The Development of Autobiographical Memory

The Development of Autobiographical Memory. Robyn Fivush.   Annual Review of Psychology  2011.62:559-582.

http://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/fivush/lab/FivushLabWebsite/papers/Fivush2008AnnualRev.pdf

Autobiographical memory is defined as a sense of a self as continuous in time, linked across specific experiences, placed on a personal timeline that stretches back into a personal past, linked to the present and projected into the future.

This interesting paper assumes that autobiographical memory is a cultural activity.  In TULVING'S familiar conceptualization, episodic memory (memory of life events that are stored with reference to the place and time of their occurrence) and autobiographical memory are one and the same.  Fivush argues (not in a very convincing way I must say) that it's possible to distinguish between episodic and autobiographical memory.  I won't elaborate on this point, and focus on other interesting things in this paper:

The culture in which we live defines a "culturally canonical biography" or a "life script" –   how a life typically unfolds in terms of specified events at specified developmental points  (for example, school, college, marriage, children etc.).  Our culture's typical narratives and schemes shape the way we remember our personal past.  Autobiographical memory defines the self, and the present self defines which life memories will be more, or less, accessible.

Autobiographical memory is formed by reminiscing about an event with people that witnessed the same event and also by telling about events to people that did not witness them.  The act of telling about the event, and the active participation of others in the act of telling, shapes the way the event is remembered.  Reminiscing allows us to compare the way we remember an event to the way others remember the same event.  Through shared reminiscing, children learn to form a coherent narrative that creates a personal timeline linking past events and thus defining the self.

Apparently, there are significant differences in the way mothers talk with their preschool children about events they both shared.  Some mothers tend to elaborate, asking open ended questions and encouraging their child to recall more details about the event.  They lead the child through the event and help him remember details while weaving the details they remember and the details the child remembers into a coherent story.  Mothers with a less elaborate style focus on specific details and ask their child yes/no questions.  They don't help the child unfold the whole story.

By age 5-6, children of  elaborative mothers tend to tell narratives that are more detailed and coherent about their experiences.  By age 12, these children have first memories from a younger age than children of non elaborative mothers.  This is important, since people who can create coherent life stories are mentally healthier.

When non elaborative mothers were trained to elaborate, they succeeded in doing so even months after training.  As a result their children began to tell narratives that were more elaborate and more coherent.

Apparently, mothers and fathers are more elaborative when reminiscing with their preschool daughters than with their preschool sons.  By age 5-6, girls tell longer, more detailed and more coherent narratives than boys.

Autobiographic memory begins to emerge by the end of the preschool years, but fully consolidates in adolescence and early adulthood.  This is related to the development of understanding of time concepts.  Two - three year olds use the word "tomorrow" to refer to any event in the future and the word "yesterday" to refer to any event in the past.  Preschool children can accurately judge which of two events happened in the near or far past only if both events happened relatively recently.  If the events happened more than a few months ago, even 8 year olds have difficulties judging which event preceded the other.

The development of autobiographical memory is also related to the ability to link the present self with the past self.  This ability begins to develop around age 5.  In order to study this, researchers engaged children in play and surreptitiously placed a sticker on their head during the interaction (I hope the sticker didn’t stick too hard…).  They then showed the children a videotape of themselves in the playroom with a sticker on their head, either immediately after the play session or a few days later.  Three-year-old children did not make the connection between their depiction on the videotape and the sticker at all. They simply did not reach for the sticker. Four-year old children did reach for the sticker, but they did so regardless of when they were in the playroom. Even a few days later, they immediately reached for the sticker, assuming it is still on their head. Only at age 5 did children begin to understand the temporal connection between past and present self: If shown the videotape immediately after the play session, they reached to remove the sticker; if shown a few days later, they pointed and laughed but indicated that they were aware that it was in the past and the sticker is no longer on their head. Thus, it seems that it is only by the end of the preschool years that children are able to make temporal connections between the past and present self.

In another study, researchers asked preschoolers to predict how a child might behave in a certain situation (e.g., reactions to a new dog encountered in the park). They then told children about previous experiences of particular children (e.g., this child met a dog that frightened him). They then asked the children to link together these stories with predictions about behavior in the present. Children under the age of 5 had great difficulty with these tasks. Regardless of the stories told about specific previous experiences of specific children, they continued to predict that the child will eagerly approach the dog. At about age 5, children began to link up the past and the present; they predicted that this specific child will be afraid of the dog  and they were able to explain their predictions by linking previous experiences to the present through mental states that persist through time.