Autobiographical Memory
Episodic memories about events we’ve experienced and semantic memories of basic facts about ourselves.
Functions of Autobiographical Memory
Directive, Social, Self-Representational.
Directive ABM
Allows for retrospection on past experiences to inform and guide current actions.
Social ABM
Allow people to share experiences and create social bonds.
Self-Representational ABM
Allow people to look into past to inform behaviour to act consistently with self-image and maintain a stable identity.
Autobiographical Knowledge Base
Store of information and facts about past life events. Comparable to long term memory.
Working Self
A set of current personal goals that determine how the base is accessed.
Parts of the Self-Memory System
Autobiographical Knowledge Base, Working Self.
What is the goal of SMS?
Coherence - supporting our existing belief’s about ourselves and the world. Having no discrepancy between memories and current experiences.
Three Tiers of Autobiographical Memory
Lifetime Periods, General Events, Event-Specific Knowledge.
Lifetime Periods
Major distinguishable periods in our lives that have a specific beginning and end in time. (Grade school, living in a city)
General Events
Specific sequence of events that all somehow relate. Remembering one part of the sequence will likely trigger other memories from the same event.
Event-Specific Knowledge
Episodic Memory - Detailed memories of particular times, places, and actions…being able to rel ieve events over time.
Decay in the Self-Memory Framework
Decay is the dissolution of event-specific knowledge.
Hyperthymesia - Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)
Individuals reporting experiencing event-specific personal memories as if they were watching a video recording.
What determines which personal memories we remember and which we forget?
Emotion, Importance, Life Stage.
Infantile Amnesia
Most adults remember very few or no episodic memories before the age of 2-4. Doesn’t affect implicit memory.
Who has the quickest rates of forgetting?
4 yr olds.
What is NOT a reason for infantile amnesia?
The failure to encode in the first place. Since they keep implicit memories.
Hippocampal Change in Infantile Amnesia
Think that since the hippocampus is underdeveloped until age 4, they lack memories. LTM consolidation isn’t active yet.
Neurogenesis in Infantile Amnesia
The production of new neurons causes memories to be overwritten.
Language Ability and Infantile Amnesia
The ability to reconstruct episodic memory may depend on language.
Reminiscence Bump
A boost of memory recall in late adolescence to early adulthood.
Why is there a reminiscence bump?
Because those times of our life contain the most change.
