Origins and Development of Recollection: Perspectives from Psychology and Neuroscience

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.

Simona Ghetti received her PhD from the University of California, Davis in 2001. She then joined faculty at the National Research Council in Bologna Italy. In 2005, she returned to the University of California, Davis where she is now Associate Professor. Dr. Ghetti studies typical and atypical development of memory and metamemory in childhood, using behavioral and neuroimaging methods. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to the field, including the APA Award for Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology.

Patricia J. Bauer earned her PhD from Miami University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, and then joined the faculty of the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. She left Minnesota in 2005 and after a brief sojourn at Duke University, joined the faculty of Emory University. Dr. Bauer studies the development of memory from infancy through childhood, using behavioral, narrative, and electrophysiological (event-related potentials, ERPs) measures. She has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the discipline, including the APA Award for Early Career Contribution to the Developmental Area.