"What Is Cognitive-Perceptual Theory?"
Cognitive-Perceptual (CP) theory is a theory of personality designed to probe the
interrelationship between autobiographical memory and personality. Autobiographical memories
of interest to CP theory involve those for specific events which have the form, "I remember one
time...." Traditional memory researchers who seek to understand how memory operates want to
minimize or eliminate the influence of personality. When personality affects memory
functioning, these scientists perceive this as "white noise", or error variance, that interferes with
what they want to observe. Research designs seek to minimize the effect of this kind of white
noise. This orientation also holds for traditional autobiographical memory researchers in the case
of certain autobiographical memory products-- i.e., memories of widely known events such as
the Challenger disaster or President Kennedy's assassination-- because they are almost
universally remembered in certain population groups and the objective facts (date, place, events
in question) are widely known. Thus, traditional memory researchers and CP researchers are
often both interested in autobiographical memories, but from opposite perspectives--CP
researchers want to better understand how personality manifests in memories and maximize these
influences, whereas traditional memory researchers want to minimize any effects of personality.
The CP theorist seeks out exactly the kind of information that traditional memory
research avoids. The CP theorist wants to maximize the role of personality in memory
functioning and come to know it for what it is. For we understand that memory, however it is
conceptualized, is not like an operating camera or a computer hard drive. Memory tends to
operate in a highly individualistic manner; perception is similarly quirky. Some people have
excellent memories, some poor. Some are visually oriented in their recollecting, others auditory.
Some are oriented toward the large picture, others toward details. And differences in initial
perceptions are similarly known, which are well documented in the eye witness literature (See
Elizabeth Loftus' important research for examples). The CP theorist is specifically interested in
understanding how it is that people have such different recollections of their lives, even
individuals who have grown up in the same family. How can we account for those differences?
CP theory is concerned with memory differences that involve personality, as opposed to
biology. For instance, attention deficit disorder in most cases likely originates with neurological
deficits or quirks, allergic problems, and other biological variables that cause problems with
attending although there are also some instances in which emotional problems can cause
attentional difficulties. On the other hand, individuals who have been harshly and unfairly treated
in the past are likely to remember this type of event and to be sensitive to similar treatment in the
present. In the most general sense, CP practioners are interested in what kinds of personality
variables bear on the process of recollection.
Based upon 25 years of research and observation, we propose that those aspects of
personality which impact autobiographical memory the most involve important interests, high
priority needs, major attitudes, and key unresolved issues. Although a full explanation is beyond
the scope of this presentation, we can at least outline how personality becomes intertwined with
perception and memory. Those who want more information are directed to Bruhn 1990 a,
Bruhn 1990 b, and Bruhn and Feigenbaum, in process (References).
Personal memories tell us about what kinds of events are important to an individual, how
these events are commonly constructed, and generally how the person interacts with other people
and the world about him. Just as important, memories reveal expectations about these key events,
which are imbedded in the very structure of the recollection. These expectations in turn influence
perceptions of similar events that occur in the present. While there exists an objective reality
separate and apart from us, we apprehend that reality in an idiosyncratic manner, consistent with
our past experience of that reality. Similarly, individuals from a common culture tend to maintain
elements of a common cultural world view. When individuals from opposing warring cultures
interpret the actions of an enemy, they look at the same incidents from such radically different
perspectives that an impartial observer may have trouble recognizing the same incident. The
belief system which we maintain as individuals has its parallels to the cultural views which we
just noted in the sense that each of us constitutes in a sense our own unique culture.
When we consider autobiographical memories from the perspective of personality, certain
central questions must be addressed. The following, which are among the more important,
informally stake out the domain of CP theory:
If you, also, wonder about such matters, you have now entered that murky no man's land of not necessarily fact and not necessarily fiction, a.k.a., memory garnished with personality. Your next step is to venture into Frequently Asked Questions About Autobiographical Memories.