Autobiographical Memory Autobiographical memory Memory for our life
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
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
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. – Often organized into lifetime periods that may overlap (e. g. , time at high school, university); time I dated person 1, person 2 etc.
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
Conway model of AM • Major components: event-specific memories, general events, and working self (conceptual self)
Autobiographical Memory • Autobiographical memory (AM) – At a more specific level there may be memories of general events – Finally there may be specific episodic memories
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)
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory • Structure of simple and complex episodic memories
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
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)
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)
Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory • Structure of simple and complex episodic memories
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
• Embedding of episodic memories in autobiographical structures
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
Autobiographical Memory • Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM) – Hierarchical representation allows for generative retrieval via linkages
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
• 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
• 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
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
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
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – constructive retrieval – Search processes appear to be associated with the lateral PFC – Monitoring or evaluation of retrieved AMs is associated with ventromedial PFC; Moscovitch, Gilboa, and others have suggested it is a feeling of rightness (FOR); rapid automatic process
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – constructive retrieval – Self-referential processing appears to be associated with medial PFC (see Fig) – This was shown in a study that compared medial PFC activation when participants were shown photos of familiar locations taken by themselves (self) than by other participants (other)
• This figure shows greater activation of the medial PFC when participants recognized pictures taken by themselves (self) compared to photos taken by others (other)
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS Effects of vividness and emotion on AM Emotional AMs tend to elicit more right-lateralized activation in comparison to left-lateralized activation found in lab studies and AM studies with neutral stimuli Emotional AMs associated with activation in the amygdala and hippocampus
AM retrieval network
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Remoteness of AM – A strength of AM is that it permits investigation of remote memories; most lab studies can only investigate recent memories – Remote memories are important to test memory consolidation theories
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Theories of memory consolidation – Standard consolidation model (SCM) proposes that hippocampus has a time-limited role in the storage and retrieval of AMs – Hippocampus is necessary during initial storage and retrieval, but memories become independent of hippocampus following consolidation
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Theories of memory consolidation – Multiple trace theory (MTT) proposes that hippocampus is always required for theories that are vivid and detailed –
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Results generally support MTT – See Figure – This study investigated AM retrieval for recent and remote memories – Results showed equivalent activation of the hippocampus for recent and remote memories
AM memory • Equivalent activation for recent and remote AM memories in hippocampus
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Recent and remote memories were selected so that they did not differ in their vividness, emotional intensity, importance, or number of details – These factors tend to differ depending on the age of the memory and need to be controlled
Autobiographical Memory • Neuroimaging of Autobiographical memory (AM) Cabeza (2007) TICS – Findings from patient literature suggest that MTL damage can impact remote memories to a greater degree than previously thought (Steinvorth, 2005)
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