[MUSIC] In telling our life stories to others, we often follow a narrative script that includes people, places, and events in which we are the main character. Starting in childhood, we'd begin organizing our recollections into a coherent story that we can tell other people. Over time, we arrange and rearrange these experiences into a life narrative. For example, when recalling a family gathering, we use a story-like structure to describe that event, because stories are easy to tell and easy for others to understand. But in using a story narrative, our descriptions of a past event can be transformed. We may unknowingly omit some unflattering details, embellish others and fill in gaps in our memory to provide our narrative with coherence and meaning. These reconstructive narratives become our autobiographical memories over time, and they are the life stories that we tell others. Although these stories are imperfect records of our experiences, psychologist Dan McAdams says that they are not self-flattering tall tales. Said McAdams, we each seek to provide our scattered and often confusing experiences with a sense of coherence by arranging the episodes of our lives into stories. We are not telling ourselves lies. Rather, we compose a heroic narrative of the self that illustrates essential truths about ourselves. In creating a life story, our personal memories are not self-serving fictions, stories that we made up, attempting to make ourselves look good to others. As we gain new experiences, our life stories can change over time. But they remain more fact than fiction, even though our memory is a reconstruction of the past. Filmmaker Sarah Polley demonstrates this point in her documentary, Stories We Tell. Through the disparate recollections of family and friends she sought to learn about her late mother, the mother who died when Sarah was a young girl. Each person's narrative provided Sarah with new information, helping her create a multi-faceted portrait of her mother and a better understanding of her past. [MUSIC] Even though we structure our recollections in terms of a story narrative, these memories usually provide a generally accurate record of our life experiences. These personal memories provide a more or less faithful guide to our past because we remember the gist of our experiences well. To see how we structure our autobiographical recollections, I'm going to tell you a personal story. When I was a boy, I loved playing baseball. I grew up in southern Connecticut, an hour from New York, when the city was home to the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants. Most of my friends followed one of these teams. But I adopted a team from the Midwest. My hero was a young slugger named Eddie Mathews, who played third base for the Milwaukee Braves. One day, when the Braves came to New York, my father took me to the Polo Grounds to watch them play the Giants. We sat next to the third base railing, and while I have no memory of the game, I recall vividly what happened after the final out. Back then fans could leave the ballpark by the field exits and the players would walk out to the clubhouse at center field. When we were leaving, I spied my boyhood idol walking up ahead. I raced up to him, wanting to say a million things, but could only manage to stick out my hand and timidly say, “Nice game, Eddie.” He gave my outstretched hand a brief squeeze and replied, “Thanks, kid.” As he walked away, I found my father in the crowd smiling. Nice game, Dad. This story reveals how I structured this autobiographical memory of a long ago ball game. In describing it, I use three types of autobiographical knowledge. First, I told you about a lifetime period, by telling about my boyhood. Next, I mentioned a recurring general event by describing how my friends and I loved baseball and the teams that we followed. Finally, I shared an event-specific memory by describing the day in New York that I spoke to my boyhood idol. Over the course of a lifetime, many event-specific memories are forgotten, such as the train ride I took that day to New York. While others, if they are unique and emotional, will endure, such as this awestruck kid's special moment. All three types of autobiographical knowledge are necessary to provide the context for telling our life stories. But, says psychologist says Martin Conway, they differ in terms of their timespans. Lifetime periods structure our personal memories by organizing them around a common theme such as those times attending high school, they are measured in years. More specific than lifetime periods, general events represent a sequence of events such as working at a temporary job, or taking a college course. They are measured in days, weeks or months. Finally, event-specific memories are memories of single events such as observing the birth of a child. These memories are measured in seconds, minutes or hours. Together, each type of autobiographical knowledge helps in organizing a life story, as shown clearly in Danny Boyle's film, Slumdog Millionaire, where a young man's personal memories lead to unimagined wealth. [MUSIC] This fairy tale of a film featuring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and Madhur Mittal tells the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik, an impoverished tea server on the brink of winning India's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. All he needs to do is risk everything he's already won, and answer one more question correctly. >> [FOREIGN] From Mumbai. Let's play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! >> [APPLAUSE] [APPLAUSE] >> But something is strangely out of whack here. How did an uneducated orphan raised in dire poverty on the streets of Mumbai acquire the broad knowledge needed to reach the final round of India's favorite game show? Jamal Malik, an uneducated 18-year-old boy from the slums of Mumbai win one job by fair means or foul play? >> That is what the producers of the show wonder as Jamal becomes a television sensation. With 60 million viewers tuning in, to see if this pauper can turn into a prince, even film viewers are asked to ponder Jamal's knowledge. >> And if there wasn't enough drama in a contestant reaching the final question, Jamal Malik was last night arrested on suspicion of fraud. >> Let me remind you, Jamal, if you get the answer wrong, you lose everything. Ten million rupees, Jamal. That's a fortune. >> Jamal is arrested on suspicion of cheating and questioned and tortured by the police. >> So, Mister Malik, the man who knows all the answers. Talk. It is during these interrogations that Jamal relates his life story, using a series of flashbacks to move from the present to the past, showing how a ragtag team of three orphans, Jamal, his brother Salim, and a girl named Latika learn to survive by their wits in Mumbai with little formal education. Through these flashbacks, when Jamal describes his experiences growing up, he reveals how he learned the answers to the game show questions. >> So the first question for 1,000 rupees, here we go. [SOUND] Who was the star in the 1973 hit film Zanjeer? [SOUND] >> As Jamal concentrates, his mind flashes back to when he was a young boy in the slums of Mumbai, a lifetime period, renting toilet stalls with his brother, a general event, while waiting for the helicopter arrival of Amitabh Bachchan, star of the action film Zanjeer. >> [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] >> Locked in a stall by his brother, Jamal escapes by dropping into a pit of human waste. Running out, covered in feces while holding a small photo of Amitabh that he kept safe. Disgusted fans curse as Jamal pushes his way through the crowd, finally reaching his hero and holding up the photo for an autograph, an event-specific memory. >> [FOREIGN] >> Indelible memories like this one provide Jamal with the answers he needs. >> Yeah! >> In its portrayal of autobiographical memory, Slumdog Millionaire illustrates how experiences from the past can provide us with solutions to current problems, and how those experiences help us to form an identity. For Jamal, his childhood memories bring him to the game show's ultimate question. But his goal was never to win great wealth or fame. Like all good fairy tales, he wisely followed his destiny in searching for the now grown Latika, someone that wealth or fame could not buy. How did he do it? One answer alone is correct. [MUSIC]
