ch. 8 everyday memory & memory errors

Question 1

Self-image hypothesis

Answer 1

Proposes that memory is enhanced for events that occurs as a person’s self-image or life identify is being formed

Question 2

Reminiscence bump

Answer 2

Empirical finding that people over 40 yrs old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence &a early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives

Question 3

Cultural life script hypothesis

Answer 3

person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture

Question 4

Amygdala

Answer 4

Subcrotical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events

Question 5

Cognitive hypothesis

Answer 5

Encoding is better during periods of rapid change, followed by stability

Question 6

Weapon focus

Answer 6

Tendency to focus attention on a weapon during the commission of a crime, which is typically a high-emotion situation

Question 7

Flashbulb memory

Answer 7

Refers to a person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking events

Surrounding how a person heard about an event, not memory for the event itself

Question 8

Repeated recall

Answer 8

Technique of comparing later memories to memories collected immediately after the event

Question 9

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 9

Idea that we remember some life events better because we rehearse them

Explanation for the “flashbulb” memories

Question 10

Constructive nature of memory

Answer 10

It idea that what people repot as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors such as expectations, other knowledge & other life experiences

Question 11

Source monitoring error

Answer 11

Misidentifying the source of a memory

Failure to distinguish the source of the information

Question 12

Cryptoamnesia

Answer 12

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others

Associated with errors in source monitoring

Question 13

Pragmatic inference

Answer 13

Occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated

These inferences are based on knowledge gained through experience

Question 14

Schema

Answer 14

A person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment

We develop schemes through our experiences in different situations (ex. Visiting a post office, going to a ball game, listening to the lecture)

Question 15

Misinformation effect

Answer 15

Misleading information presented after the person witness an event changes how the person describes that event later

Question 16

Misleading post event information (MPI)

Answer 16

Misleading information that causes the misinformation effect

Question 17

Retroactive interference

Answer 17

Occurs when more recent learning (misinformation for this example) interferes with the memory for something that happened in the past (actual event)

Question 18

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 18

Testimony by eyewitness to a crime about what they saw during commission of the crime

Question 19

Post identification feedback effect

Answer 19

Increases the confidence of memory recall due to confirming feedback after making an identification, as in a police lineup

Question 20

Cognitive interview

Answer 20

Interviewing a crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption

Also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves back in the scene & recreate emotions they were feeling, where they were looking &a how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives