A Theory of Autobiographical Memory: Necessary Components and Disorders Resulting from their Loss

In this paper we argue that autobiographical memory can be conceptualized as a mental state resulting from the interplay of a set of psychological capacities—self-reflection, self-agency, self-ownership and personal temporality—that transform a memorial representation into an autobiographical personal experience. We first review evidence from a variety of clinical domains—for example, amnesia, autism, frontal lobe pathology, schizophrenia—showing that breakdowns in any of the proposed components can produce impairments in autobiographical recollection, and conclude that the self-reflection, agency, ownership, and personal temporality are individually necessary and jointly sufficient for autobiographical memorial experience. We then suggest a taxonomy of amnesic disorders derived from consideration of the consequences of breakdown in each of the individual component processes that contribute to the experience of autobiographical recollection.