Cognition: Autobiographical Memory

What is memory reconstruction affected by?

- Individual expectations. - Cultural beliefs: women report more emotions, but not online. - Individual differences.

How is content of memories retrieved affected by emotion?

- Weapon focus effect (Loftus, 1987) - Memory narrowed onto emotional aspects of event. - Autobiographical memory for emotional experiences often only contain select details that capture attention, are perceptually temporally or conceptually integral to emotional event, or are goal-related. - Details which are pertinent to their experience of an event remembered most.

The working self functions to keep which 2 functions of memory in tact?

1. Coherence 2. Correspondence.

Theory of Representation (Conway & Pleydell 2000), What do levels of autobiographical memory correspond to?

1. Lifetime periods - used as cues. 2. General event memories - split into Combined, cumulative memory of similar events AND Extended events. 3. Event specific memories - e.g. birthday.

How does emotion reconstruction occur?

1. Summary of feelings - time of highest emotional arousal and end of episode must be disproportionally weighted. It is used as a useful heuristic to evaluate an event (duration of the event is disregarded). 2. Memory accessibility model - past feelings cannot be stored or recalled; emotions are reconstructed via semantic memory, which is found to bias memory.

Why do positive events come to mind more readily than negative events?

1. Working self-image - self schemas are generally positive. When focused on other-perception rather than self-referential processing, they are more likely to recall negative experiences. 2. Different encoding for positive and negative events.

What ages does the reminiscence bump occur?

16-25 years.

There is a cultural difference in the average date for the first memory. What is the average age of the first memory for US participants?

3.8years

There is a cultural difference in the average date for the first memory. What is the average age of the first memory for Chinese participants?

5.4years

Wagenaar 1986 created a dairy to research autobiographical memory, using 2400 events over 6 years, measuring what/when/who/where, and rated pleasantness, emotion and importance of the events. How much did he recall?

80% of cues. However, there is researcher bias of the events recorded; longer retention intervals tend to depend on diaries of interested parties themselves. The study was confirmed with students (Larsen & Thompson, 1995), they found highly emotional pleasant events were remembered better than less emotional and less pleasant events.

Theory of representation: General event memory is split into 2 types of memory. What is combined, cumulative memory of similar events?

A cognitive schema which guides us in forming these generalised events.

Define life narrative

A coherent and integrated account of one's life that is claimed to form the basis of autobiographical memory.

Define the working self

A concept proposed by Conway to account for the way in which autobiographical knowledge is accumulated and used. Comprises a complex set of active goals and self-images.

Wagenaar 1986 diary study recorded selected events that were highly memorable, what did the process of deciding on his cues involve?

A deep level of processing.

What is coherence?

A function of memory the working self keeps in tact. Processes that yield autobiographical memories which are consistent with the working self. e.g. an animal lover's working self to yield coherent autobiographical memories of instances in which you were kind to animals not times of hurting animals.

What is correspondence?

A function of memory the working self keeps in tact. The retrieved autobiographical memory should correspond accurately to the reality of the past. e.g. animal lover should accurately remember any instances which don't correspond to this view of their working self.

Theory of representation: What is the general event memory?

A general event script that can be used to fill in details. Memory where schemas and scripts are used. Such as birthday parties (13 etc). Split into 2 types of memory: 1. Combined, cumulative memory of similar events; these are generalised events. 2. Extended events - e.g. holiday, an integrated process to combine into a schema.

What do over 40 year olds tend to show? (Reminiscence bump)

A high rate of collecting personal experiences from their late teens and 20s.

Theory of representation: General event memory is split into 2 types of memory. What is extended events?

A long series of events that occurred once, eg. a holiday is a general event composed of individual episodes.

What is the theory of representation (Conway & Pleydell, 2000)?

A major theory that organises research on autobiographical memory in a hierarchical model. Shows how our memories are stored and organised for retrieval.

What did Janssen 2011 study find?

A reminiscence bump peak between 6-10 years, earlier than other studies, due to different instructions, as they asked to recall a personal event not a memory. Events from the reminiscence bump were not given higher ratings of reliving and vividness. Therefore no difference with ratings of novelty, emotionality and importance. Recent events were relived more and remembered more vividly than older events, because less were forgotten. Older participants gave higher ratings of reliving and vividness. This suggests personal events from bump are not recalled differently than events from other lifetime periods, there are just more of them.

What is the reminiscence bump?

A spike in recalled memories corresponding to late adolescence and early adulthood (16-25 years).

What can patients with frontal-lobe damage have difficulty with?

Accessing autobiographical memories and failure to evaluate them.

What is emotion reconstruction based on?

Actual emotions, or semantic memory.

The reminiscence bump is evident across cultures at the same age, however which cultures are exempt?

African Americans and European Americans.

What is Memory-fluency?

An explanation for the occurrence of reminiscence bump. Events taking place during this time are novel and highly memorable. Between ages 16-25 many first experiences are novel and unique, such as moving out, first job etc. But only 20% of memories retrieved are actually first experiences. Circular argument.

What is mood-congruent memory?

Bias in the recall of memories such that negative mood makes negative memories more readily available than positive. Unlike mood dependency, it does not affect recall of neutral memories.

Do flashbacks represent a different kind of memory?

Brewin 2001 suggests a distinction between verbally accessible memory, which links with the normal memory system, and situationally accessible memory which is highly detailed when it occurs as a flashcard but cannot be called to mind intentionally.

Chipchase & Chapman (2013) used an experimental stimulation of Autobiographical memory to produce new episodic memories, and to measure later memory for aspects of these events. Participants were shown 48 scenes, 30 min later given a memory test for specific details of the object (central) or background (peripheral). Prompted by asking "did you see a..." to avoid background confusion. What did they find?

Central-peripheral trade off with negative emotion only. Improved memory for specific details with negative emotion and positive emotion. Shows emotion affects memory in many ways, not always the same pattern with different emotions.

What is the sociocultural views of the reminiscence bump?

Changes in identity formation of individual, consistent with culture particular decisions a person makes vary from culture to culture. Suggests a reminiscence bump should consist of many memories consistent with a particular set of transitions. Bump particularly noticeable for memory of events consistent with cultural life scripts, e.g. 1st job. These scripts provide a set of cues for rehearsal and experience.

The precise mechanism underlying memory disturbance in PTSD is uncertain, what is one possibility that is is based on?

Classical conditioning, with the environmental stimuli associated with the horrific moment being associated with the feeling of terror. Resulting in the incidental stimuli or thoughts acting as a conditional stimulus that can trigger emotional response and bring back the associated memory.

The 2 features of the working self can lead to what?

Conflicts between coherence (works to keep memories consistent with self-views) and correspondence (works to keep memories accurate).

What is the weapon focus effect?

Crime witnesses remember weapon details but not peripheral event features.

What does the reminiscence bump occur across?

Cultures and cues.

What type of processing is used for negative emotions?

Detailed, stimulus bound.

autobiographical memory has a number of different functions, it is doubtful they are clearly separable into different categories. Buck & Rubin 2005 Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire found which overlap between what functions?

Directive and self-related function, and those related to nurturing and developing relationships.

Janssen 2011 experimental methodology

Dutch participants aged 16-25 years each received random selection of 10 words. Galton-crovitz cuing technique was used with 64 cue words. Asked participants to describe a specific personal event and the date of the event.

What factors affect autobiographical memory?

Emotion - PTSD and Flashbulb memories.

What is the Ordinary mechanism theory of flashbulb memory formation?

Emotionally charged and socially significant. Normal memories, normal encoding, subject to the same forgetting processes. Errors consistent with meaning of event, not literal features. Talarico & Rubin 2003 found inconsistencies in flashbulb memories show later recall is more schema consistent. The accepted theory, though events are emotional.

What long-term factors affect Autobiographical memory?

Emotions and self-esteem.

What type of memory is used for reconstructed emotions?

Explicit. Type of event specific knowledge, similar to other sensory and perceptual details. Memory for emotions reconstructed at event retrieval.

Define the autobiographical knowledge base?

Facts about ourselves and our past that form the basis for autobiographical memory. The system depends on the interaction between the knowledge base and the working self.

when probed for autobiographical memories across the lifespan, what do participants tend to recall? (Infantile amnesia)

Few autobiographical memories from below the age of 5.

What did Hirst find that emotional impact is prerequisite for?

Flashbulb memories of 9/11, but the emotional reactions tend to be forgotten when remembering details of the event.

Why are dramatic events sometimes so poorly remembered?

Freud 1904 proposed that we tend to repress memories associated with negative emotions, repression.

When influenced by strong negative emotion, we access different aspects of memory, what does this reveal?

Functional and self-protective element.

Larsen and Thompson tested Wagenaar 1986 diary study, they found what type of events are remembered better?

Highly emotional and pleasant events.

What might PTSD patients have which is smaller to normal?

Hippocampul volume. The stress could have impacted the size of it, or a small hippocampus may have made the patient more vulnerable, due to problems recovering from the huge surge of adrenalin associated with extreme stress.

What is Autobiographical memory influenced by?

Hopes and needs. It is affected by the need to preserve self-esteem.

Theory of representation: What is the lifetime period?

Idiosyncratic ways to organise our past. Personal ways we organise our autobiographical past, usually by common theme, may overlap in time periods they cover. Serve as cues, people retrieve autobiographical memory faster. Assessing this should unlock a host of general events and specific events associated with that period.

Theory of representation: What is the event-specific memory?

Individual events stored in episodic memory.

What does emotional feelings alter?

Informational processing and encoding of memory.

What type of processing is used for positive emotions?

Interpretative or relational.

What is the proposed reason for the existence of a reminiscence bump?

It is a period when most important things in our lives tend to happen, e.g. getting married, having children. These memories are more likely to be important to us, so more likely to be retrieved and deeply encoded, and are emotionally intense that increases accessibility of memories. This is an important period within, known as the life narrative.

What is the neurological view of the reminiscence bump?

Maximal maturity for fronto-hippocampal circuitry. Young adults have most efficient encoding system, as it is a time for optimal maturation of brain mechanisms before decline in memory associated with age. Supported by cultural universality of this phenomena.

Emotion - Kensinger & Schacter 2006 study

Memories of baseball fans for 2 american teams, event extremely positive for Red Sox fans or extremely negative for Yankee fans. Control trial found no difference in memory for personal event between fans. They found Yankee fans who lost the game, had more consistent memory over time. Red Sox fans who won the game, were overconfident in their memory accuracy. This suggests positive events lead to more distortion and over confidence, and negative events lead to more accuracy.

Flashbulb memories - what do momentous events lead to?

Memories that are more confident, but not more accurate than ordinary memories. Talarico & Rubin 2007 compared memories of hearing about the 9/11 attack, they found vividness ratings, confidence and subjective ratings are higher for flashbulb memories. Regardless of actual accuracy, they feel more accurate.

What is PTSD?

Memory for events where more extreme and intense level of emotion. Applies to symptoms that can follow from situations of extreme stress. Involves flashbacks.

Explanations for reminiscence bump occurring:

Memory-fluency Neurobiological views. Sociocultural views.

Kensinger and Schacter 2006 study of American baseball fans shows that negative events lead to what?

More accuracy.

Kensinger and Schacter 2006 study of American baseball fans shows that positive events lead to what?

More distortion and overconfidence.

Galton (1879) used the memory probe method, what was this?

Participants given a word and asked to recollect an autobiographical memory associated with that word.

Flashbulb memories - What type of memory is incredibly accurate? (Tekcan 2003)

Personal context information.

Gluck & Bluck 2007 found the life narrative hypothesis explained a reminiscence bump for only what events?

Positive events, which participants felt they had a high degree of control, consistent with the importance of autobiographical memory in creating a positive life narrative.

What do we research?

Private events Public events Previous life event Creation of new episodic memory

Define autonoetic consciousness

Proposed by Tulving for self-awareness, allowing the rememberer to reflect on the contents of episodic memory. The capacity to reflect on our thoughts. Recollecting detail and recognising it as familiar is based on this.

Depressed people have a biased recollection of emotions, what does this tend to lead to?

Recalling negative memories, becoming self-perpetuating. Depressed individuals retrieve less rich and detailed memories.

Berntsen & Rubin 2008 conducted a survey on Danish people aged 18-96. They asked about recurrent memories, what did they find?

Recurrent memories are frequent and decline with age. More positive memories remembered as we get older, shows the reminiscence bump. Recent recurrent memories are more likely.

Bertsen & Rubin 2008 study used a diary for PTSD questionnaire, what did they find?

Recurrent memories in PTSD and normal life have the same characteristics.

Wagenaar 1986 diary study recorded selected events that were highly memorable, what did the process of selection involve?

Retrieval and rehearsal.

What is the problem of using diary studies?

Sampling bias in the events recorded, a tendency for the encoding process to result in enhanced learning of the events selected.

what can autobiographical memories play a role in creating and maintaining?

Self-representation.

What are the theories of flashbulb memory formation?

Special mechanism Ordinary mechanism - accepted theory

What is autobiographical memory?

Specific memories; detailed memory for some events. Consists of self-knowledge - life narrative, from series of episodic memory with semantic memory. We fill in the gaps using schemas. Memory across the lifespan for both specific events and self-related information.

False memory syndrome

Term applied to cases, particularly of child abuse, in which the rememberer becomes convinced of an event that did not happen.

Self-esteem is a long-term factor affecting Autobiographical memory, what did Conway 1990 find in the importance of exams?

That correspondence in amount of preparation reported differed according to exam outcome.

Neisser 1967 refers to the reappearance hypothesis, what does this imply?

That the same memory image or other cognitive unit can disappear and reappear over and over again in the exact same form, e.g. traumatic car crash seeing headlights coming towards you repeatedly.

PTSD - Danish tourists in the 2004 tsunami, 50% experienced danger to life and 40% reported recurrent memories. What does the reappearance hypothesis imply?

The "same memory image can disappear and reappear over and over again". But no evidence for unchanging nature of such memories. They proposed recurrent memories occur in general population and are more accessible because: 1. More recent 2. More arousing. 3. More likely to occur for positive events. 4. More likely to show the reminiscence bump.

Reminiscence bump is consistent across studies but none of the proposed mechanisms can successfully explain all results across all studies, but what can they explain?

The distribution of important life events.

What does Conway define autobiographical memory as a system that retains knowledge concerning what?

The experienced self, the me.

Reminiscence bump is consistent across studies but none of the proposed mechanisms can successfully explain all results across all studies, what can they also not explain?

The increase in the number of memories from adolescence from word cues. Word cues have the same proportion for novel, emotional events as they do for regular unimportant events.

What is a greater number of long lasting, highly available memories in reminiscence bump due to?

The nature of encoding in that period, nature of events and identity formation.

What is the weakness of Bluck & Rubin 2005 research using the Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire?

The studies assume participants are aware of the function of their autobiographical memories and can remember their autobiographical memories and the situations that evoked them in detail to categorise them.

Wagenaar (1986) diary study, which cue was much less efficient?

The when cue, providing the date.

How do we use Conway's theory of representation of autobiographical memory?

The working self (Conway 2005) is a complex collection of autobiographical memory, goals and self-monitoring processes. Monitoring function that controls retrieval of information from levels of representation.

What is the tendency for depressed patients to have less rich and detailed autobiographical memories a result of?

Their preoccupation with negative thoughts.

Why is there a cultural difference in the average age of the first memory for Chinese and US children?

There are differences in the way mothers talk to their children. US interaction tends to be more elaborate, emotionally oriented, focused on the past.

Why does not everyone experiencing traumatic stress develop PTSD?

There are individual differences in reactions to autonomic nervous system response and interactions with the volume of the hippocampus.

What is the cue-word technique used for?

To evoke autobiographical memories. An ordinary word is provided, participant is asked to provide first memory this word elicits.

What type of schemas will influence how we attend to information?

Top down. Attended information affects which schemas are most active.

Conway, Collins, Gathercole & Anderson 1996 study involving dairies, found what type of events more likely to evoke a remember response than foils?

True events

What is the Special mechanism theory of flashbulb memory formation?

Unique mechanism called 'now, print'. Stipulates flashbulb memories are virtually literal representations of the what/how/where of the event. Flashbulb memories are subjectively strong and accurate (but not always). Events of emotional impact are encoded with detail and vividness.

How do we research private events?

Using cue word technique. Using diary studies - useful written record to compare autobiographical memory later. These are near truth record of person's life.

How do we research public events?

Using flashbulb memories; these are memory for particular disasters.

How do we research the creation of new episodic memory?

Using lab experiments.

PTSD - What did Brewin 2001 find flashbacks represent?

Verbally accessible memory (links with normal memory system) and situationally accessible memory (highly detailed flashback but can't be called to mind intentionally). Harvery 2000 found a person in a traffic accident remembered details of the car hit but not the accident, thus had memory for only some aspects.

Define the 'now print' mechanism.

When an extreme emotion was assumed to lead to an almost photographic representation of the event and its physical content.

When does the exception to the observation of a reminiscence bump in a person's early 20s occur?

When memories are cued by smell. Memories evoked by smell peak at 6-10 years.

When are people more likely to recall negative experiences?

When they focus on other-perception rather than self-referential processing.

What is childhood amnesia?

inability to recall genuine memories of events occurring before the age of three years.

What is the Pollyanna principle?

pleasant memories are more likely to be recalled than unpleasant memories. However depressed people remember more negative past memories or remember events with negative interpretations.

What is the recency effect?

tendency to remember recent information from the past 2 years better than earlier information.