scholarly journals An in-depth review of the methods, findings, and theories associated with odor-evoked autobiographical memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Patrick Mulvaney Hackländer ◽  
Steve M. J. Janssen ◽  
Bermeitinger Christina

Over the past nearly 35 years, there has been sporadic interest in what has commonly come to be known as the Proust phenomenon, whereby autobiographical memories are retrieved and experienced differently when evoked by odors as compared to other types of cues, such as words, images or sounds. The purpose of this review is three-fold. First, we provide a detailed analysis of the methods used to investigate Proust effects. Second, we review and analyze the various findings from the literature and determine what we feel to be the most important and stable findings. Third, we provide a series of previously postulated and new hypotheses that attempt to account for the various findings. Given the early stage of research, the current review aims to provide a measure of organization to the field, as well serve as a guide for how future investigations may address the topic. We conclude with the recommendation that research in this area shift its focus from establishing the phenomenon towards explaining its causes.

Author(s):  
Lisa Bortolotti

In this chapter, the author argues that beliefs about the past that are based on distorted autobiographical memories have the potential for epistemic innocence. The focus is on beliefs about the past that people report in the context of dementia and other conditions in which autobiographical memory is severely compromised. Such beliefs may embellish people’s past achievements or present circumstances, or simply be inconsistent with life events that people can no longer remember. Having memory beliefs to report increases the opportunity for socialisation and information exchange with peers, making content available for sharing and enabling feedback on it. More important still, the maintenance and reporting of memory beliefs about the autobiographical past, when these are not entirely fabricated and contain a grain of truth, enable the retention of key self-related information that would otherwise be threatened by progressive memory loss.


Groupwork ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Allen ◽  
Mary Lee Tully ◽  
Desmond O’Neill ◽  
Richard A.P. Roche

The current paper describes a reminiscence group activity session held as part of meaningful activities engagement for older adults. Topics of reminiscence included both autobiographical memories and memories of broader historical events from the past. Participants included those with memory impairment and those without, and participants with healthy memory were helpful in prompting memories in participants with memory impairment. Semantic and episodic autobiographical memory were assessed at baseline and following the end of both group activities, using the Episodic Autobiographical Memory Interview (EAMI) and quality of life was assessed using the Quality of Life AD-scale (QOL-AD). The reminiscence intervention did not significantly affect autobiographical memory recall or quality of life. However, oral reminiscence was reported to have increased outside of the reminiscence sessions.


Author(s):  
Steven D. Brown ◽  
Paula Reavey

Contemporary reformulations of the nature of “the psychological” call out for different approaches to autobiographical memory. If epistemic and methodological differences are set aside, debate can be focused on four key themes—function, accessibility, accuracy, and life story. What persons do with memory needs to be indexed to the interactional contexts where the past is invoked, where the accessibility of autobiographical memories is a collaborative accomplishment. While the accuracy of memory is nearly always at issue, the criterion and procedures through which it is established vary across practices, as do capacities to produce biographical coherency. An “expanded” or “modern” view of memory should seek to analyze brains, voices, objects, and settings together.


Author(s):  
John H. Mace

Spontaneous recollections of the past are a common and salient part of everyday mental life. However, memory researchers have only recently (i.e. within the past twenty years) turned their attention to the study of this memory phenomenon. While research in this area has answered a number of pressing questions about the nature of involuntary memories, answers to some questions remain elusive (e.g. determining their functional nature). This chapter reviews the main body of this work. In addition, the chapter looks to the future of involuntary memory research, highlighting its promise in a number of regards (e.g. its potential role in informing an understanding of autobiographical memory retrieval).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David John Hallford ◽  
Tom Joseph Barry ◽  
Eline Belmans ◽  
Filip Raes ◽  
Sam Dax ◽  
...  

This investigation examined conflicting suggestions regarding the association between problems retrieving specific autobiographical memories and the tendency to retrieve the details of these memories. We also examined whether these tendencies are differentially related to depression symptoms. U.S., Belgian, Hong Kong and Japanese participants retrieved memories related to cue words. Responses were coded for if they referred to a specific event (i.e., an event lasting less than 24 hours) and their details (What? Where? Who?). Across sites, and in meta-analyses, the retrieval of more specific memories was associated with retrieval of more details. Memories that were specific included more detail than non-specific memories. Across sites, retrieval of more specific memories and more detail was associated with less severe depression symptoms. Episodic specificity and detailedness are related but separable constructs. Future investigations of autobiographical memory specificity, and methods for alleviating problematic specificity, should consider measures of episodic detailedness.


Author(s):  
Karen Salmon

Strong theory and research implicates parent–child conversations about the past in the child’s development of critical skills, including autobiographical memory and understanding of emotion and minds. Yet very little research has focused on associations between reminiscing and the development of childhood psychopathology. This chapter considers what is known about reminiscing between parents and children where there is anxiety or conduct problems. These findings provide clues as to how children come to manifest difficulties in autobiographical memory and emotion competence. Thereafter, the text reviews studies that have attempted to alter the style and content of parent–child reminiscing in clinical populations. The full implications of parent–child reminiscing, as a rich context for children’s development, have yet to be realized in clinically relevant research.


Author(s):  
Martha Vandrei

This chapter and the following both draw the reader into seventeenth-century understandings of the past, and of Boudica in particular, and makes clear that in a time before disciplines, writers of ‘history’ were erudite commentators, immersed in political thought, the classical world, and contemporary ideas, as well as in drama, poetry, and the law. Chapter 1 shows the subtleties of Boudica’s place in history at this early stage by giving sustained attention to the work of Edmund Bolton (1574/5–c.1634), the first person to analyse the written and material evidence for Boudica’s deeds, and the last to do so in depth before the later nineteenth century. Bolton’s distaste for contemporary philosophy and his loyalty to James I were highly influential in determining the way the antiquary approached Boudica and her rebellion; but equally important was Bolton’s deep understanding of historical method and the strictures this placed on his interpretive latitude.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Evrysthenis Vartholomatos ◽  
George Vartholomatos ◽  
George A. Alexiou ◽  
Georgios S. Markopoulos

Central nervous system malignancies (CNSMs) are categorized among the most aggressive and deadly types of cancer. The low median survival in patients with CNSMs is partly explained by the objective difficulties of brain surgeries as well as by the acquired chemoresistance of CNSM cells. Flow Cytometry is an analytical technique with the ability to quantify cell phenotype and to categorize cell populations on the basis of their characteristics. In the current review, we summarize the Flow Cytometry methodologies that have been used to study different phenotypic aspects of CNSMs. These include DNA content analysis for the determination of malignancy status and phenotypic characterization, as well as the methodologies used during the development of novel therapeutic agents. We conclude with the historical and current utility of Flow Cytometry in the field, and we propose how we can exploit current and possible future methodologies in the battle against this dreadful type of malignancy.


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