Project Overview

Students in the advanced seminar on Reminiscence (Psy 377) studied autobiographical memory and reminiscence by discussing the research literature and doing case studies that culminated in the web pages on this site.

In the first few weeks of the course we developed a common vocabulary of autobiographical experiences by sharing some of our own experiences and reading autobiographies of centenarians, a middle-aged adult, a younger adult, and a child.  Next we read the research literature regarding the development of autobiographical memory and the availability of our autobiographical memories at different points in the lifespan.  For example, most people cannot remember events from the first few years of their lives and older adults typically recall more from the years that they were ages 10-30 than from their middle-aged years.  In the third section of the course we explored how autobiographical memory is represented in memory.  Students concluded this section with presentations on gender & cultural differences in autobiographical memory, false autobiographical memories, and flashbulb memories which are memories of hearing important news, such as the attacks on Pearl Harbor, that JFK had been shot, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  In the fourth section we discussed the functions of autobiographical memory and reminiscence.

To help the material 'come alive' each student was assigned an older adult partner to interview about his or her life story.  These interviews provided students with the chance to do a case study about the concepts that the class discussed, such as flashbulb memories of important historical events and the distribution of memories across the lifespan.  Each student brought his or her interview experiences back to the class, enriching our discussions.  In order to gain further appreciation for the complexity of autobiographical memory, and to extend a gift to the older adult partners who so graciously helped us with this course, the students pulled together their six interviews with their older adult partner and created the web pages on this site.  Also included are pictures from the days that the older adult partners from each semester brought their friends and families to campus to view the web pages (the open house links in the navigation area).  If you have questions about the seminar or these web pages, please contact the professor, Dr. Kristi Multhaup (krmulthaup@davidson.edu).

The student authors of the pages are: Fall 2001: Frances Beale pages by Joy Gerdy ’02; James Howard pages by Brittany Fuentes ’02; A. Mildred Lowery pages by Melissa Chiprich ’02; Blanche Knox Parker pages by Jennifer Frymiare ’02; and Bill Vinson pages by Jeff Libersat ’02. Fall 2003: Mary Lewis Archie pages by Christina Cupani ’04; David Beatty pages by Mihir Desai ’04; Ruth Gardner pages by Allison Marsh ’04; Bob Greenock pages by Brett Peiffer ’04; Frank Jordonpages by Dustin Carlson ’04; John Kelton pages by Paul Thorne-Keziah ’04; Sam Maloney pages by Matt Dellinger ’04; Scotty Nichols pages by Annelle Kallman ’04; Pat Sailstad pages by Nicole Tonelli ’04; and Maggie Smith pages by Emily Van Leeuwen ’04. Fall 2005: Tony Abbott pages by Jordie Poncy ’06; Juanita Archie pages by Diana Aiken ’06; Betty Brown pages by Anna Hickman ’06; Cecilia Conner pages by Brenna Boyd ’06; Lacy Woods Dick pages by Tiffany Caterina ’06; Bernice Houston pages by Sarah Caitlin Mattingly ’06; Caroline Plyler pages by Allie Martin ’06; James Raeford pages by Ronnie Shore ’06; and Bill Younts pages by Lisa Schneider ’06. Fall 2007: Evelyn Carr pages by Amanda Lehnberg ’08; Martha Montgomery pages by Phil Newsom ’08; Adeline Ostwalt pages by Oh-jin Kwon ’08; Jack Perry pages by David Kerns ’08. Fall 2009: Gill Holland pages by Will Hunter ’10; Betty Knox pages by Blakely Low ’10; Ann Nolan pages by Ellie Szykowny ’11; Bill Strong pages by Ericka Solis ’10; Alice Younts pages by Zander Galloway ’10. Mike Reott created the Reminiscence Project home page.

Special thanks to Mur Muchane, Executive Director of Information Technology; Kristen Eshleman, Director of Instructional Technology & Media Production; Mike Reott (2001) and Marc Naples (2003), Assistant Instructional Technologists; Kyosung Koo (2005) and Paul Brantley (2007, 2009, 2011), Instructional Technologists for their expertise. ITS’ Instructional Technology Group collaborates with faculty in integrating technology into teaching and learning.