Everyday memory and errors Flashcards
Cognitive hypothesis
An explanation for the reminiscence bump, which states that memories are better for adolescence and early adulthood because encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability.
Reminiscence bump
The empirical finding that people over 40 years old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence and early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives.
Self-image hypothesis
The idea that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed. This is one of the explanations for the reminiscence bump.
Cultural life script hypothesis
The idea that events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture. This has been cited to explain the reminiscence bump.
Repeated recall
Recall that is tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event.
Amygdala
A subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events.
Kevin LaBar and Elizabeth Phelps (1998) found people would remember arousal words better.
Florin Dolcos and coworkers (2005) found the amygdala was more active when remembering images tied to emotions.
B.P. suffered damage to amygdala and did not have enhanced memory for emotional events.
Narrative rehearsal hypothesis
The idea that we remember some life events better because we rehearse them. This idea was proposed by Neisser as an explanation for “flashbulb” memories.
Flashbulb memory
Memory for the circumstances that surround hearing about shocking, highly charged events. It has been claimed that such memories are particularly vivid and accurate. See Narrative rehearsal hypothesis for another viewpoint.
Cultural life script
Life events that commonly occur in a particular culture.
Youth bias
Tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when the person is young.
Constructive nature of memory
The idea that what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as expectations, other knowledge, and other life experiences.
Source monitoring
The process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs. Remembering that you heard about something from a particular person would be an example of source monitoring.
Source misattributions
Occurs when the source of a memory is misidentified. See Source monitoring error.
Illusory truth effect
Enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation.
Demonstrated by Lisa Fazio and coworkers (2015).
Source monitoring error
Misidentifying the source of a memory. See Source misattribution.
Larry Jacoby and coworkers (1989) “Becoming Famous Overnight” demonstrated a connection between source monitoring errors
Fluency
The ease with which a statement can be remembered.
Repeated reproduction
A method of measuring memory in which a person is asked to reproduce a stimulus on repeated occasions at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered.
Schema
A person’s knowledge about what is involved in a particular experience. See also Script.
Highly superior autobiographical memory
Autobiographical memory capacity possessed by some people who can remember personal experiences that occurred on any specific day from their past.
Pragmatic inference
Inference that occurs when reading or hearing a statement leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the statement.
Demonstrated by William Brewer (1977) and Kathleen McDermott and Jason Chan (2006).
Misinformation effect
Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event that changes how the person describes that event later.
Script
A type of schema. The conception of the sequence of actions that describe a particular activity. For example, the sequence of events that are associated with going to class would be a “going to class” script. See also Schema.
Demonstrated by Gordon Bower and coworkers (1979).
misleading postevent information (MPI)
The misleading information that causes the misinformation effect.
Demonstrated by Elizabeth Loftus and coworkers (1978). Loftus and Palmer (1974) and Stephen Lindsay (1990).
Weapon focus
The tendency for eyewitnesses to a crime to focus attention on a weapon, which causes poorer memory for other things that are happening.
Repressed childhood memory
Memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness.
Remembering them through therapy not always accurate.
Cognitive interview
A procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption. It also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by having them place themselves back in the scene and recreate emotions they were feeling, where they were looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives.
Eyewitness testimony
Testimony by eyewitnesses to a crime about what they saw during commission of the crime.
Post-identification feedback effect
An increase in confidence of memory recall due to confirming feedback after making an identification, as in a police lineup.
Nostalgia
A memory that involves a sentimental affection for the past.
music-enhanced autobiographical memories (MEAMS)
Autobiographical memories elicited by hearing music.
Cryptomnesia
Example of source monitoring error (unconscious plagiarism).
Bartlett’s classic “War of the Ghosts” experiment is particularly noteworthy because it was one of the first to make use of ___.
Repeated reproduction
The cognitive hypothesis for the reminiscence bump is related to which of the following processes?
Encoding
It is estimated that around ___ of all criminal cases where an individual was wrongly convicted of a crime involved eyewitness testimony.
75%
Janelle is getting an fMRI scan while she describes an everyday episodic memory. Which of the following brain areas will show the LEAST activity in her scan?
amygdala and hippocampus
What distinguishes a flashbulb memory from an autobiographical memory?
Intensity
What was the problem with Brown and Kulik’s research into flashbulb memories?
The participants’ memories could not be verified.
What is the key variable in the method known as repeated reproduction?
Time
The misinformation effect on memory is related to which of the following?
Timing
In the research conducted by Loftus and coworkers on the misinformation effect, how did the words “smash” and “hit” affect participants’ memory of seeing broken glass in the images presented?
Twice as many participants in smash group reported seeing glass.
Proust effect
Autobiographical memories activated by senses, particularly olfaction and gustation.
