The Development of Autobiographical Memory

by Markowitsch; Hans J.

• ISBN13: 9781848720206
• ISBN10: 1848720203
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-25
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

Autobiographical memory constitutes an essential part of our personality, giving us the ability to distinguish ourselves as an individual with a past, present and future. This book reveals how the development of a conscious self, an integrated personality and an autobiographical memory are all intertwined, highlighting the parallel development of the brain, memory and personality. Focusing strongly on developmental aspects of memory and integrating evolutionary and anthropological perspectives, areas of discussion include: why non-human animals lack autobiographical memory development of the speech areas in the brain prenatal and transnatal development of memory autobiographical memory in young children. This book offers a unique approach through combining both neuroscientfic and social scientific viewpoints, and as such will be of great interest to all those wanting to broaden their knowledge of the development and acquisition of memory and the conscious self.

Author Biography

Hans J. Markowitsch is Professor of Physiological Psychology and Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research at Bielefeld University, Germany. Harald Welzer is Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research in Essen and Research Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Witten/Herdecke. He also teaches at the University of Hannover, Germany, and at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
An interdisciplinary view of memory	p. 1
A new approach to viewing memory	p. 3
Zones of convergence between different sciences	p. 15
True and false memories	p. 17
Why other animals lack autobiographical memory	p. 29
Distinctions between the brains of humans and other primates	p. 30
Evolution and the brain: body weight and brain volume as indicators of intellectual maturity and abilities	p. 41
Development of autobiographical memory and the brain	p. 49
Interdependent development of memory and other cognitive and emotional functions	p. 51
Functions of the frontal lobes	p. 51
Motivation and emotions: the limbic system	p. 55
World knowledge and consciousness	p. 56
Urbach-Wiethe disease: the relevance of the amygdala to emotions	p. 57
The hippocampus: an ancient cortex that made the phylogenetic journey from spatial analyzer to temporal analyzer of stimuli	p. 59
What is memory?	p. 60
Sensory systems: the special sense of smell	p. 62
Forms of learning	p. 64
What kinds of memory are there?	p. 66
Which areas of the brain are involved in information processing?	p. 71
The development of the brain	p. 74
Myelinization, synaptogenesis and pruning: mechanisms of functional development in neurons	p. 74
The course of development in the nervous system: phylogenesis and ontogenesis	p. 83
Development and localization of speech	p. 94
Plasticity: environmental influence on neuronal maturation	p. 94
Development of the speech areas in the brain	p. 102
Processes of maturation in the brain: prerequisites for the origin and consolidation of memory	p. 105
Priming versus consciousness: how modifiable are we?	p. 108
Autobiographical memory: a lifelong developmental task	p. 111
Development of learning and memory: the prenatal period and the first months of life	p. 113
Prenatal and transnatal development of memory: earliest forms of learning	p. 113
Brain structures of unconscious learning: basal ganglia and unimodal cortex	p. 116
Memory during the first months of life	p. 118
Brain structures relevant to working memory: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and associated areas	p. 133
The first quantum leap in memory development: the 9 months' revolution	p. 143
The socialization of emotions	p. 147
Primary and secondary emotions	p. 148
Social interaction and neuronal development	p. 150
Chunking	p. 153
The second quantum leap in memory development: language	p. 161
Acquisition of protolanguage	p. 162
Protoconversation	p. 165
Speech acquisition	p. 167
Memory talk	p. 170
Theory of mind: psychological understanding	p. 175
Brain structures relevant to psychological understanding or the theory of mind: the orbitofrontal cortex and adjacent areas	p. 176
Exploring autobiographical memory in young children	p. 181
Self-recognition	p. 182
Memory of events	p. 182
Locality as a context for events	p. 184
Arranging events chronologically	p. 184
Autobiographical memory: a continuum in transformation	p. 187
The age at which memory appears: results of an interdisciplinary research project on remembering and memory	p. 197
A formative theory of memory development	p. 205
Episodic memory in the definition of Endel Tulving	p. 206
Memory at advanced ages	p. 215
Working memory, executive functions and long-term memory	p. 220
Deficits in other cognitive and emotional functions	p. 225
Autobiographical memory: a biocultural relay between the individual and the environment	p. 231
References	p. 235
Index	p. 275
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