Brown Norman R
University of Alberta, Canada.
Cognition. 2021 Jul;212:104694. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104694. Epub 2021 Mar 31.
The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.
新冠疫情在其几乎全球性的影响范围以及改变我们生活的方式上是独一无二的。这些事实表明，它对记忆的影响可能也具有独特性。本文概述的一个框架——转变理论，用于阐明疫情爆发在记忆相关方面与其他个人和集体转变的不同之处，以及疫情期间与其他个人定义和历史定义的自传时期可能存在的差异。转变理论还为一些预测提供了基础。具体而言，它预测：（a）“新冠高峰”（疫情开始时事件记忆的可及性增加），随后是（b）“封锁低谷”（与其他稳定时期相比，封锁期间事件记忆的可及性下降）。它还预测（c）人们可能会将疫情视为其人生故事中的重要篇章，但前提是疫情前和疫情后的生活几乎没有连续性。时间会证明这些预测是否成真。然而，现在强调新冠疫情中那些可能塑造我们对这个非常特殊历史时期的个人和集体记忆的方面，为时并不过早。
