Chapter 8- Autobiographical memory

Question 1

Autobiographical memory

Answer 1

Memory for specific experiences in our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components. You can remember the event as well as the context surrounding it. In contrast to STM and LTM, this is always memory for real life events, not laboratory tasks

Question 2

The multidimensional nature of autobiographical memory

Answer 2

Memories often involve multiple components- visual, auditory, and maybe smells, tastes, and tactile components as well. Memories also involve a spatial component because they are taking place in a 3D environment. In addition, memories will involve thoughts and emotions. Each dimension plays an important role in the memory. People who have lost their ability to visualize or recognize objects can experience a loss of autobiographical memory

Question 3

Which areas of the brain are involved in autobiographical memory?

Answer 3

A study where participants viewed photos they had taken themselves and photos taken by a lab revealed activity in the medial temporal lobe (associated with episodic memory) as well as the parietal cortex that is involved in processing scenes. Own-photos caused more activation in the PFC which is associated with processing information about the self, and the hippocampus, which is involved in mental time travel.

Question 4

Reminiscence bump

Answer 4

In people over 40, memory is better for both recent events and for events between the ages of 10 and 30. Only positive memories show the reminiscence bump. There are several hypotheses for why this occurs. These events are considered to be influential for an individual’s development and are most likely to be recalled when reflecting back on life.

Question 5

Self image hypothesis

Answer 5

Proposes that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self image or life identity is being formed. Most events that people feel contributed to their identity- having kids, starting graduate school, etc, occur on average during the reminiscence bump

Question 6

Cognitive hypothesis

Answer 6

Proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories. Many of these types of changes occur during adolescence and young adulthood and are followed by the relative stability of adult life. The reminiscence bump occurs later for people who have experienced major changes later in life.

Question 7

Cultural life script hypothesis

Answer 7

Distinguishes between a person’s life story, which is all of the events that have occurred in the person’s life, and a cultural life script, which is the culturally expected events that occur in certain points in the lifespan. Events in a person’s life may be easier to recall when they fall along the culturally expected timeline. Events such as going to college and having children are expected to occur in your 20s, which falls in the reminiscence bump.

Question 8

Youth bias

Answer 8

The tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when the person is young.

Question 9

How does emotion affect memory?

Answer 9

Strong emotions can improve memory. For example, participants have been better at recalling emotional pictures than neutral and at recalling arousing words than neutral ones. Emotion has also been linked to improved memory consolidation due to the release of stress hormones.

Question 10

What area of the brain is important for emotion and memory?

Answer 10

The amygdala. Patient BP suffered damage to his amygdala. It was found that his memory was not enhanced during an emotional part of a story when compared to participants without brain damage. Emotions may trigger mechanisms in the amygdala that help us remember events associated with emotions

Question 11

Evidence for the effect of stress on memory

Answer 11

Cahill- participants were shown neutral and emotionally arousing pictures. Some participants immersed their arms in ice water, a stressful situation that caused the release of cortisol. Other participants immersed their arms in warm water. In the stress group, cortisol release enhanced memory for the emotional pictures but not the neutral ones.

Question 12

Flashbulb memory

Answer 12

A person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking, highly charged events, like 9/11 or the JFK assassination. It is memory for how the person heard about the event, not the memory for the event itself. These memories are vivid and give importance to events that would otherwise be unremarkable. Probably a combination of encoding and rehearsal.

Question 13

Repeated recall

Answer 13

Used to determine whether memory changes over time by testing participants a number of times after an event. Their memory is measured immediately after as a baseline, and then at intervals later on

Question 14

Are flashbulb memories like photographs?

Answer 14

No, photographs remain the same but flashbulb memories change over time. Flashbulb memories are vivid, but they are often inaccurate and lacking in detail.

Question 15

Evidence for the inaccuracy of flashbulb memories

Answer 15

Neisser- when the Challenger exploded in 1986, participants filled out a questionnaire within a day of the event and then filled out another one 2.5-3 years later. Many participants had drastically changed their stories by the second questionnaire.

Question 16

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 16

States that we may remember events like those that happened on 9/11 not because of a special mechanism but because we rehearse these events after they occur. Shocking events are often broadcast on TV repeatedly, making the event more and more familiar. Therefore, things that happen after an event can influence a person’s memory of the event.

Question 17

How are flashbulb memories different from regular memories?

Answer 17

One study suggested that people made more errors and remembered fewer details as time passed since the incident. Therefore, details fade for flashbulb memories just like they do for regular memories. What differentiates flashbulb memories is that they are more vivid and people believe that flashbulb memories remain accurate while normal memories don’t.

Question 18

Constructive nature of memory

Answer 18

What people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, like the person’s knowledge, experiences, and expectations

Question 19

Source monitoring

Answer 19

The process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs. We may not remember where we read or heard specific information. This is an example of the constructive nature of memory, when we remember something, we retrieve it and then determine where the memory came from

Question 20

Source monitoring error/source misattribution

Answer 20

Misidentifying the source of a memory

Question 21

Cryptoamnesia

Answer 21

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others

Question 22

Evidence for the connection between source monitoring errors and familiarity

Answer 22

Participants were presented with celebrity names and names for fake celebrities. They were informed that the fake names were fake. In the delayed test group, participants were more likely to identify the nonfamous names as being famous. Familiarity with the nonfamous names created a source monitoring error where people decide that they must have heard the name because the person is famous.

Question 23

Illusory truth effect

Answer 23

The enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation. Occurs due to fluency or familiarity with the information and the cognitive ease of recall.

Question 24

Fluency

Answer 24

The ease with which a statement can be remembered. This influences people’s judgements and can cause the illusory truth effect

Question 25

Repeated reproduction

Answer 25

The participants attempt to remember a story at longer and longer intervals after they have first read it

Question 26

Bartlett study

Answer 26

Bartlett had participants read a story and used the repeated reproduction method. At longer times after reading the story, most participants’ reproductions of the story were shorter than the original and were inaccurate or lacking in detail. Also, the version of the story the participants remembered tended to reflect the participant’s own culture. Participants combined what they knew about the story with what they knew about stories from their own culture.

Question 27

Pragmatic inference

Answer 27

Occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or implied by the sentence. These inferences are based on knowledge gained through experience, but can cause incorrect responses on a memory task

Question 28

Schema

Answer 28

A person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment. Example- a person’s schema of a bank might include what a bank looks like from the outside or the row of teller windows inside the bank. Schemas can cause errors in memory because people might infer an object was present in a certain scene even though it wasn’t

Question 29

Script

Answer 29

Our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience. Example- the sequence of steps that occur to order a coffee in a coffee shop. Scripts can influence our memory by setting up expectations about what usually happens in a situation. In remembering reading a story about going to a dentist’s office, participants reported events in the going to the dentist’s office script that didn’t actually happen in the story.

Question 30

False recall and recognition

Answer 30

Roediger and McDermott- with a list of words containing a “theme”, participants will often recall words related to the theme but were not actually presented in the list. This is a false memory- similar to the effect of schemas.

Question 31

Why are constructive processes important?

Answer 31

False memories arise from the same constructive processes that produce true memories. However, these constructive processes provide us with creativity to enable us to understand language, solve problems, and other functions. We use this process to fill in missing information.

Question 32

Highly superior autobiographical memory

Answer 32

Cases of impressive memory. Although these people have highly accurate memory, they have trouble with reasoning and organizing material and often cannot forget things even if they want to, which can be distressing. Their memory systems may also get overloaded

Question 33

Misinformation effect

Answer 33

Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how a person describes that event later. This misleading information is called misleading postevent information. Memory is like a Wikipedia page and is more malleable than we think.

Question 34

Loftus MPI study

Answer 34

Participants were shown a film of a car crash. One group was asked how fast the cars were going when they “smashed” into each other, the other group was asked how fast the cars were going when they “hit” each other. The “smashed” group reported higher speeds and were more likely to say that they had seen broken glass in the film, even though there was no broken glass.

Question 35

What is an explanation for the misinformation effect?

Answer 35

Source monitoring- a person incorrectly concludes that the source of their memory for the incorrect event was the event they observed, even though the source was information presented after the event.

Question 36

Evidence for the source monitoring explanation for MPI

Answer 36

Lindsay- participants were shown a presentation of someone stealing money. Participants in the difficult condition heard a misleading narrative after the presentation and were then given a memory test on the presentation 2 days later. Participants in the easy condition were given the misleading narrative 2 days after the presentation, right before taking the memory test. Source monitoring error was more prevalent in the difficult condition.

Question 37

Creating false childhood memories

Answer 37

False memories for childhood events have been induced in adult participants. When a participant was questioned about an event that never actually happened, he denied remembering it. When he was questioned again 2 days later, he reported a detailed story of the event. This is due to familiarity with the “event”- when questioned the second time, he is familiar with the event and accepts that it has happened.

Question 38

Repressed childhood memory

Answer 38

Memories that have been pushed out of the person’s consciousness. In the 1990s, some therapists suggested to people in therapy that their problems were the result of sexual abuse- they used various techniques like suggestion and hypnosis to “bring back” the memory. This implanted false memories of abuse in the clients.

Question 39

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 39

Testimony by someone who has witnessed a crime. Unless carried out under ideal conditions, witness descriptions are often inaccurate.

Question 40

Weapons focus effect

Answer 40

The tendency to focus attention on a weapon that results in a narrowing of attention. Arousal causes a narrowing
of attention. Cases a person to encode less
information, leads to poorer memory for
everything except the central event.
One study found that participants were more likely to recall details of the perpetrator, the victim, and the weapon in the “no shoot” condition- a gun was present but not fired- than in the “shoot” condition

Question 41

Misidentification due to familiarity

Answer 41

People that “look familiar” may be falsely identified as the perpetrator in a crime. Bystanders are an example of people that may look familiar even though they were not involved in a crime. This is an example of source monitoring error.

Question 42

Errors due to suggestion

Answer 42

Leading questions, such as “did you see the white car?” can influence memory. In a lineup situation, saying “which of these men did it?” is still a leading question because it implies that the perpetrator is in the lineup. The witness might choose someone that just looks like the perpetrator.

Question 43

Post identification feedback effect

Answer 43

The increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification of a suspect. Receiving confirming feedback, like stating that the witness correctly identified the suspect or even just saying “okay” can make participants more confident in their choice even if they were not confident initially. This causes a problem in the criminal justice system because jurors are influenced by the confidence of witnesses.

Question 44

How can lineup procedures be modified to prevent false identifications? (4)

Answer 44

1. When asking a witness to identify a perpetrator in a lineup, inform the witness that the perpetrator might not be in the lineup.
2. What constructing a lineup, use “fillers” that look like the suspect to reduce erroneous identification
3. Use a “blind” line up administrator who doesn’t know who the perpetrator is- avoids influencing witnesses with their expectations
4. Have witnesses rate their confidence immediately, as they are making their identification

Question 45

Cognitive interview

Answer 45

An interview procedure. Involves letting the witness talk with a minimum amount of interruption and using techniques to help the witness recreate the situation 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 might look when viewed from a different perspective. This technique decreases the likelihood of suggestion

Question 46

Eliciting false confessions

Answer 46

When presented with false and true events, participants stated that they remembered the true event but did not remember committing a crime (the false event). To create false memories, researchers used social pressure, saying “most people can retrieve lost memories if they try hard enough”. They also provided instructions for a guided imagery procedure for visualizing the crime and were told to practice every night at home. 70% of participants admitted to committing the false crime and reported details about the “event”.

Question 47

Nostalgia

Answer 47

A memory that involves a sentimental affection for the past.

Question 48

Music enhanced autobiographical memories

Answer 48

Memories elicited by hearing music. They are often experienced as involuntary memories that occur automatically in response to a stimulus. These memories often have high emotionality and detail.

Question 49

Proust effect

Answer 49

Taste and olfaction can unlock memories that haven’t been thought about for years.

Question 50

Why is autobiographical memory considered “hybrid”?

Answer 50

Like episodic memory, with some differences. Episodes are highly
interrelated and also intersect with semantic memory. Autobiographical memory contains both facts about our lives (semantic memory) and contextual, episodic memories. For example, when remembering what you did for Christmas, you will have episodic memories for things that happened and semantic memories (where you were, the date, and the facts of what traditions your family normally does).

Question 51

Why is autobiographical memory difficult to study?

Answer 51

We usually don’t know how accurate these memories are, researchers can’t control which memories a person has

Question 52

Which events are remembered better by autobiographical memory?

Answer 52

Significant events in a person’s life, transition points, and highly emotional events are remembered better. How well or poorly something is remembered depends on when it occurs in a person’s lifespan.

Question 53

Biological/maturation hypothesis

Answer 53

One explanation for the reminiscence bump. Cognitive ability improves from childhood to early adulthood. This is a time of peak mental activity where information is consolidated more quickly and strongly.

Question 54

Characteristics of flashbulb memories according to Brown and Kulick

Answer 54

Found that people would remember who told them about the event, where they found out, what they were doing, and how they felt. These researchers argued for the presence of a special neural mechanism that lead to vividness and accuracy.

Question 55

Mechanism for flashbulb memory (according to Brown and Kulick)

Answer 55

Brown and Kulick described a “Now Print!”
mechanism, like a photograph that resists fading. When asked to recall, information can be accessed readily and fully. They argued that this occurs because high surprise and high consequentiality of event leads to a very richly detailed representation of the event. It has since been found that flashbulb memories are not actually like photographs.

Question 56

Explanation for why people are so confident in flashbulb memories (3)

Answer 56

1. Emotions affect the subjective
   experience of these memories
2. Narrative Rehearsal Hypothesis
3. Media- excessive media coverage can create or conflate information

Question 57

Why does the misinformation effect occur? (3)

Answer 57

1. Retroactive interference
2. Source misattribution
3. Memory impairment

Question 58

How are traumatic events remembered?

Answer 58

Memory depends more on arousal than
valence. High levels of arousal enhances memory for central events, but often decreases memory for details, as in the weapons focus effect.

Question 59

Valence

Answer 59

How positive or negative something is

Question 60

Arousal

Answer 60

How activated you are (the intensity of the emotion).

Question 61

Sequential lineup

Answer 61

Each lineup member is presented to the
eyewitness individually in sequence

Question 62

Simultaneous lineup

Answer 62

All members of lineup appear at once

Question 63

Confidence inflation

Answer 63

Eyewitness tend to later have
always been confident in their identification even if at the time they showed low confidence

Question 64

Relative judgement process

Answer 64

A particular danger of simultaneous lineup. When the suspect is not in a lineup,
witnesses tend to choose the person who
most closely fits their memory

Question 65

Mock witness control

Answer 65

Non-witness tries to make an identification based on “who looks guilty?” If identification of suspect by mock witnesses is greater than chance, lineup is biased