Autobiografical Memory/ Working Self (Conway)

Happiness Subgoals being achieved Continue with plan, modifying as necessary Sadness Failure of major plan or loss of Do nothing/search for new plan active goal Anxiety Self-preservation goal threatened Stop, attend vigilantly to environment and/or escape Anger Active plan frustrated Try harder, and/or aggress Disgust Gustatory goal frustrated Reject substance and/or withdraw

Autobiogrphical Memories

Explanations:

Emotional charging

Less emotional event are also recalled

First Timers

Not Restricted to "marriage" or "18th birthdays"

Preference because those mem. are more pleasant

More effort made to remember especially from this time

encoding abilites at their peak (10-30!)

Rubin: Implicit: "Novelty Experiences": because of: period of rapid change - dominated by novel experiences - more fully engage encoding processes, and so become more accessible

Conway: Explicit: Life Themes and formation of identity

3 Features

Rubin: collated the results of three such studies.

Recency: Most Now

Why

Decay and inference of older memory

Changes in self concept and goals (WS): older stuff not relevant anymore

Like recency effetc of WM

2 Reminiscence bumps

Fewer Adolescence to Adulthood (17-27)

Rubin: Memories recalled from the period of the RB are more accurate

Least: Childhood (6-8)

Childhood Amn(0-5)

Why

Freud: Supression of harmful stuff

But pleasant memories aren't retrieved as well

Lack of emotional dev.= no social awareness

Lack of language dev.

Interstingly girls remember earlier stuff vs. boys

But memories at the time rich and diverse

Memories from our lives are:

Imoportant

Life Changing

Emotional

Oatley & Johnson-Laird: Role of emotion is to signal that ongoing behaviour should be interrupted to take account of a conflicting goal --> cant go on like that

Traumatic

PTSD

Consequnce

Hyperarousal: Constantly alert for trigger cues

Constant reexperincing through cues: As it cant be integrated into working self

Our knowledge of our lives

LTM

Declarative

Semantic

Episodic

Procedural

Organization: Hierarchical

Tulving: Episodic might be embedded in semantic memory

Specific Episodes

More sensory rich

Greater Semantic part

Less sensory rich

Life Periods

General Events

Forms

Traumatic

PTSd

Goal Related

Emotional (Oatley + Johnson Laird)

Working Self

Time period related (Later Infancy, Adolencence to young adult )

Normal / recent memory

Flashbulb Memories

Brown & Kulik coined the term

Auto M. often reinforce our concept of Self= see memories in light of our self concepts

Woring self often determins what is attended to--> remembered

Working self

Goal Hierachy

Goals

Values /Beliefs= important for Goals

Standards

Attitudes

Organisation of ABM

Hierarchic

Life Periods

General Events

Also in Semantic Memory

Specific Episodes

In Episodic Memory

Sensory charged: little videos

Fade unless integrated in Semantic Knowledge

Recall either true or constructed: car smashed into (Loftus)

PTSD

Intensly emotional memory

burned into m.

Sensory Perceptionally Charged

Doesnt fit goal hierarchy --> Memory not integrated into ws

Lack of integration leads to retention: see effect of emotion on memory

Recalled by cues rather than reconstructed

Working Self

Role

Goal Stack: (as CE in Working Memory)

Memory formation

>>If important for self_ Then Store<<

Self defining moments

Goal related experience: emotions hint to conflicting goal

I failed and I remember how

Ive done it and remember how

Autobigografical retreival

Mostly unintentional retrieval from spec.cues (i..e.smell)

Reconstruction from generic structures: i,e. Our House: not episodic but generic

How/ Why?

Conway: Relevance for self

Rubin: Novelty theory: periods of rapid change, better encoding, better accibiltiy

General Concept

1. encode daily experice on the basis of current goals and relevance to the self

not allways conscious to us

2. ... and self-conceptions

3. therfore raised accessibility

Problems

Working Self vague

ist it just goals or comlete current cognitive activity

Goal Stack vague

just goals or self relevant goals

Role of emtotions: Though in line with Oatley Johnson-Larid, not all autobiografical are emtoional

Too much emphasis on goals / also values

Constructiveness?

Yes

Hackman: PTSD patient with wrong memory

Thought was fire - but really smoke

Loftus: How fast were the cars when they smashed into each other

Crombag: Did you see the tv film of the moment the plane crashed

McLeod: Cancer Dot/ Mother Dot

PTSD

Flashbulb

Eperiments

Conway: Autobiographical Memory

McLeod: Depression / Cancer Dot Mother Dot

Loftus

Crombag