Cognitive Development, IO, 407-4 19 (199.

5)
The Cultural Context of Talk About the Past:
Implications for the Development of
Autobiographical Memory
Mary K. Mullen
Williams College
Soonhyung Yi
Seoul National University
Recent research shows that adults engage children in a process of co-constructing
memories by guiding them in the production of verbal accounts of their experiences.
Such talk about past events may influence the development of autobiographical memory
by teaching children that memories of personal experiences are valued, and further,
which aspects of experience are considered memorable. It has been suggested that
cultures may differ in the amount and content of these interactions. Sixteen mother and
X-year-old dyads (8 Korean and 8 Caucasian) were tape-recorded during naturally
occurring conversations. The Caucasian dyads engaged in talk about past events nearly
three times as often as the Korean dyads. This difference, as well as content differences
in the talk, are discussed in light of socialization goals. Combined with previous research
showing that Caucasian adults report earlier childhood memories than Asians, these
findings support the theory that early linguistic experience may be related to the
development of autobiographical memory.
Young children talk with adults about their experiences, and this type of
discussion may play a role in the development of autobiographical memory.
Some of the earliest investigators of autobiographical memory suggested
Mary K. Mullen conducted this research while at the Department of Psychology, Harvard
University.
This collaboration would not have been possible without the assistance of Bong-Yun Suh
and Sang-Min Whang. We wish to express our appreciation to them. We thank Yun-Joo Chyung
and Ji-Hee Kim for collection and transcription of the Korean data, Jungsook Han for her
careful translation of the Korean transcripts into English, and Kyu Kim for reliability coding.
We would also like to thank Sheldon White for his advice throughout the process of conducting
this research and for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Finally, we are
grateful to the mothers and children who gave their time to participate in this study.
This research was supported by a grant to Mary K. Mullen from the Barbara R. Ditmars
Bequest, Harvard University.
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Mary K. Mullen, Department
of Psychology, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267.
Manuscript received July 26, 1994; revision accepted December 7, 1994 407
408 Mary K. Mullen and Soonhyung Yi
that its development may be related to the acquisition of language (Bartlett,
1932; Dudycha & Dudycha, 1933; Schachtel, 1947; Waldfogel, 1948). More
recent research has demonstrated that adults engage children in a process
of co-constructing memories by explicitly guiding them in the production
of verbal accounts of their experiences (Eisenberg, 1985; Engel, 1986; Fivush
& Hamond, 1990; Hudson, 1990; Nelson, 1988, 1990, 1993; Ratner, 1984;
Sachs, 1983; Snow, 1990; Tessler; 1986). Snow (1990) conducted a longitudi-
nal investigation of parent-child memory talk and found that, initially, par-
ents provide almost all of the structure for producing past event narratives
through such means as asking leading questions and even providing answers
to the questions for the child to repeat. In this way, they teach the child how
to generate a story describing personal experience. Over the course of time,
the child is encouraged to take more and more responsibility in the co-con-
struction process as the expected form of such an account is acquired.
The process of converting an experience into a narrative account should
facilitate later memory of it. It is well known that processing enhances
memory (Craik, 1972). Indeed, Mandler (1984) has presented evidence
which suggests that experiences that are not organized into a story structure
are less likely to be remembered. The suggestion here is that past event talk
with young children not only increases the depth of processing of the
particular experiences discussed, but also provides a more general model for
processing personal experiences for storage in memory. As the model be-
comes internalized, the processing can begin to take place outside of the
context of discussion. Thus, the childs early linguistic environment may
influence the development of autobiographical memory.
This theory is compatible with the Vygotskian view that a cognitive
process takes place first in the interpsychological realm (i.e., in the realm of
social interaction) and then comes to be transferred to the intrapsychologi-
cal realm, taking place entirely within the childs mind (Vygotsky,
193411986). As adults verbally guide a child in forming descriptions of
experiences, they may be teaching the child a number of concepts such as:
what types of events are considered memorable, what aspects of those
events are considered memorable, how to organize events in a temporal
sequence, how to make inferences about causality, how to make inferences
about human intentions, and how to evaluate behavior. Through this proc-
ess, children are, in a sense, learning how to remember personal experiences.
They are learning how to process the information that they encounter in
ways that are valued by the people in their environment.
Cultures are likely to differ in such values and even in the degree to
which they value remembering personal experiences generally. A number of
researchers have speculated that there may be cross-cultural differences in
the amount or content of parent-child talk about past experiences (Bruner,
1990; Neisser, 1982; Nelson, 1990,1993; Pillemer & White, 1989). Such differ-
Cultural Context of Talk About Past 409
ences would likely be related to differences in socialization goals and cul-
tural values. For example, Markus and Kitayama (1991) observed that Asian
and Western cultures differ in the socialization of self-concept. In Asian
cultures, the sense of self is constituted by the roles one plays in the network
of social relationships. Conformity to social norms, rather than individuality,
is valued. Concern for how others feel is more important than expression of
ones own feelings. In Western cultures, on the other hand, there is a strong
emphasis on individuality, self-expression, and uniqueness. Ones personal
history, or autobiographical story, is a central component of the individuals
sense of self (Ross, 1989). Thus, parents in a Western culture may be more
likely to talk about a childs experiences as a means of encouraging the child
to express his or her thoughts and feelings in order to develop a sense of
individuality. These conversations would not only provide a model for re-
membering ones experiences, but would also teach the child that memories
for personal experiences are considered important in the social world that
he or she inhabits. In an Asian culture, such interaction might be considered
undesirable in that it encourages the child to be self-centered. Indeed,
anecdotally, Asians often express surprise at the amount of talk adults
generally engage in with children in the United States.
If cultures differ in the degree to which such talk is practiced, then one
would predict greater memory for early experiences in cultures which en-
courage it. In four questionnaire studies, Mullen (1994) asked adults about
their earliest recollections of childhood and the ages at which the events of
the memory occurred. Across all four studies, Caucasians reported signifi-
cantly earlier memories than Asians, providing support for the idea that
memory talk with children may be more valued in Western culture. In three
of these studies, the Asian group included both Asian Americans and sub-
jects from several Asian countries (who had come to study in the United
States). In the fourth study, the Asian subjects were all from Korea, and their
questionnaire was given in Korean. The difference between Asians and
Caucasians in this study was larger than in the other three studies. The
average age of earliest memory reported by the Korean group was later
than that reported by the Asian groups in the other three studies. This
difference may be due to the fact that all of the subjects in this study grew
up in an Asian country (whereas the other studies included Asians who grew
up in a Western country). Or, it may be that Koreans are more different from
Caucasians in terms of past event talk with children than are other Asian
groups. Either of these possible causes provides support for the idea that
culture plays a role in the development of autobiographical memory.
A missing element, in terms of empirical support for the theory being
presented, is direct evidence about whether these cultures do, in fact, differ
in the amount of past event talk parents engage in with their children. The
purpose of the study presented here was to address this issue through
470 Mary K. Mullen and Soonhyung Yi
observations of naturally-occurring talk about past events between mothers
and young children in two cultural groups: Koreans and U.S. Caucasians. The
main prediction was that the Caucasian group would talk about past events
more often than the Korean group. It was also predicted that, on average,
Caucasians would talk longer about each past event topic.
Several additional predictions were made regarding the content of mem-
ory talk in the two cultures. Mullen (1994) found content differences in the
descriptions of earliest memories of Koreans and Caucasians. Nearly 80%
of the memories reported by Koreans involved other people, compared to
only half of the memories reported by Caucasians. In addition, the memo-
ries of Koreans were more likely than those of Caucasians to involve scold-
ing or discipline for misbehavior. These differences are consistent with the
observations of Markus and Kitayama (1991) that Westerners are more
focused on the self and the development of individuality, whereas Asians are
more other-oriented and place more emphasis on conformity to behavioral
expectations. In terms of socialization goals, Westerners emphasize self-un-
derstanding and self-expression, whereas Asians emphasize empathy with
others and fitting oneself into social norms. Consideration of such differ-
ences led to the following predictions: a) Caucasian mother-child dyads
would be more likely to cast the child as a central character in the narrative;
b) Caucasian dyads would be more likely to talk about the childs thoughts
or feelings about the event; c) Korean dyads would be more likely to talk
about the thoughts or feelings of others; d) Korean dyads would be more
likely to talk about social norms and behavioral expectations; e) Caucasian
dyads would be more likely to talk about the childs individual attributes.
METHOD
Subjects
The subjects were 16 mother~hild dyads, 8 from Korean families living in
the area of Seoul, Korea, and 8 from Caucasian families living in the areas
of Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. All were of mid-
dle-class background. The mothers were college graduates, with average
ages of 33 years for the Korean group and 37 years for the Caucasian group.
The children in the two groups were matched on age, gender, and birth
order. Their ages ranged from 37 to 44 months, with a mean age of 40.1
months for the Korean group and 40.9 months for the Caucasian group In
each group there were 4 girls and 4 boys, and 3 first-born children and 5
later-born children (either second or third in birth order). All of the children
participated in some form of preschool or childcare program.
The Korean participants were recruited via letters to preschool teachers
who then asked mothers if they would participate in the study. The children
who participated received a small gift. The U.S. subjects were recruited via
Cultural Context of Talk About Past
411
letters placed in parents message boxes at preschools and via word of
mouth. They were offered $40 for participation in the study.
Procedure
The mothers were told that they were participating in a study of child lan-
guage development and were asked to record naturally occurring conversa-
tions in their home environment. Because past event talk might typically
occur during different activities or times of day in the two cultures, tape re-
cordings were collected from each dyad during their normal activities for one
entire day. Mother and child each wore a vest containing a small tape re-
corder all of the time that they were together,from the time the child got up in
the morning to the time the child went to bed in the evening. Some of the chil-
dren in both groups objected to wearing the vest some of the time, and it was
simply placed near them. The vast majority of the talk was audible on the
tapes of both mothers and children. The duplicate sets of tapes made it possi-
ble to maximize the accuracy of transcription whenever any talk was unclear.
Taping occurred on a day when the child attended a preschool or child
care program. The participants did not collect recordings during this time,
but did record until separation and began recording again at reunion. If the
child took a nap at home or spent any other time separated from the mother
(e.g., while playing outside with a friend) recording was discontinued during
these times.
Each tape side lasted 1 hr and a beeper was provided to remind the
mother to change the tapes. At this time, the mother also provided a brief
written description of the childs activities during the previous hour. Moth-
ers were asked to try to ignore the recorders as much as possible and to
interact with their child as they normally would so that the conversations
recorded would be the kinds of conversations that would occur on a typical
day. They were also told that if anything got recorded that they preferred
not to have on the tapes, they should feel free to go back and erase it at the
end of the day. In fact, none did this.
Transcription
All episodes of past event talk were transcribed by native speakers of each
language. The past was defined as any time prior to the onset of the cur-
rently occurring event or focus of attention. An episode of past event talk
was defined as an instance of the mother and child talking about a specific
past event which the child had experienced or witnessed. An episode in
which only the mother or child referred to such an event was included if the
other member of the dyad was present and part of the ongoing conversation.
An episode began with the first utterance referring to the past event and
ended with the last utterance of talk related to the topic of the event. Talk
surrounding the episode was often transcribed to provide context, but was
412 Mary K. Mullen and Soonhyung Yi
not included in the analyses. Off-topic interruptions of the talk were tran-
scribed but not included in the analyses.
An independent bilingual coder who was unaware of the purpose of the
study listened to 1 hr of tape from each of the 16 participants and counted the
number of instances of past event talk. The correlations of these counts with
those of the transcribers were .92 for the Koreans and -96 for the Caucasians.
All transcripts were double checked by having a transcriber listen to the
transcribed portions of the tapes a second time. The Korean transcripts were
then translated into English by a fluently bilingual research assistant. All of
the coding was performed on the English transcripts. The transcripts were
written in MinChat format, as described in the manual of the Child Lan-
guage Data Exchange System (Mac~inney & Snow, 1985).
Coding
Each episode of past event talk was coded for the total number of conver-
sational turns taken by the child and mother, and for the number of utter-
ances within each conversational turn. A conversational turn was defined as
all of the talk by one speaker in between instances of talk by other speakers.
It could include any number of utterances. An utterance was defined as the
talk of one speaker that occurs between intonational pauses. Such pauses
needed to be long enough that the succeeding talk was judged to indicate a
separate articulation. Utterances that were exact repeats of the previous
utterance (if it was by the same speaker) were not counted. The number of
utterances was coded to give an indication of the length of conversational
turns. Although this is not an ideal measure, it presents fewer problems than
a morphemic comparison based on languages as grammatically different as
Korean and English.
Each episode was also coded for the presence or absence of: (a) refer-
ences to the childs thoughts or feelings, (b) references to the thoughts or
feelings of anyone other than the child, (c) references to behavioral expec-
tations or social norms, and (d) references to attributes of the child. Finally,
each episode was coded for the childs role in the event: whether the child
was presented as a primary actor in the episode or as a secondary actor
(recipient of anothers actions or observer of the event).
The independent bilingual coder SCOP td 32 episodes (2 selected randomly
from each dyad). Correlations between the two coders on all of the variables
ranged from 0.84 to 0.96.
RESULTS
Amount of Talk About Past Events
The main question of the study was whether the two groups would differ in
how much they talked about past events. It was predicted that the Cauca-
Cultural Context of Talk About Past 413
sians would talk about past events more often. The total number of episodes
of past event talk for each dyad in one full day of mother-child conversation
ranged from 3 to 27 in the Korean group and from 17 to 85 in the Caucasian
group. But, because the idiosyncrasies of the day (time spent at school,
napping, playing next door) varied across dyads, the amount of recording
time varied. Korean dyads taped for an average of 5.9 hrs, whereas Cauca-
sian dyads taped for an average of 7.4 hr. Thus, a more appropriate way to
compare the groups is in terms of the average number of episodes per hr.
These scores ranged from .51 to 4.86 for the Korean dyads and from 2.56 to
8.31 for the Caucasian dyads. The group means were 1.99 (SD = 1.46) for
Koreans and 5.46 (SD = 2.16) for Caucasians: t(14) = 3.76,~ < .005. Thus,
the Caucasian dyads talked about past events nearly three times as often as
the Korean dyads.
The next question regarded the amount of talk within each past event
episode. It was predicted that the Caucasian dyads would talk more within
episodes. The mean number of conversational turns per episode was
calculated for each dyad and the mean length (in number of utterances)
of a conversational turn was calculated for each child and mother. The
groups did not differ in terms of the number of conversational turns, with
means of 8.22 (SD = 2.74) for Koreans and 8.01 (SD = 1.64) for Cau-
casians: t(14) = .19. Nor did they differ in the length of the childrens
turns, with means of 1.29 (SD = .28) for Koreans and 1.33 (SD = .lS)
for Caucasians: t(14) = .31. They did differ on the mean length of a turn
for the mothers. Caucasian mothers had a mean of 1.82 (SD = .35) ut-
terances per turn, whereas Korean mothers had a mean of 1.48 (SD =
.24): t(14) = 2.22, p < .05.
Childs Role in Past Event Episodes
Each dyad received a score for the proportion of episodes in which the child
was presented as a primary actor in the events discussed. The prediction that
the proportion would be higher for the Caucasian group was confirmed. The
mean for Caucasian dyads was 82% (SD = 9.8), whereas the mean for
Korean dyads was 69% (SD = 12.7): t(14) = 2.21,~ < .05.
Content of Talk About Past Events
Each dyad received a score for the proportion of episodes containing one
or more references to the thoughts or feelings of the child. The prediction
was that this proportion would be higher for Caucasians. The mean of the
Caucasian group (35%, SD = 6.4) was more than twice that of the Korean
group (15%, SD = 1.4): t(14) = 3.55,~ < -005.
The same score was calculated for references to the thoughts or feelings
of persons other than the child. Here the prediction was that the Korean
414 Mary K. Mullen and Soonhyung Yi
group would be more likely to talk about the thoughts or feelings of others.
In fact, the opposite result was obtained. The mean for the Caucasian group
was 21% (SD = 8.9) whereas the mean for the Korean group was 11% (SD
= 11): t(14) = 2.10,p = .05.
Each dyad also received a score for the proportion of episodes containing
references to behavioral expectations or social norms. As predicted, the
mean was higher for the Korean group (35%, SD = 19.2) than for the
Caucasian group (18%, SD = 6.6): f(14) = 2.34,~ <: .05.
Finally, each dyad received a score for the proportion of episodes
containing references to the childs attributes. Again, the prediction was
confirmed. The mean for the Caucasian group was 14% (SD = 8.9)
whereas the mean for the Korean group was 5% (SD = 6.7): t(14) =
2.41, p < .05.
For each of the four content variables, a secondary analysis was per-
formed to see whether the dyadic differences observed on these variables
were attributable to differences among both the children and the mothers
or primarily to differences among the mothers (on the view that such
differences would originate with the mother and gradually be internalized
by the child). Table 1 shows the separate means for children and mothers. In
every case, the difference was greater for the mothers. These exploratory
analyses were not among the main predictions of the study and the unad-
justed significance levels are provided only for comparison between chil-
dren and mothers.
Table 1. Proportion of Episodes Containing Four Types of Content in Talk of
Mothers and Children
Koreans Caucasians I
P
References to Childs
Thoughts or Feelings
Child 13% 20% 1.23 .24
Mother 13% 27% 2.59 .02
References to Others
Thoughts or Feelings
Child 3% 4% .I2 .90
Mother 11% 20% 2.07 .06
References to Social Norms
Child 7% 6% .12 .91
Mother 32% 15% 2.77 .Ol
References to Childs
Attributes
Child 1% 4% 1.45 .17
Mother 4% 11% 1.96 .07
Cultural Context of Talk About Past 415
DISCUSSION
The main prediction of the study, that the Caucasian dyads would engage
in memory talk more often than the Korean dyads in the course of natu-
rally-occurring conversation, was confirmed. The Caucasian dyads had, on
average, almost three times as many episodes of past event talk per hr
as did the Korean dyads. In addition, Caucasian mothers talked more in
their conversational turns. The question of whether the larger amount of
past event talk in the Caucasian group was the result of a greater overall
amount of talk or represented a unique emphasis on that type of talk
was beyond the scope of this project. It is an important question that
must be pursued, but in either case, the result obtained here suggests that
middle-class U.S. Caucasian children have more experience with discus-
sions of past events than do middle-class Korean children. Combined with
the finding that Caucasian adults report earlier memories than Korean
adults (Mullen, 1994), these results support the theory that a childs early
experience with past event talk influences the development of autobio-
graphical memory.
The results of this study also support the view that the content of past
event talk is related to socialization goals and cultural values. Consistent
with the Western emphasis on developing a strong individual self-concept,
the Caucasian dyads were more likely to cast the child as a central character
in the narrative, to talk about the childs thoughts and feelings, and to make
references to personal attributes of the child. It was predicted that Korean
dyads would be more likely than Caucasian dyads to talk about the thoughts
or feelings of others because of their cultural emphasis on empathy and
consideration of others before oneself. In fact, the opposite was the case.
Caucasians were more likely to talk about the thoughts and feelings of both
the child and others. In short, they took a more psychological approach to
their discussions. The Korean dyads, on the other hand, took a more norma-
tive approach, emphasizing behavioral expectations and social roles with
greater frequency than the Caucasian dyads. Indeed, empathy can be con-
ceived of in terms of a normative model that applies generally to all rela-
tions of a given type (e.g., when a child misbehaves, the mother feels
ashamed), and therefore, does not require speculation about the thoughts
and feelings of each individual. This interpretation is a possible explanation
for the failure to support the prediction regarding talk about the thoughts
and feelings of others. Thus, the children in each culture were learning,
through conversations about past events, which aspects of their experiences
to attend to.
It must be acknowledged that a day spent wearing a tape recorder is, in
some respects, not a typical day. The mothers in this study probably tried to
avoid recording anything embarrassing. And even though all of them surely
found the situation somewhat strange, this was probably more true for the
416 Mary K. Mullen and Soonhyung Yi
Korean group. One limitation of all cross-cultural research is that subjects
in different cultures may not experience their participation in the study in
the same way. Nonetheless, the participants in this study had to go about the
business of their day, and the conversations recorded were simply about
topics that came up in this context: what happened at school, why a friends
mom was angry at him, last weeks trip to the park, yesterdays dinner.
Perhaps some of the mothers made more of an effort to talk with their
children than they normally would because they knew that they were par-
ticipating in a study of language development. But it is unlikely that such an
effect could account for the fact that Caucasian dyads talked about past
events far more often than Korean dyads or for the differences observed in
the content of past event talk.
The secondary analyses of the content variables (Table 1) suggest that the
content differences in the talk of the two groups originated with the mothers
and were beginning to be represented in the talk of the children. What
adults choose to comment on and ask questions about is shaped by cultural
values and provides a model for the childs own processing of experience.
Nelson (1989) calls this conventionalizing the subjective account. Un-
doubtedly, other forms of event talk, including discussions of ongoing activi-
ties and of plans and expectations for the future, serve these functions as
well. But in some ways past event talk may be uniquely suited to the task of
transmitting a richly interpretive perspective on our experiences. Indeed,
Miller and Sperry (1988) report that past event talk contains five times more
evaluative devices than other kinds of conversation. In past event talk we
are temporally removed from the experience under discussion. The subjects
of the narrative, including the self, become characters in the sense that
they are generated as actors in a context outside of the immediacy of the
present moment. This temporal distance from the present provides an op-
portunity for a kind of reflection on experience that may not often occur in
the midst of the effort to comprehend ongoing experience and determine
how to respond. Thus, the transmission of so~iocultural knowledge associ-
ated with event talk in general may be most strongly represented in past
event talk.
At the same time that children are learning about the social world they
inhabit, they are also developing a sense of self, as they see themselves cast
as characters in the stories of their experiences. Many researchers have
pointed out that autobiographical memory and the sense of self are closely
interwoven {Barclay, 1986; Fitzgerald, 1986; Fivush, 1988; Ross, 1989). In
constructing a story about your experiences, you are of necessity also con-
structing a story about yourself. What, then, might substantial cultural dif-
ferences in the frequency and content of such story telling mean? The
conception of selfhood in the two cultures may be experienced in very
different ways.
Cultural Context of Talk About Past 417
In one culture, represented by the Caucasian group, children are learning
to attend to their thoughts and feelings about their experiences, indeed
perhaps to develop thoughts and feelings about their experiences because
others often want to know what they are. They are being taught that each
person has a collection of individual attributes that makes them unique, and
that it is important to discover and give expression to this individuality. The
construction of accounts of ones experiences is an important avenue to-
wards achieving this goal. Indeed, the sense that the autobiographical nar-
rative is central to self-concept is so strong in Western culture that its
models of psychotherapy are often conceptualized in terms of healing the
self through rewriting the story (Bruner, 1990).
In the culture represented by the Korean group (which may extend to
other Asian cultures with respect to the issues addressed here), children are
learning that each person has a collection of roles within the social network,
and that there are behavioral expectations associated with these roles. The
sense of self comes from ones success at performing these roles. There may
be less need to differentiate oneself in terms of personal attributes, and thus
less need for an elaborated autobiographical narrative. In such a context, the
details of how one has experienced particular events may not be dwelled
upon to the same degree. This account is supported by the finding that
Caucasian adults are more likely to report having thought about their
earliest memories than are Asian adults (Mullen, 1994).
Obviously, these are not absolute differences between cultures, but rather
differences in the relative importance of the various purposes of past event
talk. In both groups, children are learning through these kinds of conversa-
tions how to evaluate their experiences through the lines of their culture.
Taylor (1989) describes the primacy of evaluating ones experiences, of
taking a perspective on events, in the construction of the sense of self. This
evaluative orientation, frequently manifested in past event talk, is perhaps
the region in which culture, sense of self, and autobiographical memory are
most profoundly interwoven.
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