Autobiographical memories are those which relate to events in one’s own life which are tied to personal significance. An autobiographical memory has some similar characteristics to episodic memory in that both are related to personal experience. However, they differ in a number of ways:
Meta-analysis into autobiographical and episodic memory conducted by Gilboa (2004) found clear biological differences in brain activation between the two types of memory. The prefrontal cortex is believed to play a considerable role in the processing of memory; Gilboa’s meta-analysis found that episodic memory caused more activation in the right mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is most likely due to the need for conscious monitoring of these memories so as to avoid errors during their recollection. Likewise, autobiographical memories caused more brain activation in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is likely due to monitoring of the accuracy of retrieved memories in relation to activated knowledge of the self. Researchers have pinpointed four main areas of study within autobiographical memory, which are the following:
Recency is the general assumption that people tend to be better at recalling events that happened recently to them. For the remainder of this article, we will focus on the latter three main areas of study (flashbulb memories, infantile amnesia, and the reminiscence bump) in relation to autobiographical memories. Flashbulb MemoriesFlashbulb memories are clear and long-lasting autobiographical memories for important, dramatic or surprising public events which are deemed by the individual to have a personal impact on themselves. Examples of flashbulb memories in comparatively recent times might be the death of Princess Diana, the 9/11 attacks on the United States of America, or the results of Brexit in the UK. The term was first coined by Brown and Kulik (1977) who argued that events perceived as surprising and as having real-life consequences for the individual activate a special neural mechanism that ‘print’ details of the event permanently in the memory system. Brown and Kulik suggested that the details of flashbulb memories included:
Brown and Kulik’s main point was that flashbulb memories differed from other autobiographical memories in their longevity, accuracy, and reliance on the special neural mechanism. However, not all researchers agree on flashbulb memories. Finkenauer, Luminet, Gisle, El-Ahmadi, and van der Linden (1998) argued that flashbulb memories depend on several other factors such as relevant prior knowledge, personal importance, surprise, overt rehearsal, novelty, and the person’s affective attitude towards the central person of the event. Infantile AmnesiaInfantile amnesia (or childhood amnesia) is the phenomenon that young children have difficulty in forming long-term memories before a certain age. There are several theories as to the cause of infantile amnesia, stemming from the development of the the biological brain itself, to the development of the self. Autobiographical memory is a type of declarative memory (memory that can be consciously recalled or ‘declared’) that relies heavily on the hippocampus. Developmental psychology research into the hippocampus suggests that the dentate gyrus within the hippocampal formation features only about 70% of the adult number of cells at birth. Alongside the dentate gyrus, other parts of the hippocampal formation may only be fully formed between the age of two and eight years old, suggesting that the development of the hippocampus over time may be linked to infantile amnesia and the progression of developing autobiographical memories over time. From another biological perspective, it is believed that the prefrontal cortex is involved in long-term memory and, similar to the hippocampus, undergoes substantial development during the early years of childhood. As such, the density of synapses in the prefrontal cortex heavily increase at around eight months old and continue to grow until the child is around 15-24 months old. However, despite incomplete development of the brain in young children, there is evidence to suggest that they are still able to form numerous long-term memories. Fivush, Gray and Fromhoff (1987) asked children with a mean age of 33 months to recall a memory of significant events that had happened months previously. In this study, children responded to around half of events put forward by researchers, of which the children provided an average of 12 items of information about each event. This study suggests that although development is incomplete at this stage of childhood, infants may still have the capacity to develop autobiographical memories, suggesting the biological perspective of brain development is not the only factor in this phenomenon. Freud’s somewhat controversial theory on infantile amnesia was that it was caused as a result of repressed memories with threat-related thoughts and experiences, such as sexual feelings towards parents. As discussed in our critical evaluation within the article on the psychodynamic approach, there are a number of issues with this theory, such as how it is unfalsifiable (it cannot be necessarily proven incorrect), and is not based on scientific study. Furthermore, Freud’s dramatic theory fails to explain why children, adolescents, and adults cannot recall any positive or neutral memories from childhood. Howe and Courage (1997) argued that children are not able to form autobiographical memories until they are able to develop a sense of personal significance in events. The sense of self is suggested to develop around the age of two years old as supported by a study from Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979). In this study, researchers applied a small red dot on the noses of infants and placed them in front of a mirror. Some infants, upon seeing their reflection, would reach for their nose which was claimed by the researchers to show the infants recognised their reflection and therefore had some sense of self. Practically no infant under one year of age showed evidence of recognising their reflection. However, 70% of infants between 21 months and 24 months did recognise themselves in a mirror. The primary assumption of Howe and Courage’s theory is as follows:
The fact that recognition of the cognitive self appears around the age of two and shortly before the emergence of autobiographical memory fits Howe and Courage’s theory, but does not necessarily suggest a causal relationship between the two. However, further research by Howe, Courage, and Edison (2003) among infants aged 15 to 23 months old found that self-recognisers showed better memory than those that did not recognise themselves in a mirror. Furthermore, no children performed well on memory tests for personal events before achieving self-recognition. This suggests that infant amnesia ends and autobiographical memories can commence once an idea of the self and an understanding of personal significance in events has developed. Another theory of the cause of infant amnesia lies in language development. some researchers suggest that autobiographical memories can only be created and stored once sufficient language skills have been developed. For example, Simcock and Hayne (2002) conducted a study in which they asked children aged between two and three years old to describe memories of complex play at periods of up to 12 months later. They found that children only used words they had already known at the time of the event to describe their memories up to 12 months later. The Reminiscence BumpThe reminiscence bump refers to a period between the ages of 10 and 30 years old (with specific interest in the ages of 15 to 25) in which considerable attention is given to memories of events within this time period when looking at memories across the whole span of a lifetime. Rubin, Rahhal, and Poon (1998) suggest the reason for the reminiscence bump is a collaboration of stability and novelty. In terms of stability, most adults have a sense of stability starting in early adulthood because their sense of being an adult begins to develop around this time. Furthermore, many events and experiences are novel to the individual, such as learning to drive, relationships, having a child, etc. and so more distinctive memories are produced with a lack of proactive interference (interference caused by previous learning). The reminiscence bump is largely thought to be for only positive memories, emitting largely negative and neutral memories (Berntsen and Rubin, 2002), suggesting that the reminiscence bump is somewhat limited in scope. One possible explanation for the bump might be what are known as life scripts; these can be considered cultural instructions instilled in individuals about how a life should look. Life scripts are concerned with major life events in a typical life, such as going to university, relationships, creating a family, etc. The majority of positive life experiences suggested in life scripts generally occur between the ages of 15 and 30 years old. Glück and Bluck (2007) argue that our strongest autobiographical memories are associated with a sense of real development and progress, categorising the reminiscence bump as only consisting of positive memories involving high perceived control. |
What is the term for a memory of particular events from ones own life
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