Cognitive, Everyday Memory, WEEK 6

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

• Memory is not a collection of facts but gives us a past and future, without it only have the present and are controlled by what is in front of us
• Memory allows learning, transcending the present, storing, retention, (active) reconstruction and planning for the future.
• Key aspects of cognition include perception, attention, memory, learning and language > these are not distinct from each other and linked
• Learning = change in behaviour due to experience, Memory = The ability to recall previous experience > Memory Trace: A mental representation of a previous experience

Question 2

Evidence of memory being associated with learning

Answer 2

• Maguire et Al 1997, looked at the hippocampus of taxi drivers using FMRI (makes functional maps of what your brain is doing during a task) > task for taxi driver is to pick someone up and drive them to a certain place without seeing maps (did it from memory)
• Brain is always active so the whole brain lights up under FMRI but if you look for a control difference (look at brain in 2 different conditions + compare) > taxi drivers had the condition of route recall and recall of famous landmarks in different cities > looked at relationship between the large grey matter in the posterior hippocampus and time as a taxi driver > the longer you were a taxi driver the larger the grey matter
• There are structural changes in function of their experience working as a taxi driver
• is this due to driving experience or spatial learning > comparing bus drivers to taxi drivers could show this because they both have driving experience but bus drivers do not need a mental map in their head of the city
• Taxi drivers had greater gray matter volume in posterior and less in anterior hippocampus as compared to bus drivers.
• Greater spatial knowledge, more maps, routes stored causes hippocampal changes.

Question 3

What is everyday memory?

Answer 3

• Everyday memory is the memory phenomena people experience in their everyday lives > a subset of everyday memories are autobiographical memories which are memory for event’s in someone’s own life
• Experiments looking at this require ecological validity so that it can be relatable to real life (generalisable) and representative and approached using naturalistic methods + settings
• Everyday memory vs traditional memory research: Traditional memory research looks at things like accuracy such how many items are accurately recalled whilst everyday memory research looks at the content of memory so what was remembered crucial?
  -Autobiographical memories can be memories of memories because it could be of the last time you told this story as opposed to the actual event itself > when memories are brought back when you tell a story about them, they become malleable and use current information > e.g. telling the story in context of now + how you feel now rather than how you felt then
  Everyday memory research + traditional memory research are complimentary + not completely distinct > LTM has episodic memory + semantic memory in traditional research which relates to everyday memory research

Question 4

What are Schema’s?

Answer 4

-Schema: integrated knowledge structure for things. Captures commonly encountered aspects of life (e.g. what happens when you go to a restaurant)
-Allows us to form expectations, Helps us to draw inferences which help us go beyond the explicit information provided based on knowledge of the world
Important in stage of encoding information because the schema helps you reach your understanding > schema needs to be activated here
- Memory is always influenced by schema > there is an interaction between events and your own pre-existing schema (general knowledge, beliefs + expectations)

Question 5

Schema relevant vs schema irrelevant information

Answer 5

We tend to have better memory for schema-relevant information rather than schema-irrelevant information > schema-relevant is like if you go to a posh restaurant you would expect waiters to wear smart clothes as opposed to just jeans

• In schema-relevant info, there can be schema-congruent + schema-incongruent
• E.G. schema-congruent would be waiter dressed in black while schema-incongruent would be waiter being topless (unexpected based on what you know from going to restaurants)
• Schema-relevant information is better recalled regardless of whether it is congruent/incongruent because when it is schema-congruent, the schema provides retrieval cues which help you get that information whilst schema-incongruent will elaborate and look at these things more because they are attention-grabbing because it is unexpected
• Schema-irrelevant info is not well remembered, e.g. colour of the waiters eyes won’t be well remembered because it is not related to the restaurant in general whereas the uniform is.

Question 6

Inferences

Answer 6

• Scenario: Mary heard the ice-cream van. She remembered the pocket money. She rushed inside the house.
• Inferences: she wants an ice-cream, buying one costs money, she had some pocket money in the house, she ran into her own house, had to be fast or the van would leave
  Inferred this using world knowledge > shows how language and memory interact with each other as well as how basic events and schemas interact together

Question 7

Schematic Processing Principle

Answer 7

• Schema’s can: determine how we process story information, determine what we remember from stories, can change and be updated over time
• Remembering/memory is not the actual event itself as mentioned before > it is the reproduction/reconstruction of an event where you add schema based inferences (packs of knowledge which we use to infer and expect things) > this inference can distort the actual memory event, the schema can help you develop a more coherent story but not necessarily accurate > you make your story in line with your expectations (including cultural expectations)
• We reconstruct events based on what at that time was thought to be true > this is the case for eyewitness testimonies
  Memories = combination of memory traces + general world knowledge (schema)

Question 8

Autobiographical Memory

Answer 8

• Memory for events in ones own life
• Key findings show: before the age of 3, there are no memories > this is called Infantile Amnesia
• There is also an increase in percentage of memories around 15-25 years of age > called a Reminiscence Bump
• Also a recency effect, we have better retention of autobiographical memories from recent years (last 10-20 yrs) as opposed to far in the past

Question 9

Childhood Amnesia

Answer 9

• Is where we have a lack of autobiographical memories for the first 3 years of life
• If we look at median scores of being able to recall siblings births, we find that if a sibling is born while the ppt is still 3 or under, then they won’t remember their birth, they just remember them as always being there. People above this age do remember their siblings birth
• Importantly, this amnesia under 3 is specific to autobiographical, episodic memories and NOT ALL memories
• A lot of learning takes place in the first 3 years of life thus memories are created like procedural memories like how to eat with a fork

Question 10

Explanations of Childhood Amnesia

Answer 10

• Freud argues it is due to repression of sexual feelings towards parents.
• Neurological argument suggests that it may be due to neurological factors E.g. hippocampus and frontal lobes are still developing > these areas are important for memory
• Underdeveloped schema’s / semantic memory > do not know enough about the world + need schema to understand + make sense of the world
• Language is still developing + is needed to share experiences and bring organisation to all the memories we hold
• Cognitive self is still emerging> around 18 months is when infants see themselves as unique and identifiable entity + self recognition > the concept of self needs to be established in order to construct auto-biographical memories around yourself (you need to know yourself in order to develop memories surrounding your life events)
• Multi-component argument > these things may not be as important alone but they all come into play and play a role together

Question 11

Cross-cultural differences in Childhood Amnesia

Answer 11

• Average age of 1st memory: 3.8 for US, 5.4 for Chinese + more elaborate and more emotional memories for US participants.
• Related to how mothers talk to children + more focused on the past + more individualistic emphasis in the US.
• Essentially many things come into play when developing autobiographical memories

Question 12

Explanations for the Reminiscence Bump

Answer 12

• Lots of memories between age 15-25
• Neurological explanation: argues there is a brain ‘peak’ around that age where your brain stops maturing and it is not declining yet so there is a brain peak where there are lots of memories
• Identity formation view: Who you see yourself as an adult (adult identity) develops here which provides a stable organisation structure to cue events which creates a life narrative which is a coherent integrated account of how you came to be like that > time where you make important decisions which can shape your future
• Cognitive view: argues there is a primacy effect which is where we have better memories for first time events + relates to less proactive interference (proactive interference = when previous items interfere) > if there are a lot of firsts then there are no previous items interfering (e.g. first time living alone, first car etc.. > no previous first exp)
• If the cognitive view is true, then there should also be a reminiscence bump in other times of change + first experiences
  Cognitive evidence:
• Looked at people who immigrated at the age of 20-24 + compared to people who immigrated later around 35 > found reminiscence bump shifted towards older age for those who immigrated later

Question 13

Accuracy of autobiographical memories

Answer 13

• Schema can interfere with the accuracy of autobiographical memories
• Autobiographical memories are: truthful to the gist of actual experiences, tend to place ourselves centre-stage, tendency for favourable view of present self + tendency to create a coherent (i.e. consist with our current goals and beliefs) memory
• Evidence: Conway (1990): questioned students before and after exams > Questions were about expected grades, validity of tests, how well students were prepared / how much they studied, how important marks were.
• Found that if better than expected mark: number of studied hours same, but now more likely to say that mark was more important. > If worse than expected mark: claimed to have done less work, claimed grades are not that important, and tests less valid
• Proof of creating an autobiographical memory which is consistent with your current goals + beliefs

Question 14

Flashbulb memories

Answer 14

• Are part of autobiographical memories
• Flashbulb memories are highly detailed and vivid memories for surprising events that are relatively resistant to forgetting > e.g. Trump being elected, COVID-19
• Features of flashbulb memories include remembering where you were, what you were doing + how you felt? > A mechanism that acts like a camera to record details in certain emotional situations.
• Most research does not show higher accuracy or consistency for FM. Same rate of forgetting.
• Talarico & Rubin (2003) study compared memory of 9/11 to recent everyday event: no differences, number of consistent details went down over time > But people believed more strongly that the FM was accurate and said more often that it felt as if reliving the experience (people think FM are remembered more even though they aren’t)
• FM may feel special or that they are remembered more because they are distinct from other events + if they are genuinely remembered well, it could be because it has been rehearsed by talking about it in many conversations (reconstructed more may = better memory) but there is no such thing as having better memory for FM.

Question 15

Are memories the truth?

Answer 15

Memories are not ‘pure’ and can be reconstructed using schema > allows distortions

Question 16

Cross-race effect on eyewitness testimony

Answer 16

• Cross-race effect = tendency to recognise faces that belong to someone’s own racial group (if you are Asian, you are likely to recognise Asian faces more than others)
• Expertise hypothesis: There may be a cross-race effect because we have more experience and expertise in distinguishing between faces of our own race
• Social-cognitive hypothesis: states that we engage in more thorough facial processing of our in-group (people from the same race) than our out-group (people from other races) > greater attention for in-group
• We know that the level of expertise we have (expertise hyp) has a small effect because the cross-race effect can be eliminated by instructing people to pay close attention to all of the faces > more related to attention
• Shriver et Al, 2008 supports the social cognitive hypothesis. Looked at white middle class uni students who looked at pictures of students of the same age who were white or black males > the pictures were shown in a wealthy or impoverished context (e.g. large home w/ golf course or poor housing w/rundown public space)
• Sensitivity refers to how good the ppts were at identifying the faces > identification was most accurate when white faces were shown in a wealthy context (ingroup of ppts > white middle class). White faces in impoverished background or black face in either background was much lower
• Not just about race but your general ingroup > you identify people better if they class as your ingroup both racially and with socio-economic status
• There is own age bias too where people around your age are considered to be in your ingroup

Question 17

Factors affecting EWT

Answer 17

• Perceptual stage
• Encoding stage
• Storage stage
• Retrieval stage

Question 18

Perceptual stage

Answer 18

• This involves the impact of level of darkness, distance, duration and lighting in perceiving what is happening
• Lighting is the most important factor of these > influences accuracy significantly > bright light makes it easier to see and perceive things while dim light makes it more difficult to accurately perceive things

Question 19

Encoding stage

Answer 19

• Things like stress, violence and emotional arousal impact how we encode things > relates to Yerkes-Dodson law
• Yerkes-Dodson law = optimal level of arousal for memory in a U curve shape > top of the U = most accurate memory
• Higher stress and emotional intensity leads to restricted + more focused attention > have better memory for the central aspects of a violent event than for a non-violent event. The central aspects are remembered best because our attention is focused BUT this leads to worse memory for peripheral aspects of the event as your attention is restricted from high emotional intensity > stress narrows your attention, known as weapon-focus
• Weapon focus is where you have better memory for the central aspect (being the weapon) but worsened memories for things in the periphery such as the perpetrators face.
• This might happen because you evaluate if it is a threat to you or not. May also occur because it is unexpected and don’t expect to see the weapon in that context > we tend to focus on unexpected things

Question 20

Storage stage

Answer 20

• Time influences the storage of info > memory degrades over time
• Forgetting curve is Ebbinghausian in nature: sharp drop within 20 mins., continued forgetting until leveling out 2days after event. > EWT within this time can be inaccurate due to forgetting
• Children forget even faster > important to tape children’s EWT as soon as the incident has happened
• Don’t just forget or lose information from memory due to time but also interference
• Interference refers to different information interfering or blocking other information
• Unconscious transference: correctly recognizes face, but assigned incorrectly to perpetrator. > e.g. Donald Thompson is a researcher of EWT + a woman who was raped when Thompson was on a live debate on TV accused him of being the rapist > she correctly recognised his face but wrongly assigned it to her perpetrator
• There is also proactive + retroactive interference
• Proactive interference = when info from before the event interferes with things. > e.g. ppts were show a video of a museum burglary which they had to recall. Day before ppts either heard a story of a palace burglary or a palace visit > ppts who heard of the palace burglary made more mistakes in recalling the museum burglary because there was proactive interference from similarly related information (both are burglaries thus similar)

Question 21

Retrieval stage

Answer 21

• Retroactive interference can impact retrieval > includes leading questions + misinformation paradigm
• E.g. Subjects view an event then are exposed to (misleading) information about the event > Subjects are tested for recall of the event to determine if the misleading information has had an effect
• Retroactive interference is where information exposed AFTER an event can impact accuracy of the retrieval of information
• Loftus & Palmer (1974) e.g.: people watch a video of two cars crashing into each other + asked how fast we the cars when they …each other? Different verbs were used for different groups such as collided, smashed, bumped + contacted to see if leading questions impact their response > responses were higher for the more aggressive verbs like smashed > misinformation effect
• A week after seeing the video, they were asked if they saw broken glass? Ppts were more likely to say yes if their verb was more aggressive even though there was none > even a week later, this misinformation effect remained
• This might be due to activation of schemas associated with aggressive words like smashed
• Loftus & Zanni (1975) also could ask did you see a broken headlight or did you see the broken headlight > 7% said they saw one when prompted by “a headlight”, 16% saw one when asked about “the headlight”
• This only works with subtle misinformation, obvious misinformation does not cause misinformation effect + leads to mistrust of more subtle attempts
• Time also impacts this effect > if misinformation is presented immediately after viewing the event, around 50% of subjects are able to resist its influence. This figure drops to 20% one week later.
• People can also mislead themselves > Witnesses who lie after an event have poorer memory when they later try to remember correctly.

Question 22

Explanations for misinformation effects

Answer 22

• Source misattribution: Source of post-event information memory trace is wrongly attributed to the original event (e.g. police officer asking a leading question gets wrongly attributed to the original event, cars crashing)
• Vacant memory slot: Misinformation more likely to be accepted if original correct info did not get stored > vacant memory slot gets filled with misinformation which was presented after the event
• Memory co-existence: both original and misleading info are processed but misleading info is more recent > obscures earlier memory trace. > if there is reconsolidation, this makes the memory trace more fragile. Misleading information alters and updates the original memory trace if it is reconsolidated (reactivation or re-experiencing a memory which has previously decayed can cause it to reconsolidate + update with new knowledge
• Blending: When correct information + misinformation get combined
• Response bias: Wanting to please + agree with the police officer for example.
• Generally, more errors occur for peripheral details rather than central aspects
• In lab studies there is no real genuine stress, victimisation being experienced + shorter exposure so these may not be reliably reflective > naturalistic studies however show similar trends

Question 23

Eyewitness confidence

Answer 23

• Eyewitness confidence is a low predictor of accuracy > there is a low correlation between confidence + the actual accuracy (r=.29)
• Things which heighten eyewitness confidence but not accuracy include giving positive feedback (like yes that is him > especially when identification is incorrect), saying someone else identified them well, ask repeatedly (familiarity will cause greater confidence) + external motivation like money > these all improve confidence + but lower accuracy so shouldn’t happen

Question 24

Cognitive Interview

Answer 24

• Based on memory research to improve accuracy of EWT in real life
• Recreate external & internal context. Principle of encoding specificity and mood congruency (see future lectures). Act as retrieval cues > match the learning context + retrieval context to increase likeliness of accuracy
• Report everything, even if fragmented. > relates to tip of the tongue state, when you can’t find a word but give whatever they know such as the first letter of a name or place to help them access the info
• Report event in different orders. > Different retrieval pathways to same piece of info + Different starting points can lead to different details.
• Report from different perspectives > Imagine being a participant or another witness because perspective provides a schematic structure for retrieval, can make some info more salient > from your view some things may seem unimportant but from a different view things may stand out as it is associated with certain schema which drive you to retrieve certain info
• Anderson & Pichert (1978): burglar vs. home buyer perspective. Schema’s provide structure and drive retrieval of information.
• Do not interrupt witness in middle of narrative > Disrupts natural retrieval process. > related to part-set cueing effect: giving partial information inhibits recall (e.g. asking to give a list of animals is better than asking for a list of animals such as elephants and giraffes)
• Evaluation: very effective, especially the first two principles. Boosts accurate information from actual crime victims drastically, with minimal changes in amount of false information.