Autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory

An autobiographical memory is a personal representation of general or specific events and personal facts. Autobiographical memory also refers to memory of a person’s history. An individual does not remember exactly everything that has happened in one’s past. Memory is constructive, where previous experience affects how we remember events and what we end up recalling from memory. Autobiographical memory is constructive and reconstructed as an evolving process of past history. A person’s autobiographical memory is fairly reliable; although, the reliability of autobiographical memories is questionable because of memory distortions.

Autobiographical memories can differ for special periods of life. People recall few personal events from the first years of their lives. The loss of these first events is called childhood or infantile amnesia. People tend to recall many personal events from adolescence and early adulthood. This effect is called the reminiscence bump. Finally, people recall many personal events from the last few years. This is called the recency effect. For adolescents and young adults the reminiscence bump and the recency effect coincide.

It is known that autobiographical memories initially are stored as episodic memories, but it is currently unknown if autobiographical memories are the same as episodic memories or if the autobiographical memories become converted to semantic memories with time.

Types

*Specific Events

:*When you first stepped foot in the ocean.

*General Events

:*What it feels like stepping into the ocean in general. This is a memory of what a personal event is generally like. It might be based on the memories of having stepped in the ocean, many times during the years.
*Personal Facts

:* "Who was the Prime Minister of Canada when I was born?"

*Flash Bulb Memories

:*Flash bulb memories are critical Autobiographical Memories about a major event. Some flash bulb memories are shared within a social group:

::"The assassination of John Kennedy?"::"The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.?"::"The Challenger explosion?"::"The verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial?"::"When you learned that Princess Diana had died?"::"When you heard about 9/11?"

References

*Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73-99.

*Conway, M. A., & Pleydell Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261-288.

*Rubin, D. C., Schrauf, R. W., & Greenberg, D. L. (2003). Belief and recollection of autobiographical memories. Memory and Cognition, 31, 887-901.

*Sternberg, R.J. (2006). Cognitive Psychology (4th ed.). Belmont: Vicki Knight.

External links

* [http://memory.uva.nl/testpanel/gc/en/ Human Memory - University of Amsterdam] website with autobiographical memory test
* [http://cramtest.info/ CRAM (Cue-Recalled Autobiographical Memory) Test]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Memory errors — Memory gaps and errors refer to the incorrect recall, or complete loss, of information in the memory system for a specific detail and/or event. Memory errors may include remembering events that never occurred, or remembering them differently from …   Wikipedia

  • Memory disorder — Memory can be defined as an organism s ability to encode, retain, and recall information. Disorders of memory can range from mild to severe, yet are all a result of damage to neuroanatomical structures; either in part or in full. This damage… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory for the future — refers to the ability to use memory to picture and plan future events. It is a subcategory of mental time travel which Suddendorf and Corballis described to be the process that allows people to imagine both past and potential future events.… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory consolidation — is a category of processes that stabilize a memory trace after the initial acquisition.[1] Consolidation is distinguished into two specific processes, synaptic consolidation, which occurs within the first few hours after learning, and system… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory and trauma — Memory is described by psychology as the ability of an organism to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve information. When an individual experiences a traumatic event, whether physically or psychologically traumatic, his or her memory can be… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory and social interactions — Memory underpins and enables social interactions in a variety of ways. In order to engage in successful social interaction, organisms must be able to remember how they should interact with one another, who they have interacted with previously,… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory sport — Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, is a competition in which participants attempt to memorize the most information that they can then present back, under certain guidelines. The sport has been… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory development — The development of memory in children becomes evident within the first 2 to 3 years of a child s life as they show considerable advances in declarative memory. This enhancement continues into adolescence with major developments in short term… …   Wikipedia

  • Memory — For other uses, see Memory (disambiguation). Neuropsychology Topics …   Wikipedia

  • memory — /mem euh ree/, n., pl. memories. 1. the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences. 2. this faculty as possessed by a particular individual: to have a …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”