Chapter 8: Real-world Memory Performance

Question 1

Autobiographical memory

Answer 1

memory for specific experiences in our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components

Question 2

2 important characteristics of autobiographical memories

Answer 2

they are multidimensional (spatial, sensory, conceptual, emotional) and we remember some events in our lives better than others

Question 3

Which brain structures were activated by autobiographical and non-autobiographical photos?

Answer 3

both activated the medial temporal lobe (episodic) and parietal cortex (processing scenes) but autobiographical photos activated more of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

Question 4

Reminiscence bump

Answer 4

enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood (ages 10-30) found in people over 40

Question 5

Self-image hyothesis

Answer 5

memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed

Question 6

Cognitive hypothesis

Answer 6

periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories

Question 7

Cultural life script hypothesis

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Cultural life script

Answer 8

culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the life span

Question 9

Youth bias

Answer 9

the tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when they are young (before 30)

Question 10

3 possible explanations for the reminiscence bump

Answer 10

self-image hypothesis, cognitive hypothesis, and cultural life script hypothesis

Question 11

What is the relationship between emotions and the amygdala?

Answer 11

emotions trigger mechanisms in the amygdala that help us remember events associated with the emotions and consolidate the memories

Question 12

Flashbulb memory

Answer 12

autobiographical memory for the circumstances surrounding how one found out about shocking, highly charged events

Question 13

Limitation of Brown & Kulik’s definition of flashbulb memories

Answer 13

argued that events are recorded in great detail and are remembered for long periods of time like a photograph that resists fading

Question 14

Repeated recall technique

Answer 14

comparing later memories to memories collected immediately to determine if they change over time

Question 15

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis (Neisser and Harsch)

Answer 15

significant events (like those in flashbulb memories) are remembered because we rehearse them after they occur, not because of a special mechanism

Question 16

What makes flashbulb memories more likely to be remembered?

Answer 16

may be a combination of higher vividness, emotional facilitation, and retrieval practice with many cues; people also believe that they remain accurate while everyday memories don’t

Question 17

Constructive nature of memory

Answer 17

what people report as memories are based on what actually happened and additional influences (e.g. a person’s knowledge, experiences, expectations)

Question 18

Source monitoring

Answer 18

the process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs

Question 19

Source monitoring error or source misattribution

Answer 19

misidentifying the source of a memory

Question 20

Cryptomnesia

Answer 20

unconscious plagiarism of the work of others

Question 21

Illusory truth effect

Answer 21

enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation due to fluency and familiarity

Question 22

Fluency

Answer 22

the ease with which a statement can be remembered

Question 23

Repeated reproduction technique

Answer 23

participants are asked to remember a story at longer and longer intervals after they had first read it

Question 24

Findings of the War of the Ghosts experiment

Answer 24

reproductions of the original story contained more omissions and inaccuracies that tended to reflect the participants’ own cultures

Question 25

Pragmatic inference

Answer 25

reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or implied by the sentence; formed based on knowledge gained through experience

Question 26

Schema

Answer 26

a person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment

Question 27

Scripts

Answer 27

a type of schema that is our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience

Question 28

Types of inferences that fill gaps in memory

Answer 28

pragmatic inferences, schemas, scripts

Question 29

Misinformation effect

Answer 29

misleading information (i..e. misleading postevent information) received after a person witnesses an event changes how they describe it later

Question 30

Repressed childhood memories

Answer 30

memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness

Question 31

Weapons focus

Answer 31

tendency to focus attention on a gun when it is fired that results in distraction from details of the scene (e.g. the victim and perpetrator)

Question 32

Post-identification feedback effect

Answer 32

increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification

Question 33

What happens when “fillers” similar to the suspect are included in the lineup?

Answer 33

erroneous identification of innocent people is reduced, especially when the perpetrator is not in the lineup

Question 34

Cognitive interview

Answer 34

letting a witness recall the crime with minimum interruptions and in different sequences, either at the crime scene or while having them imagine they are back at the crime scene