Unit 6: Autobiographical Memory, History and Memory, Atypical Autobiographical Memory Flashcards
What are autobiographical memories?
memories we hold regarding ourselves and our relationships with the world
depends on episodic and semantic systems
may have a functional importance
difficult to study in lab because experimenter can’t control learning situation
What is the theoretical reason to study autobiographical memory?
compared with verbal learning: complex, meaningful, inter-related, temporally extended, multi-modal, LONG delays, massive repetitions, radical transitions
model/test case for narrative understanding/production
What is the applied reason to study autobiographical memory?
clinical: experience grounds/reflects beliefs about the self
forensic
What are the directive functions of autobiographical memory?
using past experience to solve problems
What are the social functions of autobiographical memory?
bonding people together or separating them
What are the self-representational functions of autobiographical memory?
creating and maintaining our self-image
What are the helping to cope with adversity functions of autobiographical memory?
remembering pleasant times when things aren’t so pleasant
What is the cue-word method of studying autobiographical memory?
- cue word –> event memory
- event memory –> rate & date
What are the problems with using the cue-word method of studying autobiographical memory?
everybody’s memories are different
big margin of error on getting the date right
rating scales are dicey
verifying event, dating accuracy, subjectivity of ratings
What were the methods of the cued-word memories experiment?
participants: WWII vets
mean age: ~90 years old
collected: 2010
materials: 18 neutral word cues (e.g. automobile, bag)
What is the diary studies method of studying autobiographical memories?
diary phase: participants record (and rate) events soon after they happen
test phase: recall, cued-recall, recognition, dating rating
What are the problems with using the diary study method of studying autobiographical memory?
memory for representativeness
there is a selection bias: the entries are chosen because they were deemed meaningful
memories are atypically well-encoded and rehearsed
journaling is, rehearsal with deep processing, which improves their memorability
what about event memories that are not recorded?
diary method requires dedicated, reliable participants, who are not necessarily representative of the population or easy to come by
What was the method of the Wagenaar (1986) study on diary studies?
diary phase: each day for 5 years, record 1 or more events
test phase (following 5-year diary period): 5 events/day
cued recall: 1 cue –> 2 cues –> 3 cues –> critical detail
What was the event coding used in the Wagenaar (1986) study on diary studies?
for each event, specify: who, what, where, when, critical detail
for each event, rate: salience, involvement, pleasantness
What were the cues in the Wagenaar (1986) study on diary studies?
manipulated number and types of cues
who, what, and where cues were equally effective in prompting a memory
when cue (the date), in isolation, inefficient
recall often proved an difficult/unpleasant
however, most events recognized with right cues (and the help of others involved, if necessary)
What were the methods of Brewer’s Beeper Study (1988)?
addressed selection bias problem by:
providing beeper and tape recorder
beeper went off at random intervals
participants to record details about what was occurring when beeper went off
What were the results of Brewer’s Beeper Study (1988)?
events were less memorable than those recorded using the classic method
What are the retention factors for autobiographical memories?
event age
level of affect
distinctiveness
long-term importance
What were the results regarding event age in the Wagenaar (1986) study?
event age affects event memory
cued recall: decreased with age
cued recall still well above chance after 5 years
Why is event age a retention factor for autobiographical memories?
event age: more recent events better recalled than older events
reasons: decay, interference, retrieval failure, consolidation failure
What is the temporal distribution of autobiographical memories?
less memory for remote memories and more memory for recent memories
What were the results regarding affect in the Wagenaar (1986) study?
affect affects event memory
recall increases with emotional involvement
recall increases with pleasantness
unpleasant memories poorly recalled at first
Why is level of affect a retention factor for autobiographical memories?
events that elicit strong emotional response better recalled than those that do not
affect related to vividness of initial encoding, rehearsal/importance
What were the results regarding distinctiveness in the Wagenaar (1986) study?
distinctiveness affects event memory: cued recall increased salience
Why is distinctiveness a retention factor for autobiographical memories?
distinctiveness: distinctive/unique events tend to be remembered better than mundane/repetitive events
reasons:
mundane events tend to be schematized and subject to RI & PI
for unique events, content-based retrieval cue accesses only one event memory
Why is long-term importance a retention factor for autobiographical memories?
long-term importance: important events tend to be better recalled than unimportant events
reasons:
importance related to level of overt/covert rehearsal
important events have more “structural” support - elaboration, organization
What were the methods of the Shi, Brown, & Reimer study?
elicitation task: word-cued, free recall, memorable interesting important (MII) –> between subjects
time frame: very recent, recent, older –> within subjects
n = 237
What did the results of the Shi, Brown, & Reimer study on the characteristics of autobiographical memories?
vivid
distinctive/novel
neutral to positive
rarely self-defining
What was the Brown & Shi distinction between types of autobiographical memory?
biggest: mundane memories
middle: distinctive memories
smallest: memory for life transitions
What are list learning experiments?
events are simple - words, pictures
learned under uniform conditions
unimportant, unrelated, consecutive
What are personal events?
complex, multimodal, goal-directed
graded similarities
hierarchically and temporal organized event components
temporal extended
related events separated in time
What is the implication of the complexity of autobiographical memory?
complexity means there are a very large number of possible answers
simple: temporal, random
hierarchical: based in which type of component (people, activities, emotions, event sequences)
Why is understanding the organization of autobiographical memory important?
directs/facilities search/retrieval through AM
reflects encoding/post-encoding processing
What are the three questions regarding the organization of autobiographical memory?
- what are the “units” of AM?
- what are the characteristic associations that link these units?
- how are these associations formed/modified
What is the action-based organization model proposed by (Schank & Reiser)?
event memories associated with action concepts they embody
retrieval: start with event-type and specify additional features
What are the components in a hierarchical organization of autobiographical memory?
life periods: temporally limited, thematically defined, concurrent
multi-episode event sequences: personal narratives, mini-histories, event sequences, generic/repeated events
individual events: many levels of nesting possible
subsub-event –> subevent –> event
What is life-time period in Conway’s Self Memory System (SMS) Model?
represents general knowledge about characteristics of a period
examples: years at a school, living in a location, working for a company, relationship with a person
What is general events in Conway’s Self Memory System (SMS) Model?
multi-event sequences
story-like personal event sequences
reoccurring period-specific event sequences
What is event-specific knowledge in Conway’s Self Memory System (SMS) Model?
constructed event memories
sensory-perceptual episodic memories: experiential details that combine with to make “rich” episodic memories
In what way is Conway’s SMS Model an example of a generative retrieval process?
“thinking about the times when I was at the university” (life-time period)
“I am thinking of my first year intro psych classes” (general events)
“the computer was broken in the middle of the experiment I took part last week” (ESK)
What are the strengths of Conway’s SMS model?
periods, generic events, personal narratives do exist
reconstruction does (sometimes) play a role in AM
What are the weaknesses of Conway’s SMS model?
concepts poorly define: general events, personal narrative =/= repeated event sequence
“self” not necessary: same processes/structures/patterns of performance exist outside of AM (narratives; vicarious memories, etc.), most memories low in self-relevance
processing issues: memories often directly retrieved; involuntary memories, more than 50% of word-cued memories directly retrieved
no account of the creation/maintenance of higher order structures
weaknesses addressed by Transition Theory
What is the relationship between memory and public events?
(biased) beliefs about past
referred to as “collective memory”
Memory in the World vs. Memory in the Head
part of group identity
often caused by & central to between-group conflict
much memory in the world research
little memory in the head research
What is prior research for personal memories and public events?
memory for historical events predicted by: nationality and age
flashbulb memory: “exceptional” (but imperfect) memory for “reception event”
What was the method of the Schuman et al. (1898) study?
national surveys
task: “name one or two important events from the past 50 or 60 years”
What was the aim of the Living-in-History project?
aim: understand when and why historical events and autobiographical memory become intertwined
identify “generation 0” which is the group that is living through history
What was the assumption in the Living-in-History project?
Gen 0s experiences directly incorporated into a group’s identity
otherwise, knowledge of past events rapidly forgotten, or instructionally/culturally mediated
life-altering events, landmark events, spawn “lifetime periods”
public events can have a life-altering effect, therefore public events might spawn H-DAPs
What are H-DAPs?
historically-defined autobiographical periods
What are the methods of the LiH project?
35 potentially interesting samples, 22 countries
inductive generalizations
What are the materials of the LiH project in phase 1?
20 neutral cue words:
automobiles, bag, ball, book, box, bread, chair, coat, dog, pencil, piano, pill, radio, river, snow, spoon, stone, street, tree, window
What are the methods of the LiH project in phase 1?
recall an autobiographical event: related to cue word, specific, at least one week old
write brief description on index card
What was the task of the LiH project in phase 2?
task: estimate when (year) each event occurred
verbal protocol: Ps thought aloud while generating dates
What is the rationale of the LiH project?
word-cue task: representative sampling of autobiographical memories
event-dating protocols: dates typically “reconstructed”, contents reflect organization
if H-DAPs exist, they should be mentioned in the protocols yielding, a strong Living-in-History effect
What are the three categories of justified responses in protocol coding in the LiH project?
personal/generic
political/conflict-related (H-DAP references)
pop culture/sports/weather
What is the Living-in-History Effect?
frequent reference to public events/periods when dating mundane personal events
What populations was the LiH effect observed in?
Bosnia, Labanon (civil war)
Germany, Netherlands, Denmark (WWII)
Izmit Turkey (earthquake)
“Rusticated” Chinese, Cambodians (upheaval and displacement)
What populations was the LiH effect NOT observed in?
Russia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, East Germany (fall of Communism)
non-rusticated Chinese (cultural revolution)
New York City (9/11)
Israel (chronic civil engagement)
Ciudad Juarez (wide-spread criminal violence)
Canada, USA (WWII)
What are the nine claims of the LiH project?
- H-DAPs are the exceptions
- intense prolonged conflict produce H-DAPs
- major natural disasters spawn H-DAPs
- H-DAP references temporally clustered
- H-DAP references are intensity graded
- H-DAP formation is age-independent
- H-DAPs last a lifetime
- political upheaval does NOT create H-DAPs
- terrorism does NOT create H-DAPs
When does the LiH effects occurs and H-DAPs are formed?
only when and where public events bring about a fundamental change in the fabric of daily life
change does not equal transition
What are the transition theory predictions regarding the LiH effect?
should occur only when a public event has produced a high degree of material change
should not occur in the absence of substantial material change, regardless of the degree of psychological change it engenders
What is the transitional impact scale?
12 questions
6 assess material change
6 assess psychological change
What was the sample used in the Svob et al., (2014) study on transition impact scale?
Russia, Azerbaijan, & Uzbekistan
20-30 years old in 1991
What were the methods used in the Svob et al., (2014) study on transition impact scale?
provides an index of transitional impact of personal and public events
subscales for material and psychological change
12 statements: agreement ratings
What were the results of the Svob et al., (2014) study on transition impact scale?
end of communism failed to produce a robust LiH effect
historical events organization autobiographical memory ONLY when they act as collective transitions
material change, not psychological change, (probably) predicts LiH effect
What is a collective transition?
acts at a group level
brings about a fundamental change in the fabric of daily life – in what people do, where they do it, and with whom
What is the “fabric of daily life”?
what are the threads?
how are they woven together?
What is the simple account of motivation based on?
environmental regularities
basic memory processes
What is T2?
assumption: content and organization mirror structure of experience
What is the structure of experience?
repetition
co-occurrence
change
distinctiveness
driven by basic memory principles and mechanisms
What are the components of T2?
T-DECs
event representations
periods
transitions
What are Temporally-Delineated Event Components (T-DEC)?
conceptual representation of an identifiable, frequently encountered features of experience: people, places, activities, possessions
coordinate T-DEC-specific knowledge: temporal knowledge, atemporal knowledge
What are autobiographical periods?
coordinate temporally-delineated knowledge:
T-DECs
Distinctive events/notable personal narrative
evaluations
period-specific semantic knowledge
What is the dual impact of experience on autobiographical memory?
- form event representation: bound set of co-occurring ECs
- creates/strengthens inter-EC associations (Hebbian learning): forming/altering EC networks
What is T2’s take on lifetime periods?
period representation: weakly interconnected set of event representations
richly interconnected EC networks
period formation: driven by basic associative processes:
co-occurrence
contiguity
repetition
What are transitions?
cause (signal) significant enduring change in the fabric of daily life
produce (mark) synchronized additions/deletions of many salient ECs (people, places, objects, activities)
What are prototypical transitions-by-replacement?
relocating to distant city
prior dwelling –> current dwelling, prior office –> current office etc.
What is the empirical support for T2?
context: T2 developed to account for mnemonic impact of collective transitions
question: what about important personal transitions?
predictions: important personal transitions should produce LiH-type effects
event dating: frequent reference to designated transition in dating protocols
temporal distribution should display designated “bump”
What are transitions and temporal distribution in autobiographical memory?
memorable events tend to pile-up around transitions: for collective and personal transitions
why? memorable events tend to be: firsts, lasts, & unique/distinctive transition-related events
exploration: one-offs, blunders, effort-after-meaning
Who were the participants in the Chinese Immigration Study?
40 China –> Canada immigrants
MD age of arrival = 38 years
MD # of time in Canada = 10 years
What were the methods in the Chinese Immigration Study?
- word-cued memory: 18 cue words (ball, book, box, bread, etc), practice words (automobile and bag)
- think-aloud dating: the year of events & dating protocols
- TIS-12 (immigration): 6 material-impact items + 6 psychological-impact items
What are the four main points of LiH and transition theory?
- public events organization AM ONLY when they act as collective transitions
- experience impacts memory in 2 ways: episodic encoding and Hebbian learning trial
- personal/collective transitions: delineate lifetime periods, spawn memorable personal events
- period structure is an emergent property reflecting: environmental regularities, Hebbian learning
Why is the pandemic interesting?
scope: near universal
high variable: impact and resources
nature and durations of restrictions: “transition-by-omission”
experiencing mediated COVID
2 years: relentless, saturation coverage
2 years: inescapable topic of conversation
Why is COVID onset seen as a collective transition?
there is the world B.C. (before Corona) and the world A.C. (after Corona)
B.C. = pre-COVID period
A.C. = COVID period
COVID onset = collective transition
BC –> transition –> AC
What is the background on the fact that transitions spawn “bump”?
transitions & periods-of-upheaval spawn memorable personal event –> bumps
What is the assumption regarding the relationship between the idea that transitions spawn “bumps” and COVID?
onset of COVID, March 2020, served as collective transitions
prediction: COVID bump for March 2020
What were the aims of the COVID bump study?
test COVID bump prediction
bump: March 2020
no bump: March 2021
assess the robust of bump across region: University of Alberta, University of Michigan, University of Texas El Paso
What were the methods of the COVID bump study?
unsupervised web-based data collection
university undergrads
cross-sectional design
restricted 12-month timeframe
Fall 2020 groups: 9/19 to 8/20
Fall 2021 group: 9/20 to 8/21
Winter 2021 groups: 1/20 to 12/20
Winter 2022 groups: 1/21 to 12/21
What were the different phases of the COVID bump study?
phase 1 (event elicitation): recall 12 memorable, interesting, or important events
phase 2 (dating, relatedness judgements): date and rate each AM
phase 3 (12-item transitional impact scale): assess degree of COVID-related change
What were results of the University of Alberta fall cohort in the COVID bump study?
COVID bump at 3/20
no bump at 3/21
How were COVID related memories operationalized in the COVID bump study?
each memory rated for COVID-relatedness
relatedness judgments:
0 = unrelated
1 = indirectly related
2 = directly related
COVID-related events: rated 1 or 2
What were the results of the COVID related memories measures in the COVID bump study?
COVID related memories VERY common
2020 (W1)»_space; 2021 (W2)
TX < (AB or MI)
What were the overall results of the COVID bump study?
moderate transitional impact: AB ~ MI ~ TX
COVID-related memories: 2020»_space; 2021, (AB ~ MI)»_space; TX
summer bump: AB > MI»_space; TX
bump confirmed: AB-FA, AB-WI, MI-WI
bump not confirmed: TX-WI
bump (2020) – no bump (2021)
What is a reconceptualization of the COVID bump?
transition –> upheaval –> stability
memorable events: (transition + upheaval) > stable period
2020 = (transition + upheaval)
2021 = stable period
therefore, COVID-related memories 2020 > 2021
What are the results of the COVID bump experiment with “real people”?
no COVID bump
no summer bump: are “real” people like Texans?
What are conclusions of the COVID bump experiment?
“as predicted”, and across regions… the pandemic spawned a larger number of COVID-related event memories
also “as predicted”, over time… COVID experience normalized, leading to a sharp decrease in COVID-related event memories
How can COVID be considered a H-DAP?
additional evidence: Ekinici & Brown (2024) COVID used as temporal network
COVID as unusual H-DAP: H-DAP characteristics in the absence of overwhelming material change
an explanation: the COVID theme saturated personal & mediated communication
What does SDAM stand for?
Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM)
How was SDAM defined in the study by Palombo et al. (2015)?
healthy, high functioning adults with… lifelong SDAM with otherwise persevered cognitive function
SDAM = inability to vividly recollect personally experienced events from a first person perspective
Who were the participants in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
three SDAM participants vs control
autobiographical memory interview
2 AM x 6 lifetime periods
recall, describe in detail, & rate each
What was the remember/know source test in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
stims: humorous word definition pairing
presentation mode: auditory vs visual
What was the test in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
cued recall, old/new recognition, source recall, and remember/know judgment
What were the results on autobiographical memory in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
memory details: SDAM «_space;control
visualization ratings: SDAM «_space;control
What were the results on the source test in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
% correct recognition: SDAM ~ control
% remember: SDAM «_space;control
5 know: SDAM»_space; control
What were the results on source judgment in the Palombo et al. (2015) study on validating SDAM?
SDAM «_space;control
What were the conclusions presented regarding SDAM in the lecture?
visual/experiential aspect of events not encoded
events still serve as Hebbian Learning trial
still possible encode/retrieve: autobiographical knowledge, “stories” describing personal experiences
general findings consistent with T2: “normal” event-component network, deficient event-representation network
What does HSAM stand for?
highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)
What was the dates quiz in the LePort et al. (2012) study on HSAM?
dates quiz: present random dates
day of the week (DOW)
verifiable event (from same month)
autobiographical event (from same month)
What was the cognitive battery in the LePort et al. (2012) study on HSAM?
AMT (auto mem task): detailed recall of 5 AM events
variety of standard memory tests
What were the results of the LePort et al. (2012) study on HSAM?
AM tasks: HSAM»_space; controls
visual memory task: HSAM > controls
other task: HSAM ~ controls
What is the mystery regarding HSAM?
HSAM not superior on standard lab tasks
not “calendar calculators”: “tend to exhibit a degree of obsessive-like behavior”
not OCD though
HSAM engage in memory review and “intentional rehearsal”
