chap 8

Question 1

Cognitive interview

Answer 1

A procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption, and also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves back in the scene and recreate things like emotions they were feeling, where they were looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives.

Question 2

Weapons focus

Answer 2

The tendency for eyewitnesses to a crime to focus attention on a weapon, which causes poorer memory for other things that are happening.

Question 3

Reminiscence bump

Answer 3

The empirical finding that people over 40 years old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence and early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives.

Question 4

Amygdala

Answer 4

A subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events.

Question 5

Reverse testing effect

Answer 5

Taking a recall test right after witnessing an event increases a participant’s sensitivity to subsequently presented misinformation.

Question 6

Memory trace replacement hypothesis

Answer 6

The idea that misleading postevent information impairs or replaces memories that were formed during the original experiencing of an event.

Question 7

Script

Answer 7

The conception of the sequence of actions that describe a particular activity. For example, the sequence of events that are associated with going to class would be a “going to class” script.

Question 8

Retroactive interference

Answer 8

When more recent learning interferes with memory for something that happened the past.

Question 9

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Flashbulb memory

Answer 10

Memory for the circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking, highly charged events. It has been claimed that such memories are particularly vivid and accurate.

Question 11

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 11

The idea that we remember some life events better because we rehearse them. This idea was proposed by Neisser as an explanation for “flashbulb” memories.

Question 12

Cognitive hypothesis

Answer 12

An explanation for the reminiscence bump, which states that memories are better for adolescence and early adulthood because encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability.

Question 13

Source monitoring

Answer 13

The process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs. Remembering that you heard about something from a particular person would be an example of this.

Question 14

Cultural life script

Answer 14

Life events that commonly occur in a particular culture.

Question 15

Source misattribution

Answer 15

Occurs when the source of a memory is misidentified. Equivalent to source monitoring error.

Question 16

Repeated reproduction

Answer 16

A method of measuring memory in which a person reproduces a stimulus on repeated occasions so his or her memory is tested at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered.

Question 17

Constructive nature of memory

Answer 17

The idea that what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as expectations, other knowledge, and other life experiences.

Question 18

Pragmatic inference

Answer 18

Inference that occurs when reading or hearing a statement leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the statement.

Question 19

Source monitoring error

Answer 19

Misidentifying the source of a memory. Equivalent to source misattribution.

Question 20

Schema

Answer 20

A person’s knowledge about what is involved in a particular experience.

Question 21

Post-identification feedback effect

Answer 21

An increase in confidence of memory recall due to confirming feedback after making an identification. This effect can occur in after a person identifies someone in a lineup.

Question 22

Self-image hypothesis

Answer 22

The idea that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed. This is one of the explanations for the reminiscence bump.

Question 23

Misinformation effect

Answer 23

Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how the person describes that event later.

Question 24

Misleading postevent information

Answer 24

The misleading information that causes the misinformation effect.

Question 25

Repeated recall

Answer 25

Recall that is tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event.

Question 26

Cryptomnesia

Answer 26

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others. This has been associated with errors in source monitoring.

Question 27

Cultural life script hypothesis

Answer 27

The idea that events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture.

Question 28

Autobiographical memory

Answer 28

Memory for dated events in a person’s life. This is usually considered to be a type of episodic memory, but has also been defined as including personal semantic memories.