Doctoral Dissertation Research: On the Formation and Transformation of Collective Memory in Family Conversations

William Hirts/Alexandru Cuc-0236764为什么家人、同事甚至国家都会以同样的方式记住过去？最初不一致的记忆是如何汇聚到对过去的单一呈现上的？日常对话是否会改变人们的记忆，从而形成集体记忆？为什么有些记忆会分散在一个群体中，而另一些记忆则停留在局部或消失？在NSF的支持下，在William Hirst博士的指导下，Alex Cuc致力于集体记忆研究的这些关键问题，重点是家庭中集体记忆的形成。在很大程度上，研究人员未能研究社会结构对记忆的影响，而是专注于作为助记加工基础的普遍心理机制。库克创造性地探索了这些广为人知的心理机制和较少被理解的对话动态之间的相互作用，他阐明了通过对话形成集体记忆的条件。该项目的学术价值主要来自库克提供的关于这种互动的新见解，以及他为绘制这种互动而开发的严格方法。该项目的广泛影响包括更好地理解集体记忆的形成，不仅是家庭的集体记忆，还有包括国家在内的任何群体的集体记忆的形成。这种理解是未来探索集体记忆如何支持群体认同的基础，无论是家庭认同还是国家认同。

ABSTRACTWilliam Hirts/Alexandru Cuc - 0236764Why do families, colleagues, and even nations come to remember the past in the same way? How do initially discrepant memories come to converge on a single rendering of the past? Will everyday conversations change people's memories so that a collective memory emerges? And why do some memories spread across a group, while others remain localized or disappear? With NSF support, under the supervision of Dr. William Hirst, Alex Cuc addresses these critical issues for the study of collective memory, focusing on the formation of collective memories in families.To a large extent, researchers have failed to examine the effect of social structure on memory, concentrating on universal mental mechanisms that serve as the foundation for mnemonic processing. Mr. Cuc innovatively explores the interaction between these well-understood mental mechanisms and the less understood dynamics of conversation as he articulates the conditions under which collective memories are formed through conversation. The intellectual merits of the project stem primarily from the fresh insights Mr. Cuc offers about this interaction and the rigorous methodology he develops to chart this interaction.Broader impacts of the project include a better understanding of the formation of collective memories, not just of families, but of any group, including nations. This understanding serves as a foundation for exploring in the future the way collective memories support group identity, be it family identity or national identity.