Chapter 8 Remembering Complex Events Flashcards
What is HSAM and are people with it geniuses?
Highly Superior Autobiographical Recall. They have virtually perfect memories for their lives (episodic memory), but rarely for semantic memory. They are otherwise normal.
How does Crombag et al. (1996 Dutch airplane crash study) demonstrate how people make memory errors?
10 months after a Cargo plane crashed into 11 storey building in Amsterdam, 193 Dutch people were asked questions about the crash, e.g. “did you see the video of the plane hitting the building?” More than half of them answered yes, although no such film exists. A follow up study asked 93 participants more detailed questions like “was the plane on fire when it crashed, or did it catch fire a moment later?” 66% said they saw the footage and could provide details.
How does Brewer & Treyens (1981 Imaginary books in professor’s room study), demonstrate how people make memory errors?
Participants were asked to wait in the experimenter’s office prior to the start of procedure. After 35 seconds they were taken out of this office and told there was no experiment, but they just needed to recall what was in the room they had just been sitting in. Although there were no books in view in the office, 30% of participants reported seeing books.
Explain how understanding can both help and hurt memory
When we encode memories, we usually understand them in relation to other things that we already know, like attaching new nodes in an existing network. This promotes retrieval, but also creates errors when we fill in gaps with existing/related knowledge.
Give an example that proves the statement: “We are powerfully influenced by our prior beliefs.”
Prior beliefs about what should be in an academics office (from personal experience, or watching movies) made participants imagine they saw books in the office that weren’t actually there.
Is information from a single episode stored in the same place?
No, its elements are stored separately but linked by connections.
Storage is actually modality-specific–what you saw of an event is stored in a different location than what you heard and felt.
What is a transplant error?
When bits of information you have encountered in one context has transplanted into another context as a result of the complex web like nature of memory. Eg part of your thinking about the event gets misremembered as if it were actually part of the original experience.
Two examples of when memory connections have helped and hurt recall.
(1) Sleep word test - Although recall of words was high at 65% (memory connections help), false recall of the theme word (sleep) was almost as frequent as accurate recall of words actually presented (memory connections hurt).
(2) Nancy and professor story.
Prologue (“Hope I’m not pregnant”)gives more context and understanding to the story about Nancy needing to see the Professor, which helps with later recall of statements from passage. It also made participants include statements that weren’t in the passage that they had incorrectly inferred from the prologue.
Give evidence that justifies the statement: “Recall is often governed by our expectations, not by reality.”
(1) Brewer & Treyens (1981 Imaginary books in professor’s room study). Participants expected to see books in an academic’s room, even though they did not experience them to be there.
(2) Crashing studies (Dutch plane and Lady Di): We generally expect there to be footage of these events, so we fill in the gaps in our memory with our expectations.
What is the DRM effect?
When memory connections help and hurt recall, as demonstrated in themed word list tests where the theme word is missing. [e.g. word list including bed, rest, awake tired etc, all related to a theme word ‘sleep’ that is absent from the list.]Participants remembered more words but also included a word that wasn’t on the list (sleep).
[named after Deese Rodiger and McDermott]
Why does the DRM effect occur?
The words in the list are related so they are all priming each other and therefore easy to recall. Because memory is a network of related ideas, the theme word is also primed, even though it isn’t on the list.
How do memory connections help and how do they hurt recollection (DRM effect)?
They help because the connections, serving as retrieval paths, enable you to locate information in memory.
They hurt because the connections sometimes make it difficult to see where the remembered episode stops and other, related knowledge begins.
What is a schema?
A mental shortcut that summarizes the broad pattern of a how things normally occur.
E.g. you generally don’t need to look around a kitchen to know there will be an oven and a fridge, you know from experience that they are almost always present.
How are schema’s helpful?
They fill in the gaps so we don’t have to pay attention to everything. E.g we don’t need to look for the fridge in a kitchen, we can assume it is there.
Give two examples of how schemas contribute to memory errors.
(1) crashing experiments: there is usually footage shown of major events, we’ve come to expect it to be normal. Schemas will fill in the gaps in our recall, even if there is no footage.
(2) DRM experiments: Our schema of a university professors office includes a chair, a desk and books. We expect that going in, so we don’t need to check.
Why are memory connections cool?
They serve as retrieval paths. Allowing you to locate information in storage
How do memory connections enrich your understanding?
They tie each of your memories to a context provided by other things you already know.
What do the connections to schematic knowledge enable you to do?
Schematic knowledge enables you to supplement your perception and recollection with well-informed (and usually accurate) inference.
Do schemas guide you to what is informative in a situation, or what is self-evident?
Schemas guide your attention to what’s informative in a situation, rather than what’s self-evident, guiding your inferences at the time of recall.
Is it true to say that the same connections that help you understand the world, also undermine the accuracy of your memory?
Yes
What is the misinformation effect?
When you give people misleading information and it effects their memory.
Give an example of the misinformation effect.
Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) car crash experiment:
–Study participants watch a car accident, and half are asked “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, the other half “…when they smashed into each other”. The “hit” group said 34m/hr, the “smashed” group said 41.
–One week later, participants were asked if they saw the broken glass (there wasn’t any), 14% of the “hit” group said yes, 32% of “smashed” group said yes.
When does information about an event have to be received in order for it to be incorporated into the memory as misinformation?
After the event.
The misinformation effect refers to memory errors that result from misinformation received after an event was experienced.
People then end up incorporating the false suggestion (which can be subtle or overt) into their memory of the original event.
What does Loftus and Palmer (1974) car crash study tell us about the misinformation effect?
Even the verb you use to describe and event can influence people’s memories and make them less accurate.
Why does the misinformation effect occur?
Various memory episodes are densely interconnected with one another (which allows us to remember stuff easily), but these interconnections also allow elements to be transplanted from one remembered episode to another. (A kind of transplant error)
Can you make people more confident that false events from their childhood really happened?
Yes, Garry et. al’s three-stage procedure study on imagination inflation:
1) Participants asked to rate how confident that a particular incident on a list of life incidents had happened to them in childhood
(2) After 1 wk delay Garry and colleagues selected events that participants had said they were confident had NOT happened to them, and asked them to imagine in detail 4 of those events happening to them in childhood.
(3) Asked again to rate their confidence of the same list of life events.
=people became more confident that those imagined events had happened in their childhoods (imagination inflation).
Give 2 examples of three-stage procedures that implant false childhood memories:
(1) Loftus and Pickrell Lost in the Shopping Centre study and;
(2) Porter and colleagues Serious Event Study.
Loftus got 3 true childhood events from parents and presented to them to participants along with one false one, Porter got one true serious event (trip to emergency, animal attack etc) from parents and a false one, and did the same.
They got participants back twice to recall in detail all 4 events. After the second time, 25% or participants recalled the false shopping mall memory and same for the serious childhood event memory.
Give two examples how false and true photos have been used to implant false childhood memories
(1) Wade and Colleagues (2002) Participants given 4 childhood event photos obtained from parents: 3 were true, one was the participant photoshopped into pic of hot air balloon ride. Participants interviewed about it 3 times, asked to describe the events in great detail.
50% of participants developed false memories of the hot air balloon ride.
(2) Lindsay et al 2004 False Slime Event.
Used 3 true photos from childhood including one class photo from grade 1. Participants heard parents descriptions of all events including a detailed false story about putting slime in the teachers desk draw, that accompanied the class photo. After three-stage procedure recalling all events in as much detail as possible, almost 80% of the participants developed a false memory of putting slime in teacher’ desk.
What is the relationship between the three-phase interview technique and what psychologists in the 90s were doing with repressed memories?
A lot of the techniques that these psychologists used were very similar to these techniques that have been shown to implant false memories. Many of the cases in which people came to recover memories of abuse were actually cases in which the abuse was suggested in therapy. (e.g Roseanne Barr’ false incest memory)
Explain why people remember false childhood memories? (Hint–use implicit memory theory of familiarity)
Exposing people to false events in childhood makes these events feel familiar to them. They forget that this feeling of familiarity comes from imagining or paraphrasing or explaining and instead they misattribute that feeling of familiarity to the event happening in childhood.
Explain whether people’s confidence about their memories can be used as an indication of the accuracy of their memories
There are some situations where confidence and accuracy are related. But there are many situations where people are very confident with their false memories.
According to most analyses, what proportion of false-convictions were thought to be due to eye-witness error (before DNA evidence existed)
75% !!
Though some of these men and women were convicted because of dishonest informants and botched forensic analyses, the most common cause across analyses seems to be eyewitness errors.
Is it possible to manipulate people’s confidence about their memory?
Yes, it is possible to manipulate people’s confidence level of having positively ID’d a suspect in line up by flattering them, telling them they did a good job after doing the ID.
List three ways to make it easier to manipulate memory.
(1) plant plausible memories rather than implausible ones.
(2) make sure post event information supplements what the person remembers rather than contradicting it.
(3) make the person imagine, not just hear how the false event unfolded
What is the retention interval?
The amount of time that lapses between the initial learning and the later retrieval… the longer the interval the more likely you are to forget.
Herman Ebbinghaus plotted the ‘forgetting curve’ and found that after learning nonsense syllables, he could retain 58% after 20 mins, 44% after an hour, and 36% after nine hours. He still retains 21% after a month.
What are the three possible explanations for forgetting?
(1) decay of information
(2) interference
(3) retrieval failure
Explain ‘information decay’.
Our memories fade and erode over time, possibly due to death of brain cells or weakened connections to information. If not used, the retrieval path gets weaker over time, and eventually they’re no longer there.
Explain ‘interference’
New information interferes with older information. E.g When you move, it eventually becomes difficult to remember old addresses, but easy to remember the new one. New address interferes with recall of old.
Give an example of where the retention interval is less important than the number of intervening events (interference).
Rugby game study: Members of Rugby team were asked to recall the different teams they had played against in the preceding weeks. Due to injury, some players had only one game in the past month, others had a game each week. Those who had played more games forgot more of the teams they played against in the same time frame.
Explain why interference might happen.
Most of the time, new information is interwoven with old information. This can lead to confusion. Sometimes with interference, instead of the new information getting woven in with the old, it actually erases the old.
Explain ‘retrieval failure’
It feels like the information is still there but you just can’t retrieve it, there are not enough retrieval cues e.g when you forget the name of a childhood friend. Sometimes the answer comes to you later, perhaps if you see a photo of the two of you together (a retrieval cue).
What is partial retrieval failure?
‘Tip of the tongue’ feeling. You start thinking “I think his name started with P, Pete or something…” You often remember it later
Possible explanation of retrieval failure?
Retrieval failure could be due to perspective change over time… (having the same learning context/ perspective aides in retrieval perspective/context)
Does hypnosis work to ‘undo’ forgetting?
No. It can make you remember some more things about an event, but the information isn’t necessarily accurate, more of a mix between made up stuff, assumptions and facts. It’s not that you remember more, it is just that you are willing to say more in order to comply with hypnotists wishes
Does the ‘cognitive interview’ undo forgetting?
It does seem to improve the memory of events.
What is the ‘cognitive interview’ technique?
It is mental context reinstatement technique used in police work. Witness is asked to imagine being back at the scene of the crime, what they were thinking, feeling and doing and who else was there etc.
What is autobiographical memory?
The memory that each of us has about episodes that have happened in our lives.
Why is autobiographical memory important?
It shape our identities and influences our behaviours.
Identify the (5) principles that are true of both autobiographical memory and memory in general: (MICES)
C– CONNECTIONS: Memory is dependent on connections
I – INTERFERENCE: Memories can blur and interfere
S – SCHEMAS: Schemas are used to fill in the memory gaps
E – EMOTION: memories are enhanced by emotion (although this is more true with autobiographical memory)
M – MISINFORMATION: Memories are subject to misinformation effects
What are three important components of autobiographical memories?
(1) Whether you were involved personally in an event
(2) The emotional valence of an event
(3) The delay since the memory was formed.
What is the self-reference effect?
Information that’s relevant to the self is better remembered that information that isn’t.
Explain Kelley and colleagues 2002 self-reference word recall study.
Participants given list of adjectives (nice, kind, energetic etc) and were asked to judge the words in one of three ways: (a) do they apply to yourself (e.g. are you a nice person?); (b) do they apply to another person (e.g. is the US president kind?); and (c) whether the word presented is in upper case or lower case. Later given a yes/no recall test with a list of words (had they seen them before)
Results: most words were recalled when used for self, than for other, and case coming in far behind.
They also found more activity in the Medial PFC
What is the explanation for the self-reference effect?
We process information about ourselves more deeply than other information (particularly compared to looking at word-case, which is low level processing). Extra activity in the MPFC when processing information about self reflects this increase in processing.
What is a self-schema?
Rough idea of who we are that helps us fill the gaps in our memories.
Give an example of self-schema leading to an autobiographical memory error. (hint: uni student example)
Someone who gets into uni might consider themselves to be a good student. This person has a tendency to over-estimate past grades to fit with this schema. e.g if once or twice a student gets a C instead of a D or HD, in later recall, the good-student-schema may cause them to only recall the HDs and Ds.
What do most people believe about themselves over time as a result of self-schemas?
That who they are has have been reasonably consistent and stable over their lifetime.
Does a person’s self-schema create a bias in how they remember the past?
Yes, it leads people to misremember some of their past attitudes, likes and dislikes in a way that makes the past look more like the present than it really is. e.g you might project your current views about your feelings for your mother into the past.
Is your memory for your own life accurate, or more of a mix of genuine recall and some amount of schema-based reconstruction?
A mix of genuine recall and some amount of schema-based reconstruction.
What is memory consolidation?
The process by which memories are kind of cemented in place. The biological process of stabilising fragile memory traces after they are encoded.
What two factors are important for memory consolidation?
(1) sleep - key steps of memory consolidation happen during rest and while asleep.
(2) emotion - you are more likely to remember events with emotional content/valence
How is memory consolidation enhanced by emotion?
Emotional events trigger responses in the amygdala, and this increases the activity in the hippocampus, which is crucial for establishing memories.
What happens if consolidation is interrupted for some reason (extreme fatigue or injury)?
Because the initial memory trace of an experience or event is fragile, no memory is established and later recall will be impossible.
Does emotion shape memory through other mechanisms?
Yes, an emotional event is likely to be important to you therefore you pay special attention as events unfold. And we know that attention and thoughtful processing aid memory.
What is likely to happen when you mull over emotional events?
Mulling is tantamount to memory rehearsal, so you are more likely to remember emotional events.
Emotion enhances not only how well you remember, but also…
WHAT you remember: emotion seems to produce a narrowing of attention, so you focus on just a few aspects of a scene that are important at the time. Attended aspects (eg if you’re feeling fear, you will be looking for an escape route) will more likely be recalled.
What are flashbulb memories?
Memories of extraordinary clarity for highly emotional events that have been retained despite the passage of time. Introduced in 1977 by Brown and Kulik with their President Kennedy study (people recalled the assassination clearly 10 years after the event) – however this study had no base line to measure accuracy.
How do flashbulb memories differ from country to country?
In collectivist cultures (eg China) people have flashbulb memories for social and international events. Whereas in the US, flashbulb memories are more likely to be for political or terrorist events.
Are flashbulb memories accurate? Give an example of why.
Not always. Memory errors can occur even in the midst of our strongest and most vivid recollections that seem ‘burned into our brains”
For example, Hirst et all (2009) Sept 11 WTC attack… 3000 people interviewed – 37% of respondents who were interviewed directly after the attack, and again a year later, provided substantially different accounts, including who they were with, what they were doing, and who told them the news etc.) Percent increased to 41% different after 3 years.
Why do some flashbulb memories turn out to be mistaken? (Hint: transfer effect)
People tend to discuss the events with other people and even ‘polish’ their reports depending on their audience (enhancing some parts, excluding others for more narrative effect). After several occasions of telling and retelling, a new version may replace the original memory.
What does understanding flashbulb memory inaccuracies tell us about the social aspect of remembering?
We share memories with other people, compare recollections etc. People can pick up new information/details that they missed from the event in these conversations
What is co-witness contamination?
A witness to an event makes a mistake in recalling what happened and after conversing, other witnesses may absorb this mistaken info into their own recollection.
Why are traumatic events typically remembered better than non-traumatic events?
Enhanced consolidation: trauma gets the amygdala activated, which activates the hippocampus which enhances consolidation.
When are traumatic events not remembered better than non-traumatic events?
When stress is associated with the event, details are not recalled well. Same with sleep deprivation: Survival training sleep deprivation study, where food and sleep deprived trainees were unable to recall the identity of the person who interrogated them face to face for 40 minutes the previous day. Picked the wrong person 68% of the time.
Why are memory researchers skeptical about repression and recovered memories?
Because painful events seem to be typically well remembered. It is more likely that when a psychologist ‘uncovered repressed memories’, they are helping people with retrieval cues, as the memories were previously only partially recalled.
Recovering memories may also be just a willingness for the person to finally talk about the memories.
Is it true that we have a self-preservation mechanism to forget traumatic memories?
No, there is not really any evidence for this. We need to be skeptical of the idea of hidden/repressed memories.
What is the lifespan retrieval curve?
When you ask adults over about 40 years old about autobiographical events from their life, they recall events from different periods in a very consistent way. The lifespan retrieval curve plots the different phases: childhood amnesia, reminiscence bump, then a period of recency.
Why does the reminiscence bump occur?
Memory storage capacity increases around this time, there are lots of firsts happening–we are more likely to remember novel events.
What is the period of childhood amnesia?
From birth to around 2-4years old when we have little or no memory. Differs between cultures: Maori’s remember earlier on average (2.7 years), Asian women latest (almost 6 years old)
What explains childhood amnesia?
This may occur due to neurological maturation in the brain, ie: earlier memories are not encoded and stored; or due to language development, ie: we’re unable to recall events that we couldn’t verbalise in the first place.
What could explain the earlier age of childhood amnesia ending for those in Maori culture?
Strong oral tradition in Maori culture with a particular emphasis on sharing past experiences.
How does culture influence remembering across the lifespan?
Some cultures have weaker childhood amnesia effect: One study showed Americans had earlier recall than Chinese, and another that Maori’s have earlier memories than Asians.
When is the period of recency?
After about 35 years for the 40 year old participants in the study. Presumably for the rest of us, the events from the last 5 years of life are considered to be in the recency period.
What did Bahrick and colleagues’ 1975 high-school graduate study show?
That people can remember some events/names, particularly things that happen in the reminiscence bump, (e.g classmates names), over very long periods of time.
What are the details of Bahrick and colleagues high-school graduate study?
They tracked down different cohorts of graduates (from 1 year graduated right down to 47 years ago) and showed them faces from the year book. They were given a bunch of names and told to match the name to the face (recognition test)
Results: 1 year out 90% recall, and stays at 90% until about 14 years out from graduation. After that it starts dropping off pretty steeply around 30 years, but by 47 years after graduation, they correctly match the name to the face 60% of the time.
There was also a recall test (harder - they had to come up with names not on a list) but showed similar pattern of results: 50% recall for first 14 years then goes downhill. Still 20% at 47 years after graduation.
What explains the robustness of classmate name recall?
Repetition/exposure over many years, most of which occurred during the reminiscence bump. (consistent with the idea that better initial learning leads to greater retention over time)
How long will I retain academic content from uni?
According to Conway and colleagues, I should retain about 80% for the next 3 months, then it stabilises at 70% for the next 10 years, then presumably it will fall off. Ellis and colleagues showed that the higher the grade, the more information I am likely remember over time… consistent with the idea that memory recall is dependent on how well it is learned in the first place.
What is perma-store memory?
A theory that extensive training or learning that was acquired at school will not be forgotten. The idea has gone out of fashion.
