Origins and Development of Recollection (PDF)

The ability to remember unique, personal events is at the core of what we consider to be "memory." How does the vivid experience of reinstatement of our past emerge? What is the contribution of this experience to our life histories? These questions have intrigued psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers for decades, and are the subject of this volume.

In recent years, the science of memory has made extraordinary progress in the conceptualization and assessment of different forms of memory. Instead of thinking of memory as a monolithic construct, memory is now thought of in terms of dissociable classes of constructs. Within declarative memory, the type of memory that one can consciously access, we make distinctions between the constructs of recollection and episodic memory and the constructs of familiarity and semantic memory (respectively). Contributors to this volume discuss new methods to assess these types of memory in studies that refine our understanding of the functions necessary for conscious and vivid recollection. The work has led to substantial increases in our understanding of the building blocks of recollection and its developmental course.

The volume also addresses the exciting new research on the neural basis of recollection. Never before has the connection between brain and function been so close. Contributors review neuroimaging studies of the healthy brain and neuropsychological investigations of patients with brain damage that reveal the specific brain structures involved in the ability to recollect. These brain structures undergo important developmental change during childhood and adolescence, leading to questions--and answers--of how the relationship between brain and function unfolds during the course of infancy, childhood, and adolescence.