The beginning of the life story: The meaning of the earliest autobiographical memory from an adult perspective

Hutmacher, Fabian; Morgenroth, Karolina

doi:10.1002/acp.3948

Applied Cognitive Psychology

2022

DOI: 10.1002/acp.3948

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The beginning of the life story: The meaning of the earliest autobiographical memory from an adult perspective

Fabian Hutmacher

Karolina Morgenroth

Abstract: Earliest autobiographical memories mark a potential beginning of our life story. However, their meaning has hardly been investigated. Against this background, participants (N = 182) were asked to think about two kinds of meaning: the meaning that the remembered event might have had in the moment of experience and the meaning that the memory of the event has for their present life situation. With respect to the meaning in the moment of experience, participants most frequently referred to situational characteris… Show more

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Cited by 3 publications

References 58 publications

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Earliest versus other autobiographical memories of school-age children

Kangaslampi

2023

Curr Psychol

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Earliest memories have been the topic of scientific research for over a century and seen use as tools of clinical assessment. Still, it remains unclear whether they are in some way distinct or revealing about the person reporting them. This preregistered study examined whether children’s self-reported earliest memories differ from other memories, and how their features link with mood and gender. Urban 9–13-year-old children in Finland (N = 166) reported on their earliest memory and another old autobiographical memory, and mood. Memories were coded for specificity, thematic content, social orientation, and emotional content. No differences between earliest and other memories were noted in specificity, trauma- and accident-related content, or emotional content. However, earliest memories had more play- and less visit-related content and were less likely to be social. Negative mood did not generally correlate with features of memories. Girls reported more social earliest and other memories, and more positive earliest memories. The findings are compared to research in other cultural environments. Overall, they do not support a privileged position for the earliest memory as an object of scientific research or clinical assessment.

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Earliest versus other autobiographical memories of school-age children

Kangaslampi

2023

Curr Psychol

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Touching an elephant in a dark room: philosophical, psychological, and literary perspectives on dementia

Hutmacher

2023

cult.psych.

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ZusammenfassungDemenzielle Erkrankungen sind mehr als neurodegenerative Erkrankungen des Gehirns. Um diese These plausibel zu machen, präsentiert der vorliegende Aufsatz philosophische, psychologische und literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf demenzielle Erkrankungen. Aus einer philosophisch-psychologischen Perspektive wird dabei zunächst gezeigt, dass das Selbst von Menschen mit Demenz auch mit fortschreitendem Krankheitsverlauf nicht seine lebensgeschichtliche Tiefe verliert. In einem zweiten Schritt wird darauf aufbauend argumentiert, dass demenzielle Erkrankungen nicht nur die erkrankte Person selbst, sondern immer auch ein soziales Beziehungsgefüge betreffen. Als eine Option, mit den daraus resultierenden Belastungen umzugehen, wird die Beschäftigung mit kreativen Aktivitäten vorgestellt. Basierend darauf wird schließlich die Frage erörtert, welche Einsichten die Auseinandersetzung mit literarischen Demenzdarstellungen bereithalten kann. Hervorgehoben wird dabei neben der Möglichkeit der mimetischen Annäherung an die Innenperspektive erkrankter Personen vor allem das Potenzial, gedankliche Resonanz- und Assoziationsräume zu öffnen. Mit der Beschreibung dieser unterschiedlichen disziplinären Perspektiven liefert der vorliegende Aufsatz keine umfassende Analyse demenzieller Erkrankungen, sondern versteht sich vielmehr als Einladung, weitere Sichtweisen ins Spiel zu bringen und so das Gesamtbild zu vervollständigen.

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Tell me why: the missing w in episodic memory’s what, where, and when

Morales-Calva,

Leal

2024

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Endel Tulving defined episodic memory as consisting of a spatiotemporal context. It enables us to recollect personal experiences of people, things, places, and situations. In other words, it is made up of what, where, and when components. However, this definition does not include arguably the most important aspect of episodic memory: the why. Understanding why we remember has important implications to better understand how our memory system works and as a potential target of intervention for memory impairment. The intrinsic and extrinsic factors related to why some experiences are better remembered than others have been widely investigated but largely independently studied. How these factors interact with one another to drive an event to become a lasting memory is still unknown. This review summarizes research examining the why of episodic memory, where we aim to uncover the factors that drive core features of our memory. We discuss the concept of episodic memory examining the what, where, and when, and how the why is essential to each of these key components of episodic memory. Furthermore, we discuss the neural mechanisms known to support our rich episodic memories and how a why signal may provide critical modulatory impact on neural activity and communication. Finally, we discuss the individual differences that may further drive why we remember certain experiences over others. A better understanding of these elements, and how we experience memory in daily life, can elucidate why we remember what we remember, providing important insight into the overarching goal of our memory system.

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The beginning of the life story: The meaning of the earliest autobiographical memory from an adult perspective

Cited by 3 publications

References 58 publications

Earliest versus other autobiographical memories of school-age children

Earliest versus other autobiographical memories of school-age children

Touching an elephant in a dark room: philosophical, psychological, and literary perspectives on dementia

Tell me why: the missing w in episodic memory’s what, where, and when

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