ABSTRACT
When we talk of memory we all know what we mean: we lay down memories of our everyday experiences and then later on we attempt to recall instances from this databank. According to Baddeley (1997) the memory system consists of three closely interlinked stages of processing: first encoding, an initial and highly selective processing of new information; second storage, a limited capacity retention of encoded information over time; and third retrieval, the attempts to access the encoded/stored information. Memory is usually thought to consist of two ‘stores’: semantic (i.e. general factual information) and episodic (i.e. information about past personal life experiences). In this chapter we are only interested in the storage and retrieval of autobiographical ‘episodic’ memories. These are essential for self-descriptions, emotions, and the phenomenology of an individual across time and life-time experience, which contributes to an individual’s sense of self (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and inevitably carries related physical, social, and emotional stamps.
