Autobiographical Memory Week 4: Distribution

This week, we read about numerous theoretical explanations for two of the three components of the distribution of autobiographical memory: childhood amnesia and the bump.  I want us think about the various explanations and critically examine the data used to support each one.  For example, Freud provides a psychodynamic explanation, but what is the evidence he uses to support his theory?  Can it be tested empirically?  What about the developmental arguments made in the other papers?  Do you think the experimental designs are appropriate for capturing the phenomenon of childhood amnesia?  Perhaps harder to find are the different theories for 'the bump', but there are several including: evolutionary, identity formation, biased retrieval strategies, and the nature of the life course.  Again, for each explanation, we should think about the data that are relevant and the expeirments that were used to derive those data.