and Direct retrieval

Answer 6

G- deliberate construction of autobiographical memories- combines resources of working self and info in the knowledge base

D- Triggered by specific cues - demands less active involvement- does not involve the working self

Question 7

Transition theory

Answer 7

• historically significant public events can organise memory
• serve as temporal landmarks and can spawn memorable personal events
• when public events bring about a fundamental change in the fabric of daily life

Question 8

Olfaction and memory

Answer 8

Odours provide powerful reminders of vivid and emotional personal memories

• relative lack of olfactory info and memories in life
• more distinctive and less interference

Question 9

Flashbulb memories

Answer 9

Vivid, long lasting autobiographical memories for important, dramatic and surprising public events e.g. 9/11
- a special neural mechanism maybe activated by such memories - informat, place, emotional state etc.

Question 10

Talarico and Ruben

Answer 10

• memories change considerably over the first few days before becoming consistent
• flashbulb memories therefore aren’t fully formed at the moment they learn of the event

Question 11

Infantile Amnesia

Answer 11

Near total lack of personal memories for the first 3 years of life
- a developed sense of self is necessary to form autobiographical memories - develops around 2

Question 12

Culture and memory

Answer 12

• individuals with an autonomous self construct may be more sensitive to events unique to the self
• Wang- US participants earliest memories were 6 months earlier than Chinese participants’ -prioritised early formation of a unique, detailed and articulate personal history

Question 13

Bartlett

-social context to remembering

Answer 13

Remembering is a social process rather than something in the head

• is about reconstruction rather than reproduction
• context is crucial

Question 14

Dudukovic et al.

-telling stories

Answer 14

Te telling stories in an entertaining way can distract subsequent long term memory- less than 50% of students’ autobiographical stories are accurate