L5: contemporary issues in human memory research Flashcards
key concepts in episodic and memory research?
Two of the key concepts that affects episodic memory research
Episodic memory: mental time travel (Tulving, 1983)
Two types of retrieval: feeling of familiarity vs. recollected details (Tulving, 1985)
Episodic memory refers to the part of our memory responsible for recalling specific events or episodes from our lives (e.g., a birthday party you attended or a vacation you took).
“Mental time travel” means that when we access episodic memories, we mentally relive those past events as if we were “traveling” back in time to experience them again. We can vividly recall what happened, where it happened, and how we felt at the time. This concept helps explain why we can remember events with a sense of “being there” in the past.
What do we do today?
Looked back in time what research can tell us about memory;
Now we look around and see what memory can tell us about daily life
one contemporarr issue in human memory research?
where are we with false and repressed memories?
Traumatic experiences like sexual abuse or assault may be unconsciously blocked for many years and individual does nit know they were abused or later recover in psychotherapy. But this is a debate. No scientific evidence? But clinicians believe they exist.
Where are we after 50 years from Loftus’ seminal false memory study?
Maybe therapies are suggestive and lead to creation of false memories
Repressed memory
Memory wars between clinicians and researchers
Ecological validity of false memory research?
How susceptible are people to forming false memories?
Short answer: not much!
Rationale: if false memories form easily then suppressed memories may be false memories that form instead of true memories.
False memory implantation method (e.g., Loftus & Pickrell, 1995)
Ranges from 0% to 70% (though weighted mean percentage was only 30%; Wade et al., 2018)
Ask participants to elaborate on events suggested to happen. Most did happen 1 did not. Using these methods researchers have successfully implemented wide variety of false events e.g: being lost in a mall, hot air balooon, ufo abduction.
A recent analysis suggested that full-blown false memories in only 15% of participants (Brewin & Andrew, 2017)
Such implantation is not easy nor common
Repeated suggestions in therapeutic sessions may yield higher percentages than experiments that often involve only one or two suggestions
how ecological valid are false memory implantation studies?
How ecological valid are false memory implantation studies?
Short answer: to some extent!
Ecological validity: refers to the extent to which the environment experienced by the subjects in a scientific investigation has the properties it is supposed or assumed to have by the investigator (Bronfenbrenner, 1977)
How consistent does evidence compare to real life events?
Sexual abuse memories often concern emotionally negative events and sometimes concern repeatedly events
Have false memory implantation studies achieved these?
Repeated events: not much success so far
Emotionally negative events: quite some
(ethical implications though…)
Repeated and negative events:
Only 1 so far! (Calado et al., 2020)
Told participants they lost their toys and found repeated false events were easily implemented than? one off events
check what calado et al did
what does science say about the existence of repressed memories?
Short answer: not much, more evidence supporting alternative explanations!
Repressed memories act as a defence mechanism when people experience traumatic events (e.g., Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot)
Remove from conscious awareness?
The unconscious repressed memory can continuously exert a mental and physical toll, through symptoms, and the way to reduce it is by recovering the traumatic content (van der Kolk & Fisler, 1995)
Alternative explanations:
People may not want to talk about traumatic experience or simply forget it
Forget-it-all-along effect: people may forget that they remembered the event (Arnold & Lindsay, 2002)
People may not consider the event traumatic at the time it happened and later interpreted it as traumatic (McNally & Geraerts, 2009)
Over time have more awareness of what is traumatic and innapopriate.
A voluminous body of research has suggested that traumatic experiences are in general well-remembered (e.g., McKinnon et al., 2015; Wagernnar & Groeneweg, 1990)
Suppressions (consciously) and motivated forgetting are possible, but usually only to simple stimuli
Alt more supported by scientifiv evidence?
so people believe in the existence of unconscious repressed memories?
Short answer: Yes!
Some surveys suggested that 45% to 94% of the participants believe the concept of repressed memories
Not clear whether talking about:
Unconscious repression vs. conscious suppression
Houben et al. (2020): large percentage (70-92%) of small sample therapists agreed that the mind can unconsciously block out memories of traumatic events
Dodier et al. (2022): people endorsed unconscious repression than deliberate (conscious) suppression
Otgaar et al. (2020): 80.9% participants did indeed mean that they mean unconscious memory repression
Interim summary- where are we with false and repressed memories?
On overage, about 30% of participants form false memories in implantation studies
Implanted false memories can occur for negative events and for events that allegedly occurred repeatedly
Plausible alternative explanations exist, such as ordinary forgetting and reinterpreting memories
Many people continue to believe in controversial idea of unconscious repressed memories
However,
Dissociative amnesia: an inability to recall autobiographical memories, one that mostly originate from stressful or traumatic experiences (DSM-5)
Statute limitations to prosecute sexual crimes have been abolished or extended in several EU countries, based on the idea that traumatic memories can be blocked for many years
Most cause studies failed to rule out plausible alternative explanations of dissociative amnesia….
He said if ur interested idk if i have to know this
false memories in political campaigns?
not sure if i have to know that check!!!
something about false memories during irelands abortion referendum
false memories in polotical campaigns?
What is special with false memories in political campaigns?
Real-life and large-scale political events
Potential polarisation
High-stake implications
false beliefs vs false memories?
False beliefs vs. false memories
False memories often follow false beliefs (Scoboria et al., 2004)
False beliefs can come out with a simple plausibility evaluation (whether something can happen or makes sense? Dont need evidence?)
Something untrue whether person knows it or not?
False memories need to be constructed and is an effortful process
Person can recollect when and where encountered such events
source monitering framework ?
Source monitoring framework (Johnson et al., 1993; Mitchell & Johnson, 2000)
This framework explains how we attribute memories to their source—whether we remember something from our own experience, from someone else, or from external sources (like books or media).
The key idea is that sometimes we might misattribute or confuse where we learned or experienced something
Heuristics: assesses the perceptual, temporal and semantic features of memory
Systematic assessment: evaluates plausibility or comparing against prior knowledge and other confirmatory evidence
Is this in line with other info i have?
political ideology and susceptibility to false memory?
Memories for most of real-world events are mostly accurate, but may be biased in support of people’s worldviews (e.g., schemas)
Studies have suggested that participants are more likely to falsely remember events that are consistent with their political ideology (Frenda et al., 2013) or their group identity (Devine, 2015)
