Towards a bio-psycho-social model of autobiographical memory

Self-awareness and identity are important cornerstones of thinking in social psychology. On the basis of current knowledge and theories from the social, cultural, and biological sciences, this paper attempts to outline an integrative approach to the phenomena of memory and reminiscence. Reference to psycho-dynamic argumentation is made in addition, where appropriate. The central topic to our argumentation is autobiographical memory, which we analyse according to evolutionary, neuroscientific, and cultural findings. The emotional context and the ontogenetic development of reminiscences (or memories directly relating to one's own self) provide the preliminary framework for an integrated view which includes interactions between the life span, brain development, the social and cultural environment, and genetic predispositions.     

The slave model of autobiographical memory

In this paper the nature of the relationship between psychological mechanisms that process semantic information and those that process autobiographical memory is considered. On the basis of theoretical work by Endel Tulving, and empirical research into the construction of false memories, a novel model of autobiographical memory construction is proposed. This model is referred to as the slave model of autobiographical memory and has that the mechanisms responsible for the production of autobiographical memories are enslaved to those that support semantic information, in the sense that beliefs determine the content of autobiographical memory. Implications of the model for the potential double dissociation of semantic and episodic memory are considered; as are recent accounts of autobiographical memory construction.     

A developmental psychopathology model of overgeneral autobiographical memory

Overgeneral memory (OGM) is a phenomenon that refers to difficulty retrieving specific autobiographical memories. The tendency to be overgeneral in autobiographical memory recall has been commonly observed among individuals with emotional disorders compared to those without emotional disorders. Despite significant advances in identifying mechanisms that underlie OGM, etiological models are not particularly developmental in nature and, instead, are focused on identifying isolated cognitive presentations of individuals with high OGM. The aim of the current paper is to utilize a developmental psychopathology framework, which emphasizes the interface between typical and atypical development, and risk and protective factors at multiple ecological levels, to propose a comprehensive model of OGM development. Specifically, (1) the progression of current etiological models of OGM is reviewed; (2) developmental theory and research on autobiographical memory that have relevance for OGM are discussed; and (3) an integrative model of OGM that includes processes at psychological, biological, social, and cultural levels is proposed. Directions for future research are formulated and treatment implications derived from this perspective are addressed.     

Sampling autobiographical memory

An empirical procedure for probing autobiographical memory was assessed. Words designating common objects, activities, and feelings were used as guides for recall of discrete experiences. Four properties of the recollections were assessed: latency, age of occurrence, temporal specificity of memory report, and type of experience. The three results of most general interest were: (1) consistent differences in properties of reports elicited by affect terms and those elicited by object and activity words; (2) a curvilinear relationship between latency and event age; and (3) reliable sex differences. Several proposals regarding the organization of autobiographical memory, and voluntary recall of personal experiences are discussed.     

Regret as autobiographical memory

We apply an autobiographical memory framework to the study of regret. Focusing on the distinction between regrets for specific and general events we argue that the temporal profile of regret, usually explained in terms of the action–inaction distinction, is predicted by models of autobiographical memory. In two studies involving participants in their sixties we demonstrate a reminiscence bump for general, but not for specific regrets. Recent regrets were more likely to be specific than general in nature. Coding regrets as actions/inactions revealed that general regrets were significantly more likely to be due to inaction while specific regrets were as likely to be due to action as to inaction. In Study 2 we also generalised all of these findings to a group of participants in their 40s. We re-interpret existing accounts of the temporal profile of regret within the autobiographical memory framework, and outline the practical and theoretical advantages of our memory-based distinction over traditional decision-making approaches to the study of regret.     

When autobiographical memory begins

The authors review competing theories concerning the emergence and early development of autobiographical memory. It is argued that the differences between these accounts, although important, may be more apparent than real. The crux of these disagreements lies not in what processes are important, but rather, the role these different processes play in the emergence of autobiographical memory and the temporal primacy of these controlling variables. These differences are explored theoretically and then extant as well as new data are brought to bear on these issues. What emerges is a new, more inclusive, multifactorial framework that integrates the controlling variables from diverse perspectives providing a more complete account of the beginnings of autobiographical memory.     

Organization in autobiographical memory

Three experiments investigated timed autobiographical memory retrieval to cue words and phrases. In the first experiment, subjects retrieved memories to cues that named semantic category members and were primed with the superordinate category name or with a neutral word. No prime effects were observed. In the second experiment, subjects retrieved memories to primed and unprimed semantic category cues and to personal primes and personal history cues. Personal primes named lifetime periods (e.g., “school days”) and personal history cues named general events occurring in those lifetime periods for each subject (e.g., “holiday in Italy”). Only personal primes were found to significantly facilitate memory retrieval. A third experiment replicated this finding and also failed to find any prime effects to primes and cues naming activities not directly related to an individual’s personal history. In this experiment, characteristics of recalled events (e.g,, personal importance, frequency of rehearsal, pleasantness, and specificity of the memory) were found to be strongly associated with memories retrieved to personal cues and only mildly associated with memories retrieved to other types of cues. These findings suggest that one way in which autobiographical memories may be organized is in terms of a hierarchically structured abstracted personal history.     

Regret as autobiographical memory

We apply an autobiographical memory framework to the study of regret. Focusing on the distinction between regrets for specific and general events we argue that the temporal profile of regret, usually explained in terms of the action–inaction distinction, is predicted by models of autobiographical memory. In two studies involving participants in their sixties we demonstrate a reminiscence bump for general, but not for specific regrets. Recent regrets were more likely to be specific than general in nature. Coding regrets as actions/inactions revealed that general regrets were significantly more likely to be due to inaction while specific regrets were as likely to be due to action as to inaction. In Study 2 we also generalised all of these findings to a group of participants in their 40s. We re-interpret existing accounts of the temporal profile of regret within the autobiographical memory framework, and outline the practical and theoretical advantages of our memory-based distinction over traditional decision-making approaches to the study of regret.     

Olfactory cuing of autobiographical memory

In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with either the odors or the names of 15 common objects. In Experiment 2, subjects were presented with either the odors, photographs, or names of 16 common objects. All subjects were asked to describe an autobiographical memory evoked by each cue, to date each memory, and to rate each memory on vividness, pleasantness, and the number of times that the memory had been thought of and talked about prior to the experiment. Compared with memories evoked by photographs or names, memories evoked by odors were reported to be thought of and talked about less often prior to the experiment and were more likely to be reported as never having been thought of or talked about prior to the experiment. No other effects were consistently found, though there was a suggestion that odors might evoke more pleasant and emotional memories than other types of cues. The relation of these results to the folklore concerning olfactory cuing is discussed.     

Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory

Functional neuroimaging studies of autobiographical memory have grown dramatically in recent years. These studies are important because they can investigate the neural correlates of processes that are difficult to study using laboratory stimuli, including: (i) complex constructive processes, (ii) recollective qualities of emotion and vividness, and (iii) remote memory retrieval. Constructing autobiographical memories involves search, monitoring and self-referential processes that are associated with activity in separable prefrontal regions. The contributions of emotion and vividness have been linked to the amygdala and visual cortex respectively. Finally, there is evidence that recent and remote autobiographical memories might activate the hippocampus equally, which has implications for memory-consolidation theories. The rapid development of innovative methods for eliciting personal memories in the scanner provides the opportunity to delve into the functional neuroanatomy of our personal past.     

Origins of autobiographical memory.

This study tested the predictions of M. L. Howe and M. L. Courage's (1993, 1997) theory of infantile amnesia compared with a social-interactionist account of autobiographical memory development (R. Fivush & E. Reese, 1992; K. Nelson, 1993b). Fifty-eight mother-child dyads were assessed for maternal styles of talking about the past and for children's self-recognition, language production, and nonverbal memory when the children were 19 months old. Children's shared and independent memory reports were then assessed from 19 to 32 months. Maternal reminiscing style and self-recognition uniquely predicted children's shared memory reports across time, even with children's initial language and nonverbal memory factored out. Self-recognition skills also predicted children's later independent memory. These results support a pluralistic account of the origins of autobiographical memory.     

Emotional organization of autobiographical memory

The emotional organization of autobiographical memory was examined by determining whether emotional cues would influence autobiographical retrieval in younger and older adults. Unfamiliar musical cues that represented orthogonal combinations of positive and negative valence and high and low arousal were used. Whereas cue valence influenced the valence of the retrieved memories, cue arousal did not affect arousal ratings. However, high-arousal cues were associated with reduced response latencies. A significant bias to report positive memories was observed, especially for the older adults, but neither the distribution of memories across the life span nor response latencies varied across memories differing in valence or arousal. These data indicate that emotional information can serve as effective cues for autobiographical memories and that autobiographical memories are organized in terms of emotional valence but not emotional arousal. Thus, current theories of autobiographical memory must be expanded to include emotional valence as a primary dimension of organization.     

Directed search through autobiographical memory

Two experiments were designed to study retrieval from a well-ordered set of overlearned information in long-term autobiographical memory. In Experiment 1, each of 161 university students was asked to recall the name of one teacher from each of the 12 preuniversity school years. Recall was cued in forward (Grades 1-12), backward (Grades 12-1), or random order. Backward-ordered search proved most efficient: Fewer students failed to complete the task :in that search order, and those who did complete the task were faster than the successful students in the other search orders. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1, except that the 148 students tested were asked to “think aloud” as they attempted recall. From the resulting protocols, 25 categories of verbal reports were identified, including four that reflected retrieval strategies. Omission errors (failures to recall teachers’ names) and, with one exception, frequencies of verbal reports decreased as recency increased. Taken together, the results of both experiments show that the recall of one item can indirectly aid the recall of contiguous items and that the probability of recalling an item from autobiographical memory is primarily a function of recency.     

Rumination and overgeneral autobiographical memory

Two studies investigated the effects of rumination on the retrieval of autobiographical memories in high-depressed and low-depressed individuals. Experiment 1 administered either a rumination or distraction task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. High-depressed participants recalled more overgeneral memories following rumination relative to distraction, whereas experimental inductions did not influence low-depressed participants. Experiment 2 administered either a positive or negative rumination task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. Negatively valenced rumination led high-depressed participants to recall more overgeneral memories than positively valenced rumination; this effect was not observed in low-depressed participants. These findings accord with the proposal that rumination is a mediating mechanism in the retrieval of overgeneral memories, and extends this proposal by indicating that negatively valenced ruminative content is particularly instrumental in inducing overgeneral retrieval.     

Ruminative self-focus and autobiographical memory

Many studies have shown a positive relationship between elevated dispositional self-focus and emotional disorder. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) proposed that this relationship was only true for ruminative forms of self-focus, reflective self-focus being associated with psychological health. The present study aimed: (1) to examine the replicability of Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) questionnaire-based differentiation of reflective and ruminative dispositional self-focus; (2) to see whether reflection and rumination could also be differentiated using measures of autobiographical memory; (3) to see whether such memory measures could elucidate mechanisms underlying different forms of dispositional self-focus. 130 volunteers retrieved autobiographical memories to neutral cue words and completed questionnaires. Questionnaires differentiated reflection and rumination: reflection correlated with openness to experience, whereas rumination correlated with neuroticism, replicating previous findings that it is specifically ruminative self-focus that is maladaptive. Memory measures also differentiated reflection and rumination: reflection was unrelated to the affective qualities of memories, whereas rumination correlated with measures of the happiness, unhappiness and at-oneness of memories. Dispositional ruminative self-focus, like neuroticism, was specifically related to increased accessibility of memories of events where individuals felt “not at all at-one with things”. This style of memory access could underpin dispositional ruminative self-focus, which is closely linked to neuroticism.     

Assessing autobiographical memory: the web-based autobiographical Implicit Association Test

By assessing the association strength with TRUE and FALSE, the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT) [Sartori, G., Agosta, S., Zogmaister, C., Ferrara, S. D., &; Castiello, U. (2008). How to accurately detect autobiographical events. Psychological Science, 19, 772–780. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02156.x] aims to determine which of two contrasting statements is true. To efficiently run well-powered aIAT experiments, we propose a web-based aIAT (web-aIAT). Experiment 1 (n?=?522) is a web-based replication study of the first published aIAT study [Sartori, G., Agosta, S., Zogmaister, C., Ferrara, S. D., &; Castiello, U. (2008). How to accurately detect autobiographical events. Psychological Science, 19, 772–780. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02156.x; Experiment 1]. We conclude that the replication was successful as the web-based aIAT could accurately detect which of two playing cards participants chose (AUC?=?.88; Hit rate?=?81%). In Experiment 2 (n?=?424), we investigated whether the use of affirmative versus negative sentences may partly explain the variability in aIAT accuracy findings. The aIAT could detect the chosen card when using affirmative (AUC?=?.90; Hit rate?=?81%), but not when using negative sentences (AUC?=?.60; Hit rate?=?53%). The web-based aIAT seems to be a valuable tool to facilitate aIAT research and may help to further identify moderators of the test’s accuracy.     

Towards a synthetic model of own group biases in face memory

In the current work, we extend the Categorization-Individuation Model (Hugenberg, Young, Bernstein, & Sacco, 2010)—an existing model of the own race bias—to organize and explain the proliferation of own group biases in face memory. In this model, we propose that own group biases result from the coacting processes of social categorization,motivation to individuate, and individuation experience. This extended Categorization-Individuation Model affords a number of benefits. First, this model allows us to begin to consider various own group biases as manifestations a single class of phenomena, offering sensible predictions across and among biases. Further, this extended Categorization-Individuation Model makes novel predictions for how own group biases can be exacerbated and eliminated by both perceptual and motivational processes, allowing for potentially novel interventions forown group biases. Finally,we discuss a variety of open questions with regard to an extended Categorization-Individuation Model, with an eye towards framing future research questions.     

Operant conditioning of autobiographical memory retrieval

Functional avoidance is considered as one of the key mechanisms underlying overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). According to this view OGM is regarded as a learned cognitive avoidance strategy, based on principles of operant conditioning; i.e., individuals learn to avoid the emotionally painful consequences associated with the retrieval of specific negative memories. The aim of the present study was to test one of the basic assumptions of the functional avoidance account, namely that autobiographical memory retrieval can be brought under operant control. Here 41 students were instructed to retrieve personal memories in response to 60 emotional cue words. Depending on the condition, they were punished with an aversive sound for the retrieval of specific or nonspecific memories in an operant conditioning procedure. Analyzes showed that the course of memory specificity significantly differed between conditions. After the procedure participants punished for nonspecific memories retrieved significantly more specific memories compared to participants punished for specific memories. However, whereas memory specificity significantly increased in participants punished for specific memories, it did not significantly decrease in participants punished for nonspecific memories. Thus, while our findings indicate that autobiographical memory retrieval can be brought under operant control, they do not support a functional avoidance view on OGM.     

Sociocultural developmental approaches to autobiographical memory

The sociocultural developmental model of autobiographical memory development has been a highly generative theoretical framework over the past 30 years, garnering both a great deal of empirical attention and support. In this article, the author details the theoretical framework and reviews the empirical evidence that indicates that individual differences in maternal reminiscing style has profound and enduring implications for the development of autobiographical memory. Concurrent, longitudinal, and experimental intervention research has demonstrated that mothers who reminisce in more highly elaborated ways with their preschool children facilitate the development of more elaborate and coherent autobiographical memories.     

Emotional intensity predicts autobiographical memory experience

College students generated autobiographical memories from distinct emotional categories that varied in valence (positive vs. negative) and intensity (high vs. low). They then rated various perceptual, cognitive, and emotional properties for each memory. The distribution of these emotional memories favored a vector model over a circumplex model. For memories of all specific emotions, intensity accounted for significantly more variance in autobiographical memory characteristics than did valence or age of the memory. In two additional experiments, we examined multiple memories of emotions of high intensity and positive or negative valence and of positive valence and high or low intensity. Intensity was a more consistent predictor of autobiographical memory properties than was valence or the age of the memory in these experiments as well. The general effects of emotion on autobiographical memory properties are due primarily to intensity differences in emotional experience, not to benefits or detriments associated with a specific valence.