October 31 Post

What interested me the most in the Pillemer reading were the differences between linguistic and non-linguistic memory. In a way it’s hard for me to separate the two, however I can see how they distinction is important when analyzing the memory of young children. Thinking about one of my earliest memories, and how what I remember the most was the overwhelming feeling of guilt, so much that I cried in pre-school. So remembering the emotion is to use my linguistic memory. However, now that I’m older, I am able to put the memory of that event, and specifically, that feeling in words. I can verbalize the feeling. So my question is, wouldn’t this memory now fall under the non-linguistic category? And when we do begin to develop a sense of ourselves, to form words and put memory into stories to relate to others, do all of our memories become non-linguistic? Even the idea that our parents place memories on us, or that their recollection becomes our memories would place that memory in the non-linguistic category as well?