Identity-Forming Events Anchor Life Memories
How, what and why we remember things plays a very important role in learning, decision-making, emotional experience and many other aspects cognition. Understanding memory is of critical importance to anyone that hopes to design for how minds actually work. For example, understanding how memory works means we can add features and functions to products and services that trigger particular memories and therefore stimulate emotions and personal meaning.
The Cognitive Daily blog has an excellent post on the latest research into the nature of autobiographical memory (ABM) or memories about ourselves and our lives. A recap of the findings:
Adults have few accurate ABMs before age five.
ABM is systematically biased with positive life events easier to recall than negative life events.
ABMs appear uneven in that a 50-year old is more likely to remember something from their late teens or early 20s than from their 30s.
This last finding is the most interesting for cognitive designers.
The research suggest it may be explained because we have a strong tendency (bias) to remember things better if they happen around identity forming events. So when I become (and actively see myself as) a designer, father, ping-pong star, immigrant or any “new self”, I will have more robust ABMs. To quote the research:
“Rathbone’s team believes this demonstrates that identity-forming events are what shape the biases in autobiographical memory: We remember more details about certain things because we now believe those things define who we are. “
For the cognitive designer, these identity-forming events are important signposts into the psychographics (i.e. cognitive characteristics and needs) of the people we design for. They point towards the features and functions that will most likely trigger personal memories, stimulate emotions, lead to meaning making or otherwise generate mental energy for users.
