ABSTRACT
Autobiographical memories may consist of individual episodes, or of recurring events, extended events, and life periods. Regardless, autobiographical memories are always referenced to self, the sense of a self existing in the present moment while recalling that past event. In addition to being able to locate a previous episode in specific time and place, a memory, to be autobiographical, must further reference self in at least three ways. First, the child must have a sense of self in the present; that is, without consciousness of a self as the center of experience, one cannot have a sense of re-experiencing a past event. Second, the child must have a sense of a self in the past. That is, they must understand that the self that is remembering now is remembering a self that existed in the past. The third criterion, that the present remembering self and the recalled previous self be linked through time; they must comprise the same self.
