Autobiographical Memory

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Autobiographical Memory

• Psychology 3717

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Introduction

• Really here we are talking about autobiographical
  memory
• So, while there will be some references to
  semantic memory, most of the stuff will be, by
  definition, episodic
• That said, we cannot ignore the semantic aspects
  of autobiographical memory

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Problems

• Unlike say lists of words, autobiographical
  memory is hard to study
• All self reports
• Hard to check on the reliability of the responses
• The diary approach and the cue word approach may
  be useful, but have their limitations

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Linton (1986)

• Recorded events
• Dated them
• Recalled a sample
• Forgot about 5 percent per year
• Wagenaar (1986) used a similar procedure though
  recorded only one event per day, who, what ,
  when, where

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Wagenaar

• Power function
• Cues
• 5 per day
• Best recall for happy events
• Still, using yoursefl as your own subject may not
  be the best approach

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Cue word method

• Give a list of words
• Have subject associate the words with
  autobiographical events
• Then give cues
• Reminiscence bump

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Reminiscence Bump

• Why?
• Memories are happier?
• Encoding processes are better?
• Could be due to school and age combining here
• Big events?
• Dunno.

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Please just listen

• Pin
• Inoculation
• Haystack
• Sharp
• Pointy
• Knitting
• phonograph

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Autobiographical memory as narrative

• Narrative means you know, like a story
• So when you tell a story, recall some event, what
  do you get right?
• Surprisingly little!
• You get the gist
• But specific stuff, not so good

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Unleash the controversy!

• Repressed memories
• Freudian idea (booooooooooooo)
• Of course there is child abuse
• Most people remember abuse
• Most will not tell because of embarrassment or
  threats
• Implanting false memories is VERY easy

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Can we tell the difference?

• And there is the problem
• It is very difficult to tell the difference,
  though some PET studies are promising
• If you are to convict someone of something, you
  need evidence
• Memories are just one form of evidence
• Our memories are at best reconstructive

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Raise you hand if you heard this word earlier

• Pin
• Book
• Chair
• Ceiling
• Sharp
• Pointy
• Haystack
• Needle

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Flashbulb Memories

• Seem to be hyper accurate
• Seem to be super detailed
• Almost always about shared cultural experiences
• But they are NOT as accurate as they seem

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9/11

• Do we all remember where we were?
• Les Cake at SWGC of MUN decided to test this
• Had his 2nd year cognition course fill out a
  questionnaire
• 37 recall after 3 years

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Conclusions about episodic memory

• Autobiographical memory is usually episodic
• Such memories tend to be best guesses
• The guesses are USUALLY good guesses
• Your memory is reconstructive