Need your opinion
Read each paragraph and give me your opinion if you agree or disagree with it
1.
Autobiographical memory encompasses our recollections of specific, personal events.” (Holland, 2010) Examples of autobiographical memory include first days of school, childhood memories, the first street you lived on, etc. This differs from autobiographical facts, which are “facts about the person that are devoid of personally experienced temporal or spatial context information.” (Goode, 2008) A common example of autobiographical facts is birth itself. You are aware that you were born but there is no real recollection of the event its actual occurring.
Based on my experiences I would say that people are able to draw, or “fill in the blanks” on autobiographical facts with the use of autobiographical memory. Using the birth scenario, I do not remember my birth, but I remember my mother telling me about my weight and the induction process and that I was stubborn then and remain stubborn now. The use of autobiographical memories creates the ability to draw more facts.
2.
Autobiographicalmemory is defined as “memory for specific experiences from our life which can include both episodic and semantic components” (Goldstein, 2019). Typically, autobiographical memories are the memories of personal experiences that have occurred intertwined with the general knowledge of the facts associated with the event. Autobiographical facts, however, typically refer to the memories of specific factual events, from which no personal attachment is necessary, other than hearing or experiencing that the information itself is true.
An example of an autobiographical memory is the day my first cat, Oreo was given to me. The day before my official 13thbirthday, I had a party with a group of my friends. Before the party started, a boy from my school that had expressed an interest in me, Philip, stopped by my house with one of our mutual friends and his father. When I answered the door, Philip told me he was sorry he was not going to be allowed to come to the party, but that he wanted to give me my present. There he stood with a brown box, a litter box, cat litter, cat food and a book about caring for a kitten. Inside of the brown box was the tiniest black and white kitten, which I inevitably named Oreo. When examining this autobiographical memory, the semantic (facts) component would be the date, the people, and the details about the cat. The episodic components (personal experiences) would include the details surrounding these specific facts.
From my experience and what I have learn about the differences, I would say that autobiographical memories can influence autobiographical facts, mainly due to the time passed and the experiences that have occurred since the original event. For example, I could confuse the autobiographical fact of the date of which I first received Oreo, for a variety of reasons. One reason being that the event occurred over ten years ago. Another reason may be that my memory of the day being my birthday party, but not the actual date of my birthday, is also concurrent with the memory of being told Oreo’s birthdate was the day after Valentine’s Day (February 15). After such a long period of time passing since that event, I have had quite a few animals join my family, some I know the birthdates of and some are estimated. One of these newer furry family members, my dog Henrik’s birthday is the day before Valentine’s Day (February 13, 2015). Therefore, with all of these variables taken into consideration it would be very plausible to confuse the date that I received Oreo (autobiographical fact).