Autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory

1. The working self (Conway)

   • Made up of goal hierarchy of active goals and a set of self-conceptions which directly affect how 'experiences' are encoded into memories
   • Lifespan retrieval curve illustrates recall of AM
     • Period of childhood amnesia (birth to five years)
     • Recency (declines from present)
     • Reminiscence bump (10-30 years)
       • Rubin: 'novelty hypothesis' times in which many changes occur lead to fuller memory encoding & highly accessible in memory
       • Conway suggest that memories from RB are self-defining experiences thus help to define identity and endure in memory in a highly accessible form

2. Autobiographical knowledge

   • Conway
     • General events
       • Can be grouped (corresponding to achieving goals related to self
       • Can be represented in several ways but most often image based
       • Can be used to access associated sensory-perceptual episodic memories to form specific and detailed AM
     • Lifetime periods
       • Memories of first-time events can create long lasting evaluations of the self by cueing other memories
       • Bluck and Habermas 'life story' set of themes that describe persons life containing shcemas that link autobiographical knowledge