autobiographical memory Flashcards
autobiographical memory vs lab memory experiment
In one condition, Had participants take pictures of campus, in another condition they had same participants sit in a lab and encode photographs taken by other people
results of lab vs autobiographical study
Results:both types of photos (own and other) activated similar brain structures
1)medial temporal lobe (episodic)
2)parietal lobe(processing of scenes)
Own photos showed more activation in:
1)prefrontal cortex(info about self)
2)hippocampus (recollection)
quantitative difference
some regions of the same regions are more activated for own picture vs others
interpretations
1)autobiographical memories evoke richer experiences
2)lots of similarities between autobiographical and lab, theres just a stronger pattern for own memories
The autobiographical interview (levine et al, 2002)
Had participants take video throughout the day and then asked about their memory for the day, pictures were useful to make sure its accurate
**“Tell me everything you remember”
**We can code if the narrative is episodic or some of its semantic
The Constructive nature of memory
memory=what actually happens+person’s knowledge,experiences, and expectations)
Schema:
knowledge about some aspect of the environment
Script
:conception of sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience
Schemas and scripts influence memory
Can have positive and negative effects
Memory can include information not actually experienced but inferred because it is expected and consistent with the schema
Source memory:
determining origins of our memory
Source monitoring error
misidentifying source of a given memory
Cryptomnesia
unconscious plagiarism of another’s work due to a lack of recognition of its original source
Jacob and co workers (1989)
famous or non famous experiment
Participants given a list of non famous names that they previously studied and new non famous names they haven’t seen
Participants tested right away were good at distinguishing non famous names from famous names
After delay of 24 hours, some of the old non-famous names were misidentified as famous
explanation of famous non famous task
some non-famous names were familiar and the participants misattributed the source of the familiarity
**Failed to identity the source as the list that had been read the previous day
pros of constructive memory
allows us to fill in the blanks
Cognition is creative
Understand language
Solve problems
Make decisions
Cons:
Memory errors
Eyewitness implications
What type of events do we remembers well?
Transition points(when changes happen)
Highly emotional events (next class)
Reminiscence bump:
we remember more about events from adolescence and early adulthood than any other time
Explanations for reminiscence bump
1)self-image:period of assuming persons self image
2)cognitive:encoding is better during periods of rapid change
3)cultural life script:culturally shared expectations structure recall
Future bump
In other words, kids preferred early adult period even when thinking about their future
caveats to future bump
Variants in what reminiscence bump is going to look like depending on how memory is cued
if you cue people with odors, you get early bump
Errors in eyewitness testimony
1)errors due to attention
**weapon focus
2)errors due to familiarity(source monitoring deficit)
3)errors due to suggestion
Misinformation effect(suggest):
misleading information presented after someone witnesses an event can change how that person later describes the event
how fast were the cars going?
“Smash” group much more likely to report faster speed and the presence of broken glass
gun man study and experimenter saying “ok”
Conclusion: the type of feedback from experimenter influenced subject’s confidence in their identification with confirming feedback resulting in the highest confidence
Suggestion: Implanting false memories study
hot air balloon study
Suggestion: implementing false memories Shaw et al(video)
Convinced 70% of participants that they committed a crime
Researchers gave believable evidence such as friends names
Gave scenario where it was easily imaginable
Had participants repeatedly think of the event by spacing each session
How can we make memory more trustworthy?
1)inform witness that perpetrator might not be in lineup
2)use fillers in lineup similar to suspect
3)police should be masked
4)obtain confidence rating early
5)improve interviewing techniques
**dont use leading questions
Flashbulb memory:
:memory for circumstance surrounding shocking, highly charged important events
flashbulb memories can change over time
Details remembered decreased for both flashbulb and everyday memories, belief in accuracy and vividness also decreased for everyday memories but remain high for flashbulb
why does flashbulb memory change with time?
narrative rehearsal hypothesis
narrative rehearsal hypothesis
Repeated viewing/hearing of event
Could introduce errors in own memory by hearing the event and rehearsing it/remember it and distorting the event
we remember ____ images better than neutral ones
emotional
Multiple Mechanisms for remembering emotional stimuli
1)attention:emotion changes the focus of attention
**central vs peripheral tradeoff hypothesis
**Weapon focus effect
2)consolidation
*emotion protects memories from forgetting
3)rehearsal
*emotional memories are strongly rehearsed
What happens in brain when we encode emotional experiences
amygdala important
Fear conditioning in rats(tone and shock)
Conditioning:conditioned response produced in response to conditioned stimulus that has been paired with emotion-evoking unconditioned stimulus
Fear generalization:
fear response acquired to a particular stimulus transfers to another stimulus
*maladaptive
