problem 3 - autobiographical memory

Question 1

what is the autobiographical memory retention function?

Answer 1

a graph that shows the distribution of ABM across the life span

Childhood amnesia (CA) = there are very few memories from the early years & almost none before the age of 3

Reminiscence bump = there is a disproportionately large number of memories from 10-30

Forgetting curve = there is a standard forgetting curve for info that occurs in the last 20 years

Question 2

Usher & Neisser (1993) - childhood amnesia study

Answer 2

asked p’s to recall a number of critical events from their childhood that were documented & could be checked with relatives & records (birth of sibling, a family move, family death & a hospitalization)

• Relatively poor memory before the age of 5
• The offset of CA occurred at different times, depending on the particular event
• Memories for birth of sibling (story receives a lot of rehearsal) & hospitalization (distinctive, frightening & involving) went further back than memories for death or move

Question 3

the emergence of ABM & brain development

Answer 3

one possible source of the memory deficits of CA is the immaturity of the infant brain
- neurological structures that lead to ABM (e.g. hippocampal area) are not fully developed = early memories are not formed
- Infants have an early developing procedural system that allows them to perform simple memory tasks (e.g. remembering how to perform tasks like walking & eating) + a later-developing declarative system that is the basis for ABM

Question 4

the emergence of ABM & development of language

Answer 4

views development of language skills as critical factor in the emergence of ABM
- Pillemer & White (1989): children begin to remember events from lives as soon as they are capable of describing events with language
- Studies have shown the imp of language in ABM, with diffs in narrative style
- ABM emerges as parents begin to engage in memory talk

Question 5

how does narrative style relate to AMB

Answer 5

Narrative style = the way that families reminisce about, or narrate, past events
- Elaborative style = consists of long & richly detailed discussions of past event - used mostly w daughters
- Pragmatic style = is more succinct & contains less detail & elaboration - used mostly w sons

Style of reminiscing influences quality of childhood memories: elaborative parents = better elaborated memories
- found female superiority in AB recall - related to elaborative style being used mostly w daughters

Question 6

the emergence of ABM & the development of a cognitive self

Answer 6

Language is critical to the expression of stored experiences BUT it is not the same as the stored experiences

• Just bcuz a child doesn’t have linguistic skills to tell what happened → doesn’t mean they don’t have a memory of it
• Language necessary for ABM to be expressed, NOT the basis of their development
• Sense of self (self concept) = is the critical factor of the emergence of ABM

Question 7

cross cultural differences & their influence on ABM (wang, 2006)

Answer 7

• compared recall of early childhood events in Taiwanese (eastern culture) & U.S. (western culture) adults
• Cue words used: self, mother, family, friend & surroundings - asked p’s to relay earliest memory associated w each word

US p’s had earlier childhood memories than Taiwanese p’s for all cue words + US memories tended to reflect personal autonomy
- Explanation: more emphasis on the self in western cultures

Also found that memories cued by ‘mother’ → especially early remembering = centrality of the mother-child relationship in developing ABM

Question 8

the emergence of ABM & social cognitive development

Answer 8

emergence involves a complex interplay between brain development, use of language & developing a self concept → Nelson & Fivush (2004) try to combine all factors into 1 explanation
- AB remembering is a complex ability that emerges as a number of abilities & contextual factors unite

Question 9

memory mechanisms as an explanation for the reminiscence bump

Answer 9

Memory mechanisms favor the retrieval of events from early adulthood bcuz of their imp & distinctiveness
→ these event are rehearsed more often + not subject to interference bcuz of their distinctiveness

Question 10

identity formation as an explanation for the reminiscence bump

Answer 10

Period from adolescence to early adulthood is critical for formation of individual’s identity = events occur during this time are most defining ones = recounted most often

Question 11

neurological development as an explanation for the reminiscence bump

Answer 11

Cognitive abilities & brain function are at peak in early adulthood = things experienced during this period are remembered best

Question 12

Self-memory system model

Answer 12

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000) - we possess a self-memory system with 2 major components:
1. ABM knowledge base
2. Working self

ABM can be accessed through generative or direct retrieval

Question 13

ABM knowledge base (self-memory system mode)

Answer 13

contains personal info at 3 levels of specificity:

Lifetime periods: generally cover substantial periods of time defined by major ongoing situations (e.g. time spent living w someone)

General events: include repeated events (e.g. visits to a sports club) and single events (e.g. a holiday to france) → general events are often related to each other as well as to lifetime periods

Event-specific knowledge: consists of details relating to general events & spanning time period from seconds to hours

Question 14

working self (self-memory system model)

Answer 14

Is concerned w the self, what it may become in future & w the individual’s current goals

Working self’s goals influence the kinds of memories stored within the ABM knowledge base, & the ABM we recall

As a result, ABM are primarily records of success or failure in goal attainment

Question 15

Generative vs direct retrieval

Answer 15

Generative retrieval = deliberate or voluntary construction of ABM based on an individual’s current goals

Direct retrieval = involuntary recall of ABM triggered by a specific cue - is less effortful than generative + involves less active involvement of the rememberer

Question 16

Conway 2005 - ABM theory (life story & themes)

Answer 16

The ABM knowledge base is divided into the conceptual self (contains lifetime periods & general events) & episodic memories

Conway added life story & themes to the top of the hierarchy
- Life story = consists of very general factual & evaluative knowledge we possess about ourselves
- Themes = major life domains (e.g., work & relationships)

Question 17

Coherence & correspondence (ABM)

Answer 17

Coherence = consistency w our current goals & beliefs

Correspondence = being accurate

We want our ABM to exhibit coherence & correspondence
- As we age, coherence tens to win over correspondence
- If a memory doesn’t have coherence, we subconsciously distort the memory to make it align = coherence wins over correspondence

Question 18

Woike et al (1999) - ABM & personality types

Answer 18

Distinguished between 2 personality types:
1. Agentic = emphasis on independence, achievement & personal power
2. Communal = emphasis on interdependence & similarity to others

Asked p’s w one of the personality types to write about pos or neg personal experience

When exp was pos → 65% of agentic p’s recalled agentic memories (e.g. involving success), whereas 90% of communal p’s recalled communal memories (e.g. involving love)
- same pattern found for neg exps

Question 19

Uzer et al (2012) - direct and generative retrieval

Answer 19

• Found that direct retrieval was 3x faster than generative retrieval (expected bcuz of automatic nature)
• Memories elicited by direct are more specific, less significant & less relevant to individual’s personal identity
• Individual’s working self & goals are more involved in generative than direct
• Generative associated with more activation in prefrontal cortex - linked to strategic search for AB info

Question 20

what is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 20

Loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage

Deficit is especially severe for events that occurred during the years just before the damage

Usually forget facts (explicit), not skills (implicit) - eg. forget they have a car but know how to drive it

Question 21

what is Ribott’s law?

Answer 21

Older memories are more durable than those acquired more recently

Question 22

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 22

Loss of the ability to form memories for events that have occurred after brain damage

Problems in encoding, storing or retrieving ongoing info that can be used in the future

Can’t learn implicitly - cannot learn other skills eg. you can’t learn how to play the piano after the brain damage

Question 23

what is amnesic syndrome?

Answer 23

Involves grossly impaired episodic memory BUT preserved WM, semantic memory, implicit memory & intelligence

Likely that amnesia disrupts the capacity to associate a specific event or episode w its context (location in time & place)

Question 24

Huppert & Piercy (1978) - evidence for a deficit in contextual memory

Answer 24

Method:
- Presented pictures either once or twice on each of 2 successive days
- P’s then shown sequence of pictures & asked if they had seen each picture
- If recognized, had to say the day it was shown

Results:
- Amnesic p’s more likely to say items presented twice on day 1 had been presented on day 2

Significance:
- No link to context provided by episodic memory = amnesic patients had to rely on general feeling of familiarity
- Does not allow distinguishment between greater familiarity resulting from 2 presentations & recent experience

View:
- Amnesic patients may be able to recall the fact, but cant recall that they’d just been given this info
- Confuse recency with familiarity

Question 25

what is source amnesia?

Answer 25

Characteristic difficulty that amnesic patients experience in recollecting the source of a given memory

E.g. knowing x is fave food but not knowing when they had it or why they like it

Question 26

Modal model of amnesia

Answer 26

Learning in ep memory involves associating items with their context
- Those w/o amnesia have a link between knowledge & memory / context, those w amnesia lack this

Associated w the contextual hypothesis

Question 27

what is the contextual hypothesis?

Answer 27

assumption that essence of episodic memory is to “glue” experiences to a specific context → provides a contextual tag that allows individual experiences to be retrieved

Question 28

what is consolidation?

Answer 28

the hypothesis that memory traces are initially fragile & become more resistant to forgetting as time progresses

Question 29

what is the photo-taking-impairement effect (PTI)?

Answer 29

taking a photo can cause something to be less well remembered than if it is simply observed

Question 30

what is the offloading hypothesis?

Answer 30

when people take photos they rely on the camera to ‘remember’ what was photographed for them → don’t bother to remember for themselves

Question 31

what is transactive memory?

Answer 31

Shared memory system in couples who split the work of remembering

Not just shared among groups of ppl but also between ppl & objects that can ‘remember’
- e.g. can create a transactive memory system reliant on the memory of a notepad, computer or internet

Question 32

what is the attentional-disengagement hypothesis?

Answer 32

when people take photos they disengage from the moment to handle the task of capturing the object or experience = they encode it less deeply

Encoding suffers automatically as a consequence of taking photos = the PTI effect should not depend one whether the photographer considers the camera a reliable transactive memory partner

Question 33

Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - experiment 1

Answer 33

Conditions: observe, camera & snapchat (each p took part in every condition)

Method: p’s shown 15 paintings and then given a MC test asking questions about the paintings

Results:
- replicated Henkels PTI effect
- P’s correctly answered fewer questions in the camera condition compared to observe condition
- PTI effect also observed in snapchat condition (contrary to predictions of offloading hypothesis) + p’s performed less well in snapchat condition than camera

Question 34

Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - experiment 2

Answer 34

Conditions: replaced snapchat w delete condition (told to delete each photo immediately after taking it)
- Made sure that observation time was equal in camera & observe conditions: timer started only after the picture was taken

same method as exp 1(w modifications)

Results:
- P’s correctly answered fewer questions in the camera condition than in the observe = shows PTI effect
- PTI effect remained significant in the delete condition (contradicts offloading hypothesis)
- Perf in camera & delete conditions didn’t sig differ

Question 35

Metacognitive illusion as an explanation for PTI

Answer 35

taking a picture led p’s to believe that they had already encoded it so they wouldn’t use an encoding strategy that would improve their memory

Question 36

Automatic offloading as an explanation for PTI

Answer 36

p’s have developed an implicit transactive memory system w cameras = they assume photographed info is going to be offloaded & available later

Question 37

Soares & Storm (2018) (PTI) - conclusion

Answer 37

photo-taking disrupts how people engage or encode the objects they are viewing, an effect that may have little to do with how photo-taking also has the potential to serve as a form of offloading