7- Malleability of Memory

Question 1

What type of memories are harder to test?

Answer 1

Episodic memories

Question 2

Why do episodic memories feel stronger when being recalled?

Answer 2

Due to the emotional attachment

Question 3

Who were the participants in McNally et al’s (2004) study?

Answer 3

A group who reported being alien abductees vs a control group (non-abducted)

Question 4

What did McNally et al find?

Answer 4

A greater emotional physiological reaction to abduction and stressful scripts than positive and neutral scripts in ‘abductees’

Question 5

What were the physiological responses elicited by memories of implausible experiences similar to?

Answer 5

Those elicited by traumatic memory experiences

Question 6

What do physiological reactions indicate when remembering implausible experiences?

Answer 6

Emotions during memory recollection cannot be taken as evidence of memory authenticity

Question 7

What did individuals reporting recovered memories of alien abduction show compared to controls in semantic associate word tasks? (Clancy et al)

Answer 7

More false recall/recognition responses

Question 8

What are Clancy et al’s finding consistent with?

Answer 8

Hypothesis that individuals who are prone to false memories in a lab are also prone to false memories in reality

Question 9

What does confusion of the memory source lead to?

Answer 9

Distorted memories

Question 10

When do source monitoring errors occur?

Answer 10

When we are trying to misattribute the information to the wrong source

Question 11

What does the mental model theory of reasoning suggest we imagine?

Answer 11

Possibilities of different situations described by facts

Question 12

What do causal mental models suggest we combine information with and why?

Answer 12

With logical/possible information to create plausible models

Question 13

What did Loftus work on?

Answer 13

Eyewitness testimony

Question 14

What is memory distortion by linguistic presuppositions?

Answer 14

The way questions are asked after an event can cause a reconstruction of memory for that event

Question 15

Who suggested leading questions?

Answer 15

Loftus and Palmer, 1974

Question 16

What are leading questions?

Answer 16

Questions suggesting an answer/leading a respondent to an answer by the way the question is phrased or content

Question 17

How did Loftus and Palmer investigate leading questions?

Answer 17

Participants were shown films of traffic accidents and asked about speed of vehicles

Question 18

What was the key word in Loftus and Palmer’s leading question?

Answer 18

Hit/smashed

Question 19

What did Loftus and Palmer find?

Answer 19

A change in a single word can bias a witness’ answer to a question

Question 20

2 possible explanations for Loftus and Palmer’s finding

Answer 20

Response bias or memory distorted

Question 21

How might a response bias influence Loftus and Palmer’s finding?

Answer 21

Verb makes participants choose the higher speed if they are undecided between 2 responses

Question 22

How might memory distortion influence Loftus and Palmer’s finding?

Answer 22

Verb changes participant’s memory so the accident seemed more serious than it was

Question 23

What did Loftus and Palmer conclude their results were due to?

Answer 23

Memory distortion

Question 24

What elements are participants more likely to remember when a question included a verb?

Answer 24

Elements compatible with a more serious accident, but were not there

Question 25

What can a linguistic presupposition in the question lead to?

Answer 25

People to recall non-existent objects

Question 26

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 26

Memory changes after the receipt of misleading post-event information

Question 27

How did people show the misinformation effect in a memory task?

Answer 27

Worse memory performance of participants exposed to the post-event misinformation than controls

Question 28

What is the effect of inducing temporary states?

Answer 28

Make people less likely to notice the discrepancy between the misinformation and their original memory of the event

Question 29

What is the problem with gaps in our memory?

Answer 29

Increased chance that we’ll fill these gaps with incorrect information

Question 30

3 factors of descriptions of ‘unreal’ memories differing from real memories

Answer 30

1. Longer
2. More verbal hedges
3. More cognitive (but not sensory) information

Question 31

Who showed that it is possible to implant a memory of something that never happened?

Answer 31

Loftus & Pickrell, 1995

Question 32

What is the “lost in the mall method”?

Answer 32

Causing people to believe they had been lost in the mall as a child even though that never happened

Question 33

What may rich false memories reflect?

Answer 33

True experiences that misinformation made emerge

Question 34

How many people falsely remembered after being given a fake ad?

Answer 34

16%

Question 35

What is a key feature of memory?

Answer 35

It is malleable

Question 36

What events can individuals develop false memories for?

Answer 36

Implausible/impossible events

Question 37

What is the memory system prone to do?

Answer 37

Absorb misinformation