L9 - Seven Sins of Memory Flashcards

1
Q

What are the seven sins of memory?

A
  1. Transience
  2. Absent-Mindedness
  3. Blocking
  4. Misattribution
  5. Suggestibility
  6. Bias
  7. Persistence
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2
Q

What is transience?

A

The way that memory for facts and events become less accessible over time, especially when not used or needed.

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3
Q

In transience, which type of details fade first?

A

Specific, then general.

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4
Q

What is the value of transience?

A

Detailed but irrelevant information will not be remembered, ‘freeing up space’.

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5
Q

What is absent mindedness?

A

Forgetting due to inattention during encoding or retrieval.

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6
Q

What is prospective memory?

A

Memory for actions/events in the future (e.g. remembering to book a doctors appointment, etc)

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7
Q

What is event-based prospective memory?

A

Remembering to perform an intended action when the circumstances are appropriate

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8
Q

What is time-based prospective memory?

A

Remembering to carry out an intended action at the appropriate time.

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9
Q

What is the value of absent mindedness?

A

Allows us to maintain an attentional bottleneck - meaning we can focus on the tasks that we need to, without being distracted by irrelevancies.

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10
Q

What is blocking?

A

The temporary inaccessibility of information. Individual may be aware they know the material but just cannot access it - TOT state, tip of the tongue state.

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11
Q

What is TOT?

A

Tip of the tongue state

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12
Q

What does the term ‘ugly sisters’ refer to?

A

Words that are close together semantically or phonologically, but is not the target.

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13
Q

What is the value of blocking?

A

To prevent a large overflow of information all at once. We don’t want or need all the information we know around a given topic to come to the fore at once.

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14
Q

What is misattribution?

A

The attribution of a memory to the wrong source, or false recall (memory for something that never happened)

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15
Q

What is source amnesia?

A

Forgetting the actual, true source of a memory

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16
Q

What is the sleeper effect?

A

Information gained from an unreliable source slowly loses its connections to that unreliable source, leading the individual to eventually believe that the information is credible.

17
Q

What are the three types of misattribution?

A
  • Wrong source
  • Wrong source and no experience of remembering
  • False recall/recognition of something which never happened.
18
Q

Explain wrong source misattribution.

A

Subjective and incorrect account of where you gained the information from.

19
Q

Explain the type of misattribution in which the source is wrong and the individual has no experience of remembering.

A

Unintended plagiarism - e.g. musicians who (wrongly) believe they have created their own melodies.

20
Q

Explain false recall in relation to misattribution.

A

Recognition of something which never happened, e.g. reporting seeing a word in a list, which was never there.

21
Q

In which 4 situations can more false memories occur?

A
  • Associations exist between words
  • Recall ability of actual words is low
  • Old age
  • Frontal lobe damage
22
Q

Why can associations between words increase the instance of false memory?

A

Priming between those words is more likely to occur

23
Q

Why can low recall ability of words increase instances of false memory?

A

Participants are more likely to guess in their responses.

24
Q

Why can frontal lobe damage increase instances of false memory?

A

Less monitoring occurs.

25
Q

What are 3 situations in which false memories are less likely to occur?

A
  • pictures are used instead of words
  • the critical word has more emotional connotations
  • there is medial temporal lobe damage
26
Q

Why can instances of false memory increase when using pictures instead of words?

A

There is less emphasis of and influence by the gist.

27
Q

What is the value of misattribution?

A

Resources used to remember the information itself, rather than it’s source - which is largely irrelevant in an evolutionary sense (need to remember where the food is, not who gave it.)

28
Q

What is suggestibility?

A

Accepting a false suggestion made by others, either directly, through leading questions or false/recovered memories.

29
Q

People with tendencies to report false events usually…?

A
  • report lapses of attention and have dissociative experiences (daydreaming)
  • have high creative imagination scores
30
Q

What did Kassin & Keichel, (1996) find out and which sin of memory was it linked to?

A

Linked to suggestibility. Tricked 100& of PPS into wrongly thinking they had touched the alt key when they hadn’t. Did this by using claims from the experimenter and witness that PPS had touched it. 35% of PPS gave detailed descriptions of how it happened.

31
Q

What is the value of suggestibility?

A

Fine details are normally forgotten because the gist is more important.

32
Q

What is bias?

A

The distortion of memories by current beliefs, values, moods, expectations and schemas at the encoding and retrieval stages.

33
Q

What is reproductive memory?

A

Reproducing the stimulus to the letter, e.g. word for word.

34
Q

What is reconstructive memory?

A

The combination of material with existing schemas.

35
Q

What is the value of bias?

A

Gist - specific details can be warped, gist is held on to.

Storage

36
Q

What is persistence?

A

The constant remembrance of an event you wish to forget.

37
Q

What are 3 examples of persistence?

A
  • PTSD
  • Pink elephant
  • Suicidal depression
38
Q

Which brain area is persistence linked to?

A

Amygdala, as it deals with fear related responses.

39
Q

What is the value of persistence?

A

To avoid life threatening situations in the future.

doesn’t explain pink elephant scenario though