Week 8 - Autobiographical Memory
- Created by: Shannon
- Created on: 01-06-16 20:30
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- Week 8 - Autobiographical Memory
- Definition
- Our memory of ourselves and our own experiences and observations
- Semantic AM
- Memory for factual information about ourselves
- Name, marital status and academic qualifications
- Memory for factual information about ourselves
- Episodic AM
- Memory of particular events
- Memory of the moment you found out your exam results but might not remember your results
- Memory of particular events
- Controlled, Conscious AM
- Results of deliberate effort to recall information about one's past
- Often occurs in interaction with others
- Helped by props such as photos, diaries and possessions
- Often occurs in interaction with others
- Results of deliberate effort to recall information about one's past
- Transactional Memory System
- Couples rely on each other remember things about themselves
- Automatic, involuntary AM
- Memories that 'pop' into our heads
- Primed by a sensory stimulus such as tune and smell
- Controlled by the hippocampus - a primitive part of the brain
- Primed by a sensory stimulus such as tune and smell
- Memories that 'pop' into our heads
- AM is reconstructive
- Human memory does not store literal records of past experiences
- It involves reconstruction of events
- Gist is remembered better than specific detail
- Bartlett (1932)
- We encode, interpret and recall information in a way that is consistent with personal and cultural schemas
- Concerning what is 'normal' or to be expected
- We encode, interpret and recall information in a way that is consistent with personal and cultural schemas
- Bartlett (1932)
- Gist is remembered better than specific detail
- It involves reconstruction of events
- Human memory does not store literal records of past experiences
- False memories
- We can honestly believe something has happened to us - Introspection Illuision
- Episodic memory supplemented by confabulation - fill in gaps to make our story coherent
- Memory of actual experience is distorted
- Misattribution - e.g mistakenly believing a conversation happened but it didn't
- We tend to be overconfident in the accuracy of our personal memories
- Misattribution - e.g mistakenly believing a conversation happened but it didn't
- Memory of actual experience is distorted
- Episodic memory supplemented by confabulation - fill in gaps to make our story coherent
- We can honestly believe something has happened to us - Introspection Illuision
- Guided Narrative in the development of AM
- Memory scaffolding by caregivers
- Adults reminiscence style
- Low elaborative
- Spend less time talking about the past - ask few supplementary questions
- High elaborative
- Expand upon events, prompt child to give longer answers
- Encourage child to supplement the key narrative with memories of emotional experience
- Expand upon events, prompt child to give longer answers
- Low elaborative
- Adults reminiscence style
- Memory scaffolding by caregivers
- Young Children's AM
- Fragmented episodic memories
- Good gist memory
- Little elaboration or peripheral detail
- Good gist memory
- Distinct memories not bound together into thematic sotries
- 8 year olds - Tells the story of their life as a jumble of interesting episodes
- 12 years old - Construct sequential narrative - mostly list of transition points - content is rather sparse
- 16-20 - start to construct life stories with a thematic coherence which feature key self-defining memories
- 12 years old - Construct sequential narrative - mostly list of transition points - content is rather sparse
- 8 year olds - Tells the story of their life as a jumble of interesting episodes
- Fragmented episodic memories
- Functions of AM
- Social functions - establish and maintain our relationships with others
- Identity functions - Establish and maintain a satisfactory current self-concept
- Self-enhancement
- AM = part of the psychological immune system
- We tend to recall positive life events better than negative life events
- Fading affect bias = Tendency to recall positive emotions such as child birth - forget pain
- Age-related positively effect = Older people remember fewer negative episodes of their lives than young people
- Fading affect bias = Tendency to recall positive emotions such as child birth - forget pain
- We tend to recall positive life events better than negative life events
- AM = part of the psychological immune system
- Self-enhancement
- AM is essential for the maintenance of social relationships
- Social organisation depends on remembering our previous experiences with, and obligations towards others
- Relational self-awareness
- Reciprocity heuristic
- Relational self-awareness
- Social organisation depends on remembering our previous experiences with, and obligations towards others
- Problems of AM
- Amnesia = Remembering too little
- Amnesia for early childhood
- Adults have relatively few personal memories for events before the age of 10
- In Western societies - average age for earliest memories is 3.5 years
- Adults unable to retrieve episodic memories before age of 2 - infantile amnesia
- Infantile amnesia - Freud
- Early childhood memories :
- Are sexual
- Are repressed but remain formant in the unconscious
- Can be accessed through psychoanalysis
- Are repressed but remain formant in the unconscious
- Are sexual
- Early childhood memories :
- Infantile amnesia - Freud
- Adults unable to retrieve episodic memories before age of 2 - infantile amnesia
- In Western societies - average age for earliest memories is 3.5 years
- Traumatic memories tend to not be repressed - they are hyperaccessible
- Young children dont have the language skills necessary to
- Encode highly elaborated memories of particular experences
- Arrange their episodic memories into a coherent narrative
- Reminiscence bump @ 25
- Due to developmental changes in cognitive abilities
- Going through identity crisis - more time spent thinking about oneself
- Due to developmental changes in cognitive abilities
- Reminiscence bump @ 25
- Arrange their episodic memories into a coherent narrative
- Encode highly elaborated memories of particular experences
- Adults have relatively few personal memories for events before the age of 10
- Amnesia for early childhood
- Hyperthymesia - Remembering too much
- Extraordinary recall of events related to personal past
- Spend abnormal amount of time thinking about personal past
- Can recall past experiences without conscious effort
- Can be associated with OCD
- Can cause cognitive overload
- Often socially dysfunctional
- Can cause cognitive overload
- Can be associated with OCD
- Can recall past experiences without conscious effort
- Spend abnormal amount of time thinking about personal past
- Extraordinary recall of events related to personal past
- Intrusive memories
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Flashbacks // Past events re-experience // Temporary loss of current self-awareness
- Involuntary // Uncontrollable // Often Visual // Distressing
- Rumination
- Compulsive recurrent memory of past events
- Attention focused on symptoms / causes of distress as opposed to possible solutions
- Compulsive recurrent memory of past events
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Amnesia = Remembering too little
- Transitional firsts - 90% of our vivid life memories concern unique or first time events
- Flash bulb memories
- Enduring, vivid, detailed memories for especially surprising emotionally charged events
- Involves events of personal importance
- Often functions as landmarks in our life stories
- Flash bulb memories
- Implanted memory - Been told the memory over and over again
- Can start to see visuals of the memory even though it was false
- Autobiographical memory in the courtroom
- Eye witness testimony is likely to be believed by jurors, especially when it is offered with a high level of confidence
- Assumption about memory in the CJS
- Judges often express confidence in a jury's ability to distingusih true from false memories
- Police, lawyers etc use strategic repeapt questioning to uncover an accurate recording of an event
- Extreme emotional arousal may lead perpetrators to violence to experience amnesia for their actions
- Concerns about using memory as evidence in CJS
- Details of AM = inaccurate
- EWT can often be flawed
- 40% identified attacker
- 23% identified person not there
- 36% identified bystander
- No evidence that heightened emotional arousal undermines the encoding of episodic memories
- The practice of obtaining memory evidence can potentially distort memories e.g. leading questions
- Juries are, in fact quite bad at distingusihing reliable from unreliable memory testimony
- Recovered memory
- Most criminal cases for childhood abused based on recovered memories
- Repressed material can be returned to consciousness with the removal of stress
- Mounted evidence that childhood memories can be implanted
- Repressed material can be returned to consciousness with the removal of stress
- Most criminal cases for childhood abused based on recovered memories
- Definition
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