False memories

Question 1

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott memory illusion?

Answer 1

Task based on word lists:
Strong* tendency to falsely recognise or recall a critical lure as having been presented.

Roediger and McDermott (1995, based on Deese, 1959)

Question 2

Why do we get false memories? Schacter et al. (2011)

Answer 2

Gist activation = study phase

Errors derive from knowledge base: associations between studied words and the ‘critical lure’, as in ‘free association’ tasks

Idea that memory encompasses semantically related unstudied
content = gist memory

Memory is general as well as specific +

Question 3

What is the DRM memory illusion?

Answer 3

Memories for lures = vivid + frequent as memory for the studied items!

• Hippocampal damage reduces this type of false memory = normal function

Medial prefrontal damage also reduces it = consistent w/ semantic knowledge schemas’ role in errors

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex damage + old age increase the illusion – implies memory control is involved

Question 4

What is gist memory for pictures?

Answer 4

Categorised pictures ~20% false alarms on recognition test
Also called mnemonic discrimination + impaired in ageing +
Alzheimer’s

Study phase
Test phase = what is new + what is old
Lures = study was sleep

Koutstaal & Schacter (1997); Yassa and Stark (2011)

Question 5

What is a critical lure?

Answer 5

A related word to the memory

Question 6

What happened in Brewer and Tureen (1981)

Answer 6

Looked at memory for object rated by schema office
Objects rate by schema-expectancy

Schema-exectancy helped recall of objects
More false recognition of high-schema objects in recognition memory test = can be based on semantic gist +shared w/ real events

Question 7

How are real memories the same as false memories?

Answer 7

Garoff-Eaton, Slotnick & Schacter, 2006
Participants scanned during recognition test
View abstract shapes – distinguish lures from studied

fMRI activity at retrieval indistinguishable for true vs. false
recognition = null finding, so cannot confirm it

ALSO abstract = minimal semantic processing so no semantic gist

Question 8

How are real memories different as false memories?

Answer 8

Dennis, Bowman & Vandekar (2012)

fMRI memory retrieval study = focus on subjectively vivid true vs. false recollections

Stimuli were everyday objects that could elicit a memory based on semantic gist – e.g. “yes I saw a cat”

Right hippocampus + early visual cortex = more activated during true recollection vs false recollection

Evidence that true recollection = different = perhaps more
detailed, and containing more sensory information?

Question 9

What does meta-analysis show about the difference/ similarities of real and false memories? (Kurkela and Dennis, 2016)

Answer 9

Several PFC regions commonly activated over studies = more for false memories than real = Interpret as greater memory monitoring demands (trying to analyse is this is real)

• Included: bilateral ventrolateral PFC – semantic gist?
• BUT not all activations differed from true recognition
• AND no consistent differences = hippocampus/ sensory cortex

Question 10

How does false memories link to reinstatement?

Answer 10

Sometimes true memories engage hippocampus more and
sometimes sensory cortex more, perhaps reflecting
reinstatement of more details of original events

No studies have experimentally manipulated the
information that is recollected to check these interpretations

More studies need to separate properly episodic recollection
from familiarity to see if true/false recollections really differ

Question 11

what is Bartlett’s (1932) War of the Ghosts?

Answer 11

People recalled unfamiliar stories – shorter and distorted – elements changed as well as omitted

Memory distortion when to-be-remembered info =
does not fit our schemas

Memory tested after 15m + randomly on campus after weeks, months or years

Question 12

What study looked at students’ event memory?

Answer 12

Wynn & Logie (1998) tested students’ memories for their first
week at university every few weeks

Accurate & stable over ~ 1 year despite initial memory test
* AND: accuracy verified by lecturers/ porters notes at time
* BUT: the initial memory test was not for 2-3 weeks

Memory distortion = less common in ‘naturalistic conditions’

Consistent w/ proposed role of schemas = memories fit a schema well

Question 13

What are the criticisms of Bartlett’s methods?

Answer 13

Not well controlled
* E.g. deliberate guessing
* NO statistics!

Question 14

What does Graesser et al. (1980) show?

Answer 14

Shows evidence for distortion at longer study-test delays

Measured distortion of text recall bc of prior knowledge as correlation between:
* Chance of recalling a text item = studied
* Probability of freely generating it when nothing studied

Results:
Not significant after 30 min
After 1 week, r = 0.45 (20% of variance) more effect on the later than earlier.

Question 15

What does Bergman & Roediger (1999) show?

Answer 15

Replication + extension study of Bartlett’s study main findings for short stories

15m memory test = major distortions in ~1/3 of all recalled info

Experimental = 15 mins, 1 week + 6 vs control = no 15 mins test

Question 16

What was the results of Bergman & Roediger (1999) show?

Answer 16

Major distortions were an increasing proportion of memories with repeated retrieval. They were maintained + accurate recall dropped over time.

Control group showed less distorted as well as less accurate recall in absolute terms – although don’t report proportion.

Early test is a ‘double-edged sword’, i.e., errors in immediate recall are remembered later

Question 17

What does distortions in memory suggest?

Answer 17

Memory = construct than record
They are biased and constructive

Question 18

What is the overall process of memories

Answer 18

Levels of processing – ‘deep encoding’

Schema and schema-relevant processing

Elaboration = relating to prior knowledge

Organisation effects in list memory

Likely roles of encoding and retrieval factors

Question 19

How does memory bias and stereotypes link to false memories?

Answer 19

Applications

Allport & Postman (1947) – version of ‘telephone game’ = racial memory bias against Black character

Kleider et al. (2008) = Stereotype errors increased with delay + even neutral suggestion (cues like who did laundry) found stereotype error

Question 20

What happened in Tran, Hertel & Joorman (2011) study?

Answer 20

Created + modified bias

Training to interpret neutral prose passages positively or negatively

Encode ambiguous novel scenarios

Recall of details from scenarios = biased to trained direction

Question 21

How does fake news link to bias?

Answer 21

Murphy, Loftus, Grady, Levine & Greene (2019) = N=3140 online study

Memory for real and fake stories before Ireland’s May 2018 abortion referendum

Shown headlines + images relating to stories relating to ‘yes’ and
‘no’ campaigns

For fake stories 48% either “I remember seeing/hearing this” or “I
don’t remember seeing/hearing this but I remember it
happening” (63% if include false belief!)

People more likely to remember fake news consistent with their
own views (group differences: 58% vs. 38% for ‘no’ poster and
40% vs. 30% for ‘yes’ poster)

Question 22

What is memory source monitoring?

Answer 22

Johnson et al. (1993), Source Monitoring theory
Location = source of memory
* Imagined or real experience (reality monitoring)
* The “ability to specify contextual information surrounding memory traces”
* Not just recollecting context, but evaluating what is remembered – this requires control

Question 23

What is misattribution?

Answer 23

When you attribute a detail to a different event = memory schema causes distortion + exacerbated by errors

Clinical psychologists + psychology students read
case study vignettes: one simple, one complex-
coherent, one complex-incoherent (in relation to prior
knowledge)

Experts recalled more detail + more false recall of details = not happened

Particularly in the complex-incoherent condition where schema and reality conflicted

Not same age

Question 24

What is imagination inflation?

Answer 24

When a person though they had done something = imagined event

• 1 ½ minute story from Elizabeth Loftus
• Everyday errors e.g. answering email vs thinking about it
• Imagining = larger effect vs just reading about it - and
  applies to common, feasible events and unfeasible events
  (Mazzoni & Memon, 2003; see Schacter et al., 2011)

Question 25

What is content borrowing and why are they so vivid?

Answer 25

People misidentify lure objects sharing perceptual details w/ imagined ones (Henkel & Franklin, 1998)
+
* Misidentifications = reflect actual physical features of seen objects! (Lyle & Johnson, 2006)

Content borrowing from true memories

Extended to DRM task by Lampinen et al. (2006)
while studying word SUGAR: “It is fattening, but it is
good.” While falsely recognising SWEET: “Sweet—old, and
remember, cause I remember liking sweets but thinking they
are gonna make me fat.”

Question 26

How do avoid false memory?

Answer 26

post-retrieval monitoring - monitoring for details + vividness can only help avoid false memories if false memories = different from true = mixed evidence

Question 27

Where is control thought supported in the brain?

Answer 27

executive processes in prefrontal cortex

Question 28

What is the Roomate story study?

Answer 28

Tversky and Marsh (2000)
Study phase: descriptions of ‘annoying, neutral, or cool’ incidents involving 2 roommates.

Interim task: neutral = recount the incidents, positive - write a letter of recommendation, negative - write a letter to student housing requesting their removal.

Test phase: Free recall of original story.
Misinformation effect = distortion introduced after an original event that leads to memory updating (also called suggestibility)

Question 29

What were the results of the Roomate story study

Answer 29

Ps = written biased letters recalled biased information, i.e. more of the ‘perspective-relevant’ “annoying” or “cool” incidents for that roommate

Added more misattributions consistent with their bias.

Question 30

What happened in the Loftus and Palmer (1974) car crash study?

Answer 30

Showed = Strong influence on memory of post-event questioning –
potential for misleading information

Speed of the verb used to describe the crash changed how fast they remembered the car was going

Question 31

What is the strength and weakness of the testing effect?

Answer 31

Benefits of repeated testing (testing effect) ALSO
stronger if longer delay to eventual test

BUT also ‘Retrieval-enhanced suggestibility’. Misinformation
effect, increased by repeated testing, and reduced by long
initial delay

misinformation/ suggestibility errors = involve misattribution

Question 32

How is eyewitness testimony related to false memories?

Answer 32

About 75% of wrongful convictions in USA involve eyewitness errors
* DNA evidence for wrongful convictions
* Police questioning is critical and can change memory!

Cognitive interview - Geiselman et al. (1985)
Stage 1: Reinstate the context
* Stage 2: Recall events in reverse order
* Stage 3: Report everything
* Stage 4: Describe events from someone else’s
perspective

Stage 2 = reduce schema use

Stage 3 = maximise memory monitoring + to cue further recall
(along with Stage 4).