8 - Everyday memory and memory errors

Question 1

what is autobiographical memory

Answer 1

memory for specific experiences in our lives that can include episodic and semantic dimensions

Question 2

what are the two most important aspects of autobiuophraical memory

Answer 2

1. it is multidimensional

2. some events are better remembered than others

Question 3

why is autobiographical memory multidimensional?

Answer 3

• multimodal sensory aspects

Question 4

what happens to patients who loose the ability to recognize or visualize objects bc of dmg to the visual cortex

Answer 4

experience a loss of autobiographical memory

Question 5

explain Cabeza’s findings on photographs and autobiographical memory

Answer 5

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

Question 6

what is the reminiscence bump

Answer 6

increase in memory for events during adolescent and you adulthood

Question 7

explain the self image hypothesis

Answer 7

memory is enhance for events that occur as someones self-image is under development

Question 8

what is the cognitive hypothesis

- what is the best evidence for this

Answer 8

periods of rapid change immediately followed by stability cause stronger encoding
- immigration during the 30s causes bimodal rem. bump

Question 9

what is the cultural script hypothesis

Answer 9

events in individuals lives become easier to remember if they conform to the cultural script

Question 10

what its he youth bass

Answer 10

the tendency for notable public events to be perceived as occurring while we are young

Question 11

what were the outcomes of Labar and Phelps study on emotional vs neutral word memory

Answer 11

people are better able to recall arousing terms than neutral ones
- same with images

Question 12

what area its very active in the brain while perceiving arousing words
- what happens when this area is damaged

Answer 12

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

Question 13

how are emotions related to memory consolidation

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

explain Cahill’s study n the amygdala and emotional memory

Answer 14

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

Question 15

what are flashbulb memories

- what is special about them?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

are flashbulb memories as much like photographs as Brown and Kulik thought? why or why not

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what is the narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 17

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

Question 18

are flashbulb memories really different than others? explain

Answer 18

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)

Question 19

what is the constructive nature of memory

Answer 19

what ppl report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors like their knowledge, experience and expectations

Question 20

what is source monitoring

Answer 20

the process of determine the origins of memories, knowledge or belief

Question 21

what are two words for failures in source monitoring

Answer 21

1. sm erros

2. source misattributions

Question 22

what is cryptomnesia

Answer 22

the unconscious plagiarism of works

Question 23

explain Jacoby’s study on source monitoring for famous ppl

Answer 23

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

Question 24

what is the illusory truth effect

Answer 24

the enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as true upon repeated presentation

Question 25

why does Fazio think repetition results in illusory truth

Answer 25

the increase in fluency / familiarity

Question 26

explain the outcomes of Bartett’s ‘war of the ghosts’ experiment

Answer 26

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!!

Question 27

what is pragmatic inference

Answer 27

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

Question 28

how do schemas influence memory

Answer 28

seeing a scene and then asked to recall objects that were there - might think that schema consistent objects where there when they weren’t

Question 29

how do scripts influence memory

Answer 29

set up expectations about the typical order of operations in an event