ABSTRACT

This introduction chapter presents the overall description of the book and also the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The book discusses the special issue of memory studies. It further brings together diverse perspectives in memory research from cultural, social and cognitive psychologists, to philosophers and linguists. In much of the research, context has been used as code for ecological validity, bringing psychological research out from the lab into the real world. Therefore, to truly appreciate the way context shapes and reshapes memories, it is incumbent upon memory researchers to delineate the types of contexts and how they shape the way individuals and groups remember the past. The book aims to extend the work of the special issue and explicitly examines how different but interrelated contexts shape the way individuals and groups remember the past in natural, applied and experimental settings.