L4: Memory part 3 Flashcards
false memories and the DRM paradigm ?
False memories: recollection of events that never happened
The case of Jean Charles de Menezes: entered tube station, paid fare, boarded train and sat. shot dead by police officers hunting for suspects of suicide bombers?
Poor eyewitness: said jumped over barrier and onto train?
The implication to eyewitness testimony
Can false memories be created in laboratory?
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995, 2000)
Participants learned a list of words around certain
Recognition test: taste, thread, bread, king, sweet, needle
‘themes’
graph of responsive probability (y) vs item type (x). studied: recember at 50% and know at 30% same for critical NS. Unrelated NS low remember and know low but higher.
look at graph of brain activity change
memory biases?
Bias: the distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs and feelings on recollection of previous experiences
Consistency bias: by altering the past to fit the present
Rated attitude towards marijuana, women’s rights and aid to minorities in 1973 (Marcus, 1986)
Asked to rate again in 1982 with recalling their rating from 1973
The recall is closer to the rating in 1982 instead of the actual rating in 1973
Similar pattern was found for close relationships (McFarland and Ross, 1987)
Change bias: by exaggerating differences between past and present (Sprecher, 1999)
Couples were asked to rated their relationship and again in four years time with recalling the previous rating.
Couples reported increased rating but the ratings between the two time points are the same
Egocentric bias: by distorting the past to make us look better (Breckler, 1994; Bahrick et al., 1996)
Rate more nervous or braver compared to the rating as it happened
University students were accurate about their As during high school but not so much about their Ds.
Suggestibility and intrusion errors
Suggestibility: the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections
Loftus et al. (1978): the speeding car study
Participants who received suggested questions recalled details which were not in the video (a barn and a give away sign)
Loftus (1993): lost in the shopping centre study
Vivid and detailed recollection was generated by suggesting had once been lost in a shopping centre as a child
Mental imagery plays an important role in constructing false memories (Goff & Roediger, 1998)
seven sins of memory?
Sevens sins of memry (schacter, 2001)
transience: forgetting. description: reduced memory over time. such as forgetting a plot to a book.
blocking: forgetting. inability to remember needed information. such as forgetting someones name.
absentmindedness: forgetting. reduced memory due to failing to pay attention. such as leaving your umbrella on the train.
misattribution: distortion. assigning memory to the wrong source. thinking jane told you a rumour but it was sarah.
suggestibility: distortion. altering a memory because of misleading information. such as developing a false memory after reading newspaper reports.
bias: distortion. influence on current knowledge on our memory for past events. such as thinking you knew the answer to a question after being told.
persistence: forgetting. resurgence of unwanted or disturbing memories that we want to forget.
