ABSTRACT
Many of the issues presented in other chapters covered aspects of human memory, such as knowing how to ride a bike, remembering whether a word has been seen before, or knowing what a bird is. While these are important, there are other factors that are important to who we are as people. These are the memories that make us unique. They help form our identities and give structure to our lives. When we meet new people, an important part of getting to know one another is to exchange memories, often by providing excerpts from our life story. The memory of our life story is autobiographical memory, and it is the focus of this chapter. Autobiographical memory covers events and other knowledge about your life. This chapter covers general characteristics of autobiographical memories and the various levels of detail in them. We consider how autobiographical memory has a narrative character and how it changes over time and develops, including infantile amnesia for our earliest memories and a reminiscence bump for central portions of our lives. Finally, we cover issues involved with flashbulb memories for surprising events.
