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2 - Networks of Autobiographical Memories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Helen L. Williams  and
Martin A. Conway
Edited by
Pascal Boyer  and
James V. Wertsch
Pascal Boyer
Affiliation:
Washington University, St. Louis
James V. Wertsch
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

An individual's autobiographical memory is made up of their episodic memory, memory for specific episodes of their lives, and their conceptual, generic, and schematic knowledge of their personal history: their autobiographical knowledge. In a typical act of remembering, these two types are brought together and a specific memory from one's life is recalled. These autobiographical memories are the content of the self. They locate us in sociohistorical time, they locate us in our societies and in our social groups, they define the self. In important ways, autobiographical memories allow the self to develop and at the same time they constrain what we can become. In this chapter we outline a little of what is known about the representation of autobiographical memories in the mind and how they are constructed in consciousness. With this in mind, we then turn to the function that autobiographical memories have in defining the self by making certain networks of memories that ground the self in making a specific experienced reality highly accessible.

AN INTRODUCTION TO AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY RESEARCH

Although the formal scientific study of memory has been in existence for at least a century, since the early work of scientists such as Ebbinghaus (1885/1964), Galton (1883), and Ribot (1882), the study of autobiographical memory was neglected during much of this period as a result of the complexities associated with this type of recall.

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Memory in Mind and Culture , pp. 33 - 61
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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