Chapter 8 remembering complex events Flashcards
- Describe Crombag et al. (1996) and Brewer & Treyens (1981), which have demonstrated how people make memory errors
The participants where asked to recall what they saw in the office and many participants said they saw books, not because they actually saw the books but because they expected there to be books in the office.
- Explain how understanding can both help and hurt memory
They help and hurt recollection because the connections serve as retrieval pathways but they hurt because sometimes if makes if difficult to see where the remembered episodes stops and the other related knowledge begins. This causes intrusion errors, where knowledge intrudes on a remembered event. Adding in information, (the professor pregnancy experiment)
- Describe the DRM effect and why it occurs
Is the process where information is added because if is strongly associated with the other information given, example the list of word associated with sleep, but the word sleep was not in there, however the participants were very confident that they saw the word sleep due to the strong association.
- Explain how schema contribute to memory errors
Schemas are broad patterns that happen in situations, example going to a restaurant sit down, get menus etc. Or what things belong to particular setting example what is in a laundry. The schemas fill in the gaps of you memory, by what usually happens in that setting. You can supplement what you actually remember with a plausible reconstruction based on you schematic knowledge. The describe what happens most of the time.
tend to want to make things more regular, change things in memory to make them more familiar. Kids that were told a story the elements that fitted in their frame remained in their memory or could be reconstructed later, elements that didn’t fit dropped out of memory or were changed.
Misinformation occurs because all the information is connected through pathways but sometime the information interrupts one another or gaps are filled by schemas, that can lead to recalling wrong information.
Describe the misinformation effect and why it occurs
The participants are exposed to an event and are then exposed to misleading information after the event has unfolded. Studies found that after time passes after the event, more than 1 third end up incorporating the false suggestion into their memory of the original event.
Easier to implant plausible memories then implausible. Easier to add to a memory then replace it. False memories also easier if they are encouraged to imagine rather then just recall.
Easy to alter peoples memories, leading question that suggest information, use pictures, movies, or live events as the to be remembered material
Describe how false and true photos have been used to implant false childhood memories
Large scale errors can be created. Participants after several interviews began to recall memories that were suggested to be true but actually never happened. 80% of participants were able to vividly recall an event even though it never happened, especially when a visual was included. Suggesting the event happed because their parent told them.
Explain whether people’s confidence about their memories can be used as an indication of the accuracy of their memories
People tend to trust peoples memory when the recollection is said with conference. Peoples decree on certainty is an uneven indicator of whether a memory is trustworthy.
- What are the three possible explanations for forgetting?
Learning someone`s name at a party and even though you were just told it you forget, but the name or the information, this is failure of acquisition, exposed to information but didn’t pay attention and therefore never learned it.
Passing of time (retention interval) refered to as the amount of time of intitial learning to the time on retrieval, as this grows you are more likely to forget. New learning inferferes with old learning (interference theory) and decay theory of forgetting.
Retrieval failure that a forgotten memory is still in long term memory but the person trying to recall the information simpley cannot access it.
Explain whether we can “undo” forgetting
Providing more cues to the memory create more chance to recall the memory. Rather then undo the theory is to not forget by revisiting information, each visit refreshes the memory and makes it much less likely to continue.
What is autobiographical memory?
Involvement in the event, emotion, and long delay, effect how or how well someone remembers. Autobiographical memories are memories they we have about ourselves, life events of our lives this sort of memory has a central role in shaping how each of us thinks about ourselves and therefore, how we behave.
- Explain the self-reference effect and self-schema and why they are important in autobiographical memory
Self-reference, (people remember words better when they relate to themselves) Having involvement in an event (as oppose to witnessing) has a large effect on memory, information that is relevant to self is remembered better then information relevant to others.
Self-scheme, people believe the way they speak now is same as always, but self-schema is a set of interwoven beliefs and memories that constitute people`s knowledge about themselves.
- What is memory consolidation and how is it enhanced by emotion?
Emotion helps you to remember, one reason is emotions impact on memory consolidation, the process which memories are biologically cemented in place.
Studies have found that a good night sleep can improve memory retention.
Emotion enhances consolidation, emotional events trigger a response in the amygdala, and the amygdala in turn increases activity in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is, as weve seen crucial for getting memories established.
Emotional events are likely to be important to you and therefore you pay close attention to the events, attention increases thoughtful processing, also you ten to mul over the events minutes or hours after the event happens increasing memory rehersal- therefore emotional events are well remembered
Describe flashbulb memories
Flashbulb memories are memories of extraordinary clarity, typically for highly emotional events, retained despite the passing of many years.
- Why are traumatic events typically remembered better than non-traumatic events? Are there any exceptions?
The memory is consolidation that is accompanied by bodily arousal, including extreme arousal.
Memories can be effected however as traumatic events can e accompanied by sleep deprivation, head injuries and supstance abuse, each of which can disrupt memory.
They have emotional attachment to the memory, however they can be wrong with a study that found people to recall the 9/11 one way and then tell it differently when re-asked the next year.
Why are memory researchers skeptical about repression and recovered memories?
They are sceptical because typically events that are traumatic, painful are well remembered, this is opposite of what would happen if repression mechanism worked. Also some abuse memories reported as ‘recovered’ may infact have been remembered all along they just haven’t told anyone. First the memories appeared to be lost because the person refused to discuss the memories for many years then the term recovery simply means they are willing to talk again.
Also this could be from retrieval failure, that memories cant be accessed until the right retrieval cue is used to recall the memory.
Also a portion could be false memories, most common when trying to recall a past memory.
Also relivent that memories are recalled with the help of a therapist and, therefore, the therapist expectations could influence the client and shaped their memory. Spending more time on a topic and hinting expectations.
Recalling memories is therefore uncertain to the extent of their accuracy, especially in traumatic events.
