PS375 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Autobiographical Memory, Hebbian Theory
Document Summary
Transition theory: a minimalist perspective on the organization of. Transition theory assumes the content/organization of autobiographical memory mirror the structure of experience and reflect the operation of basic associative processes. Environmental analysis that emphasizes repition, co-occurence, change, and distinctiveness. Formation of lifetime period i driven by association and by repeated exposure to freqeurntly encountered, co-occurring event components. Period boundaries are transitions that bring about large-scale synchronized changes to the set of regularly encountered event components. These periods are separated by major life transitions (relocation, birth of child, things that change everything) Transitional events replace one set of threats (the frequently encountered, material features of everyday life) with another in a rapid, exhaustive, and synchronized manner. Transition theory contends autobiographical memory is structured by important life transitions and major transitions play an important role in organizing memories, regardless of whether they are individual (immigration) or collective (war) in nature.
