8: Everyday Memory Flashcards
What is it?
Operations that routinely occur in daily environments.
Historical divide:
Ebbinghaus- believed it can be studied objectively by simplifying remembering task to rapidly repeating back sequences of unfamiliar pseudo words.
Barlett- preferred naturalistic approach; examined recall of complex prose passages.
Why study it?
Investigating in the lab; formulating testable hypothesis; generating models is important.
Naturalistic settings is also important for investigations.
Metaphors of memory (Koriat & Goldsmith)
Store house metaphor- important factor is number of items that can be accessed at retrieval.
Correspondence metaphor- important thing is match/correspondence between individuals report and the actual event.
More appropriate in everyday memory.
Lab based Vs everyday memory
Different time frames (Cohen):
Everyday- often events from a long time ago frequently been thought about.
“Naturally occurring memories often memories or memories rather than originally perceived objects/events.”
Lab- remember information presented shortly beforehand.
Different purposes (Neisser):
Everyday- determined by personal goals; normally inaccurate.
Lab- determined by experimenter’s demand for accuracy.
Natural inaccuracy
Marsh & Tversky:
Students record information about retelling of personal memories over a period of a month.
Admitted 42% of retellings were inaccurate.
Dudokovic, Marsh & Tversky:
Participants read a story and retold it 3 times either as accurately as possible or as entertaining as they could.
Found entertaining stories recalled fewer details, story events and were less accurate.
Goals can distort memory for information.
Autobiographical memory: What is it?
Episodic and semantic- different kinds of declarative memory; distinction is useful but doesn’t reflect real life.
Consists of episodes from individual’s life; based on combination of episodic and semantic.
Research:
Conway, Pleydell-pearce & Whitecross- function of autobiographical memory: define ones identity; like personal history to public history; support personal goals; group a person in their experience.
Differs to episodic because episodic only concerned with personal experiences; less linked with life story.
Autobiographical memory: Yearbook study
Bahrick & Wittlinger:
400 people ages 17-74; retention of class mates faces and names.
Youngest- retention period of two weeks.
Oldest- retention period of 57 years.
Tested both free recall and recognition.
Findings:
Recall- young=50 names on average; old=18 names on average.
Recognition- young=90%; old=80-90% until 35 years later.
Over-learning can take place; distributed practice over a long period enhances memory.
Recall Vs recognition
Accessibility does not equal availability.
Recognition often much better than recall.
Conway, Cohen & Stanhope:
Memory for course material 12 years later.
Recall= 25%.
Recognition= 68%.
Flashbulb memory
Long lasting autobiographical memories for dramatic events.
Brown & Kulik:
Dramatic events perceived as surprising with real consequences activate a special neural mechanism; prints details permanently in the memory.
Flashbulb memories hold- Informant (person who told); place you heard the news; what you were doing; emotional state; consequences.
Argued different in longevity, accuracy, reliance on special neural mechanisms.
Evidence for- Conway, Anderson, Larsen, Donnelly etc:
Margaret Thatcher’s resignation.
Tested memory after a few days, 11 months, 26 months.
86% had flashbulb memories after 26 months.
Evidence against- Finke et al:
Not special; depend on prior knowledge; importance to individual; surprise; rehearsal etc.
Flashbulb memories: Inaccuracies/Instability
Pezdek- Inaccuracies:
USA students; “did you see on TV the first plane hitting the tower?”
73% said yes even though the video of the second tower was available that day.
Winningham, Hyman & Dinnel- Instability:
Unexpected acquittal of OJ Simposon.
Memories changed significantly in the first few days after hearing; then became consistent.
