CHAPTER 8 - EVERYDAY MEMORY AND MEMORY ERRORS Flashcards
what is the basic property of memory?
memories are created by a process of construction
what makes up a memory?
what actually happened
other things that happened later
general knowledge of how things usually happen
what is an autobiographical memory?
memory for specific experiences in life
what components of long term memory make up an autobiographical memory?
episodic and semantic
what are the 2 characteristics of autobiographical memories?
multidimensional
we remember events in our lives better than others
what are the multidimensional components of an autobiographical memory?
visual, auditory, smells, taste, tactile perceptions, spatial components, emotions, thoughts
which multidimensional component plays an important role in autobiographical memory?
visual
what is the visual multidimensional component of an autobiographical memory?
what one sees when transporting back in time
what is the auditory multidimensional component of an autobiographical memory?
what people are saying and other environmental sounds
what is the spatial component of an autobiographical memory?
taking place in a 3D environment
who used a brain scanning study to illustrate a difference between autobiographical memory and laboratory memory?
Roberto Cabeza
In Cabeza’s experiment what were the 2 sets of photographs shown?
own = taken by participants
lab= taken by someone else
what regions in the brain were activated by own +lab photos in Cabeza’s brain scan study?
medial temporal lobe and parietal cortex
what regions of the brain were activated by own photos only in Cabeza’s brain scan study?
prefrontal cortex and hippocampus
in Cabeza’s brain scan study, what connections do the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus have to autobiographical memories?
prefrontal cortex: processing information about the self
hippocampus: recollection = mental time travel
what is the reminiscence bump?
enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood found in people over 40
what is the self-image hypothesis?
proposes memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or identity is formed
what is the cognitive hypothesis?
proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories
who demonstrated the reminiscence bump in an emigration study?
Robert Shauf and David Rubin
what is the cultural life script hypothesis?
distinguishes between all the events that have occurred in a person’s life
Dorthe Bernsten and David Rubin used ______ to connect it to the reminiscence bump
cultural life script
what is cultural life script?
culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in a life
events like graduating high school, going to college, or getting a first partner can be identified in a ______
reminiscence bump
what term did Jonathan Koppel and Dorthe Bertsten use to characterize the reminiscence bump?
youth bias
what is youth bias?
the tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when a person is young
what 2 things is emotion associated to?
special events/experiences people share
better memory
when comparing memory for arousing words vs neutral words, which had a better memory recall in LaBar and Phelps’ experiment?
arousing
when comparing memory for emotional and neutral pictures after a delay of 1 year which photos had better memory recall in Dolco’s experiment?
emotional pictures
what is the amygdala?
structure in the brain responsible for emotion regulation and odor perception
in Florin Dolco’s brain scanning study, describe the amygdala’s activity for emotional pictures
increased activity
patient BF shows no enhanced memory for emotional parts of a story, what structure in brain is damaged?
amygdala
what is emotion’s proposed role in memory?
triggering mechanisms in the amygdala that helps one remember events associated with emotions
what is memory consolidation?
process that strengthens memory for an experience
animal research shows that central nervous system stimulants administered after task training ___________
can enhance memory for that task
what is released after an emotional experience and what does it do?
stress hormones; increase consolidation of memory for the experience
Larry Cahill used what to try and consolidate memories of emotional pictures and neutral pictures?
ice and warm water
what did Larry Cahill conclude for memory of emotional pictures and not for neutral pictures?
cortisol enhances the memory for emotional pictures and not neutral
what can one conclude about hormones and memory consolidation? what link is there?
hormone activation occurring after an emotional experience can enhance memory consolidation in humans
link to increased amygdala activity
what is a flashbulb memory?
refers to a person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking and highly-charged events
what mechanism did Brown and Kulik use to characterize flashbulb memories?
Now Print
why did Brown and Kulik characterize flashbulb memories as special?
they are vivid and detailed
occur under emotional circumstances and are remembered for long periods of time
Now Print mechanism resembles a _____
photograph resisting fading
why was the Now Print mechanism a poor representation of accuracy?
requirement for memory immediately after the event
what is the repeated recall method?
determining whether memory changes over time by testing participants a number of times after an event
in repeated recall, when is a person’s memory most accurate?
when it is first measured immediately after a stimulus is presented
what does the first measurement of memory in repeated recall serve as?
baseline for consistency checks later on
Ulric Neisser and Nicole Harsch’s shuttle explosion study showed…
TV memories become more memorable through repetition and by being a major source of news
someone who was asked about an world-wide event immediately after it happened and again later but have different answers might have developed what kind of memory
TV memory
what is the narrative rehearsal hypothesis?
states that we may remember events that happened not because of a mechanism but because we rehearse the events after they occur
why do researchers express concern for the major difference in flashbulb memories and everyday memories?
details for flashbulb memories fade just as they do for everyday memories
what characteristics do flashbulb memories have over everyday memories?
remain more vivid and accurate
what is concluded about flashbulb memories?
they are both special and ordinary at the same time
what is the constructive nature of memory?
what people report as memories are constructed based on what happened, knowledge, experiences, expectations
what is source monitoring?
process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs
what is a source monitoring error?
misidentifying the source of a memory
what is source misattributions?
memory being attributed to the wrong source
what is cryptomnesia?
unconscious plagiarism of the work of others
who demonstrated a connection between source monitoring errors and familiarity using non-famous and famous names?
Larry Jacoby
what were the 2 groups in Larry Jacoby’s Famous Over Night experiment?
intermediate group: no delay in stimulus presentation and testing
delayed group: tested 24 hours after presentation of stimulus
which group in Larry Jacob’s Famous Over Night experiment correctly identified the non-famous names as non-famous?
intermediate group
which group in Larry Jacob’s Famous Over Night experiment incorrectly identified the non-famous names as non-famous?
delayed group
In Larry Jacob’s Famous Over Night experiment what caused the delayed group to incorrectly identify names ? what was this incorrect identification called?
familiarity of the names
source monitoring error
what is the illusory truth effect?
enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation
who proposed the term fluency and what is it?
Lisa Fazio
the ease with which a statement can be remembered
whose experiment demonstrated how real-world knowledge affects memory?
Barlett’s War of Ghost
what did Barlett use?
repeated reproduction
what is repeated reproduction?
participants trying to remember a story at longer and longer intervals after the first reading
what causes people to make inferences?
experiences and knowledge
what is pragmatic inference?
occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or implied by the statement
what is a result of pragmatic inference?
correct inferences about what would most likely occur but incorrect inference about what was presented
what is a schema?
the knowledge about an aspect of the environment
what causes a schema to develop?
experiences in different situations
what is a script?
conception of the sequence of actions that usually occur during a particular experience
how does script influence memory?
setting up expectations about what usually happens in a particular situation
what is highly superior autobiographical memory?
impressive memory
what does highly superior autobiographical memory lead to
overload of the memory system
how does our memory system attempt to avoid overload?
its design allows selective memory for things that are particularly important or things that occur often
what is the misinformation effect?
leading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how the person describes that event later
what is misleading post-event information?
information presented to be remembered after a stimulus
how is MPI presented?
in a way that seems natural
how can someone create a childhood memory?
using previous exposure to the so-called memory and waiting can allow acceptance that it actually happened
what is a repressed childhood memory?
memories that have been pushed out of the person’s consciousness
what is the problem with repressed childhood memories?
can cause psychological problems
what can be used to receive a repressed memory?
hypnosis, guided imagery, strong suggestion
what is an eyewitness testimony?
a testimony by someone who witnessed a crime
what is an eyewitness testimony’s importance?
source of evidence providing information by people who were at the crime scene
what 2 things induce acceptance of an eyewitness testimony?
- witness was able to see what happened
2. witness can translate their observations into a description of the perpetrator
why are testimonies always perceived as accurate?
popular conception that memory works like a camera
what affects how a person pays attention to and what they remember later?
emotions running high
what is weapon focus?
the tendency to focus attention on a weapon that results in a narrowing of attention
what characterizes the term familiarity in a crime scene and adds another dimension to a testimony?
bystanders
how do bystanders affect identification of a perpetrator?
could be mistakenly identified as the person doing the crime
Gary Wells and Amy Bradfield asked for identification of a perpetrator by giving what to participants?
confirming feedback
no feedback
discerning feedback
what is post-identification feedback effect?
an increase in confidence on the stand due to confirming feedback after making an identification
who is susceptible to confidence levels in a criminal justice system?
jurors
what is cognitive interview?
involves letting a witness talk with minimum interruption and uses techniques to help witness create the situation of a crime scene
what is the pro of cognitive interviews?
decreases the likelihood of suggestibility from the interviewer
