distortii la memorie

Question 1

What is memory as a constructive process?

Answer 1

Our memories are not perfect replicas of past events, but rather they are reconstructed together using various information stored in our minds.
This means that memory is not a passive retrieval of stored information but an active process influenced by various factors such as our beliefs, expectations, experiences, and schemas.

Question 2

What are schemas? (Bartlett, 1932)

Answer 2

Mental structures that shape how information is encoded and recalled.
Memories can be re-formed to fit our expectations, rather than reality.

Question 3

What is evidence for schemas?

Answer 3

Recall of the details of a story were shaped by the people’s own experiences.
They reconstructed the story so that it makes sense to them.

Question 4

What is the effect of schemas?

Answer 4

Schemas can alter the way we visualise the world.

Question 5

What are memory distortions?

Answer 5

1. Relatedness effects
2. Social factors
3. Interference effects
4. Individual differences

Question 6

1. What is relatedness effect? (Underwood, 1965)

Answer 6

Recalling keywords that were not present at encoding.
False memories are the result of associative processes during encoding.

Question 7

1. What is McCelland’s Parallel Distributed processing model of constructive memory?

Answer 7

Encode words associated with sleep
Recall the word sleep
The identical activation pattern triggers a false memory of sleep.

Question 8

1. What is the evidence for relatedness effects?

Answer 8

In the hippocampus:
Similar activation for true items and false but related items.
This supports the PDP model- true items and related items trigger similar patterns of brain activity

Question 9

1. Which area of the brain does distinguish between true items and false related items?

Answer 9

The parahippocampal gyrus

Question 10

2. What is the interference effect? (Loftus and Palmer)

Answer 10

Language has an effect on memory
Effect of wording of questions asked after the event
How fast were the cars going when they smashed?

Question 11

2. What is the effect of imagination?

Answer 11

Thomas and Loftus
Participants remembered during various actions that they did not perform (only imagined)

Question 12

What is the effect of social factors?

Answer 12

Social conformity
Participants responses were influenced by confederate

Question 13

4. What are the effects of individual differences?

Answer 13

Age: older adults and younger children are more susceptible to memory distortions

Question 14

Why are the distortions of memory important?

Answer 14

False imprisonment
in US 75% were convicted on basis of mistaken eye-witness identification

Shows that distortions of memory are not limited to patients with brain damage: we are all vulnerable