8 - Everyday memory and memory errors Flashcards
what is autobiographical memory
memory for specific experiences in our lives that can include episodic and semantic dimensions
what are the two most important aspects of autobiuophraical memory
- it is multidimensional
2. some events are better remembered than others
why is autobiographical memory multidimensional?
- multimodal sensory aspects
what happens to patients who loose the ability to recognize or visualize objects bc of dmg to the visual cortex
experience a loss of autobiographical memory
explain Cabeza’s findings on photographs and autobiographical memory
photos taken by the participant activated more extensive brain networks than pictures of the same location taken by others
- reflects the richness of ab memory
what is the reminiscence bump
increase in memory for events during adolescent and you adulthood
explain the self image hypothesis
memory is enhance for events that occur as someones self-image is under development
what is the cognitive hypothesis
- what is the best evidence for this
periods of rapid change immediately followed by stability cause stronger encoding
- immigration during the 30s causes bimodal rem. bump
what is the cultural script hypothesis
events in individuals lives become easier to remember if they conform to the cultural script
what its he youth bass
the tendency for notable public events to be perceived as occurring while we are young
what were the outcomes of Labar and Phelps study on emotional vs neutral word memory
people are better able to recall arousing terms than neutral ones
- same with images
what area its very active in the brain while perceiving arousing words
- what happens when this area is damaged
the amygdala shows higher fMRI activity during emotional words
- Bp had damage to amygdala.
- resulted in no improved memory for emotional events compared to controls
how are emotions related to memory consolidation
- enhancing effects
- stimulating the CNS of rats after task training enhances memory in rats
- cortisol released during and after emotional thought to have the same mechanism
explain Cahill’s study n the amygdala and emotional memory
coristol enhances memory for emotional pictures but not non-emotional ones
- stress (immerse arm in water) vs no stress groups
- those exposed to stress had higher recall of the emotional pictures, no diff in the non emotional groups
what are flashbulb memories
- what is special about them?
a persons memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking events like 9/11
- relates to how someone heard about an event, not the event itself
- Brown and Kulik; remembered for a long time, vivid and detailed
are flashbulb memories as much like photographs as Brown and Kulik thought? why or why not
no, they are often inaccurate
- tested w the repeated recall procedure
- memories of the challenger explosion were affected by peoples experiences following the event and their general knowledge
what is the narrative rehearsal hypothesis
we might remember important or shocking events not bc of some unique mechanism, but bc they are rehearsed often afterwards bc they were so public
- watching tv footage for example mibht come to be the way ppl think they learned about something
are flashbulb memories really different than others? explain
not really, they decay like others (Talarico and Rubin)_
- but they are deemed as more vivid and accurate than others
- so they are unique in one sense (more vivid) but not unique in another (not accurate)
what is the constructive nature of memory
what ppl report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors like their knowledge, experience and expectations
what is source monitoring
the process of determine the origins of memories, knowledge or belief
what are two words for failures in source monitoring
- sm erros
2. source misattributions
what is cryptomnesia
the unconscious plagiarism of works
explain Jacoby’s study on source monitoring for famous ppl
presented lists of names with famous and non famous ppl
- ppl were good at determining who was famous the first time
- then 24 hours later tested again
- started to get confused
- non famous names became familiar - SM error
what is the illusory truth effect
the enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as true upon repeated presentation
why does Fazio think repetition results in illusory truth
the increase in fluency / familiarity
explain the outcomes of Bartett’s ‘war of the ghosts’ experiment
people read a story then were asked to repeat it over anger and longer intervals
- repeated reproduction procedure
- became shorter and less accurate over time
- but also started to reflect the person’s culture!!
what is pragmatic inference
occurs when reading a sentence leads someone to expect something that is not explicitly stated or implied by the sentence itself
- happens when people who know baseball well hear a story ab it, then asked to repeat it - might say they heard a sentence that was inexplicitly implied
how do schemas influence memory
seeing a scene and then asked to recall objects that were there - might think that schema consistent objects where there when they weren’t
how do scripts influence memory
set up expectations about the typical order of operations in an event
