Lecture 4 - ABM Flashcards
Define ABM
Memories of ourselves, our experiences and our observations
Define concious vs automatic memories
- Concious = we regularly attempt to recall, as part of life
- Automatic = ‘pop’ into our head – prompted by trigger
Define false memories
In accurate or entriely fabricated memories
Experienced as true – due to the instrospective illusion
Define confabulation
- Act of unintentionally, unconciously distorting facts
- Fills in gaps in memory
- includes: invented memories, misinterpreted details, misattribution of details, and jumnling of events
Who did the study entitled ‘remembering’ (1932)
Bartlett (1932)
OUtline Bartlett (1932)
Found:
- memory is entirely reconstructive
- Reconsolidation
- Memories confabulated to fit existing schemas
Told British p’s the story of ‘War of the Ghosts’
- Asked them to recall the story over many years
- All P’s changed the story
- Story got shorter, simpler and details disappeared
- Story altered to fit british, cultural schemas
- Changed names to british names, the ‘seal hunters’ were changed to fisherman’ and ‘supernatural aspects were rationalised
What were Bartlett (1932)s conclusion
Reconstructive memory =
- No fixed memory to draw upon
- Act of remembering is to reconstruct (remake) the remembered thing
Reconsolidation =
- Change over time in memory
- Memories reorganised to be more stable and fit schemas
Schemas
- we know consistent structures for events, peoples and things
- More robust to change than memories
Define childhood amnesia
- inability to remember early events
- remembered events have errors, holes – only snippets
- Adults have few memories earlier than age 10
- Few if any before 7
- Typically none before 2
- Average earliest memore = 3.5
What are memories like during childhood?
- fragmented (gists)
- Poor description of events (not ordered)
- Reduced content (little introspective content)
- Similar to issues describing the self
How do childrens memories develop over time?
Up to age 8: - mixed bag of episodic memories - Single events, poorly related Up to age 12: - sequential/ temporal aspects develops - Transition points in story noted Teenagers: - Memories become part of life story - Self-defining moments are noted with greater detail
Who did that study about remembering and language vocab?
Simcock & Hayne (2002)
outline Simcock & Hayne (2002)
- if you lack correct language skills at the time of encoding, you struggle to recall it later, even if you have since acquired the vocab to describe the word
- when P’s were young, they played with a red ball – but at that time, they didn’t have the vocab to describe it
- When they did it later, when they’re older, the couldn’t remember it, even though they now had the word for red ball – still couldn’t retrieve it
Whats it called when memory peaks at a certain age? Desribe it
Reminiscence bump
- Memory performance peaks at 1—30 years old
Adolescence/ early adulthood is a time for thinking a lot about the self
In western culture, most transition points in life narrative occur 1—40 years old
- school/ graduations/ jobs/ marriage/ kids/ career goalposts
What are the functions of ABM>
1) identity function
2) Social function
Outline the identity functionn of ABM
- Maintain self concept
- Keeps track of who we are
- narrative explains how we arrived at current time
- Maintain positive self-concept/ self-esteem
- Fading affect bias: We remember positive events better
- Bernsten & Rubin (2002) – better grades are more readily recalled
- Bahrick et al (1996) – also found that worse school grades are less likely to be remembered
Who did the study that found better grades are more readily recalled?
Bernsten & Rubin (2002)
Who found that we are less likely to remember worse grades?
bahrick et al (1996)
Outline the social function of ABM
- Maintain social relationships
- necessary to remember:
- facts
- who we are
- Who others are
- how we relate
- Lack of remembering leads to
- distress
- inability to maintain relationships
- part of relational self-awareness
Briefly define amnesia
The inability to remember
What are the two types of amnesia and define them
- Anterograde - cant form new memories
- Retrograde - cant remember past
What are the causes of Amnesia?
- physical trauma – electric shock, injury, insufficient 02 or hormones
- emotional/ psychological trauma – PTSD, abuse
- Epilepsy
- Dissociative states
- Hypnosis
- Drugs, Alcohol
What is dementia?
An umbrella term for a set of brain diseases/ symptoms
What are the symptoms of dementia?
Memory loss
- Difficulty thinking + problem solving
- impairment in speech
- mood changes/ swings
- impairments in visual-spatial recognition and organisation (get lost)
All these symptoms lead to:
- Progressive reduction in ability to care for self
What can dementia lead to?
Cognitive difficulties
- Disorientation – lost, lose track of time
- impaired judgement – poor choices, cooking, weather clothing
- problems w/ abstract thinking
Memory loss
- procedural – difficulty doing habitual taks
- semantic – difficulty finding/using correct words
- episodic – cant remember recent events
Clock test – cant draw a clock face, and don’t know
why they cant!
From 5-0 (getting worse
