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Reality Monitoring and Autobiographical Memory: Negotiating the Self Carlos Montemayor

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Reality Monitoring and Autobiographical Memory: Negotiating the Self Carlos Montemayor Montemayor C. Archives of Psychology, vol. 2, issue 10, October 2018 Page 1 of 19 REVIEW ARTICLE Reality Monitoring and Autobiographical Memory: Negotiating the Self Carlos Montemayor Author’s affiliation: San Francisco State University * Corresponding address: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The contemporary study of memory has greatly benefited from recent findings in neuros- cience and psychology showing that memory is a highly flexible, contextualized and yet, reliable enough system, composed of different types of functions that contribute to the for- mation of a personal perspective that balances accuracy and personal relevance. How exact- ly is this balance achieved and what is the contribution of society, language and culture in its development? Although this paper discusses some of the recent findings on memory, its main focus is on evaluating them within a larger perspective. Memory has been a central issue in the humanities, literature, and the history of psychology. The dynamics of inner speech and narrative, analyzed from a theoretical and historical point of view, provide key insights for the interpretation of contemporary findings in the light of previous theories of memory, consciousness, and the influence of language on both. Collective memory, differ- ent forms of memory-monitoring, and the interaction between episodic and autobiographical memory are discussed. The main proposal of the paper is that episodic memory plays an intermediary role between collective and autobiographical memory. Previous views on memory suppression and intrusion are analyzed in the context of such intermediation. Keywords: Collective Memory, Depersonalization, Autobiographical Memory, Inner Speech, Narrative Introduction tiplicity of narratives and groups. Some of the collective controls on memory are now There is a conflict, intensified in modern automated, global, industrialized, and large- societies, between individual or private ly dependent on commercial interests. Oth- memory evaluation, and collective or public ers are ancient, dependent on religious tra- forms of memory control. There is, ob- dition, resistant to change, and powerfully viously, a lot in between. The individual is engrained in the still diverse forms of life of not ―by herself‖ and the collective is not millions of people. This conflict between monolithic—they are both nested in a mul- traditional forms of collective memory con- Copyright © 2018, Archives of Psychology. All rights reserved. http://www.archivesofpsychology.org Montemayor C. Archives of Psychology, vol. 2, issue 10, October 2018 Page 2 of 19 trol and new forms of corporatized memory How to resolve the tension between the will become more exacerbated with our private and the public in memory? This increased reliance on technology and artifi- question has two answers. Empirically, the cial intelligence. answer will depend on what exactly is the mechanism for memory re-consolidation Other areas of conflict regarding memory and re-contextualization in the brain, and control concern the clash between govern- how this mechanism explains the negotia- mental forms of memory regulation and the tion between reality monitoring and person- resistance or memory activism of civil so- al meaning (see for instance Nadel, et al., ciety (e.g., the promotion of certain national 2000; Lane, et al., 2015). A variety of tra- narratives that are incompatible with histor- deoffs must be satisfied in order to achieve ical facts; the imposition of certain memo- a stable balance between reliability and ries at the cost of other memories, which personal value (Montemayor, 2015, 2016, are more important to unprivileged groups; 2018a). Theoretically, the answer depends the control over memory-evaluation and on how this conflict is resolved in a human generational legacy). Here the conflict is being’s conscious awareness. It is to this between the State’s bureaucratic power and latter question that I devote my attention. civil society groups that have alternative ways to recount and explain the past. In The question of how this tension is resolved between, here as well, there is a lot of in conscious awareness must be addressed nuance, including the valuable contribution with a careful examination of two topics, of memory activists between States and which are rarely investigated in relation to individual groups (see Wüstenberg, 2017). one another. One of them is the difference between autobiographical memory and epi- These are important issues that bear on our sodic memory. A proposal that helps solve current political realities, and they present the tension between the collective and the unprecedented challenges for the study of personal aspects of memory is that autobio- collective memory and its influence on the graphical memory is necessarily conscious psychology of individuals. I shall focus on and that it constantly solves the problem of an issue that is more germane to psycholo- which memories are personally valuable; by gy and neuroscience, and which is going to contrast, episodic memory, with its tempo- be crucial for future debates on these topics, rally framed introspective function, verifies namely, the way in which the re- the collective and reliable aspects of memo- contextualization of episodic and autobio- ry (Montemayor, 2017, 2018a). This dis- graphical memories balances two types of tinction is explained in the following sec- memory-monitoring: collective and private. tions, with a special emphasis on the role of The proposal defended here is that we mon- narrative and inner speech.1 itor ―what is real‖ in our memories through episodic memory, in highly complex ways, The other topic is depersonalization. For the described below, and that besides this, we present purposes this term can be defined monitor ―what is valuable for us‖, through quite generally, as a feeling of personal autobiographical memory. It is because of alienation or unreality (Radovic and Radov- the impact of autobiographical memories on ic, 2002). The advantage of this general the process of re-contextualizing memory that the overall monitoring of what is real in 1 For the importance of inner speech in cogni- memory becomes intertwined with the per- tive development see Vygotsky (2012); for a sonal significance of memory—we always recent theoretical assessment of the extent reminisce in a place that is somewhere in and nature of inner speech see Hurlburt between the personal and the collective. (2006). Copyright © 2018, Archives of Psychology. All rights reserved. http://www.archivesofpsychology.org Montemayor C. Archives of Psychology, vol. 2, issue 10, October 2018 Page 3 of 19 definition is that it allows for different of time (e.g., duration, time order and si- forms of depersonalization, regardless of multaneity) are integrated into an empathi- whether they are considered normal or pa- cally and viscerally relevant unity of con- thological. Some forms of depersonaliza- scious awareness, rather than a merely me- tion may actually play an active and posi- trically structured sequence of events (Mon- tive role in the balance between individual temayor, 2017). and collective memory. Depersonalization in this sense, means that the process Although it is not entirely uncontroversial, through which we ―internalize‖ a memory a similar distinction is justified with respect might depend partly on changes concerning to the memory system. According to this feelings underlying how a memory turns account, conscious memory is narratively from a ―neutral‖ event that simply occurred structured, and corresponds to autobio- to one that acquires enormous personal sig- graphical memory. Episodic and semantic nificance, and vice versa. memory give us conscious access to infor- mation, and they are components of the I first address the difference between epi- memory system with specific epistemic sodic and autobiographical memory, em- functions. In particular, the trace integration phasizing the narrative and evaluative role in those systems, based on the structure of of autobiographical memory reconsolida- external events and propositional contents, tion in achieving a balance between two differs from autobiographical memory sources of control for memory-monitoring (Montemayor and Haladjian, 2015; Mon- (personal and collective). I then examine temayor, 2018a). the topic of depersonalization in memory, and explore the relation between these two More important for the present purposes, topics, namely autobiographical memory the memory system needs to satisfy tra- and depersonalization, in the context of deoffs concerning accuracy, detail and flex- more general difficulties concerning con- ibility, but for autobiographical memory, sciousness, collective memory, and the me- the most important tradeoff is between per- chanisms of suppression and intrusion. sonal value and strict accuracy. The memo- ry system must be reliable enough for the purposes of communication and testimony, Autobiographical and Collective Memo- but also insightful enough for an individual ries and her personal context, in order for her to value these memories as something that We share with many other species the basic really matters to her. This tradeoff involves mechanisms for recollection. For instance, the function of memory-monitoring at the the circadian clock system for time-keeping personal level. The capacity to justify be- is fundamental for most forms of life, and it liefs about the past, however, does not con- constrains the way in which we perceive cern monitoring
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