Fernyhough, Charles. 2013. “Casting a Line,” “Negotiating the Past” and “The Plan of What Might Be” in Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory. Profile.

• Chapter 1: Casting a Line
  • possession view vs reconstructive view of memory
  • possession view of memory: memory as mental property, to commodify memories (5-6)
    • metaphors of memory
  • “autobiographical memories:” mental constructions, created in the present moment, according to the demands of the present (6)
  • definition of memory: more like a habit, a process of constructing something from its parts, in changing ways each time (6)
    • Memory is not static, subject to changes
    • the reconstructive nature of memory–> unreliable (7)
  • About this book organization
    • focus of this book: reconstructive account of memory (7)
    • research question of this book: memory as mental movement both backward and forward (10)
    • research objects: stories (10)
  • Sir Frederic Bartlett: (1932), book Remembering, memories are affected by human beliefs, distorted to fit their own knowledge structure (13)
    • memory: encoded now with inferences
  • Development of Bartlett: Martin Conway
    • 2 focuses of memory
      • (1) correspondence or accuracy: the need to stay true
      • (2) coherence: consistent with our current goals
  • Different memories to psychologists (14-15)
    • (1) autobiographical memory (long-term) vs working memory (short-term)
    • (2) semantic memory (memory for facts, long-term knowledge) vs episodic memory (memory for events, details)
    • (3) explicit or declarative memory (consciousness) vs implicit and non-declarative memory (unconscious)
  • memory in a disputed status: serving self vs serving truth
• Chapter 6: Negotiating the Past (110-136)
  • for a child, the first reference to the past events happens at 18 months
    • they cannot express memory until they have the skill to organize
      • more organized, more reliable
      • prone to distortion
  • negotiating relationships and negotiating memories
    • e.g. in marriage (agreement) and divorce (disagreement)
  • memories become identities
    • challenge to memories-> challenge to identities
  • memories merge into others’ memories (or other people’s narration of memories) (129)
    • misinformation effect
    • rich false memories
      • people can be manipulated into remembering
      • benefits: collective remembering
      • negatives: social contagion
      • collaborative inhibition: (131)
        • for a group of people, if a memory is allowed to discuss, they tend to remember less
        • Discussion –> distortion of memories
    • nonbelieved memories: memories which people cease to believe after coming to realize they are false. (133)
  • 3 categories of memories (134)
    • believed, nonbelieved, and believed but not remembered
    • similarities between nonbelieved memories and “true” memories (true refers to memories that are consistent with the reality in the past, not distorted)
      • involve: mental time travel, re-experiencing intense emotions and perceptual details, reconstruction of space and social features
• Chapter 7: the Plan of What Might be (137-)
  • “memoria”: in medieval studies, “cognition” (from Mary Carruthers) (140)
    • build new structures, rather than regurgitating old ones
    • involving multiple sources, not about a fixed representation of an event
    • the medieval view of memory: constructive and combinatorial (142)
  • memory-imagination connection