ABSTRACT
Autobiographical memory has been defined as “memory for the events of one’s life” (Conway & Rubin, 1993) and can be considered to be a special case of explicit or declarative memory. Phenomenologically, autobiographical memory forms our “personal life history”. Such memories involve the who, what, where, and when of personalized events that collectively form a vital part of our knowledge about who we are. Critically, the loss of this important self-memory relationship that occurs in amnesic conditions has devastating consequences for the individual affected (Conway & Fthenaki, 2000). Although there is a large literature on the characteristics and function of autobiographical memory in later childhood and adulthood (for reviews, see Conway, 2005; Fivush, Chapter 11, this volume; Rubin, 1996), considerably less is known about its genesis and early development. Although it is clear that factors such as language, culture, belief, understanding of others, one’s own life history, and our current perceptions and expectations can all influence our ability to remember the events of our lives and, importantly, the way in which we remember them, these variables do not contribute directly to the nascence of autobiographical memory (e.g., see Howe, 2004). Rather, we contend that the factor that is most important to the emergence of autobiographical memory (Howe & Courage, 1993, 1997; Howe, Courage, & Edison, 2003) as well as to autobiographical memory throughout the lifespan is the self (e.g., Conway, 2005). Without a well-articulated sense of self, there can be no autobiography. Before we examine the critical role of the self in the origins of human autobiographical memory we provide a brief overview of what memory is like prior to the onset of autobiographical memory and of the dynamic forces that change simple event memories into memories that happened to “me”.
