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Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical Memory. Autobiographical memory Memory for our life story Refers to memory for an individual’s life events and other knowledge about that specific individual’s life It includes self knowledge such as information about individual goals, aspirations, etc.

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Autobiographical Memory

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  1. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory • Memory for our life story • Refers to memory for an individual’s life events and other knowledge about that specific individual’s life • It includes self knowledge such as information about individual goals, aspirations, etc. includes information about specific events or episodes that we have experienced

  2. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • AM is both episodic and semantic • Episodic (e.g., memory for where you were and how you experienced 9/11) • Semantic (e.g., when and where you were born) • AM memories often have episodic and semantic elements • AM constructive and integrative, often spanning multiple events • AM is always self-referential

  3. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) Martin Conway AM investigator • Conway views AM as hierarchical (see Figure) • At the highest level of the hierarchy are themes or important life goals – professional goals, relationship goals etc.

  4. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) Martin Conway AM investigator • Often organized into lifetime periods that may overlap (e.g., time at high school, university); time I dated person 1, person 2 etc. • These life narrative memories tend to be organized into narrative structures

  5. Conway model of AM • Conway model of AM • Major components: event-specific memories, general events, and working self (conceptual self)

  6. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • At a more specific level there may be memories of general events • Finally there may be specific episodic memories

  7. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) Event specific memories ESMs are specific event memories ESMs are episodic memories, but they often have semantic elements Event memories can either be brief (e.g., time you dropped your cell phone into your bath); or extended (e.g., when you went into a casino for the first time)

  8. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Two types of general events (GEs) • 1. combined, averaged, cumulative memories of similar events. • E.g., grocery shopping • Events that are repetitive tend to be combined into a schema that is general but lacks detail about a specific visit to grocery store

  9. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Two types of general events (GEs) • 1. combined, averaged, cumulative memories of similar events; e.g., grocery shopping • Occasionally may be specific episodic memory that takes place when engaged in a general event • (e.g., time you waited in express line while woman ahead paid her bill in pennies and quarters)

  10. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Two types of general events • 1. combined, averaged, cumulative memories of similar events • Everyone’s life filled with numerous general events of this sort • Integration is required to identify common elements that tend to occur in order to create these types of memories

  11. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Two types of general events • 2. extended events. Refers to events that consist of a long sequence of episodic memories (e.g., trip to Prague) • Trip to Prague consists of several specific episodic memories – seeing town hall clock; walking through square on a rainy day; seeing Kafka’s family home

  12. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Two types of general events • 2. extended events. Extended events require integration to join events together into a integrated narrative • Extended events often consist of the events that together achieve a particular goal and take place over a particular time

  13. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • General events (GEs) • GEs are the preferred level of processing in AM • Provide cognitive economy (Rosch), maxiumum specific information for least effort • Used to aid encoding of new information and retrieve stored information from AM and episodic memory

  14. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Working self • Refers to a monitoring function that controls the retrieval of information from AM • Not a level of representation but acts on AM to retrieve information from different levels of AM • Working self includes information about goals and self images

  15. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Working self • Correspondence process that ensures there is a correspondence or match between our memories and particular episodic memories • E.g., belief you are a good student, but you did poorly on one test

  16. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Flashbulb memories • Have been used to investigate AM • Flashbulb memories are personal memories of surprising events (e.g., 9/11; assassination of JFK; October crisis) • Usually studied by investigating memory for public events; advantage—can determine accuracy of memory, when it occurred etc.

  17. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Flashbulb memories • Early study by Brown and Kulik (1977) • Investigated memory for assassinations of MLK and JFK • People were highly confident their memories were accurate, vivid, and detailed

  18. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Flashbulb memories • African Americans were more likely to have flashbulb memory for MLK than European Americans • Conclusion is that the more relevant the event the more likely the person is going to have a flashbulb memory

  19. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Hirst (2009) investigated memory for 9/11, 1 and 4 years after the event • participants had very strong negative emotional reactions to event 1 year after the event but that they tended to forget their strong negative reactions to the event • continued to remember where and when they heard the news

  20. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Hirst findings suggest that although strong affect may be necessary for flashbulb memories to be produced, it does not appear to be necessary for their maintenance

  21. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Accuracy of flashbulb memories • Findings from numerous studies suggest that flashbulb memories are subject to distortion and error like other types of memory • one study by Weaver (1993) compared normal memories and flashbulb memories – 1 and 3 months after event in undergrads • Normal memory (details of an ordinary interaction with a roomate)

  22. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • study by Weaver (1993) showed that normal memories and flashbulb memories did not differ in accuracy, in amount of detail; • both declined over time • However, participants were more confident about accuracy of flashbulb memories than normal memories

  23. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Kensinger and Schacter (2006) investigated memory of New York and Boston baseball fans for victory by Boston in game 7 of world series • Event interesting because same event has positive and negative affect for Boston and New York fans

  24. Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) • Results showed that memory for game 7 was more consistent between an initial report and a subsequent report for NY fans than Boston fans, but Boston fans were more confident about the accuracy of their memories • Conclusion– positive events lead to more confidence and distortion than negative events

  25. Autobiographical Memory • Functions of Autobiographical memory (AM) • Prime function of AM to ground self • AM places constraints on goals an individual can maintain and pursue realistically • Memory and self should be congruent • When memory and self are split and no longer constrain each other, pathologies occur

  26. Autobiographical Memory • Functions of Autobiographical memory (AM) • Baddeley reported that delusional schizophrenics had beliefs that were not supported by memories or were contradicted by accessible autobiographical memories • Also had ‘memories’ that supported their delusion (e.g., bad angel removed part of brain)

  27. Autobiographical Memory • Retrieval from Autobiographical memory (AM) • Conway and Pleydell-Pearse in a review concluded that two types of cue-driven processes mediate retrieval from AM • Direct retrieval and generative retrieval (similar to distinction of Moscovitch and others)

  28. Autobiographical Memory • Retrieval from Autobiographical memory (AM) • Direct retrieval • Retrieval cue directly or automatically causes patterns of activation in AM • These retrieval cues are often ineffective because they tend to activate GEs and lifetime periods not specific AMs

  29. Autobiographical Memory • Retrieval from Autobiographical memory (AM) • Generative retrieval • In generative retrieval the retrieval cue is elaborated and memory searched (automatically) outputs from memory are evaluated, new retrieval cues evaluated with this process continuing over a prolonged period of time

  30. Autobiographical Memory • Phenomenology of Autobiographical memory (AM) • Much of the processing occurs outside of conscious awareness • Conway proposes that function of consciousness during AM processing is to allow for decision making and planning • AM is particularly useful for planning because it contains goal attainment knowledge

  31. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) Conway (2009) Neuropsychologia • Structure of EMs—Conway argues that EMs consist of episodic elements and a conceptual frame • EMs are embedded in a more complex conceptual system and become the basis of AM • 1 function of EM is to keep a record of progress toward short-goals

  32. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) Conway (2009) Neuropsychologia • Organization of EMs—argues that access to most EMs is lost after a few days • EMs that are retained are integrated into AM and many appear to have a conceptual structure

  33. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) Conway (2009) Neuropsychologia • Representation of EMs • 3 types of representation – episodic elements (EEs), simple episodic memories, complex episodic memories

  34. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Episodic elements (EEs) • Most event specific, closest to experience, often in the form of a visual image • Represent moments of experience or contents or consciousness

  35. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Episodic elements (EEs) • EEs are usually in a ‘frame’ or conceptual schema • Frame organizes or helps to interpret experience

  36. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Simple episodic memory (SEM) • SEM consists of episodic elements and a conceptual frame • see Figure

  37. Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory • Structure of simple and complex episodic memories

  38. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Retrieval of SEM can be through EE or frame • Conceptual frame may be more important when attempting to retrieve a memory

  39. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • EEs and frames can be dissociated • E.g., post-traumatic stress disorder may reflect a process in which EE remains highly activated and intrude into consciousness • More commonly SEM frames are retained and EEs are lost; this may be what occurs in old age (Levine et al., 2002)

  40. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Complex episodic memories (CEMs) (see Figure) • Consist of one or more SEMs associated with a higher-order conceptual frame • E.g., a day at work may be represented as several SEMs (e.g., meet with students, have lunch, respond to emails, teach course)

  41. Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory • Structure of simple and complex episodic memories

  42. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Representing episodic knowledge in AM • Episodic memories tend to become represented in AM • This integration facilitates retrieval • See Figure – shows integration of EMs with AM and working self

  43. Embedding of episodic memories in autobiographical structures

  44. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Note in figure the nested hierarchy – complex episodic memory provides skeleton form representing an event, but both AM and working self may be linked to CEM • Hierarchical representation – SEMs are part-of CEM; CEM part of AM; AM part of or linked to working self

  45. Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) • Hierarchical representation allows for generative retrieval via linkages

  46. Autobiographical Memory • Factors affecting the degree to which a memory is episodic (Cabeza (2007) TICS) • Recent memories are more episodic (less semantic) • Recent memories tend to be more vivid and have more detail than remote memories • Repeated events tend to be less episodic and more semantic than remote memories

  47. As illustrated in this slide different tests assess different types of memory (semantic, episodic) • Lab episodic memory test memories acquired recently; AM more remotely; this affects degree of episodic content

  48. This figure illustrates point that AM is hierarchical and higher levels in hierarchy tend to be more semantic • Repeated events tend to be the preferred level of access to AM and to memory for specific events

  49. Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS • study of AM permits the study of certain properties of memory that are difficult to study in laboratory including • Retrieval of complex stimuli • Recollection of vivid and emotional events • Retrieval of remote memories

  50. Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS • as noted previously AMs often require generative or constructive retrieval • Different aspects of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) appear to be associated with different types of constructive retrieval

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