Le vendredi 23 juin 2006 à Louvain-La-Neuve

Collège Michotte,

10, Place Cardinal Mercier

Le matin, trois invités ont présenté leurs travaux (voir ci-dessous). L'après-midi fut consacré à la discussion. Cette discussion visait à éclairer les contenus abordés dans la matinée sous l'angle des différentes disciplines représentées dans notre groupe (Sciences politiques, Sociologie, Histoire, Philosophie, Philologie, Psychologie, etc.) et à nourrir un véritable échange interdisciplinaire.

• David C. Rubin (Duke University, USA): "A basic systems approach to episodic memory: Implications for collective memory " (Résumé)
• Dorthe Berntsen (University of Aarhus, DK): "Enduring flashbulb memories and social identity" (Résumé)
• Nyla Branscombe (University of Kansas, USA): "Collective Guilt as Method of Changing Intergroup Relations" (Résumé)

Organisateurs: Valérie Rosoux (FNRS/UCL); Laurence Van Ypersele; (FNRS/UCL); Olivier Luminet (FNRS/UCL); Laurent Licata (ULB); Olivier Klein (ULB)

 

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Résumés des présentations

 

• A basic systems approach to episodic memory: Implications for collective memory

David C. Rubin (Duke University, USA)

Behavior, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging suggest that episodic memories are constructed from interactions among the following basic systems: vision, audition, olfaction, other senses, spatial imagery, language, emotion, narrative, motor output, explicit memory, and search and retrieval. Each system has its own functions, neural substrates, processes, structures, and kinds of schemata, which have been well documented individually. However, the systems have not been considered as interacting components of memory as is proposed here. Evidence from autobiographical memory and oral traditions is used to demonstrate novel findings that arise from using the model and to argue that a model similar to it is the only way to understand episodic memory for complex stimuli routinely encountered outside the laboratory. In considering the cultural and historical transmission of collective memory, the processes can be markedly different for visual information and artifacts, real and imagined spatial locations, music, language, and narrative, and their combination can add greatly to the stability of transmission.

David C. Rubin is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Duke University. He is author of Rubin, D. C. (1995). Memory in oral traditions: The cognitive psychology of epic, ballads, and counting-out rhymes. (Oxford University Press, 1995, awarded the American Association of Publishers' Best New Professional/Scholarly Book in Psychology for 1995 and the American Psychological Association's William James Award) and editor of several books on autobiographical memory including Autobiographical memory (Cambridge, 1986) and Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory. (Cambridge, 1996). His research interests are in long-term memory for complex material and events.

• Enduring flashbulb memories and social identity

Dorthe Berntsen (University of Aarhus, DK)

In Brown and Kulik's (1977) classical article, flashbulb memories were characterized by three properties. First, they were assumed to be highly vivid and detailed. In the formulations of Brown and Kulik, they were characterized by "an almost perceptual clarity" (p. 73). Second, they were assumed to be relatively accurate, though at the same time "very far from complete" (p. 75). And third, they were assumed to be highly durable, indeed indelible. As Brown and Kulik wrote: "It is our assumption that the FB memory is always there, unchanging as the slumbering Rhinegold" (p. 83). Most subsequent research on flashbulb memories has focused on the two first-mentioned properties and largely left the third issue of long-term durability unaddressed. Also, research that has tried to describe causal mechanisms for the development of flashbulb memories has generally worked on the assumption that the same mechanisms are responsible for all properties of flashbulb memories (i.e., for both their clarity, possible accuracy and long-term durability), although this need not be the case. This chapter examines the longevity of flashbulb memories based on findings of older Danes' memories for the reception of central news events during the German occupation of Denmark 1940-1945. It also discusses findings from a study of East and West Germans' memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Most theories of flashbulb memories have sought the causal mechanisms at the level of the individual. For example, Brown and Kulik argued that certain levels of surprise and consequentiality were indispensable. In this chapter, it is argued that a person's social identity (i.e., his or her group identifications) is a highly central factor for the development and maintenance of vivid memories over many years. It is furthermore suggested that news events that support a person's social identity are remembered more vividly and rehearsed more than news events that challenge a person's identification with an important social group, even though the latter news event may be more consequential and surprising than the former.

Dorthe Berntsen is an associate professor [lektor] at the Institute of Psychology, University of Aarhus in Denmark. Her research interest is autobiographical memory, with a special focus on involuntary autobiographical memories and the interplay between emotion and memory. Recently, she has published papers and a monograph (in Danish) on older Danes autobiographical memories from the German occupation of Denmark during WWII.

• Collective Guilt as Method of Changing Intergroup Relations

Nyla Branscombe (University of Kansas, USA)

I consider factors that can increase or decrease people's feelings of collective guilt for their group's past or current harmful actions toward another group. How ingroup identity concerns in the present affect two general mediating processes is investigated. Specifically, perceived ingroup responsibility for the harm done and perceived legitimacy of the ingroup's harmful actions have critical implications for collective guilt and amount of prejudice directed at the outgroup. I consider how historical victimization reminders affect guilt for harm to new current enemies. Among Jewish North Americans we show that harm to Palestinians is more likely to be legitimized when the Holocaust history is salient. Likewise, among U.S. citizens, making the terrorist attacks of September 11 or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor salient increases legitimization of harm to Iraqis. The consequences of historical reminders among non-victimized group members are also assessed. Although the meaning or lesson of the Holocaust differs depending on who is the focus of that lesson (Jews, Germans, or humans in general), non-involved perceivers appear to expect victimized group members to be better (more moral) than those not historically victimized. The implications of using different standards for evaluating the actions of victimized groups in the present will be explored.

Nyla R. Branscombe is Professor of Social Psychology at University of Kansas, USA. She has edited the 2004 Cambridge University Press book "Collective Guilt: International Perspectives," and written widely on how history affects psychological responses in the present among both socially advantaged and disadvantaged social groups.