Chapter 8: Real-world Memory Performance Flashcards
Autobiographical memory
memory for specific experiences in our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components
2 important characteristics of autobiographical memories
they are multidimensional (spatial, sensory, conceptual, emotional) and we remember some events in our lives better than others
Which brain structures were activated by autobiographical and non-autobiographical photos?
both activated the medial temporal lobe (episodic) and parietal cortex (processing scenes) but autobiographical photos activated more of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus
Reminiscence bump
enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood (ages 10-30) found in people over 40
Self-image hyothesis
memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed
Cognitive hypothesis
periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories
Cultural life script hypothesis
events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture
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 they are young (before 30)
3 possible explanations for the reminiscence bump
self-image hypothesis, cognitive hypothesis, and cultural life script hypothesis
What is the relationship between emotions and the amygdala?
emotions trigger mechanisms in the amygdala that help us remember events associated with the emotions and consolidate the memories
Flashbulb memory
autobiographical memory for the circumstances surrounding how one found out about shocking, highly charged events
Limitation of Brown & Kulik’s definition of flashbulb memories
argued that events are recorded in great detail and are remembered for long periods of time like a photograph that resists fading
Repeated recall technique
comparing later memories to memories collected immediately to determine if they change over time
Narrative rehearsal hypothesis (Neisser and Harsch)
significant events (like those in flashbulb memories) are remembered because we rehearse them after they occur, not because of a special mechanism
What makes flashbulb memories more likely to be remembered?
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
Constructive nature of memory
what people report as memories are based on what actually happened and additional influences (e.g. a person’s knowledge, experiences, expectations)
Source monitoring
the process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs
Source monitoring error or source misattribution
misidentifying the source of a memory
Cryptomnesia
unconscious plagiarism of the work of others
Illusory truth effect
enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation due to fluency and familiarity
Fluency
the ease with which a statement can be remembered
Repeated reproduction technique
participants are asked to remember a story at longer and longer intervals after they had first read it
Findings of the War of the Ghosts experiment
reproductions of the original story contained more omissions and inaccuracies that tended to reflect the participants’ own cultures
Pragmatic inference
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
Schema
a person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment
Scripts
a type of schema that is our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience
Types of inferences that fill gaps in memory
pragmatic inferences, schemas, scripts
Misinformation effect
misleading information (i..e. misleading postevent information) received after a person witnesses an event changes how they describe it later
Repressed childhood memories
memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness
Weapons focus
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)
Post-identification feedback effect
increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification
What happens when “fillers” similar to the suspect are included in the lineup?
erroneous identification of innocent people is reduced, especially when the perpetrator is not in the lineup
Cognitive interview
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
