Formal schooling, autobiographical memory, and cultural self-construals

This palter analyses the relationship between formal schooling (understood as cultural activity), autobiographical memory, and self Autobiographical memory can he defined as memory for events and experiences of one's lift. Research in the last years has evidenced cultural differences in autobiographical memory. However, the role of formal schooling in the configuration of our autobiographical memories has not been investigated systematically. Litercay and formal education have played and play a fundamental part in the constitution of the modern subject. Our study explores the characteristics of autobiographical narratives and self-construals of Mexican women and men from three different levels of formal education: 1) literate: learning to read and write; 2) basic: equivalent to primary education; and 3) university: higher education. Participants were asked to narrate their earliest autobiographical memory. The main results showed that formal schooling seemed to promote forms of autobiographical recall that are very similar to those that characterise "cultures of autonomy" (age of earliest memory, focus on autonomy, the self as protagonist of memories, emotional content, etc.). These results are discussed in terms of the relationship between soda-cultural activities and autobiographical recall.