Chapter 8 Flashcards
autobiographical memory
memory for specific events from a person’s life, which can include both episodic and semantic components
2 characteristics of autobiographical memory
- they are multidimensional
- we remember some events in our lives better than others
highly superior autobiographical memory
autobiographical memory capacity possessed by some people who can remember personal experiences that occurred on any specific day from their past
multidimensional nature of autobiographical memory
memories are multidimensional because they contains aspects like, hearing, touch, taste, vision, smells, spatial components and thoughts and emotions
reminiscence bump
- the finding that people over 40 years old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence and early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives
- this may be due to the idea that special events happen during adolescence and young adulthood
self-image hypothesis
proposes that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed
cognitive hypothesis
- proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability causes stronger encoding of memories
- adolescence and young adulthood fit this description because the rapid changes
cultural life script hypothesis
- 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
- this has been cited to explain the reminiscence bump
cultural life script
culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the life span
youth bias
the tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when the person is young (before 30)
memory and emotion
- emotions and memory are intertwined
- emotions are often associated with “special” events, such as beginning or ending relationships or events experienced by many people simultaneously
- there is also an idea that emotions are associated with better memory and has also been linked to improved memory consolidation
- better memory for emotionally arousing words
amygdala
- a subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events
- amygdala helps us remember events associated with emotions
stress hormones and memory
stress hormones released after emotional experience increases consolidation
flashbulb memory
- memory for the circumstances that surround hearing about shocking, highly charged events
- memories surrounding flashbulb events are especially vivid, but they are often inaccurate or lacking in detail
- e.g. a flashbulb memory for 9/11 would be memory for where a person was and what they were doing when they found out
repeated recall
- recall that is tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event
- has shown that flashbulb memories are not like photographs like previously suggested
narrative rehearsal hypothesis
rehearsing the events in one’s mind makes the memory vulnerable to being modified
constructive nature of memory
- 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
- an aspect of the constructive nature of memory is illustrated by the phenomenon of source monitoring
source monitoring
- the process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs
- it is an example of the constructive nature of memory because when we remember something, we retrieve the memory and then determine where that memory came from
- e.g. remembering that you heard about something from a particular person would be an example of source monitoring
source monitoring error
- misidentifying the source of a memory
- aka source misattribution
- common and we are often unaware of them
- e.g. you decided you first heard about a movie from a review you read online but in reality you first heard about it from your friend
cryptomnesia
- unconscious plagiarism of the work of other
- an example of source monitoring error
jacoby et al. (1989) source monitoring
demonstrated a connection between source monitoring errors and familiarity by testing participants’ ability to distinguish between famous and non famous names
schema
- knowledge of a scene/environment
- can lead to false recall and recognition
- memory influences people’s schemas
- e.g. Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm
script
- knowledge of the sequence of actions that occur during a certain situation
- can influence our memory by setting up expectations about what usually happens in a particular situation
- e.g. your coffee shop script might be waiting in line, ordering a drink and pastry from the barista, receiving the pastry, paying, and waiting near “pickup” for your drink
illusory truth effect
repeated presentation increases fluency/ease of remembering the statement and influences people’s judgments
bartlett (1932) “war on ghosts”
- presented folklore “War of the Ghosts” and asked participants to recall the story after various delays (repeated reproduction technique)
- longer delay = reproduction of the story was shorter and inaccurate
- often reflected ones own culture
repeated reproduction
method of measuring memory in which a person is asked to reproduce a stimulus on repeated occasions at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered
making inferences
memory reports can be influenced by inferences that people make based on their experiences and knowledge
pragmatic inference
- 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
- based on knowledge gained through experience
- e.g. reading that a baby stayed awake all night does not include any information about crying, knowledge about babies might lead a person to infer that the baby was crying
misinformation effects
- misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event that changes how the person describes that event later
- misleading information is called “misleading postevent information” or MPI
- misleading information can impact memory
- e..g. loftus & palmer study
false memories
- hyman Jr. et al. (1995): familiarity and source misattribution can result in false memories
- participants provided with false information about an event that occurred during their childhood
- 2 days later participants incorporated this false information into memory
repressed childhood memories
- memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness
- suggested to potentially cause psychological problems and that the way to treat the patient’s problem is to get them to retrieve the repressed memory
eyewitness testimony
testimony from a witness of a crime
2 assumptions the acceptance of eyewitness testimony is based on
- the eyewitness was able to clearly see what happened
- the eyewitness was able to remember his or her observations and translate them into an accurate description of the perpetrator and what happened
eyewitness testimony may be innacurate because of
- where attention was directed
- e.g. weapons focus when weapon is used results in a narrowing of attention - source monitoring error
- mistaken bystander as perpetrator or misidentification due to familiarity - misleading post event information/suggestibility
wells and bradfield study on post-identification feedback effect
- had participants view a video of an actual crime and then asked them to identify the perpetrator from a photo spread that did not actually contain a picture of the perpetrator
- results, indicate that participants who received the confirming feedback (“good”, “okay”) were more confident of their choice aka the post-identification feedback effect
how to improve eyewitness testimony
- inform that lineup might not contain the perpetrator
- use high-similarity lineups
- reduces the identification of innocent people especially when the perpetrator is not in the lineup - blind lineup administrator
- someone who doesn’t know who the suspect is - rate confidence in selection immediately after selection
cognitive interview
- procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption
- techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves back in the scene and recreate emotions they were feeling, where they were looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives
- takes a long time
what does decreasing the likelihood of any suggestive input by the person conducting the interview do
- increases correct details
- reinstates context of the crime
- asks to report everything
- recall events in different order
- recall incidents from different perspectives
eliciting false confessions
- often involves presentation of fake evidence to suggest guilt
- social pressure and instructions for guided imagery
- e.g. central park five
Deese-Roediger-McDermott Demonstration
- DRM procedure subjects are asked to memorize words from a list and later recall them
- these words are related to a “critical lure word” that is never presented
- our brains remember the “critical lure word” because its closely associated with the other words which creates that false memory
- the demonstration consists of a “free recall test” and a “recognition test”
Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm
shows how we are easily tricked by false memories
loftus ted talk
- steve titus was misidentified a man who had raped a female hitch hiker
- titus was convicted despite proclaiming his innocence due to being identified in a photo lineup
- titus was eventually freed after the correct man was found but he had lost his job, fiancee, money and filed a suit
- shown that 3/4 of 300 innocent people are convicted on fault eyewitness testimony
accident simulation experiment
- studies based on constructive memory involves showing people simulated crimes/accidents and asking them what they remember
- examined th difference between saying “how fast were the cars going when they hit eachother” vs. “hit each other” and found when asked the “smashed” question the “witnesses” told them the cars were going faster, as well as made them more likely to report they saw broken glass at the scene when there wasn’t any
