UA Psychology Department Hosts Memory And Self Symposium

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - On Friday, Nov. 10, some of the nation’s great minds of cognitive, developmental and social psychology will gather on the University of Arkansas campus to attend a special symposium that will address - what else? - the mind, itself.

These renowned scholars will attend Memory and the Self, a symposium hosted by the UA psychology department with funding from the Marie Wilson Howells Foundation. The symposium will explore the connection that exists between notions of who we are and theories about how (and what) we remember. In addition, the symposium will address how the quest to understand this connection is helping bridge the fields of social, cognitive and developmental psychology, enabling researchers in each discipline to inform and expand their colleagues’ work.

"Social, developmental and cognitive psychologists are conducting research about memory and about the self. They’re taking somewhat different approaches but are addressing similar issues," said Denise Beike, UA assistant professor and social psychologist. "It’s time to take a more integrative look at how these issues affect each other and to open a dialogue between these groups of researchers."

Cognitive psychologists tend to focus on how the structures and functions of the mind determine the way people experience, learn about, and remember their lives. Social psychologists, on the other hand, study how people’s social context and individual personalities impact the way they define themselves as individuals and how they interact with others.

The UA symposium will provide a forum where cognitive, social and developmental psychologists can teach each other about the reasoning and methodology behind these different approaches. But it will also address how these approaches are capable of informing each other. Organizers at the U of A hope the symposium will not only open lines of communication between researchers but that it will also lead to collaborations.

Furthermore, as cognitive, developmental and social psychologists each present their research, participants at the conference will receive a more complete picture of the complicated interplay between self-definition and memory.

"Anyone who attends this symposium will get the benefit of both perspectives," said James Lampinen, a cognitive psychologist at the U of A. "The cognitive presentations will discuss how memories help people identify and make sense of the self. On the social side, they’ll look at how people’s identities and personalities affect the way they remember things."

During the course of the symposium, 10 researchers will each deliver a 45-minute presentation, followed by an open discussion on the research and methodology. These researchers represent nationally and internationally known scholars, many of whom have been recognized for their contributions to the field of psychology.

Participants include Constantine Sedikides from the University of Southampton; Dan McAdams, director of the Northwestern University Center for the Study of Lives; and Daniel Povinelli of the University of Louisiana, who was featured in the Oct. 2000 issue of Discover magazine as one of "20 Young Scientists to Watch."

"It will be a real pleasure to welcome these researchers to the University of Arkansas," said David Schroeder, chair of the UA psychology department. "Our original aim in hosting this symposium was to jump start our own experimental training program in social and cognitive processes. But this opportunity will also enable the U of A to establish itself as a center for research in issues of memory and self."

Though the symposium only extends through Friday and Saturday, it will cover a wide range of research topics - from autobiographical memory to the recognition of self in higher primates. According to Beike and Lampinen, many of the topics addressed will shed light on issues of current social and cultural importance.

"Experimental psychology as a whole is a well established field, capable of informing not only psychological concerns but also legal and philosophical issues," Beike said.

For instance, questions about the reliability of "recovered memories" impacted numerous court cases over the past decade, and the way that people define themselves within the context of others continues to be relevant to many moral and ethical matters.

"The fact that issues like these have been in the news, that they continue to be questioned and debated shows how germane the study of memory and self are to our everyday lives," said Lampinen. "And it also shows how much more we have to learn about these matters before we begin to understand them."

For more information about the Memory and the Self symposium, please visit http://comp.uark.edu/~todegar/symposium/overview.html. The website includes background information about the event as well as abstracts for each presentation. For a list of participants and for an agenda of the symposium, please refer to the sheets attached.

Memory and the Self Presenters:

• Denise Beike
  University of Arkansas
• Constantine Sedikides
  University of Southampton
• Jefferson A. Singer
  Connecticut College
• John J. Skowronski
  Northern Illinois University
• Robyn Fivush
  Emory University
• Mark L. Howe
  Lakehead University
• James Lampinen
  University of Arkansas
• Dan McAdams
  Northwestern University
• Daniel Povinelli
  University of Louisiana, Lafayette
• Michael Ross
  University of Waterloo

Memory and the Self Agenda

Friday, November 10

• 8:45 Welcome and opening remarks
• 9:00 Daniel Povinelli: The Self: Elevated in Consciousness and Extended in Time
• 10:00 Robyn Fivush: Voice and Silence: Constructing Self from Memories Spoken and Unspoken
• 11:00 Break
• 11:15 Mark Howe: Early Memory, Early Self, and the Emergence of Autobiographical Memory
• 12:30 Lunch
• 2:15 Denise Beike: Open versus Closed Event Memories
• 3:15 Constantine Sedikides: On Self-Protection: Inconsistency Management in the Processing of Self_ versus Other-Referent Information

Saturday, November 11

• 9:00 Michael Ross
• 10:00 Dan McAdams: The Redemptive Self: Narrative Identity in America Today
• 11:00 Break
• 11:15 Jefferson Singer: The Integrative Function of Narrative Processing: Autobiographical Memory, Self-defining Memories and the Life Story of Identity
• 12:30 Lunch
• 2:15 Jim Lampinen: Diachronic Disunity
• 3:15 John Skowronski: "Which Came First?" Some Explorations of Variables Related to Our Ability to Remember or Reconstruct the Order of Occurrence of Autobiographical Events

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