autobiographical memory

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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

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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. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 2: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 3: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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.

Page 4: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 5: Autobiographical Memory

Conway model of AMConway model of AM

• Conway model of AM• Major components:

event-specific memories, general events, and working self (conceptual self)

Page 6: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical Memory

• Autobiographical memory (AM)– At a more specific level there may be memories

of general events– Finally there may be specific episodic memories

Page 7: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 8: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 9: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 10: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 11: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 12: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 13: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 14: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 15: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 16: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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.

Page 17: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 18: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 19: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 20: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 21: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 22: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 23: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 24: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 25: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 26: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 27: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 28: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 29: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 30: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 31: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 32: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 33: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 34: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 35: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 36: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 37: Autobiographical Memory

Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory

Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory

• Structure of simple and complex episodic memories

Page 38: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 39: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 40: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 41: Autobiographical Memory

Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory

Conway’s conceptualization of episodic memory

• Structure of simple and complex episodic memories

Page 42: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 43: Autobiographical Memory

• Embedding of episodic memories in autobiographical structures

Page 44: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 45: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical Memory

• Relation between Episodic memory (EM) and Autobiographical memory (AM)– Hierarchical representation allows for generative

retrieval via linkages

Page 46: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 47: Autobiographical Memory

• 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

Page 48: Autobiographical Memory

• 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

Page 49: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 50: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 51: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 52: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)

Page 53: Autobiographical Memory

• This figure shows greater activation of the medial PFC when participants recognized pictures taken by themselves (self) compared to photos taken by others (other)

Page 54: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 55: Autobiographical Memory

AM retrieval networkAM retrieval network

Page 56: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 57: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 58: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 59: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 60: Autobiographical Memory

AM memoryAM memory

• Equivalent activation for recent and remote AM memories in hippocampus

Page 61: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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

Page 62: Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical MemoryAutobiographical 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)