autobiographical memory

Question 1

what is the cue word technique?

Answer 1

recall one memory associated with each word and describe and date the memories

when done on normal student population, get traditional forgetting function

Question 2

what is autobiographical memory?

Answer 2

memory for your own life and events as personally experienced

Question 3

what are problems with autobiographical memory studies?

Answer 3

knowing whether to believe the reports people come up with (false memories)

asking people to date memories introduces an extra source of biases

Question 4

what was Linton’s (1975) single-case diary study?

Answer 4

remembering when events happened

when items tested only once, had the highest amount of forgetting over time

as number of tests increased (up to 4), forgetting decreased

Question 5

what was Wagenaar’s (1986) study?

Answer 5

samples approximately one event per day over a period of 4 years and records details of the event

each event contained 4 clues, plus one critical detail and is rated on three additional dimensions

each event recalled once only - testing takes one year - cued testing recall with 24 different cuing orders

standard forgetting function but items still always recognised

Question 6

what is memory best for?

Answer 6

recent, salient, emotional and pleasant events

other analyses suggest good memory for unpleasant, self-critical events (Wagenaar, 1994) - not consistent with repression

others find intensity of emotion more important than valence for producing good memory

Question 7

what was Barclay and Wellman’s (1986) study?

Answer 7

while people remain pretty good at recognising their own diary entries as belonging to them, over time they become more likely to falsely accept foil events as their own

Question 8

what individuals may be better at Barclay and Wellman’s (1986) task?

Answer 8

fantasy-prone individuals

Question 9

what was Misra et al’s (2018) study into everyday memories?

Answer 9

autobiographical studies use events that participants have decided are relevant and interesting

if have random events (two second video clips from a person walking around a town or around a museum), can do precise 2AFC recognition tests for everyday events

almost unable to distinguish own walk videos from other people’s videos (as long as weather conditions are similar)

Question 10

how much of our lives doesn’t make it into autobiographical memory?

Answer 10

most

Question 11

how much of our early autobiographical memories do we remember?

Answer 11

surprisingly few

Freud called it infantile amnesia

Question 12

what is the problem with cue word studies of early amnesia?

Answer 12

no way of specifically probing early memories

no way to tell if reports are correct

Question 13

what was Usher & Neisser’s (1993) study into childhood amnesia?

Answer 13

gave students a medical questionnaire that asked them to describe a lot of things about their lives then gave subset of students a memory test

one question was about siblings birth - if aged 1, remember very little - if aged 2, remember a lot - if aged 3, could answer all questions

used parents to verify specific events that happened in childhood

negative events generally well-remembered but only if happened after 3 years old

Question 14

what are the problems with Usher & Neisser’s (1993) study?

Answer 14

are the memories correct? - 61% of memories confirmed by parent, in 22% parent’s memory conflicted with child’s

are they real autobiographical memories? - based on family narratives or guessword?

small number of subjects in key cells

Question 15

what was Eacott & Crawley’s (1998) study?

Answer 15

attempt to replicate Usher and Neisser’s (1993) study with interesting control condition and larger number of participants in key cells

pins down first memory to between 2 years and 2 years and 3 months approximately

control condition was asking to guess events on occasions where you’ve got an older sibling

Question 16

what do memories of 70 year olds show?

Answer 16

both childhood amnesia and reminiscence peak

Question 17

what was Burt, Kemp & Conway’s (2003) study?

Answer 17

explore people’s autobiographical memories using diary entries and photographs sorted by participants

an event in autobiographical memory is the associative structure surrounding one person’s memory for an individually defined event

events can involve multiple specific episodes spanning multiple days and link to higher order personal themes

Question 18

what did Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000) say about autobiographical memories?

Answer 18

not simple, single episodic memories

transitory mental constructions within a self-memory system (SMS)

Question 19

what does it mean that autobiographical memories are not simple, single episodic memories?

Answer 19

can involve specific episodic memory (event specific knowledge) but are retrieved with respect to themes and periods within an individual’s life story

specific episodes can play multiple different roles in different autobiographical memories at different times

Question 20

what does it mean that autobiographical memories are transitory mental constructions within a self-memory system (SMS)?

Answer 20

retrieval can be direct or generative but all involve constructive processes

retrieval is done with reference to a work self, which maintains our current self-concept and goals

one good predictor of accuracy in dating memory is degree of self-reference

reliance on working self produces possibility of inference and bias errors

autobiographical memories can change because they are generated differently when social or personal needs change

Question 21

what is the self-memory system?

Answer 21

about more than memory

autobiographical memory - memory for past life

SMS is involved in understanding present selves and future selves