Lecture 2: Autobiographical Memory Flashcards
Methods to measure autobiographical memory:
- diary studies
- galton cueing technique
- personalised experimental materials
Diary studies (Wagenaar, 1986)
- 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.
Effect of saliency in wagenaars study:
Recalled more content from events that were more salient (distinctive, unusual) at the time
Effect of emotional involvement in wagenaars study:
Recalled more about events that were emotionally involving at the time they occurred.
Galton cueing technique (robinson, 1976). What did they do?
What did they find?
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
Personalised experimental materials (conway and bekerian, 1987). Did what?
Asked people to do what?
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.
What is priming?
Priming occurs when exposure to one stimulus leads to a faster response to a second stimulus.
how to look at the relationship between the autobiographical memory and the self?
to explore the development of autobiographical memory and development of the self
research has found a reminiscence bump in autobiographical memories, what is this?
most of the autobiographical memory events we recall occur between the ages of 15 and 30
it is observed across…
different cultures and different cues (favourite books, films, footballers…)
what is an explanation for the reminiscence bump?
that it is linked to nostalgia for our generation
what is childhood amnesia?
that we remember few events from when we were younger than 3-5 years
what do studies suggest about childhood amnesia?
they indicate the importance of the development of the self-concept in the emergence of autobiographical memory
what did Fivush and Hammond (1990) find?
that a 4 yr old recalled events from when he was/she was 2.5 yrs old
what can children under 2-3 recall?
some specific events but tend to retrieve few details unless the event is very salient.
Sheffield and Hudson (1994) found what 2 yrs olds could recall…
play events with toys in a lab study that they took part in 6 months earlier
McDonagh and Mandler (1994) found that 2 yr olds could recall…
some simple, specific actions that they had performed at 11 months
what is it difficult to explain childhood amnesia as?
it is difficult to explain the childhood amnesia experienced in adulthood, primarily as a consequence of poor encoding abilities as a child.
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…
- the recall of factual info
- there is no conscious recollection of these events
so these are not autobiographical memories
Wheeler, Stuss and Tulving (1997) claim that we cannot reflect on ourselves and our experiences until we are around 2-3 years because…
that is when our self-concept starts to develop and when we develop self-awareness
when does our self-concept start to emerge?
18-24 months
when is our self-concept sufficiently developed for autobiographical memory?
at around 3 years
our self-concept (physical self)
- at around 3 months
- at around 18 months
- at 22-24 months
- 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
our self-concept (physiological self)
what age child shows delayed recognition for their past self?
4-5 year olds but not 3 year olds.
Povinelli and Simon (1998) found:
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
what do Povinelli and Simon’s (1998) findings show?
that 4 and 5 year olds have started to develop a sense of self that extends over time- (mental time travel to psychological self)
what does the self-concept consist of?
- physical self: self-recognition
- psychological self: a temporally-extended self (the self that exists over time)
what happens to memory without a self-concept?
memories are episodic not autobiographical
what does autobiographical memory allow individuals to do?
re-experience previous experiences and to project similar experiences in the future
what is autoneotic consciousness?
experience of ‘oneself’ engaging in an event and understanding that the ‘self’ exists over time.
what are the 4 stages of the retrieval cycle?
- elaborate cue
- search autobiographical knowledge base
- evaluate output
- termination or re-cycle
what does the working self create?
a temporary model of task demands and constraints (retrieving a specific memory relevant to a particular cue that provides ESK)
autobiographical memory in older age: what have older adults been shown to produce? (Ford et al, 2014)
fewer specific details but more generic (Schematic) info during AM retrieval than younger adults
this age related decline in AM is associated with…
increased likelihood of depression and reduced well-being and satisfaction.
what has a recent study shown about AM in older adults?
the findings showed only a small age-related changes in specificity- both young and older adults recalled a large number of specific details.
Abram et al (2014) did a study of AM from 6-81 years finding that…
older adults recalled fewer specific (episodic) details but more semantic/conceptual info
what does autobiographical memory rely on?
specific, sensory and perceptual data (visual imagery is one of the most important sources of these data).
what makes us more likely to believe we are remembering an event that actually happened?
when our memory is accompanied by a vivid visual image
what areas of brain activation is AM retrieval associated with?
activation in (posterior) brain areas that play a role in visual imagery
what 3 things has Greenberg and Knowlton (2014) found?
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.
what is observer perspective?
‘seeing’ a past event and seeing yourself in that event (as if observing yourself)
what is Field perspective?
‘seeing’ an event, as if looing through your own eyes (more emotional and anxiety provoking)
how many p’s in McIssac and Eich’s study (2004) recalled a traumatic event from a field perspective?
64%
in McIssac and Eich’s study (2004) what details were recalled?
in field memories: feelings and internal states
in observer memories: external features of situations
what brain areas have been highlighted in PET and fMRI studies? for
- search and retrieval
- monitoring
- self
- left lateral PFC
- ventromedial PFC
- medial PFC
Cabeza et al found that looking at photos you took and those taken by another person…
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.
AM across the lifespan: Typical Lifespan AM retrieval task.
: 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
