The stories we tell: how language shapes autobiography

✍ Scribed by Robyn Fivush

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 106 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199810)12:5<483::aid-acp531>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

In commenting on my article with Schwarzmueller, Howe (1998) argues that language is not enough for the establishment of autobiographical memory. I could not agree more. Language is not enough, but it is critical in the development of a consciously accessible, socially sharable autobiographical memory system. Howe further argues that autobiographical memory is dependent on the achievement of a `cognitive self', as indexed by the classic mirror recognition task. At about the age of 18±20 months, children quite suddenly understand that the image in the mirror re¯ects one's own physical presence. Just as language is not enough, however, neither is mirror recognition. Being able to recognize one's physical self in the present is not the same as being able to understand that one continues to exist through time (e.g. , an understanding that is the core of autobiography. Memories must move beyond representation of what occurred to representations of what occurred to me, how I thought, felt and reacted to it, for the memory to be autobiographical. These skills are not part of mirror self-recognition, but re¯ect a long development process that begins when children ®rst begin sharing their experiences with others.

One of Howe's arguments centres on a misunderstanding of the role I posit for language in the development of autobiography. Howe labels my approach the `verbal rehearsal hypothesis'. But as discussed in detail elsewhere Fivush and Haden, 1996), the argument is not that language serves to reinforce speci®c bits of information through rehearsal. Rather the argument is that language allows the child to engage in a new form of interaction, joint reminiscing. Following from Vygotsky's (1978) theory of dialectical development, language is conceptualized as a tool, provided by the culture, that allows human cognition to move beyond the limitations of what can be accomplished as an independent being to what can be accomplished as part of a social±cultural group. Cultures both de®ne what skills are considered important to be competent members of that culture and provide opportunities for individuals to engage in activities that will lead to the development of these culturally important skills (Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition, 1983;. Moreover, much of this cultural socialization is accomplished through language interactions (Lutz and Abu-Lughod, 1990;. Once children develop the ability to converse with members of their culture, they are able to engage in qualitatively new kinds of activities that lead to the development of speci®c skills.