2019/05/29 by Katherine Nelson, Robyn Fıvush · 95 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Anthropology #Autobiographical memory #Cognitive psychology #Cognitive science #Computer science #Consciousness #Identity, Memory, and Therapy #Linguistics #Memory Processes and Influences #Narrative #Perspective (graphical) #Philosophy #Psychology #Recall #Social Representations and Identity #Sociocultural evolution #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/0033294119852574
published in Psychological Reports 123(1), 71-96 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2019/05/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
In this article, we expand on aspects of autobiographical memory initially laid out in our earlier exposition of the sociocultural developmental model. We present a developmental account of the integration of an extended subjective perspective within an extended narrative framework both of which are mediated through language and shared cultural narratives that culminate in autobiographical consciousness. Autobiographical consciousness goes beyond simple memories of past events to create a sense of extended self through time that has experienced and reflexively evaluated events. We argue from philosophical, evolutionary, and developmental psychological perspectives that narratives are a critical form of human consciousness, and that this form is learned through everyday social interactions that are linguistically mediated. Language has “double-duality” in that it is both outward facing, allowing more explicit, organized and differentiated communication to and with others, and language is also inward facing, in that language provides tools for organizing and differentiating internal consciousness. Although consciousness itself is multifaceted, we argue that language is the mechanism without which this particular form of human autobiographical consciousness would not develop.