Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
I was very pleased to be invited to contribute to this book marking the foundation of a center for the study of autobiographical memory in Aarhus, but somewhat daunted, given that I have not worked in the area for a number of years. I have, however, just written a chapter on the topic in a recent textbook (Baddeley, Eysenck, and Anderson, 2009), but had emerged from my review feeling that the field still seemed somewhat fragmented and atheoretical. This seemed a good opportunity to help celebrate the foundation of a center that explicitly aims to change that perception.
Labels and definitions
I do not subscribe to the view that concepts and theories require precise definition before they can be fruitfully applied. On the contrary, my view of precise definitions is that they are possible only when one has a good understanding of the broad area, and, in the case of autobiographical memory, this is not yet. However, I think that the way in which a concept is labeled can have a major effect on its acceptance and subsequent popularity, an effect that can be positive, but may also lead to confusion if different people use the same labels in different ways. I think this is the case in the study of autobiographical memory.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.