Autobiographical memory

The term autobiographical memory describes in psychology that part of the memory that stores autobiographical episodes of great importance for the individual. These are retained permanently and form a context for the content of the episodic memory . The autobiographical and the episodic memory have overlaps, but the episodic memory stores rather recent, unimportant episodes that are forgotten or become semantic knowledge .

The autobiographical memory has essential individual-personal and social functions, is identity-forming, meaningful, psychodynamic , social-communicative and performs important directive and action-guiding tasks. In addition, it determines values ​​and goals and is closely linked to the self . Without the autobiographical knowledge stored there, no continuity and no coherence can be perceived in one's own life and no development of identity can take place. The autobiographical memory is particularly important for the formation of one's own identity.

Our autobiographical memories thus determine who we are and what we are, and this self-concept in turn influences what we remember from our past. The self-concept constructed in this way is in turn embedded in our life story , which reflects certain, characteristic features of our own personality . This life story (and the self-image associated with it ) has extremely important psychological significance because it is what makes us what we are. This is not least clear in people who z. B. due to organic brain changes or severe trauma are no longer able to form an integrated life story. They lack the knowledge of themselves, their identity and they are unable to see a continuity in their life.

Everyday memory research deals with the investigation of autobiographical memory.

Contents of the autobiographical memory

Infantile amnesia

As a rule, autobiographical memory does not contain any memories of the first three years of life. This phenomenon is known as infantile amnesia or childhood amnesia .

Reminiscence Bump

The phenomenon that older people can remember many episodes of their lives from the time between 10 and 30 years - especially from the time between 15 and 25 years - is referred to as the Reminiscence Bump (German: memory hill). The phenomenon shows itself not only as an average result, but also in individual people, that is, the majority of people have the most memories from this phase.

This “hill of memories” arises because the identity develops during this time. There are many new experiences. Because they are new, these can be more easily distinguished from other episodes (no proactive interference ) and are well encoded. In addition, at this age, identity stabilizes. As a result, experiences from this time offer models for the future and the basis for cognitive structure. They thus bring about novelty and the stability that most memories remain of this time.

Accuracy of Autobiographical Memory

When remembering autobiographical events, mistakes often arise:

• Dating autobiographical memories is based on the amount of knowledge still available, i.e. events that are less known about are considered to have passed longer.
• The former self is systematically rated worse than the current self.
• Unsuccessful events are pushed further into the past than successful ones.

The last two memory errors serve to have the best possible view of the current self.

Self-memory system from Conway and Pleydell-Pearce

This theory assumes that the information in autobiographical memory can be stored in three different levels of specificity.

1. Periods of life contain thematic knowledge about longer-lasting episodes as well as information about the duration of these episodes. (e.g. relationship with partner)
2. General events are repeated as well as single events. These are linked to each other and to the periods of life. (e.g. visits to a club, vacation)
3. The event-specific knowledge contains specific images, feelings and other details from the general events.

The autobiographical memory is closely related to the self. The self sets goals and is organized hierarchically. A straight, active part of the self pursues intermediate goals that serve to achieve the higher goals of the self. These active parts interact with autobiographical memory. You determine what is important and thus what is retained, and conversely, autobiographical memory naturally also influences the self-concept.

This results in two different retrieval strategies:

1. Generative recall: memories are actively constructed and there is an interaction between the goals of the self and the autobiographical knowledge.
2. Direct recall: memories are reproduced without the influence of the self. This is experienced as a spontaneous memory.

Empirical evidence

• for different levels of specificity: Patients with retrograde amnesia could still access periods of life and general events, but no longer event- specific knowledge
• for the influence of the self on autobiographical memory: Individualistic (agentic) people are more likely to remember events in which they were active (e.g. success), while collectivistic (communal) people are more likely to remember relational experiences (love, friendship, etc. ) recall. In addition, when retrieving u. a. the frontal cortex of the left hemisphere active, in which the self-referential knowledge is suspected.
• for generative retrieval: Autobiographical memories are reproduced more slowly than other information (4s instead of 1s). Autobiographical memories on two different occasions can be very different.
• for the distinction between generative and direct retrieval: In a study, group 1 should specifically reproduce autobiographical episodes based on specific information. Group 2 was asked to reflect unreflectively whatever autobiographical episodes came to mind. Direct retrieval (group 2) resulted in more memories of event-specific episodes, while group 1 (generative retrieval) reported more life episodes and general events. The contents of the memories of group 2 are more unusual, less positive and contain more physical reactions.

See also

• Self
• Self-concept
• Self-confidence
• Self-image
• amnesia
• Episodic memory

literature

• MW Eysenck, MT Keane: Cognitive Psychology. 5th edition. Psychology Press, Hove UK, 2005.
• Christian Gudehus: Memory and Remembrance. An interdisciplinary manual. Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02259-2 .
• AF Healy Handbook of psychology: Experimental psychology. Vol. 4. Wiley & Sons, New York 2003.
• HJ Markowitsch, H. Welzer: The autobiographical memory: organic brain basics and biosocial development. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-608-94406-8 .
• Rüdiger Pohl: The autobiographical memory: the psychology of our life story. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018614-9 .
• Daniel L. Schacter: We are memory: memory and personality. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-499-61159-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Rüdiger Pohl: The autobiographical memory: The psychology of our life story . 1st edition W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018614-9 .
2. ↑ Hans J. Markowitsch, Harald Welzer : The autobiographical memory: organic brain basics and biosocial development . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-94406-0 .
3. ↑ Marlene Heinzle: On the trail of the self: The autobiographical memory. Impulse Dialog, Jena, accessed on August 28, 2017 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Daniel L. Schacter: We are memory: memory and personality . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-61159-7 .
5. ^ Christian Gudehus, Ariane Eichenberg, Harald Welzer : Memory and Memory: An Interdisciplinary Handbook . Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02259-2 .
6. ↑ Memory: When do we remember our childhood? Spectrum, September 1, 2016