Our autobiographical memories aren't perfect, but whether we are looking forward or gazing back into the past, our personal narratives are central to creating our identities.
Martin Conway of City University London notes that as we venture further from the safety of our upbringing, our autobiographical memories continue to mature. The difference is quite noticeable - a 10-year-old cannot relay a coherent life story, but a 20-year-old can go on for hours. "Something happens over that adolescent period," Conway observes. Studies to answer what that something is are lacking at present. "There's a big lacuna between about age 7 to late adolescence where we don't really know what's going on," Conway says.
Martin Conway of City University London notes that as we venture further from the safety of our upbringing, our autobiographical memories continue to mature. The difference is quite noticeable - a 10-year-old cannot relay a coherent life story, but a 20-year-old can go on for hours. "Something happens over that adolescent period," Conway observes. Studies to answer what that something is are lacking at present. "There's a big lacuna between about age 7 to late adolescence where we don't really know what's going on," Conway says.
It is known, however, that we are more likely to remember events from the end of this period, in young adulthood, than from any other period in our lives. This "reminiscence bump" may be the result of anatomical changes to the still developing brain. Alternatively, it may be that our brains feel emotions more keenly during adolescence and early adulthood - and memories linked to intense feelings stick in the mind for longer. Or perhaps it is simply down to the fact that many important landmarks in our lives - learning to drive, graduating, and falling in love for the first time - tend to fall within this period. Those events are also likely to be remembered because they're culturally marked.
Recent work in Denmark supports this idea. Annette Bohn and Dorthe Berntsen at Aarhus University found that when young children were asked to write their future life stories, most of the events they imagined took place in young adulthood, mirroring the reminiscence bump. So it seems that we are aware of the "cultural life script" from a young age, which may mold not only our recollections of events as they occur, but our very perception of them as they occur..
This "cultural life script" is but one example of our schema, that preexisting narrative framework into which we try to fit our observations. The Buddha called this samskara, and it is one of the aggregates that make up the ego-self.
This "cultural life script" is but one example of our schema, that preexisting narrative framework into which we try to fit our observations. The Buddha called this samskara, and it is one of the aggregates that make up the ego-self.
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