False Memory

Question 1

Discuss memory being constructive In nature

Answer 1

Human memory is not a literal reproduction of the past but instead relies on constructive processes that are prone to memory error and distortion (Shacter, 2012)

Question 2

What is the ‘War of Ghost Story’ study?

Answer 2

Bartlett (1932) presented a story to participants and they were told to recall it
Participants frequently gave their own representations and substituted many of the words (Chinese Whispers)

Question 3

What is the de Mendez case study?

Answer 3

De Mendez was an innocent man shot by police as being a misidentified criminal of the London bombings
Witnesses recalled seeing different things

Question 4

What are the Seven sins of memory distortions (Schacter, 2001)

Answer 4

This refers to when memory differs from what actually occurs
Transience 
Suggestibility 
Persistence 
Bias
Blocking
Absent minded errors
Misattribution

Question 5

Explain Richardson’s (2011) effect of imagination study

Answer 5

Participants were told to vivid imagine themselves within a situation that the experimenter described
When asked a few years later many of the participants believed they had actually experienced the event themselves (it was particularly strong when others suggestively agreed)

Question 6

What is the overconfidence effect?

Answer 6

Tendency to overestimate our ability to recall an event correctly

Question 7

What is a gist-based error?

Answer 7

When participants falsely remember a novel item that is similar to an item they have already encountered

Question 8

Who proposed the DRM paradigm

Answer 8

Deese, Roediger and McDermott (1959)