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11 - Childhood amnesia: an empirical demonstration
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- By Scott E. Wetzler, Department of Psychology, Montefiore Hospital, John A. Sweeney, The New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center
- Edited by David C. Rubin, Duke University, North Carolina
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- Book:
- Autobiographical Memory
- Published online:
- 01 March 2011
- Print publication:
- 26 September 1986, pp 191-201
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- Chapter
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Summary
Long before Freud introduced the notion of childhood amnesia, literary figures including Rousseau and Tolstoy had testified to the paucity of early memories (Salaman, 1970). Nevertheless, Freud's (1916/1953b, Vol. 16, p. 326) observation of a unique form of forgetting “which veils our earliest youth from us and makes us strangers to it” was probably the first description published in conjunction with an elaborate theoretical explanation. Freud noted that from the ages of 6 to 8 and younger there are few memories, if any at all. Those early memories that do exist are considered “screen memories” in Freud's theory, hiding an emotionally significant event behind the guise of triviality. “A person's earliest childhood memories seem frequently to have preserved what is indifferent and unimportant, whereas (frequently, though certainly not universally) no trace is found in an adult's memory of impressions dating from that time which are important, impressive and rich in affect” (1901/1953, Vol. 6, p. 43). Memory gaps and distortions constitute an important data base for Freud's inferences about infantile sexuality and the mechanism of repression (Kline, 1972), and childhood amnesia has been implicated in the etiology of numerous psychopathological conditions (Freud, 1901/1953a; Krohn, 1978). Consequently, childhood memories, their absence or their distortion, deserve investigation from a clinical and experimental standpoint. In addition, if an amnesia were proven to exist, then theories of long-term memory would need to be modified to encompass this phenomenon.
12 - Autobiographical memory across the lifespan
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- By David C. Rubin, Department of Psychology, Duke University, Scott E. Wetzler, Department of Psychology, Montefiore Hospital, Robert D. Nebes, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
- Edited by David C. Rubin, Duke University, North Carolina
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- Book:
- Autobiographical Memory
- Published online:
- 01 March 2011
- Print publication:
- 26 September 1986, pp 202-222
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Introduction
Autobiographical memory is a topic that inherently involves a lifespan approach. The development of autobiographical memory in the individual raises issues starting with childhood amnesia and progressing to reminiscence and life review. This chapter analyzes the results of studies from several different laboratories. Together, these studies cover the adult lifespan. In all cases, the data are the dates of autobiographical memories that have been cued by words. In all cases, the dependent measure is the distribution of the memories across the individual's lifespan.
The structure of the chapter is as follows. First, the cuing method used to elicit memories is described. Next, the data obtained with college students are examined in terms of a laboratory retention function. Possible extentions of this retention function to older subjects are then considered before existing studies that use subjects of various ages are reviewed. Reanalysis of the data from these studies suggests that sampling as well as retention determines the relative accessibility of autobiographical memories of older subjects. Individuals begin to reminisce when they reach middle age; they recall a disproportionate number of memories from their early lives. These findings, which are consistent over several studies, lead to a model of autobiographical memory involving three components: retention, reminiscence, and childhood amnesia.