How Memory Gives Us Continuity Throughout Our Lives

"We know our past selves have changed-physically, emotionally, cognitively, interpersonally-but we also know that we are the same person from childhood into early adulthood and beyond. It's easy to take for granted how memory provides continuity across various times in our lives, but, in fact, ordinary memory is extraordinary in accommodating dramatic developmental change, while maintaining our experience of being the same person."

"The experience of a continuous self- identity depends on 1) primary personal memories composed of vivid images, physiological experiences, and emotion, 2) a self that our personal memories attach themselves to, and 3) a sense of having lived through the personal events we remember. Primary Personal Memories. Specific personal memories exist at two levels: primary memory and integrated memory. Primary memory is the representation of our original phenomenal experience: visual images, sounds, smells, tastes, emotions, and bodily sensations."

People change across the lifespan in jobs, relationships, interests, and places, yet they experience themselves as the same person. Memory provides continuity by supporting vivid primary personal memories, a self that memories attach to, and a sense of having lived through remembered events. Primary memory contains original sensory and emotional experiences, while integrated memory is reconstructed from those images and general knowledge for everyday remembering. Ordinary memory accommodates dramatic developmental change while preserving self-continuity. Disruptions to continuity can occur in early childhood, during trauma, or when individuals strongly believe they have undergone fundamental personal change.

Read at Psychology Today