Human memory, as a product of the mind and brain, is inherently private and personal. Yet, arising from the interaction between the organism and its ecology in the course of phylogeny and ontogeny, human memory is also profoundly collective and cultural. In this review, I discuss the cultural foundation of human memory. I start by briefly reflecting on the conception of memory against a historical and cultural background. I then detail a model of a culturally saturated mnemonic system in which cultural elements constitute and condition various processes of remembering, focusing on memory representation, perceptual encoding, memory function, memory reconstruction, memory expression, and memory socialization. Then I discuss research on working memory, episodic memory, and autobiographical memory as examples that further demonstrate how cultural elements shape the processes and consequences of remembering and lay the foundation for human memory. I conclude by outlining some important future directions in memory research.

This study examined maternal beliefs about the functions of memory sharing and the relations between these beliefs and mother-child reminiscing behaviors in a cross-cultural context. Sixty-three European American and 47 Chinese mothers completed an open-ended questionnaire concerning their beliefs about the functions of parent-child memory sharing. They also engaged in a joint-reminiscing task with their child. European American mothers were more likely than Chinese mothers to report social (conversational and relationship maintenance) and teaching/problem solving functions. In addition, conversational functions were associated with increased maternal elaborativeness and evaluations during reminiscing, independent of culture. Results are discussed in light of the functional and cultural contexts of early autobiographical memory development.

Internet technology provides a new means of recalling and sharing personal memories in the digital age. What is the mnemonic consequence of posting personal memories online? Theories of transactive memory and autobiographical memory would make contrasting predictions. In the present study, college students completed a daily diary for a week, listing at the end of each day all the events that happened to them on that day. They also reported whether they posted any of the events online. Participants received a surprise memory test after the completion of the diary recording and then another test a week later. At both tests, events posted online were significantly more likely than those not posted online to be recalled. It appears that sharing memories online may provide unique opportunities for rehearsal and meaning-making that facilitate memory retention.

This special issue brings together the scholarship that advances our knowledge on remembering in the age of the Internet and social media. The studies reported in the ten articles address diverse topics in three broad areas prominent in current research: offloading memory and the associated costs, benefits, and boundary conditions, autobiographical memory online, and false memory in a misinformation age. They employ innovative and rigorous methodological approaches that are ecologically valid in the online context. Their findings reveal complex and dynamic characteristics of human memory in a digitally mediated world that shapes our learning, our sense of self, and our beliefs and decision making. Collectively, the studies provide rich theoretical insights into the workings and functions of memory. This special issue ushers in a new era of research on memory in the age of the Internet and social media.

Episodic memory for specific personal events is a fundamental human cognitive faculty. Yet it is variably valued across cultures and may thus have different implications for psychological well-being. In a series of studies, we investigated the consequences of cultural fit in detailed episodic recall for psychological well-being among healthy adults and children from European American and East Asian cultural backgrounds. Participants recalled recent and distant personal events (Studies 1, 2, and 3) or recent positive and negative events (Study 4). The findings showed that culture moderated the relation of episodic memory to various aspects of mental health and well-being. Whereas detailed recall was linked to decreased use of avoidant coping among European Americans, it was associated with elevated depressive symptoms, decreased adaptive skills, and increased negative affect among East Asians. The findings support the person-culture-fit framework and suggest that the functional significance of episodic memory depends on cultural contexts.