1.2 Remembering around the world
In the next activity you will think about your own memories.
Activity 2
In a few sentences, describe the earliest memory that you feel comfortable recalling for this activity..
Discussion
Obviously, we cannot predict exactly what you have written (we’re psychologists, not mind-readers!). However, there are some things that people commonly report as being among their earliest memories. For example, you may have described the vibrant colours and sounds that you saw and heard at a big celebration, such as a childhood birthday party. Perhaps you remember meeting your teacher on your first day of school or the day you got your first pet. You might describe how those interactions unfolded. For one of the course authors, it was the memory of the excitement of flying to England to visit their grandparents in the summertime. They remember the feeling of the wind as they climbed the steps to the plane, and the colour and texture of their Care Bear teddy, which they brought along in case they encountered any fellow Care Bears in the clouds who might want to chat!
Just like how we process information differently, we can also remember things differently. The type of memories that we have and the age that we have them may be partly explained by the part of the world where we come from.
Remembering encapsulates a universal set of processes involving perceiving information, storing that information, and then retrieving it later. This is something that all humans have the capacity to do (except in rare cases, such as severe brain injury). However, what people remember from experiences and events can be shaped by their beliefs and past experiences. For example, autobiographical memories are memories of experiences or events, such as remembering the day you turned 18 or a time you got in trouble at school or work. The memory you described in Activity 2 is an autobiographical memory.
In individualist cultures, autobiographical memories tend to focus on oneself as the lead and often aren’t particularly related to other people; the person describing the memory is the central character. This might include describing a personal achievement or the emotions that were felt when a specific event occurred. In contrast, autobiographical memories in collectivist cultures tend to include social and collective experiences and events, such as the birth of a new family member or a major dispute that happened between colleagues at work. Some findings suggest that people from China tend to have more autobiographical memories for historical events and experiences, such as a political event or a natural disaster than people from the US (Conway et al., 2005).
Findings by Wang (2001) indicate that people in the US tend to recall events and experiences from a slightly younger age than people in China. The age of the earliest reported memory for participants in the US was around 42 months, whereas in China it was 47.5 months. This, of course, does not mean that people in the US have better memories. It merely means that the contrasting focus of memories, as well as different degrees of reminiscing that occur in cultures, can affect the time of earliest memory. Thinking again about the memory you described in Activity 2, can you remember or estimate roughly how old you were when that event occurred?
Cultural background doesn’t only influence how people describe scenes and remember life events. The kind of language people use and the environment that people grow up in can also affect their psychology in surprising ways. The next section explores the relationship between people’s perception of colour and the languages they speak.
OpenLearn - Psychology around the world
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