Everyday Memory and Memory Errors (Chapter 8)

Question 1

Schemas

Answer 1

Knowledge about a particular aspect of the environment (“What’s in a restaurant?”)

Question 2

Scripts

Answer 2

Knowledge about the sequence of actions that occur during a particular experience (“What happens when you go to a restaurant?”)

Question 3

DRM paradigm

Answer 3

Presented with a list of words that relate to a theme word: likely to misremember theme word as part of list (spreading activation)

Question 4

Jill price’s perfect memory

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Flashbulb memory

Answer 5

Vivid, detailed, and seemingly unforgettable memory for the circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking events

Question 6

Now-print mechanism

Answer 6

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)

Question 7

High adrenaline state’s effect on memory

Answer 7

Feel like time moves slowly

See more details

Question 8

Evidence of whether flashbulb memories are special

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 9

We feel more confident about flashbulb memories because we have rehearsed them by telling about them over and over

Question 10

Prospective memory

Answer 10

Remembering to do something in the future

Depends on remembering what you need to do and remembering to do it

Question 11

Cued vs. uncued prospective memory tasks

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Autobiographical memory

Answer 12

Special type of episodic memory: memories of things that are important to you (things you’d put in your autobiography)

Question 13

How mental time travel occurs in autobiographical memories

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Reminiscence bump

Answer 14

Older people have the best memory for things that occurred in their 20s, followed by things that recently occurred

Question 15

Memory errors of omission (forgetting)

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Memory errors of commission

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

What commission builds on

Answer 17

Omission (must have forgotten something that now needs to be filled in)

Question 18

Constructive nature of memory

Answer 18

Filling in the blanks with prior knowledge and experience

Memory can be constructed (isn’t unchanging)

Question 19

Becoming famous overnight study

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Propaganda effect

Answer 20

The more you hear something, the more familiar it becomes, and the more it appeals to you
Use familiarity to make judgments

Question 21

Mistaking bystanders for perpetrators

Answer 21

Eyewitness accounts aren’t always accurate- bystanders are familiar and eyewitness remembers seeing bystanders, but forgets what bystanders were doing

Question 22

Role of schemas in misattribution

Answer 22

When using schemas, there is a possibility of committing a memory error

Question 23

Recovered memories of abuse

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Misinformation effect

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Why misinformation effect occurs

Answer 25

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)

Question 26

Practical advice to avoid misinformation effect

Answer 26

When you think that you may be called upon to give a statement, write down what you saw before anyone asks you any questions!

Question 27

Consistency bias

Answer 27

Tendency to remember things as staying the same

Question 28

Examples of consistency bias

Answer 28

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!”

Question 29

Change bias

Answer 29

Remembering changes that didn’t actually occur

Question 30

Example of change bias

Answer 30

PMS: women’s mood swings aren’t really tied to their menstrual cycles, even if they report that they are

Question 31

Egocentric bias

Answer 31

Remembering oneself in the best positive light (all people fall prey to it- keeps them mentally healthy)

Question 32

Example of egocentric bias

Answer 32

Poor performance in class: more likely to say that class/professor was poor

Question 33

Stereotypical bias

Answer 33

Encountering a person triggers stereotypes

Implicit attitudes play a role