Please choose TWO of the following four prompts and respond to them. Each response should be about 600 words, so 1200 words in total. Please be as concise and specific as possible and cite experimental work where appropriate.
Memories across the lifespan and factors that influence content (respond to all three parts below):
What are the factors that influence the contents of memory across the lifespan? List and describe these factors, providing examples of some of these factors.
What is the distribution of memories across the lifespan? Outline the distribution and describe two distinct explanations for the occurrence of the reminiscence bump.
How do the factors you described in part a play a role in explaining the distribution of memories across the lifespan (part b)? Which explanation of the reminiscence bump you believe offers the best explanation of this finding and why?
Theories of self-consistency and self-change over time (respond to all three parts below):
What are some situations in which humans are motivated to view the self as consistent over time? Provide two examples of experiments that demonstrate that humans are motivated to view the self as consistent and explain the strategy(ies) used to maintain this view.
What are some situations in which humans are motivated to view the self as changing over time? Provide two examples of experiments that demonstrate that humans are motivated to view the self as changing and explain the strategy(ies) used to maintain this view.
Why are humans sometimes motivated to the see the self as consistent and at other times to see the self as changing, despite the contradictory nature of such a view? What features of memory do you think allow for such contradicting beliefs to be held?
Remembering the past and imagining the future
In what ways are remembering the past and imagining the future alike? Please provide two examples of experiments which demonstrate links between the two.
It has been proposed that reconstructive memory has an adaptive function which is connected to future imagining. What is this theory, and do you believe that it’s accurate? Why or why not?
In what way might the adaptive function mentioned in part b contribute to the maintenance of a coherent sense of self over time? Please describe at least one study which supports your answer.
Flashbulb memory and collective identity
What are “flashbulb memories?” Please describe and give an example.
What are the essential features of flashbulb memories? What makes them “special?” Please provide experimental evidence to support your answer.
Why might we have flashbulb memories, and what do they have to do with collective memory? Outline one potential explanation and connect it to what we know about the proposed role of autobiographical memory in individual identity.