Autobiographical memory

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An autobiographical memory is a personal representation of general or specific events and personal facts. Autobiographical memory also refers to memory of a person’s history. An individual does not remember exactly everything that has happened in one’s past. Memory is constructive, where previous experience affects how we remember events and what we end up recalling from memory. Autobiographical memory is constructive and reconstructed as an evolving process of past history. A person’s autobiographical memory is fairly reliable; although, the reliability of autobiographical memories is questionable because of memory distortions. Autobiographical memories can differ for special periods of life. Middle-aged adults better remember events from their youthful adolescence periods than past recent events.

1 Types
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Types

Specific Events

When one first stepped foot in the ocean. On a family trip to California.

General Events

What it is like stepping into the ocean for oneself generally. This is a memory of what a personal event is generally like. One might have based it on the memories of having stepped in the ocean, many times during the years one lived in California.

Personal Facts

"Who was the Prime Minister of Canada when I was born?"

Flash Bulb Memories

Flash bulb memories are critical Autobiographical Memories about a major event. Some flash bulb memories are shared within a social group and today, much of humanity.

"Where were you on 9/11?"

"The assassination of John Kennedy?"

"The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.?"

"The Challenger explosion?"

"The verdict in the OJ Simpson trial?"

[edit] See also

Autobiographic memory is a major research area within cognitive science which is itself a movement in psychology. Understanding emotion and memory is important for predicting which autobiographical events will be remembered.

[edit] References

Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73-99.

Conway, M. A., & Pleydell Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261-288.