Abstract
Building on Dor’s theory of language as a social technology for the instruction of imagination, I suggest that autobiographical memory evolved culturally as a response to the problems of false memory and deliberate deceit that were introduced by that technology. I propose that sapiens’ linguistic communication about past and future events initially occurred in small groups, and this helped to correct individual memory defects. However, when human groups grew in size and became more socially differentiated, and movement between groups prevented story-verification, misattributions of events became more common. In such conditions individuals with better autobiographical memory had an advantage because they could evaluate their own contents and sources of information, as well as that of others, more accurately; this not only benefitted them directly, but also improved their reliability as social partners. Autobiographical memory thus evolved in the context of human linguistic communication through selection for communicative reliability. However, the advantages of imagination, which enables forward-planning and decision-Making, meant that memory distortions, although controlled and moderated by autobiographical memory, could not be totally eradicated. This may have driven the evolution of additional forms of memory control involving social and linguistic norms. I interpret the language and the social norms of the Pirahã as the outcome of the cultural-evolutionary control of memory distortions. Some ways of testing aspects of this proposal are outlined.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Although of relevance to my thesis, the collective memory on which I focus here is not collective-mythical memory, such as the collective memory of a genocide that no extant human experienced, or a creation myth (both of which may be collectively and directly experienced through rituals and commemorations). I focus here mainly on the collective remembering of experienced episodes in the more immediate past of the individuals that are important for emotional-sharing, ongoing group cohesion and practical future planning.
Truth and falsity are built on the more basic notions of real and imagined, which are one of the many cognitive and emotional achievements scaffolded by pretend-play and are linked to the development of language in children and the acquisition of norms (Ginsburg and Jablonka 2014).
Limited embedding is common in languages of illiterate groups. Pirahã is, however, an extreme case (Dor 2015).
References
Addis DR, Wong AT, Schacter DL (2007) Remembering the past and imagining the future: common and distinct neural substrates during event construction and elaboration. Neuropsychologia 45(7):1363–1377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.10.016
Allen TA, Fortin NJ (2013) The evolution of episodic memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(Suppl. 2):10379–10386. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301199110
Ambereber M (ed) (2007) The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective. John Benjamin Publishing Company, Amsterdam
Bader O (in press) Being in a group—the emotional scaffolding of the evolution of collective intentionality. In: Gissis S, Lamm E, Shavit A (eds) Landscapes of collectivity in the life science, Vienna series in theoretical biology. MIT press, Cambridge
Basu LO (2011) Effects of collectivistic and individualistic cultures on imagination inflation in Eastern and Western cultures. Stud Pulse 3(2). http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/385/5/effects8of8collectivistic8and8individualistic8cultures8on8imagination8inflation8in8eastern8and8western8cultures
Burton FD (2009) Fire: the spark that ignited human evolution. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque
Cleveland ES, Reese E (2008) Children remember early childhood: long-term recall across the offset of childhood amnesia. Appl Cogn Psychol 22:127–142
Crystal JD (2009) Elements of episodic-like memory in animal models. Behav Processes 80:269–277
Csibra G, Gergely G (2011) Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation. Philos Trans R Soc B 36:1149–1157. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0319
Dediu D, Levinson SC (2014) The time frame of the emergence pf modern language and its implications. In: Dor D, Knight C, Lewis J (eds) Social origins of language. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 184–195
Dor D (2015) The instruction of imagination: language as a social communication technology. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Dor D (2017) The role of the lie in the evolution of human language. Lang Sci 63:44–59
Dor D, Jablonka E (2010) Plasticity and canalization in the evolution of linguistic communication: an evolutionary developmental approach. In: Larson RK, Deprez V, Yamakido H (eds) The evolution of human language: biolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 135–147
Dor D, Knight C, Lewis J (eds) (2014) The social origins of language. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Drummey AB, Newcombe NS (2002) Developmental changes in source memory. Dev Sci 5(4):502–513
Dunbar RIM (1996) Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language. Faber and Faber, London
Everett DL (2005) Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã. Curr Anthropol 46(4):621–646
Fivush R (2011) The development of autobiographical memory. Annu Rev Psychol 62:559–582
French L, Garry M, Mori K (2008) You say tomato? Collaborative remembering leads to more false memories for intimate couples than for strangers. Memory 16(3):262–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210701801491
Ginsburg S, Jablonka E (2014) Memory, imagination and the evolution of modern language. In: Dor D, Knight C, Lewis J (eds) Social origins of language. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 317–324
Goren-Inbar N (2011) Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Ya’aqov. Philos Trans R Soc B 366:1038–1049. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0365
Halbwachs M (1992) On collective memory (Coser LA (ed), Trans). University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Hrdy SB (2009) Mothers and others: the evolutionary origins of joint understanding. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Jablonka E (in press) Remembering as a group: the evolutionary origins of autobiographical memory. In: Gissis S, Lamm E, Shavit A (eds) Landscapes of collectivity in the life sciences, Vienna series in theoretical biology. MIT Press, Cambridge
Jablonka E, Ginsburg S, Dor D (2012) The co-evolution of language and the emotions. Philos Trans R Soc B 367:2152–2159. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0117
Klein SB (2013) The temporal orientation of memory: it’s time for a change of direction. J Appl Res Mem Cogn 2:222–234
Leichtman M, Wang Q, Pillemer DP (2003) Cultural variations in interdependence and autobiographical memory: lessons from Korea, China, India, and the United States. In: Fivush R, Haden C (eds) Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self: developmental and cultural perspectives. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp 73–98
Loftus EF, Palmer JC (1974) Reconstruction of auto-mobile destruction: an example of the interaction between language and memory. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 13:585–589
Michaelian K, Sutton J (2017) Collective mental time travel: remembering the past and imagining the future together. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1449-1
Nelson K, Fivush R (2004) The emergence of autobiographical memory: a social cultural developmental theory. Psychol Rev 111(2):486–511
Perrin DS, Rousset S (2014) The episodicity of memory. Rev Philos Psychol 5:291–312
Principe GF, Schindewolf E (2012) Natural conversations as a source of false memories in children: implications for the testimony of young witnesses. Dev Rev 32(3):205–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2012.06.003
Renoult L, Tanguay A, Beaudry M, Tavakoli P, Rabipour S, Campbell K, Moscovitch M, Levine B, Davidson PS (2016) Personal semantics: Is it distinct from episodic and semantic memory? An electrophysiological study of memory for autobiographical facts and repeated events in honor of Shlomo Bentin. Neuropsychologia 83:242–256
Roberts RP, Wiebels K, Sumner RL, van Mulukom V, Grady CL, Schacter DL, Addis DR (2017) An fMRI investigation of the relationship between future imagination and cognitive flexibility. Neuropsychologia 95:156–172
Sansom B (2006) The brief reach of history and the limitation of recall in traditional Aboriginal societies and cultures. Oceania 76:150–172
Schacter DL, Guerin SA, St Jaques PL (2011) Memory distortion: an adaptive perspective. Trends Cogn Sci 15(10):467–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.08.004
Schacter DL, Benoit RG, De Brigard F, Szpunar KK (2014) Episodic future thinking and episodic counterfactual thinking: intersections between memory and decisions. Neurobiol Learn Mem 117:14–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2013.12.008
Schacter DL, Addis DR, Szpunar KK (2017) Escaping the past: contributions of the hippocampus to future thinking and imagination. In: Hannula DE, Duff MC (eds) The hippocampus from cells to systems: Structure, connectivity, and functional contributions to memory and flexible cognition. Springer, New York, pp 439–465
Shipton CBK (2013) A million years of hominin sociality and cognition: Acheulean bifaces in the Hunsgi-Baichbal valley India. British archeological reports international series 2468. Archaeopress, Oxford
Sperber D, Clément F, Heintz C, Mascaro O, Mercier H, Origgi G, Wilson D (2010) Epistemic vigilance. Mind Lang 25(4):359–393
Sterelny K (2012) The evolved apprentice: how evolution made humans unique. MIT Press, Cambridge
Stone CB, Barnier AJ, Sutton J, Hirst W (2013) Forgetting our personal past: socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting of autobiographical memories. J Exp Psychol Gen 142(4):1084–1099
Stout D (2011) Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition. Philos Trans R Soc B 366:1050–1059. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0369
Sugiyama MS (2001) Food, foragers, and folklore: the role of narrative in human subsistence. Evol Human Behav 22(4):221–240
Szpunar PM, Szpunar KK (2016) Collective future thought: concept, function, and implications for collective memory studies. Mem Stud 9(4):376–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698015615660
Tomasello M (2009) Why we cooperate. MIT Press, Cambridge
Tomasello M (2014) A natural history of human thinking. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Tulving E (1983) Elements of episodic memory. Oxford University Press, New York
Tulving E (2002) Episodic memory: from mind to brain. Annu Rev Psychol 53:1–25
Vaesen K (2012) The cognitive bases of human tool use. Behav Brain Sci 35(4):203–218
Wang Q (2008) On the cultural constitution of collective memory. Memory 16(3):305–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210701801467
Wang Q (2011) Autobiographical memory and culture. Online Read Psychol Cult 5:2. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1047
Wheeler MA, Stuss DT, Tulving E (1997) Toward a theory of episodic memory: the frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness. Psychol Bull 121:331–354
Wrangham R (2009) Catching fire: how cooking made us human. Basic Books, New York
Wright C (1873) Evolution of self-consciousness. N Am Rev 116(239):245–310
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the participants of the 2015 in the 29th Annual International Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Science, Israel, Landscapes of collectively and the ANU 2016 workshop on The Evolution of Language for their constructive comments, and to Simona Ginsburg, Zohar Bronfman, Daniel Dor and Dan Everett for critical comments on an earlier version of this paper. Special thanks are due to Marion Lamb who read and commented on the various versions of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jablonka, E. Collective narratives, false memories, and the origins of autobiographical memory. Biol Philos 32, 839–853 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-017-9593-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-017-9593-z