Understanding autobiographical memory

Dorthe Berntsen, David C. Rubin

"The field of autobiographical memory has made dramatic advances since the first collection of papers in the area was published in 1985. Now, over twenty-five years on, this book reviews and integrates the many theories, perspectives and approaches that have evolved over the last decades. A truly eminent collection of editors and contributors appraise the basic neural systems of autobiographical memory; its underlying cognitive structures and retrieval processes; how it develops in infancy and childhood, and then breaks down in aging; its social and cultural aspects; and its relation to personality and the self. Autobiographical memory has demonstrated a strong ability to establish clear empirical generalizations and shown its practical relevance by deepening our understanding of several clinical disorders - including the induction of false memories in the legal system. It has also...