Problem 3 - Autobiographical Memory

Question 1

Emergence of autobiographical memory:
Cue-word technique (galton-grovitz)

Answer 1

• to investigate the shape of the memory function across the entire life span.
• the number of memories recalled each period of life - autobiographical retention function
• childhood amnesia: very few memories before the age of 3
• reminiscence bump: disproportionately great number of memories from 10 to 30y
• forgetting: standard forgetting curve for the last 20 years

Question 2

Childhood amnesia

Answer 2

• lack of any memories before age of 3
• precipitous drop of memories before age of 10
• emergence of autobiographical memory starts once the amnesia of childhood is lifted.
• no way to measure ones early memories - are they real or fake memories?
• memories that are rehearsed and/or are emotionally unforgettable will be remembered most.

Question 3

Childhood amnesia: brain development

Answer 3

• Neurological structures not fully developed = early memories cannot be formed.
• hippocampus area (formation of long-term memory) = underdeveloped.
• prefrontal cortex = develops at 1y = improvement in certain cognitive tasks.
• damage to hippocampus = dissociation in memory abilities = unable to store or retrieve events but can learn and retain perceptual and cognitive skills => memory consists of multiple subsystems.

Question 4

Childhood amnesia: language development

Answer 4

• Develops around 2-4y
• differences in parents’ narrative styles influences the quality of childhood memories:
  1. Elaborative style: long, richly details discussion of past events (with daughters more).
  2. Pragmatic style: succinct, less details and elaboration (with sons more).

Question 5

Childhood amnesia: cognitive self-development

Answer 5

• self-concept: knowledge of one being unique and one can think and know things about the world as a causal agent).
• Western countries: earlier memories of the self (independent cultures)
• Eastern countries: earlier group memories (interdependent cultures)
• mother memories: equally early in both cultures.

Question 6

Childhood amnesia: social cognitive development

Answer 6

1. Basic explicit memory abilities: 2y, language takes prominent role, narrative understanding to encode events as richer and complexer, coherent and meaningful stores, memory talk with adults
2. Consciousness about the past: extended consciousness (have a past self connected to present self is not realized until 4y)
3. Theory of mind: understanding they have unique set of beliefs, desires and knowledge, unaccessible to others.

Question 7

Reminiscence bump

Answer 7

• greater number of memories for ages 10 to 30 = milestones.
  1. Cognitive mechanisms account: retrieval is favored (importance and distinctiveness), rehearsal and not subject to much interference.
  2. Identity explanation account: identity formation (important part and remembered most).
  3. Peak functioning account: cognitive and brain abilities/functions are at peak.

Question 8

Forgetting

Answer 8

• recent events remembered well but falls off quickly from events that arent as recent.
• drops from nearly 75% correct to less than 33%
  Causes:
  1. Rehearsal: no rehearsal = forgotten
  2. Interference: interference between autobiographical episodes = most events dont stand out.
  3. AM routine: routined events blend in = lose their individualized character (transition from autobiographical episodic to autobiographical semantic facts)

Question 9

self-memory model (Conway et al): components

Answer 9

1. Autobiographical memory knowledge base: personal information at 3 levels of specificity:
   - lifetime periods: major ongoing situations
   - general events: repeated events and single events (related to each other)
   - event-specific knowledge: images, feelings etc to general events and spanning time periods from second to hours (temporal order)
2. Working self: what we may become in the future and our individuals’ current goals. Influences kind of memories stored and recalled. Records of success/failure in goal attainment

Question 10

self-memory model (Conway et al): accessing memories through

Answer 10

1. Generative retrieval: combining resources of working self with autobiographical knowledge base. Relate to individual’s goals within the working self.
2. Direct retrieval: does not involve working self. Triggered spontaneously by specific cues. Less effortful and less active involvement of the rememberer.

Question 11

self-memory model (Conway et al): overview

Answer 11

• divided autobiographical memory structures into conceptual self and episodic memories.
• memories exhibit coherence (consistency with goals/beliefs) and correspondence (accuracy).
• coherence tends to win out over correspondence over time.
• prefrontal cortex = generative retrieval
• left hippocampus = direct retrieval
• autobiographical memories often inaccurate = enhance self-image and social relationships.

Question 12

self-memory model (Conway et al): evaluation

Answer 12

• comprehensive account
• theoretical assumptions are supported
• support for the distinction between generative and direct retrieval.
  Limitations:
• retrieval involves several brain areas and process = does not capture this complexity
• how does the working self interacts with autobiographical knowledge base to produce recall of specific memories.
• memories vary in the extent to which they contain episodic information and semantic information (contextual details and world knowledge).

Question 13

Depression and autobiographical memories

Answer 13

• individual differences in memory.
• depressed individuals: reduced autobiographical memory specificity. Produce over-general memories
• cognitive avoidance strategy (involved in over-general memories) = depressed people avoid retrieving specific negative memories due to intense negative emotions.
• structure:

Question 14

Individuals with amnesia

Answer 14

• unusual memory abilities
• severe deficits in episodic memory
• retrograde amnesia: loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage.
• anterograde amnesia: loss of the ability to form memories that have occurred after brain damage.
• dissociation: variable has large effect on one kind of test but little/no effect on another test.
• preserved WM, semantic memory, implicit memory and intelligence

Question 15

Developmental amnesia:

Answer 15

1. Early age: lower efects (grow up with so you adjust)
2. Specific brain areas: not everyone will have the same deficits?
   3.

Question 16

Neurological underpinnings of amnesia: consolidation

Answer 16

• hypothesis that memory traces are fragile and become more resistant to forgetting with time.
• assumed that it depends on the hippocampus and related areas. Disruption interferes with the consolidation process.
• patients often suffer from both anterograde and retrograde but severity of both is not correlated = different origins

Question 17

Measuring retrograde amnesia

Answer 17

• researchers dont have control over the learning of the material (happened before).
  1. general methods (news, photgraphs etc): poor performance, earlier memories preserved.
• issues with general method: degree of knowledge varies across patients, scales are continually aging.
  2. Alternative methods: probe patients’ memory by requesting autobiographical recollections (laborious process = must be transcribed, checked and evaluated).
  3. Autobiographical memory interview: asking people to remember specific information selected from a range of time periods. Probes a form of personal semantic memory. Validated, sensitive and reliable test.

Question 18

Photo-taking impairment effect article: abstract

Answer 18

• photo-taking impairment effect: less likely to remember objects you photograph than objects they only observe.
• offloading hypothesis: taking photos allows people to offload organic memory onto camera’s prosthetic memory - rely on to remember.

Question 19

Photo-taking impairment effect article: introduction

Answer 19

• photographs are powerful cues for retrieval
• photo-taking isolates an item and can lead to deeper more elaborate memories or have the opposite effect.
• offloading hypothesis of the photo-taking impairment effect draws from transactive memory theory
• attentional-disengagement hypothesis: when people take photos, they disengage from the moment and leads to low encoding.
• assumption for attentional-disengagement hypothesis: encoding suffers automatically as a consequence of taking photos, it doesn’t depend on whether the photographers relies on it.

Question 20

Photo-taking impairment effect article: experiment 1

Answer 20

• 42 participants
• conditions: snapchat, camera, observation
• design: within subject, 3 levels.
• procedure: paintings shown, demonstration of how to use, study and MCQ questions

Question 21

Photo-taking impairment effect article: experiment 2

Answer 21

• 51 participants
• conditions: snapchat turned into manually deleting right after taking the picture
• design: within subject, 3 levels
• same procedure

Question 22

Photo-taking impairment article: results and discussion

Answer 22

• photo-taking impairment observed in every condition in which photos were taking.
• consistent with offloading hypothesis - memory impaired regardless of whether they relied on it.
• consistent with attentional-disengagement hypothesis - limited attention when encoding.
  Possible interpretations:
• suffering from metacognitive illusion: mistakenly thinking picture = encoded experience.
• disruption by a sort of automatic offloading: learned experience with cameras.
  Limitations:
• mechanisms and boundaries still unknown
• unclear whether effect is limited to the type of photo-taking situation.
• unclear what causes people to remember less when taking photos.