Chapter 8 - Autobiographical Memory

Question 1

What is autobiographical memory?

Answer 1

Episodic memories about events we’ve experienced and semantic memories of basic facts about ourselves.

Question 2

How can we study autobiographical memory?

Answer 2

We cannot study it like other types of memory and must rely on retrospective reports through personal interviews. It has important limitations such as lack of control, order of encoding, and undetermined accuracy.

Question 3

What are three functions of autobiographical memory?

Answer 3

1. Directive
2. Social
3. Self-representational

Question 4

What is the directive function of autobiographical memory?

Answer 4

Allows for retrospection on past experiences to inform and guide current actions.

Question 5

What is the social function of autobiographical memory?

Answer 5

Allow people to share experiences and create social bonds.

Question 6

What is the self-representational function of autobiographical memory?

Answer 6

Allow people to look into the past to inform behaviour to act consistently with a self-image and maintain a stable identity.

Question 7

What is an autobiographical knowledge base?

Answer 7

A store of information and facts about past life events, comparable to long term and working memory systems.

Question 8

What is the working self?

Answer 8

A set of current personal goals that determine how the base is accessed.

Question 9

What is the goal of coherence in the self-memory system?

Answer 9

Supporting our existing beliefs about ourselves and the world.

Question 10

What are the three tiers of autobiographical memory?

Answer 10

1. Lifetime periods (themes)
2. General events
3. Event-specific knowledge

Question 11

What are general events?

Answer 11

The specific sequence of events that are all somehow related.
Remembering one part of the sequence will likely trigger other memories from the same event.

Question 12

What is event-specific knowledge (episodic memory)?

Answer 12

Detailed memories of particular times, places, and actions. The ability to “relive” events over time (mental time travel).

Question 13

What is highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)?

Answer 13

“Hyperthymesia” where individuals report experiencing event-specific personal memories as if they were watching a video recording.
While they have exceptional recall of personal memories, they perform no better than non-HSAM individuals on control memory tasks.
It is only AUTObiographical memory that is superior.

Question 14

What determines personal memories which we remember or forget?

Answer 14

There are several factors including emotion, importance, and life stage.

Question 15

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 15

How most adults remember very few or no episodic memories before the age of 2-4 years. This also occurs (less severely) for memories under 10 y/os.
This does not affect implicit memory as much as explicit.

Question 16

What are four explanations for why infantile amnesia occurs?

Answer 16

1. Hippocampal Change
2. Neurogenesis
3. Language Abilities
4. State-Dependent Learning

Question 17

What is hippocampal change as an explanation for infantile amnesia?

Answer 17

The hippocampus (long term memory consolidation) is underdeveloped until age 4.
This coincides with the age at which infantile amnesia usually ends (2-4).

Question 18

What is neurogenesis as an explanation for infantile amnesia?

Answer 18

Production of new neurons.
Building the brain could cause memories to be “overwritten”.

Question 19

What are language abilities as an explanation for infantile amnesia?

Answer 19

Juvenile language abilities.
Ability to reconstruct episodic memory may depend on language for “story telling”.
(Note: Recollection depends on vocabulary available at the time?)

Question 20

What is state-dependent learning as an explanation for infantile amnesia?

Answer 20

Different emotional reactions to events.
Highly emotional events remembered…inability to retrieve old memories due to difference in internal state.

Question 21

What is a reminiscence bump?

Answer 21

A boost of memory recall in late adolescence to early adulthood. There are richer memories during times of change.

Question 22

What is the idea of an attentional blink?

Answer 22

If asked to detect two stimuli in a row, the second one is often not attended to.

Question 23

What were Anderson’s (2005) findings on attentional blink?

Answer 23

By using valanced pairings of different words, participants were more likely to detect emotionally charged words (such as love, or murder) against neutral words (chair, ball).

This found that emotionally charged information is more effectively processed and stored.

Question 24

How is the amygdala involved in with emotionally valanced words?

Answer 24

Encoding and storing. It is activated when individuals view emotionally charged stimuli, and emotional encoding is reduced if damage.

Question 25

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 25

Memories of a high-emotion event that many people experienced at the same time. E.g., Challenger Disaster, assassinations, 9/11 People TEND to believe that their memories are permanent and vivid, and do not decay over time.

Question 26

What did Neisser & Harsch (2002) find about flashbulb memories?

Answer 26

People were highly confident in their “flashbulb memories” even if the information had changed. People often remembered different and conflicting information.

Question 27

What did Talarico & Rubin (2003) find about flashbulb memories?

Answer 27

Found a similar pattern for flashbulb and everyday memories: 1. Declined in accuracy over time 2. More pronounced decline for everyday events 3. Confidence remained unchanged for flashbulb memories 4. Everyday event memory confidence declined more rapidly

Question 28

What did Davidson et al. (2005/2006) discover about the relationship between our brains and flashbulb memories?

Answer 28

People with varying (high/low) frontal lobe function were able to recall the emotionally valanced (vs neutral) event. Healthy controls and those with frontal lobe damage had better memory recall than those with damage to the temporal lobe.

Question 29

Why are flashbulb memories so memorable?

Answer 29

1. They provoke an emotional response, leading to better encoding 2. Thinking and talking about them promotes consolidation

Question 30

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (RDM) paradigm?

Answer 30

Supports the theory that autobiographical memory is semantically organized. Participants were shown a set of words belonging to a category, and 40% of participants recalled the lure in a recall task. This suggests that memory is not a direct recording of events, but an unconscious construction of experiences based on our beliefs of what occurred.

Question 31

What was Elizabeth Loftus’ discovery on the constructive nature of autobiographical memory?

Answer 31

Loftus suggested that patients were unwillingly coached into falsely remembering events which coincided with a spread of therapeutic techniques that aimed to identify such memories. Therapists may have inadvertently changed patients’ memories retroactively while patients subsequently reported fabricated memories thinking they were true.

Question 32

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 32

New incorrect information is introduced and remembered by the memory holder.

Question 33

What was Loftus & Palmer’s (1974) experiment on the misinformation effect?

Answer 33

Participants were shown seven randomly ordered videos, and asked to rate the speed at which two cars were going before a collision. Different conditions received questions using different descriptive words. Individuals rated the speed of cars as faster when more severe words were included in the questions. Smashed > Collided > Hit > Contacted The presence of broken glass would also coincide with these findings.

Question 34

What was Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) discovery on generating false memories?

Answer 34

They provided participants with four stories from their childhood, however one was false. The task was to generate and report as much detail about the event as possible. 25% accepted it and provided detail. The suggestion of this event can lead to the creation of false memories.

Question 35

What is source monitoring?

Answer 35

Encountering someone or something after a memory is consolidated can “implant” a false memory. May correctly remember seeing a target, causing familiarity, but not remember the true circumstances in which they saw it.

Question 36

What is reconsolidation?

Answer 36

When information that is already stored is accessed then stored again. Memory is particularly vulnerable during this process.

Question 37

What is the role of reconsolidation in therapy for those with PTSD?

Answer 37

Individuals with PTSD suffering from an extreme effect may be able to reconsolidate memories in a therapeutic setting, which may be able to help those suffering find relief from these patterns.

Question 38

What is eye-witness testimony and how does it struggle against our memory?

Answer 38

Eye-witness testimony can be wrong, even when they are certain that they are correct.

Question 39

What can be done to combat errors in eye-witness testimony?

Answer 39

Deposing witnesses - Officers deposing witnesses must allow them to freely recall the events. Language - Statements should be written and use neutral language to avoid emotional interference. Line-Ups - Line-ups should be done by showing one image at a time, witnesses informed that assailant may not be included in images.

Question 40

What network in the brain was identified to play a role in autobiographical memory (Svoboda et al. (2006))?

Answer 40

Prefrontal Cortex (left lobe particularly) - Reconstructs multi-sensory information Medial Temporal Lobe (hippocampus) - Difficult to measure because it is deep in the temporal lobe - Some evidence demonstrates it is related to memory retrieval Amygdala - Also involved in memory encoding and retrieval

Question 41

What is the first conclusion of Chapter 8 on autobiographical memory?

Answer 41

Autobiographical memory (AM/ABM) serves as a guide for our intentional action and can increase social cohesion through shared experience and a stable self representation. AMs can be organized into broad tiers of lifetime periods, then more specific related sequences of general events, and finally into more detailed memories of event-specific knowledge.

Question 42

What is the second conclusion of Chapter 8 on autobiographical memory?

Answer 42

We do not retain memories from early life (before the age of 4 years). This could be due to changes in the brain, social experience, and/or cognitive development.

Question 43

What is the third conclusion of Chapter 8 on autobiographical memory?

Answer 43

Emotion leads to better memory encoding and retrieval due to increased amygdala activation. Highly emotional events can lead to flashbulb memories, which are more resistant to forgetting, but can still be impaired over time. Despite their fallibility, people are highly confident of these memories.