Everyday Memory and Memory Errors (Chapter 8) Flashcards
Schemas
Knowledge about a particular aspect of the environment (“What’s in a restaurant?”)
Scripts
Knowledge about the sequence of actions that occur during a particular experience (“What happens when you go to a restaurant?”)
DRM paradigm
Presented with a list of words that relate to a theme word: likely to misremember theme word as part of list (spreading activation)
Jill price’s perfect memory
Hard to live with: cannot forget bad memories and emotional impact of those memories doesn’t fade
Similar activity in her brain to that of an OCD patient
Flashbulb memory
Vivid, detailed, and seemingly unforgettable memory for the circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking events
Now-print mechanism
Used to describe flashbulb memories
Similar to a polaroid camera: brain captures detail of event, which remains in the memory like a photograph (resistant to fading)
High adrenaline state’s effect on memory
Feel like time moves slowly
See more details
Evidence of whether flashbulb memories are special
Test: ask people to recall event immediately after it unfolds, then ask again after specific periods in time
Researchers found that as time goes on, memory is affected by experience (people only think that their memories are better for flashbulb memories)
There is no difference in accuracy for flashbulb and normal memories
Flashbulb memories are special in terms of emotion and personal connection to memory
Narrative rehearsal hypothesis
We feel more confident about flashbulb memories because we have rehearsed them by telling about them over and over
Prospective memory
Remembering to do something in the future
Depends on remembering what you need to do and remembering to do it
Cued vs. uncued prospective memory tasks
Cued: regularly occurs or something in environment tells you to do it
Uncued: nothing in environment tells you to do it
Cued tasks are easier to remember
Uncued tasks get harder as one grows older
Autobiographical memory
Special type of episodic memory: memories of things that are important to you (things you’d put in your autobiography)
How mental time travel occurs in autobiographical memories
Field perspective (seeing memory in first person): more common in recent memories Observer perspective (seeing yourself in the memory): more common in distant, remote memories
Reminiscence bump
Older people have the best memory for things that occurred in their 20s, followed by things that recently occurred
Memory errors of omission (forgetting)
Transience (fading over time)
Absent-mindedness (didn’t pay attention to it in the first place)
Blocking (“tip of the tongue”- know that you know it, but can’t retrieve it)
Memory errors of commission
Misattribution (assigning memory to wrong source)
Suggestibility (memories implanted as result of leading questions, comments, or suggestions when person is trying to call up past experience)
Bias (current knowledge and beliefs influence how past is remembered)
Persistence (inability to forget things that would be preferred to be forgotten)
What commission builds on
Omission (must have forgotten something that now needs to be filled in)
Constructive nature of memory
Filling in the blanks with prior knowledge and experience
Memory can be constructed (isn’t unchanging)
Becoming famous overnight study
Participants read non-famous names from phone book, then took a test immediately afterwards (names from phone book, famous names, new non-famous names: asked which were famous), then took same test after 24 hours
Result: people did well on immediate test, but after 24 hours, misattributed non-famous names in phone book to famous people
Misattribution: forgotten where name had been heard (media or phone book), so assumed that non-famous names were famous
Propaganda effect
The more you hear something, the more familiar it becomes, and the more it appeals to you
Use familiarity to make judgments
Mistaking bystanders for perpetrators
Eyewitness accounts aren’t always accurate- bystanders are familiar and eyewitness remembers seeing bystanders, but forgets what bystanders were doing
Role of schemas in misattribution
When using schemas, there is a possibility of committing a memory error
Recovered memories of abuse
Example of suggestibility
Therapist implants memory of abuse by giving patient repeated leading questions (“You seem to be showing patterns of behavior that are typical of victims of abuse. Are you sure that you haven’t been abused?”)
Patient begins to believe that he/she has been abused and then falsely creates memory of abuse
Misinformation effect
Study: people are shown picture of accident (no broken glass or injured people- emotional involvement should be low)
Supplied with misinformation (though there was a stop sign, officer asks “How fast was car going when it ran through the yield sign?”)
Significant percentage of people misremember stop sign as yield sign
Why misinformation effect occurs
Misleading post event information replaces the original memory (stop sign is overwritten by yield sign in memory)
Misleading post event information causes retroactive interference (learning about yield sign makes it harder to remember stop sign)
Source monitoring error (witnessing accident and police officer’s questions are 2 different sources- forgetting source but remembering stop and yield signs, guess which one was correct)
Practical advice to avoid misinformation effect
When you think that you may be called upon to give a statement, write down what you saw before anyone asks you any questions!
Consistency bias
Tendency to remember things as staying the same
Examples of consistency bias
Chronic pain patients rate their levels of pain the same in the past as in the present (currently in pain, remember pain as being higher in the past than actually was)
People struggling in relationships: “I always knew that he/she was a bad person!”
Change bias
Remembering changes that didn’t actually occur
Example of change bias
PMS: women’s mood swings aren’t really tied to their menstrual cycles, even if they report that they are
Egocentric bias
Remembering oneself in the best positive light (all people fall prey to it- keeps them mentally healthy)
Example of egocentric bias
Poor performance in class: more likely to say that class/professor was poor
Stereotypical bias
Encountering a person triggers stereotypes
Implicit attitudes play a role
