Lecture 2: Autobiographical Memory

Question 1

Methods to measure autobiographical memory:

Answer 1

• diary studies
• galton cueing technique
• personalised experimental materials

Question 2

Diary studies (Wagenaar, 1986)

Answer 2

• recorded 2 events everyday for 5 years
• for each event: what happened, where, who, when
• freq, salience, emotional intensity and pleasantness of each event
• over 12 months he tested his memory. Used one of the above cues to try and recall as much as he could about that event.

Question 3

Effect of saliency in wagenaars study:

Answer 3

Recalled more content from events that were more salient (distinctive, unusual) at the time

Question 4

Effect of emotional involvement in wagenaars study:

Answer 4

Recalled more about events that were emotionally involving at the time they occurred.

Question 5

Galton cueing technique (robinson, 1976). What did they do?

What did they find?

Answer 5

Compared mean response time people take to recall a memory of a personal event in response to different types of cue words (actions, objects, emotions)

Faster to recall specific personal events after Action and Object word Cues than after Emotion word cues

Question 6

Personalised experimental materials (conway and bekerian, 1987). Did what?

Asked people to do what?

Answer 6

Designed a Personal Memory Questionnaire to identify cues for the retrieval of specific Autobiographical Memories (AM)

Asked people to identify :
10 general ‘Life Periods’ e.g. When I was at School
Then, under each ‘Life Period’, list 4-5 ‘General Events’ that lasted more than a few hours but less than 1-2 months (so could make materials)- then used prime or neutral words

Lifetime priming had an effect, no priming effect when semantic categories were used.

Question 7

What is priming?

Answer 7

Priming occurs when exposure to one stimulus leads to a faster response to a second stimulus.

Question 8

how to look at the relationship between the autobiographical memory and the self?

Answer 8

to explore the development of autobiographical memory and development of the self

Question 9

research has found a reminiscence bump in autobiographical memories, what is this?

Answer 9

most of the autobiographical memory events we recall occur between the ages of 15 and 30

Question 10

it is observed across…

Answer 10

different cultures and different cues (favourite books, films, footballers…)

Question 11

what is an explanation for the reminiscence bump?

Answer 11

that it is linked to nostalgia for our generation

Question 12

what is childhood amnesia?

Answer 12

that we remember few events from when we were younger than 3-5 years

Question 13

what do studies suggest about childhood amnesia?

Answer 13

they indicate the importance of the development of the self-concept in the emergence of autobiographical memory

Question 14

what did Fivush and Hammond (1990) find?

Answer 14

that a 4 yr old recalled events from when he was/she was 2.5 yrs old

Question 15

what can children under 2-3 recall?

Answer 15

some specific events but tend to retrieve few details unless the event is very salient.

Question 16

Sheffield and Hudson (1994) found what 2 yrs olds could recall…

Answer 16

play events with toys in a lab study that they took part in 6 months earlier

Question 17

McDonagh and Mandler (1994) found that 2 yr olds could recall…

Answer 17

some simple, specific actions that they had performed at 11 months

Question 18

what is it difficult to explain childhood amnesia as?

Answer 18

it is difficult to explain the childhood amnesia experienced in adulthood, primarily as a consequence of poor encoding abilities as a child.

Question 19

Wheeler, Stuss and Tulving (1997) argue that children aged 25-32 months can recall specific events that occurred 12 months ago and that their memory is for these specific events…

Answer 19

• the recall of factual info
• there is no conscious recollection of these events
  so these are not autobiographical memories

Question 20

Wheeler, Stuss and Tulving (1997) claim that we cannot reflect on ourselves and our experiences until we are around 2-3 years because…

Answer 20

that is when our self-concept starts to develop and when we develop self-awareness

Question 21

when does our self-concept start to emerge?

Answer 21

18-24 months

Question 22

when is our self-concept sufficiently developed for autobiographical memory?

Answer 22

at around 3 years

Question 23

our self-concept (physical self)

• at around 3 months
• at around 18 months
• at 22-24 months

Answer 23

• we begin to learn to discriminate ours and other infants facial features
• we respond to a smudge on our nose (seen in a mirror), by touching it and often embarrasses (shy smile)
• we say our name when we see our mirror image

Question 24

our self-concept (physiological self)

what age child shows delayed recognition for their past self?

Answer 24

4-5 year olds but not 3 year olds.

Question 25

Povinelli and Simon (1998) found:

Answer 25

fewer than 50% of 3 year olds reached for the sticker on their heads, whereas the majority of 4 and 5 year olds reached for the sticker when watching the video of the current session but few reached for it when watching the previous weeks video

Question 26

what do Povinelli and Simon’s (1998) findings show?

Answer 26

that 4 and 5 year olds have started to develop a sense of self that extends over time- (mental time travel to psychological self)

Question 27

what does the self-concept consist of?

Answer 27

• physical self: self-recognition

- psychological self: a temporally-extended self (the self that exists over time)

Question 28

what happens to memory without a self-concept?

Answer 28

memories are episodic not autobiographical

Question 29

what does autobiographical memory allow individuals to do?

Answer 29

re-experience previous experiences and to project similar experiences in the future

Question 30

what is autoneotic consciousness?

Answer 30

experience of ‘oneself’ engaging in an event and understanding that the ‘self’ exists over time.

Question 31

what are the 4 stages of the retrieval cycle?

Answer 31

1. elaborate cue
2. search autobiographical knowledge base
3. evaluate output
4. termination or re-cycle

Question 32

what does the working self create?

Answer 32

a temporary model of task demands and constraints (retrieving a specific memory relevant to a particular cue that provides ESK)

Question 33

autobiographical memory in older age: what have older adults been shown to produce? (Ford et al, 2014)

Answer 33

fewer specific details but more generic (Schematic) info during AM retrieval than younger adults

Question 34

this age related decline in AM is associated with…

Answer 34

increased likelihood of depression and reduced well-being and satisfaction.

Question 35

what has a recent study shown about AM in older adults?

Answer 35

the findings showed only a small age-related changes in specificity- both young and older adults recalled a large number of specific details.

Question 36

Abram et al (2014) did a study of AM from 6-81 years finding that…

Answer 36

older adults recalled fewer specific (episodic) details but more semantic/conceptual info

Question 37

what does autobiographical memory rely on?

Answer 37

specific, sensory and perceptual data (visual imagery is one of the most important sources of these data).

Question 38

what makes us more likely to believe we are remembering an event that actually happened?

Answer 38

when our memory is accompanied by a vivid visual image

Question 39

what areas of brain activation is AM retrieval associated with?

Answer 39

activation in (posterior) brain areas that play a role in visual imagery

Question 40

what 3 things has Greenberg and Knowlton (2014) found?

Answer 40

1) that visual imagery was associated with feelings of reliving AM
2) but auditory imagery played a greater role than visual imagery in ‘verbalisers’ compared to ‘visualizers’
3) p’s that reported a total absence of visual imagery also lacked auditory imagery and were less likely to feel as though they were reliving memories.

Question 41

what is observer perspective?

Answer 41

‘seeing’ a past event and seeing yourself in that event (as if observing yourself)

Question 42

what is Field perspective?

Answer 42

‘seeing’ an event, as if looing through your own eyes (more emotional and anxiety provoking)

Question 43

how many p’s in McIssac and Eich’s study (2004) recalled a traumatic event from a field perspective?

Answer 43

64%

Question 44

in McIssac and Eich’s study (2004) what details were recalled?

Answer 44

in field memories: feelings and internal states

in observer memories: external features of situations

Question 45

what brain areas have been highlighted in PET and fMRI studies? for

• search and retrieval
• monitoring
• self

Answer 45

• left lateral PFC
• ventromedial PFC
• medial PFC

Question 46

Cabeza et al found that looking at photos you took and those taken by another person…

Answer 46

activated a common episodic memory network including the medial temporal and PFC
looking at photo of self is associated with greater activity in medial PFC, visual and parahippocampal regions and the hippocampus.

Question 47

AM across the lifespan: Typical Lifespan AM retrieval task.

Answer 47

: Participants aged > 40 years
Asked to generate AMs in response to Galton task word cues (e.g., Boat, Flower)
Then date the memories that are retrieved to these cues (i.e., how old were you when this event occurred)
Experimenter plots the number of memories recalled from each age