Experts

Parker, E., Cahill, L., & McGaugh, J. (2006). A case of unusual autobiographical remembering. Neurocase,12, 35-49.

Schmidt, Henk G., Boshuizen, Henny P.A. & van Breukelen, Gerard J.P. (2002). Long-term retention of a theatrical script by repertory actors: The role of context. Memory, 10, 21-29.

Expertise

Neisser,U. (1982). Memorists. In U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 476-478). New York: Worth Publishers.

Luria, A.R. (1968). The mind of mnemonist. In U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 479-486). New York: Worth Publishers.

Hunt, E. & Love, T. (1972). The second mnemonist. In U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 487-495). New York: Worth Publishers.

Thompson, C., Cowan, T., Frieman, J., Mahadevan, R., Vogl, R., & Frieman, J. (1991). Rajan, Master of Pi. In U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 496-501). New York: Worth Publishers.   

Psychosis

Kalbe, E., Brand, M., Thiel, A., Kessler, J., & Markowitsch, H.J. (2008). Neuropsychological and neural correlates of autobiographical deficits in a mother who killed her children. Neurocase, 14, 15-28.

Baddeley, A., Thornton, A., Chua, S.E., & McKenna, P. (1996). Remembering our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory (pp. 244-267). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 327-428.

I thought the questions and responses that came up during class last night were quite interesting, especially around issues of choice and happiness.  I was pleased and surprised to see that the next episode of Radiolab is dedicated to just this topic, and include interviews with Malcolm Gladwell (New Yorker Magazine), John Bargh (social psychologist, Yale), Oliver Sacks (Neurologist, Columbia), Barry Schwartz (social/cognitive psychologist, Swarthmore), and Antoine Bechara (Neuroscientist, USC).  I highly recommend listening to it, and would like to hear your reactions on Tuesday.    

CHOICE

We turn up the volume on the voices in our heads and try to make sense of the babble. On a journey around the country to understand how emotion and logic interact to guide us through our options, we ponder how we get through the million choices and decisions we make every day. Forget free will, some important decisions could come down to a steaming cup of coffee.

Depression and Anxiety

Williams, J. M. G. (1996). Depression and the specificity of autobiographical memory. In D. C. Rubin (Ed.), Remembering our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory (pp. 244-267). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Edwards, S. L., Rapee, R. M., & Franklin, J. (2003). Postevent rumination and recall bias for a social performance event in high and low socially anxious individuals. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 603-617.

Wenzel, A., & Cochran, C. K. (2006). Autobiographical memories prompted by automatic thoughts in panic disorder and social phobia. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 35, 129-137.

Alien Confirmation

http://news.aol.com/article/astronaut-says-aliens-have-visited-earth/437766?icid=mainaimdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fastronaut-says-aliens-have-visited-earth%2F437766

Unusual Autobiographical Memories: Abducted

Clancy, S.A. (2005). How people come to believe they were kidnapped by space aliens. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chapters 4-6

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

Soldiers' Stress: What Doctors Get Wrong About PTSD. Scientific American. April, 2009.

Unusual Autobiographical Memories

April 16: Unusual Autobiographical Memories: Abducted

Clancy, S.A. (2005). How people come to believe they were kidnapped by space aliens. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-3

Traumatic Memory

McNally, R.J. (2003). Remembering Trauma. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chapters 7-10.

Amy Sodaro's talk

Traumatic Memory

McNally, R.J. (2003). Remembering Trauma. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chapters 5-6.

Traumatic Memory

McNally, R.J. (2003). Remembering Trauma. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-4.

Emotion and 9/11

Talarico, J.M. & Rubin. D. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterize flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14, 445-502.

Hirst, W. & Meksin, R. (2008). A social-interactionist approach to the retention of collective memories of flashbulb events. In: O. Luminet & A. Curci (Eds.). Flashbulb Memories: New Issues and New Perspectives. Psychology Press.

Sharot, T. Martorella, E.A., Delgado, M.R., Phelps, E.A. (2007). How personal experience modulates the neural circuitry of memories of September 11. PNAS, 104, 389-394.

Cohen, M., Mehl, M., & Pennebaker, J. (2004). Linguistic Markers of Psychological Change Surrounding September 11, 2001, Psychological Science.

Emotion and Autobiographical Memory

Schacter, D.L. (1996). Emotional memories: When the past persists. Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. Chapter 7.

Cahill, L., Babinsky,R., Markowitsch, H., & McGaugh, J. L. (1995). The amygdala and emotional memory. Nature, 377, 295 – 296.

Levine, L., & Pizarro, D. (2004). Emotion and Memory Research: A Grumpy Overview. Social Cognition, 22, 530-554.

Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73-79. In: U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 50-65). New York: Worth Publishers.

False Confessions

Wright, L. (1993). Remembering Satan. New Yorker Magazine.

Memory Distortion

Ikier, S., Tekcan, A.I., Guelgoez, S., & Kuentay, A. (2003). Whose life is it anyway? Adoption of each other’s autobiographical memories by twins. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 237-247.

Abe, N., et al. (2008). Neural correlates of true memory, false memory, and deception. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 2811-2819

A new case of dissociative fugue?

Did anyone else read this article in the Sunday Times? Fascinating story about a women who disappeared as a result of dissociative fugue for three weeks this past summer. Interesting to compare with Unknown White Male.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/thecity/01miss.html?scp=1&sq=fugue&st=cse

Memory Distortion

Ceci, S.J. & Bronk. M. (1993). Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 403-439.


Lindsay, D.S., Hagen, L., Read, J.D., Wade, K.A., & Garry, M. (2004). True photographs and false memory. Psychological Science, 15, 149-154.


Belli, R., & Loftus, E. (1996). The pliability of autobiographical memory: Misinformation and the false memory problem. In: D.C. Rubin (ed.) Remembering our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory. (pp. 157-179). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Emergence of Autobiographical Memory II

Mullen. M. (1994). Earliest recollections of childhood: A demographic analysis. Cognition, 52, 55-79.

Harpaz-Rotem, I. & Hirst, W. (2005). The earliest memory in individuals raised in either traditional and reformed kibbutz or outside the kibbutz. Memory, 13, 51-62.

Wang, Qi (2004). The emergence of cultural self-constructs: Autobiographical memory and self-description in European American and Chinese children. Developmental Psychology, 40, 3 –15.

The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory

Freud, S. (1917). An Early Memory from Goethe’s Autobiography. In: U. Neisser & I. E. Hyman (eds.) Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. (pp. 289-297). New York: Worth Publishers.

Fivush, R., & Nelson, K. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A
social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111, 486-511.

Howe, M.A. & Courage, M.L. (1997). The emergence and early development of autobiographical memory. Psychological Review, 104, 499-523.

Narrative Self

Bruner, J. (2002). Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. London: Harvard University Press. Chapters 3 and 4

The neurological basis of intuition

From Neurophilosophy:

According to a new study, our gut feelings can enhance the retrieval of explicitly encoded memories - those memories which we encode actively - and therefore lead to improved accuracy in simple decisions. The study, which is published online in Nature Neuroscience, also provides evidence that the retrieval of explicit and implicit memories involves distinct neural substrates and mechanisms.

http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/02/the_neurological_basis_of_intuition.php

Sensation to Emotion Conference March 2-3, 2009 • New York City

Thought some of you might be interested in this.

Conference Summary: Sensation to Emotion brings together scholars and clinicians across disciplines in order to advance the understanding of how sensory processing and emotion regulation interact, and how these processes affect human behavior. Both days of the conference feature panel discussions about basic and applied research, as well as presentations and clinical therapy workshops. We will explore the neurobehavioral processes underlying the emotions often associated with a high reactivity level to sensory information, with attention focused on the auditory domains and upon the fear response.

http://www.sensationandemotion.com

Narrative Self

Bruner, J. (2002). Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. London: Harvard University Press. Chapter 1 and 2.

Self Appraisal

Ross, M., & Wilson, A. E. (2001). From chump to champ: People’s appraisals of their earlier and present selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 572-584.

Welzer, H. (2005). Grandpa Wasn’t a Nazi: The Holocaust in German Family Remembrance. American Jewish Committee. International Perspectives, 54, 1-31.

The Boy with the Incredible Brain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbASOcqc1Ss 

6 parts

Eat Less, Remember More

Fewer calories, better memory:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/26/health.calories.memory/index.html

People with lower stress may remember more:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/22/dementia.social/index.html

Distribution, Life Scripts, and the Reminiscence Bump

Holmes & Conway (1999).Generation Identity and the Reminiscence Bump: Memory for Public and Private Events. Journal of Adult Development, 21-34.

Sehulster, J. R. (1996). In my era: Evidence for the perception of a special period of the past. Memory, 4, 145-158.

 

Rubin, D. & Bernstein, D. (2003). Life scripts help to maintain autobiographical memories of highly positive, but not highly negative, events. Memory and Cognition, 31, 1-14. 

Unknown White Male

Amnesiac characters play a central role in a wide range of films, books, and plays. For those interested in further examining the representation of amnesia in pop culture, I recommend this interesting (and controversial) documentary that I mentioned last night. I also highly suggest a book called the Vintage Book of Amnesia, edited by Jonathan Lethem.

Clive Wearing

H.M. & the History of Memory

As you all know, the patient H.M. had a profound impact on the field of neuroscience and psychology. This NPR segment on H.M. was done almost 25 years years after his infamous operation, and about one year before he passed away. It is one of the few interviews I've heard with recordings of H.M.'s voice.

From NPR:

Weekend Edition Saturday, February 24, 2007 · In 1953, radical brain surgery was used on a patient with severe epilepsy. The operation on "H.M." worked, but left him with almost no long-term memory. H.M. is now in his 80s. His case has helped scientists understand much more about the brain.

To listen follow the link to the 'listen now" icon:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970

How Autobiographical Memories are Distributed Across our Lives

Linton, M. (1986). Ways of searching and the content of memory. In D. C. Rubin (ed.), Autobiographical memory (pp. 50-67). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Schacter, D. (1996). Of time and autobiography. Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. (pp. 72-98).

Rubin, D. C. & Schulkind, M.D. (1997). The distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan. Memory and Cognition, 25, 859-866.

Schrauf, R. W. & Rubin, D. C. (1998). Bilingual autobiographical memory in older adult immigrants: A test of cognitive explanations of the reminiscence bump and the linguistic encoding of memories. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 1-21.

Memory Systems and Amnesia

Sacks, O. (2007). A Neurologist’s notebook. The abyss: Music and amnesia. New Yorker Magazine.

Carety, B. (2008).H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82. The New York Times.

Schacter, D.L. (1996). Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. Chapter 5 & 6.

Sacks, O. (1995). The Last Hippie. In: O. Sacks (ed.). An Anthropologist from Mars. Random House.

Autobiographical Memory: PSYC3724R

Autobiographical memories represent the fabric of who we are as individuals, with content that ranges from mundane events to our most self-defining moments. It figures prominently in every aspect of our lives: earliest childhood recollections, developmental milestones and achievements, personal loss and public tragedy, and the breakdown of these memories across the lifespan. While autobiographical memory is one of the oldest topics within memory research it has become the subject of intense psychological study only recently. In this course we will survey and critically examine the evolution of perspectives that structure the field by juxtaposing canonical texts with current examples of empirical research. We will then draw from developmental psychology, clinical neuropsychology, personality theory, philosophy, sociology, law, and cognitive neuroscience to investigate the contexts and conditions that shape how autobiographical memory functions within individuals and between groups. We will question: How do culture, language, and gender influence the emergence of autobiographical memory and self-identity? What we can learn through diary studies? Where do these memories reside in the brain? What is the distribution of these memories across our lives? What are the effects of emotion and stress on memory? What are flashbulb memories? How accurate are eyewitness testimonies?  How do neuropsychological and psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, amnesia, and Alzheimer’s shape the past? We will also look at unusual cases of autobiographical memory such as alien abductions, multiple past lives, and memory experts. Conference work will offer students the opportunity to apply ongoing issues in autobiographical memory research to a wide range of disciplines including science, law, medicine, art, media, politics, and ethics