problem 3 - autobiographical memory Flashcards
what is the autobiographical memory retention function?
a graph that shows the distribution of ABM across the life span
Childhood amnesia (CA) = there are very few memories from the early years & almost none before the age of 3
Reminiscence bump = there is a disproportionately large number of memories from 10-30
Forgetting curve = there is a standard forgetting curve for info that occurs in the last 20 years
Usher & Neisser (1993) - childhood amnesia study
asked p’s to recall a number of critical events from their childhood that were documented & could be checked with relatives & records (birth of sibling, a family move, family death & a hospitalization)
- Relatively poor memory before the age of 5
- The offset of CA occurred at different times, depending on the particular event
- Memories for birth of sibling (story receives a lot of rehearsal) & hospitalization (distinctive, frightening & involving) went further back than memories for death or move
the emergence of ABM & brain development
one possible source of the memory deficits of CA is the immaturity of the infant brain
- neurological structures that lead to ABM (e.g. hippocampal area) are not fully developed = early memories are not formed
- Infants have an early developing procedural system that allows them to perform simple memory tasks (e.g. remembering how to perform tasks like walking & eating) + a later-developing declarative system that is the basis for ABM
the emergence of ABM & development of language
views development of language skills as critical factor in the emergence of ABM
- Pillemer & White (1989): children begin to remember events from lives as soon as they are capable of describing events with language
- Studies have shown the imp of language in ABM, with diffs in narrative style
- ABM emerges as parents begin to engage in memory talk
how does narrative style relate to AMB
Narrative style = the way that families reminisce about, or narrate, past events
- Elaborative style = consists of long & richly detailed discussions of past event - used mostly w daughters
- Pragmatic style = is more succinct & contains less detail & elaboration - used mostly w sons
Style of reminiscing influences quality of childhood memories: elaborative parents = better elaborated memories
- found female superiority in AB recall - related to elaborative style being used mostly w daughters
the emergence of ABM & the development of a cognitive self
Language is critical to the expression of stored experiences BUT it is not the same as the stored experiences
- Just bcuz a child doesn’t have linguistic skills to tell what happened → doesn’t mean they don’t have a memory of it
- Language necessary for ABM to be expressed, NOT the basis of their development
- Sense of self (self concept) = is the critical factor of the emergence of ABM
cross cultural differences & their influence on ABM (wang, 2006)
- compared recall of early childhood events in Taiwanese (eastern culture) & U.S. (western culture) adults
- Cue words used: self, mother, family, friend & surroundings - asked p’s to relay earliest memory associated w each word
US p’s had earlier childhood memories than Taiwanese p’s for all cue words + US memories tended to reflect personal autonomy
- Explanation: more emphasis on the self in western cultures
Also found that memories cued by ‘mother’ → especially early remembering = centrality of the mother-child relationship in developing ABM
the emergence of ABM & social cognitive development
emergence involves a complex interplay between brain development, use of language & developing a self concept → Nelson & Fivush (2004) try to combine all factors into 1 explanation
- AB remembering is a complex ability that emerges as a number of abilities & contextual factors unite
memory mechanisms as an explanation for the reminiscence bump
Memory mechanisms favor the retrieval of events from early adulthood bcuz of their imp & distinctiveness
→ these event are rehearsed more often + not subject to interference bcuz of their distinctiveness
identity formation as an explanation for the reminiscence bump
Period from adolescence to early adulthood is critical for formation of individual’s identity = events occur during this time are most defining ones = recounted most often
neurological development as an explanation for the reminiscence bump
Cognitive abilities & brain function are at peak in early adulthood = things experienced during this period are remembered best
Self-memory system model
Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000) - we possess a self-memory system with 2 major components:
1. ABM knowledge base
2. Working self
ABM can be accessed through generative or direct retrieval
ABM knowledge base (self-memory system mode)
contains personal info at 3 levels of specificity:
Lifetime periods: generally cover substantial periods of time defined by major ongoing situations (e.g. time spent living w someone)
General events: include repeated events (e.g. visits to a sports club) and single events (e.g. a holiday to france) → general events are often related to each other as well as to lifetime periods
Event-specific knowledge: consists of details relating to general events & spanning time period from seconds to hours
working self (self-memory system model)
Is concerned w the self, what it may become in future & w the individual’s current goals
Working self’s goals influence the kinds of memories stored within the ABM knowledge base, & the ABM we recall
As a result, ABM are primarily records of success or failure in goal attainment
Generative vs direct retrieval
Generative retrieval = deliberate or voluntary construction of ABM based on an individual’s current goals
Direct retrieval = involuntary recall of ABM triggered by a specific cue - is less effortful than generative + involves less active involvement of the rememberer
Conway 2005 - ABM theory (life story & themes)
The ABM knowledge base is divided into the conceptual self (contains lifetime periods & general events) & episodic memories
Conway added life story & themes to the top of the hierarchy
- Life story = consists of very general factual & evaluative knowledge we possess about ourselves
- Themes = major life domains (e.g., work & relationships)
Coherence & correspondence (ABM)
Coherence = consistency w our current goals & beliefs
Correspondence = being accurate
We want our ABM to exhibit coherence & correspondence
- As we age, coherence tens to win over correspondence
- If a memory doesn’t have coherence, we subconsciously distort the memory to make it align = coherence wins over correspondence
Woike et al (1999) - ABM & personality types
Distinguished between 2 personality types:
1. Agentic = emphasis on independence, achievement & personal power
2. Communal = emphasis on interdependence & similarity to others
Asked p’s w one of the personality types to write about pos or neg personal experience
When exp was pos → 65% of agentic p’s recalled agentic memories (e.g. involving success), whereas 90% of communal p’s recalled communal memories (e.g. involving love)
- same pattern found for neg exps
Uzer et al (2012) - direct and generative retrieval
- Found that direct retrieval was 3x faster than generative retrieval (expected bcuz of automatic nature)
- Memories elicited by direct are more specific, less significant & less relevant to individual’s personal identity
- Individual’s working self & goals are more involved in generative than direct
- Generative associated with more activation in prefrontal cortex - linked to strategic search for AB info
what is retrograde amnesia?
Loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage
Deficit is especially severe for events that occurred during the years just before the damage
Usually forget facts (explicit), not skills (implicit) - eg. forget they have a car but know how to drive it
what is Ribott’s law?
Older memories are more durable than those acquired more recently
What is anterograde amnesia?
Loss of the ability to form memories for events that have occurred after brain damage
Problems in encoding, storing or retrieving ongoing info that can be used in the future
Can’t learn implicitly - cannot learn other skills eg. you can’t learn how to play the piano after the brain damage
what is amnesic syndrome?
Involves grossly impaired episodic memory BUT preserved WM, semantic memory, implicit memory & intelligence
Likely that amnesia disrupts the capacity to associate a specific event or episode w its context (location in time & place)
Huppert & Piercy (1978) - evidence for a deficit in contextual memory
Method:
- Presented pictures either once or twice on each of 2 successive days
- P’s then shown sequence of pictures & asked if they had seen each picture
- If recognized, had to say the day it was shown
Results:
- Amnesic p’s more likely to say items presented twice on day 1 had been presented on day 2
Significance:
- No link to context provided by episodic memory = amnesic patients had to rely on general feeling of familiarity
- Does not allow distinguishment between greater familiarity resulting from 2 presentations & recent experience
View:
- Amnesic patients may be able to recall the fact, but cant recall that they’d just been given this info
- Confuse recency with familiarity
what is source amnesia?
Characteristic difficulty that amnesic patients experience in recollecting the source of a given memory
E.g. knowing x is fave food but not knowing when they had it or why they like it
Modal model of amnesia
Learning in ep memory involves associating items with their context
- Those w/o amnesia have a link between knowledge & memory / context, those w amnesia lack this
Associated w the contextual hypothesis
what is the contextual hypothesis?
assumption that essence of episodic memory is to “glue” experiences to a specific context → provides a contextual tag that allows individual experiences to be retrieved
what is consolidation?
the hypothesis that memory traces are initially fragile & become more resistant to forgetting as time progresses
what is the photo-taking-impairement effect (PTI)?
taking a photo can cause something to be less well remembered than if it is simply observed
what is the offloading hypothesis?
when people take photos they rely on the camera to ‘remember’ what was photographed for them → don’t bother to remember for themselves
what is transactive memory?
Shared memory system in couples who split the work of remembering
Not just shared among groups of ppl but also between ppl & objects that can ‘remember’
- e.g. can create a transactive memory system reliant on the memory of a notepad, computer or internet
what is the attentional-disengagement hypothesis?
when people take photos they disengage from the moment to handle the task of capturing the object or experience = they encode it less deeply
Encoding suffers automatically as a consequence of taking photos = the PTI effect should not depend one whether the photographer considers the camera a reliable transactive memory partner
Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - experiment 1
Conditions: observe, camera & snapchat (each p took part in every condition)
Method: p’s shown 15 paintings and then given a MC test asking questions about the paintings
Results:
- replicated Henkels PTI effect
- P’s correctly answered fewer questions in the camera condition compared to observe condition
- PTI effect also observed in snapchat condition (contrary to predictions of offloading hypothesis) + p’s performed less well in snapchat condition than camera
Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - experiment 2
Conditions: replaced snapchat w delete condition (told to delete each photo immediately after taking it)
- Made sure that observation time was equal in camera & observe conditions: timer started only after the picture was taken
same method as exp 1(w modifications)
Results:
- P’s correctly answered fewer questions in the camera condition than in the observe = shows PTI effect
- PTI effect remained significant in the delete condition (contradicts offloading hypothesis)
- Perf in camera & delete conditions didn’t sig differ
Metacognitive illusion as an explanation for PTI
taking a picture led p’s to believe that they had already encoded it so they wouldn’t use an encoding strategy that would improve their memory
Automatic offloading as an explanation for PTI
p’s have developed an implicit transactive memory system w cameras = they assume photographed info is going to be offloaded & available later
Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - conclusion
photo-taking disrupts how people engage or encode the objects they are viewing, an effect that may have little to do with how photo-taking also has the potential to serve as a form of offloading