CON AMORE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS AU Welcome .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 CON AMORE Highlights 2013 - published October 2014 Recently published research .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Center On Autobiographical Memory Research CON AMORE Dvd: The Joy of Recognition ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 Visiting researcher at CON AMORE: Samantha Deffler ........................................................................................... 13 Aarhus University, Dep. of Psychology, Bartholins Allé 9, 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark Scott Cole ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 14 CON AMORE seminars 2013..................................................................................................................................................... 16 www.conamore.au.dk International conference 2013 ................................................................................................................................................ 18 CON AMORE staff 2013 ............................................................................................................................................................... 20 Editors: Jette Odgaard Villemoes, Peter Krøjgaard, and Dorthe Berntsen, CON AMORE External relations ............................................................................................................................................................................. 24 Visiting researchers 2013............................................................................................................................................................. 25 Public outreach ................................................................................................................................................................................. 26 Template Design: AU Communication Publications 2010-2013 ................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Printed in Denmark, SUN-Tryk (AU) Contact person: Jette Odgaard Villemoes +45 8716 5882 4 CON AMORE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 CON AMORE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 5 WELCOME Highlights 2013 The year 2013 was an extraordinarily exciting year for CON key theme. CON AMORE fellows Osman Skjold Kingo and Anne AMORE. First of all, this was the year CON AMORE had its mid- Scharling Rasmussen were central for the organization. The re- term evaluation. We handed in our self-evaluation and research treat took place at Sandbjerg Manor, bringing together around plan (2015-2019) on one of the shortest days in the winter, and ninety Aarhus University researchers from a variety of fields, all our center was visited by an external review panel on one of the studying the interplay between brain, culture and cognition, and longest days during the summer. The outcome was very positive. all discussing memory. And it brought several outstanding keynote Among other things, the international reviewers described the speakers to Sandbjerg, all with an interest in how we remember center’s progress to date as being “extremely successful” and and imagine our lives. they were “impressed with the productivity of the center and We were also fortunate in 2013 to welcome new center par- the fact that many of the empirical findings challenge existing ticipants, and to see old participants be promoted to new roles. theories” as well as the fact that we have “produced empirical Associate professor and CON AMORE fellow Dorthe Kirkegaard work that is important, non-intuitive, and ground-breaking.” The Thomsen was appointed as a temporary professor at Department DNRF decided to extend CON AMORE by 42 mio DKK (2015-2019) of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University. Further- on the basis of these evaluations. We are of course very grateful more, she received 4 million DKK from the Velux Foundation to for this continued opportunity. study chapters in life stories. Postdoc Osman Skjold Kingo was June 2013 was indeed a busy month. A few days after the promoted to associate professor at Department of Psychology and evaluation panel had left us, CON AMORE hosted the conference Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University. One new Postdoc, Scott Social Perspectives on Autobiographical Memory: Memory and Cole (PhD from the University of Leeds), and two new full time Imagination with a list of outstanding keynote speakers and research assistants, Omar Sinué Salgado Leyva and Marie Kirk, more than 100 registered participants from about 15 different joined CON AMORE in 2013. In 2013 we published (or had in press) countries. This was the first open-call international conference on around 50 new journal articles with exciting new findings, some social perspectives on autobiographical memory, covering such of which are described in more details on the following pages. topics as false memories and false beliefs, social influences on On behalf of the center, I would like to thank you for your children’s memories of stressful events, collective remembering continued support and interest in CON AMORE, and I hope you and remembering in old age. It was the 5th international confe- will enjoy reading this report. rence organized by CON AMORE since its inauguration in 2010. In August 2013 CON AMORE played an active role in the Center leader Dorthe Berntsen annual Mindlab retreat. The retreat was titled Remembering: Bridging biology and culture, and naturally had Memory as a 6 CON AMORE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 CON AMORE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 7 RECENTLY PUBLISHED RESEARCH Kingo, O.S., Staugaard, S.R., & Krøjgaard, P. (2014) THREE-YEAR-OLDS’ MEMORY FOR A PERSON MET ONLY ONCE AT THE AGE OF 12 MONTHS: VERY LONG-TERM MEMORY REVEALED BY A LATE-MANIFESTING Harris, C. B., Rasmussen, A. S., & Berntsen, D. (in press) NOVELTY PREFERENCE FUNCTIONS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH Childhood amnesia, the phenomenon that most adults find it the “Target” person met once before. In contrast, data from a difficult or impossible to remember events from their earliest life, is Control group (N=38) of children of the same age with no prior In the cognitive psychology of memory, there are assumed to functions, where people think or talk about the past in order to still partly unexplained. Studies of children’s event memory have knowledge of our lab or the two experimenters did not show the be three functions of remembering: (1) giving us a sense of self/ pass something on to others and to have a positive impact in the proved useful in providing an understanding of this phenomenon same pattern. In this group, children showed a general preference identity; (2) helping us plan or solve problems; and (3) facilita- world; and (4) Social functions where people think or talk about found in adulthood. This study examined Danish three-year-olds’ for looking at Person B, who was a mixed Scandinavian African ting social relationships. But in other literatures, and particularly the past in order to build and maintain relationships. verbal and non-verbal memory for a person met only once after and not Person A, who was Scandinavian Caucasian. This effect the reminiscence literature, a much broader range of functions These differences in the people’s reasons for thinking about a 28 month interval. Children in the Test group (N=50) had partici- is also known as the “other-race attentional bias”. has been identified. In this paper we report data from 4 studies or talking about the past were also linked to other individual dif- pated in an earlier experiment at our lab at the age of 12 months This study showed us that elements from even a single event examining how these different functions from different literatures ferences, particularly in general cognitive styles and motivations where they met one of two possible experimenters. At this past experienced by one-year-olds can be retained in memory for might be related to each other, and how they might be related towards reflection, rumination, and generativity. Of particular event half of the children were tested by one, the other half by the several years. We also learned that it was possible to test this to other individual differences in cognitive styles, motivations, importance, in a large survey, as people got older they reported other experimenter. At the follow-up, run by a naïve experimenter, memory experimentally in spite of the fact that the children were mood, and age. using their memory less for Reflective, Ruminative, and Social the children were shown two videos from the original experiment unable to voluntarily access and express the memories at age Do different kinds of people remember for different kinds of functions, but more for Generative functions (see the graph). in a visual paired comparison task: One with the specific experi- three. We are thus one important step closer to an understanding reasons? This analysis broadened the way that we think about the reasons menter testing them at the original visit

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