Eating disorders (ED) are severe psychiatric disorders characterized by dysfunctional behaviors related to eating or weight control, with profound impacts on health, quality of life, and the financial burden of affected individuals and society at large. Given that these disorders involve disturbances in self-perception, it is crucial to comprehend the role of self-awareness in their prevalence and maintenance. This literature review presents different self-awareness processes, discussing their functioning across different levels of complexity. By deconstructing this concept, we can gain a better understanding of how each facet of self and personality relates to the symptoms of these disorders. Understanding the absence or impairment of self-awareness in ED holds significant implications for diagnosis, treatment, and overall management. By recognizing and comprehending the characteristics of self-awareness, clinicians can develop tailored interventions and evidence-based treatments for individuals with ED. Furthermore, this narrative review underscores the importance of considering temperament and personality factors in the context of ED, as temperament traits and personality characteristics may interact with self-awareness processes, influencing the development and maintenance of ED. Ultimately, the results highlight the pressing need for further research on the development of effective interventions and support strategies grounded in the aspects of self-awareness mechanisms for individuals affected by these disorders.

Autobiographical memories show a temporal pattern with relatively many events recalled from the recent past (recency) and from adolescence to early adulthood (reminiscence bump), and very few events recalled from the first few years of life (childhood amnesia). The current study examined a temporal pattern for external memory – information stored outside of one's brain. Three survey studies asked participants to choose which age(s) in their life they would most want to keep photos from, supposing they had many photos from every year. Participants chose 1 year of photos in Study 1, which sampled undergraduates (N = 499, median age = 19), and in Study 2, which sampled online participants using stratified age brackets (N = 252, age range 18–82). Participants chose 3 years of photos in Study 3, which sampled online participants over 40 using stratified age brackets (N = 240, age range 40–93). Participants’ choices largely showed preferences for time periods likely to be well remembered (recency and the reminiscence bump). Qualitative coding of participants’ reasons for their choices showed common themes, such as positive emotions, connections to other people and pets, life milestones, personal growth, and school. Results suggest that in the case of photos, external memory served to mostly enhance or enrich internal memory and less often to compensate for internal memory.

What are life’s biggest decisions? In Study 1, I devised a taxonomy comprising 9 decision categories, 58 decision types, and 10 core elements of big decisions. In Study 2, I revealed people’s perceptions of and expectations for the average person’s big life decisions. In the flagship Study 3, 658 participants described their 10 biggest past and future decisions and rated each decision on a variety of decision elements. This research reveals the characteristics of a big life decision, which are the most common, most important, and most positively evaluated big life decisions, when such decisions happen, and which factors predict ‘good’ decisions. This research contributes to knowledge that could help people improve their lives through better decision-making and living with fewer regrets.

In the BBC show, The Repair Shop, members of the public bring their cherished but crumbling possessions into a workshop populated by expert craftspeople, who carry out restorations. These objects arrive as treasured possessions, which, despite their dilapidated state, still hold memories and meaning for their owners, albeit memories that may have faded as the object itself has aged. Something magical seems to take place after the objects are restored, however. The restored objects seem to reanimate and revive the memories that their owners have invested in them. How is it possible that this restoration can bring memories held by the objects back to life? What is special about The Repair Shop restoring objects to their former glory? We outline two ways in which objects can be evocative and embody emotion, memory, and meaning. We then outline the ways in which the restoration of these objects to something like their original form can improve scaffolded recall and bring memories back to life. For one class of evocative objects, the restoration enhances recall by reinstating details from the context in which the memories were encoded. For the second class of evocative objects, their restoration affords an imaginative connection to the past, which enables them to become powerful focal points of memory and shared narratives. In effect, The Repair Shop seems to work not only as a repair shop of objects but as a repair shop of memory too.

Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and déjà vu are phenomena that occur spontaneously in daily life. IAMs are recollections of the personal past, whereas déjà vu is defined as an experience in which the person feels familiarity at the same time as knowing that the familiarity is false. We present and discuss the idea that both IAMs and déjà vu can be explained as natural phenomena resulting from memory processing and, importantly, are both based on the same memory retrieval processes. Briefly, we hypothesise that both can be described as “involuntary” or spontaneous cognitions, where IAMs deliver content and déjà vu delivers only the feeling of retrieval. We map out the similarities and differences between the two, making a theoretical and neuroscientific account for their integration into models of memory retrieval and how the autobiographical memory literature can explain these quirks of daily life and unusual but meaningful phenomena. We explain the emergence of the déjà vu phenomenon by relating it to well-known mechanisms of autobiographical memory retrieval, concluding that IAMs and déjà vu lie on a continuum.

Altered autobiographical memory (ABM) processing characterizes some individuals with experiences of childhood maltreatment. This fMRI study of ABM processing evaluated potential developmental plasticity in neural functioning following maltreatment. Adolescents with (N = 19; MT group) and without (N = 18; Non-MT group) documented childhood maltreatment recalled specific ABMs in response to emotionally valenced cue words during fMRI at baseline (age 12.71 ± 1.48) and follow-up (14.88 ± 1.53 years). Psychological assessments were collected at both timepoints. Longitudinal analyses were carried out with BOLD signal changes during ABM recall and psychopathology to investigate change over time. In both groups there was relative stability of the ABM brain network, with some developmental maturational changes observed in cortical midline structures (ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (pCC), and retrosplenial cortex (rSC). Significantly increased activation of the right rSC was observed only in the MT group, which was associated with improved psychological functioning. Baseline group differences in relation to hippocampal functioning, were not detected at follow-up. This study provides preliminary empirical evidence of functional developmental plasticity in children with documented maltreatment experience using fMRI. This suggests that altered patterns of brain function, associated with maltreatment experience, are not fixed and may reflect the potential to track a neural basis of resilience.

I propose a triangular theory of self to characterise the sense of selfhood in the era of social media. According to the theory, the self in the social media era comprises the represented self that is located in the private mind of the person, the registered self that is presented on social media platforms, and the inferred self that is constructed by the virtual audience. The three components of the self interact in dynamic ways to constitute a sense of selfhood and identity specific to the social media era. Autobiographical memory plays a critical role in the development and maintenance of these components. The triangular theory of self introduces new ways to understand and study memory and self in a digitally mediated world.