LECTURE THIRTEEN Flashcards
1
Q
SCHEMATA
A
- Schema – mental model about the world and
particular aspects about it (plural is schemata or
schemas) - Schemata developed over lifetime
- Becomes more fixed with age and experience
2
Q
WHY SCHEMATA
A
- Guides action
Contain “scripts” of how the event should unfold and what you should do - Imagination
Draw upon schema to imagine. how something would likely occur - Memory
Schemata can be used to fill-in detail when remembering an event - However – this can also lead to memory distortions in accordance with schema
3
Q
PREDICTIVE PROCESSING
A
“Grand unified theory” of the brain
* Brain is a prediction engine
* Predict next state of the world based on incoming sensory information and high-level models based on schemata
* If correct, great! If incorrect – revise that schema
* Over time, error correction revises schemata until accuracy is maximized using Bayesian principles
4
Q
BAYESIAN STATISTICS
A
- Different way of thinking about statistics than what
you might have been taught - Basic idea
- You have some sort of new finding
- Instead of looking at p-value in isolation (frequentist
stats)… - …you consider likelihood of this finding, given all other
scientific or worldly knowledge you have
5
Q
SCHEMATA AND PREDICTION
A
- Schemata function as predictive models
- “Priors” and “models” are basically interchangeable with “schemata”
- Allows for mind to predict outcome of action or event
and explain sensory information - Better schemata = more accurate predictions/explanations
- All levels of cognition, from low-level sensory priors to
high-level judgements
Hollow mask
Confirmation bias
Imagination and memory
6
Q
SCHEMATA
A
- Schemata allow us to navigate the world in a
cognitively efficient manner - But they can also distort memory and perception,
in predictable ways - In addition, more fixed schemata = more fixed
thinking; less open-mindedness and flexibility - This is all adaptive – but can result in errors
7
Q
WAR OF GHOST
A
A Native-American folktale
* British participants
* One participant read the story, then retold it to
another, etc. (think telephone)
* Serial reproductions
* Story lost detail over time (somewhat obvious)
* Also became more “Westernized” (not obvious)
* Instances of magic became more rational
* Distortions fit participants’ schema
8
Q
INTRUSION ERROR
A
- Recalling “xxx” in the prior example is an intrusion
error - Based on schema that was activated (all words involved xxx)
- Can also be visual
9
Q
VISUAL INTRUSION ERROR
A
- Gist – memory for overall meaning
- Overall “meaning”, or high-level characteristics
- Intrusion errors can arise from gist consistent
information (which was not presented) - Intrusion errors fit with the general schema activated
9
Q
RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY
A
- Memory is NOT like a computer or video camera
- Memory is a reconstructive process
- We reconstruct memories when we retrieve them – active
process of reconstruction - This is why we get intrusion errors
and filling-in effects - Because world is mostly regular
and align with schemata,
reconstructive memory is mostly
accurate…mostly
10
Q
SEVEN OF SINS
A
- Transience
* Memories degrade with time - Absent-mindedness
* Memory is dependent upon attention - Blocking
* Irrelevant knowledge can interfere with retrieval - Misattribution
* Failure to remember where information was obtained (or when/where the event occurred for episodic) - Suggestibility
* Information from others distorts our own memory - Bias
* One’s current state influences memories of one’s past - Persistence
* Unwanted memories continuously retrieved (from faux pas to trauma)
11
Q
MISINFORMATION EFFECT
A
- One implication of reconstructive memory is
that our memories are not as reliable as we may think - Can be influenced by additional information and
future knowledge - Loftus studies in eyewitness testimony
12
Q
FLASHBULB MEMORIES
A
- Memories for exceedingly emotional
culturally shared events - Can vividly remember what you were doing
and where you were when it happened - Challenger explosion study
- They are not a special or different kind of memory
- They are not always accurate
- Highly emotional events are remembered better
than neutral events… - But only the central details
- Emotion may draw attention away from other details of the situation (weapon focus)
- Confidence in memory veracity is not reliably
related to accuracy!
13
Q
REPRESSED MEMORIES
A
- Traumatic events
- Often childhood abuse
- Comes out of psychoanalytic “Freudian” tradition –
need for conscious mind to protect itself from unconscious trauma - “Repressed” for a long period of time (many years)
- Recovered (usually with the guide of a therapist) later
in life - Can have serious consequences
- Cautionary tale – the McMartin Preschool case
14
Q
TECHNIQUES USED
A
- Authority and social influence
“From your symptoms, I think that you were abused,
even if you dont remember it.” - Guided imagery
“Suppose you had been abused – try to picture what
might have happened.” - Hypnotism
Hypnotism increases suggestibility, but does not increase memory accuracy
15
Q
REPRESSED MEMORIES
A
- Scientist-practitioner gap
- Academic memory scholars usually deny repressed memories
- Clinicians accept the possibility
- Back to Freud – two possibilities
for “repression” - TRUE repression – initial thought
- Unconscious “locking” of memories
without person realizing - No strong scientific evidence for this
at this point
WILLED repression – later thought - Person intentionally tries to forget/not
think/talk about trauma - Plenty of evidence for this
16
Q
REPRESSED MEMORIES
A
- Memory is reconstructive
- Misinformation effect and imagination inflation
- Confidence =/= accuracy
- Most victims of trauma wish they could just “forget”
(PTSD) - Counterpoint – dissociative state and state-dependent memory?
- Controversial, to say the least
- Is it possible to “retrieve” a false memory? – YES
- Is it possible to retrieve a “forgotten” true memory? – YES
- Best solution – other sources of evidence
17
Q
FUZZY-TRACE THEORY (FTT)
A
- Falsely remembered information is consistent with
gist of experience/stimuli - FTT – two components to memory – gist and
verbatim recall - Stored/accessed in parallel
- Dissociated (can have one w/o other)
- Dual-opponent process
- Gist supports false memory recall, verbatim true
- Verbatim decays fast, gist slow
- Developmental differences (gist increases when older
since schemata dependent) - Importantly, “vivid” recall can be cued by either gist
or verbatim recall
18
Q
FTT AND FALSE MEMORIES
A
- False memories result from correct gist information and incorrect verbatim information
- Phantom recollection
- Gist resemblance is high between false info and memory
- Comprehensive theory of false memory recall
19
Q
FTT AND ME
A
- Gist is absolutely correct: None of these are confabulated (truly false) memories – more like memory distortions
- Verbatim is wrong – but only partially: Becomes more wrong over time – this is where the
“collective” part comes in. Incorrect verbatim aspect becomes ingrained, resulting in high degree of confidence
20
Q
COMMON FACTORS DURING MEs
A
Childhood (80s-90s for Millennials)
* Pop culture
* Gist consistent, verbatim incorrect (but plausible –
hence phantom recollection)
* Minor details in larger context
* Parodies/references consistent with ME
* Misattribution of verbatim information
21
Q
SOCIAL FACTORS
A
- People don’t like being wrong
- Especially when it comes to memory – unsettling
- Reluctance to believe memories are false – but can be accepted
- If I’m wrong, it could be me. But if a LOT of people are
wrong in the same way, then MULTIVERSE - Internet allows for validation and spread of similar false memories which would normally be ignored
22
Q
WHY STUDY MANDELA EFFECT
A
- Relation to LTM
- Interference, not decay, at core of ME
- Power of collective consciousness (media, internet) in shaping/validating individual memory
- Relation to FTT and false memories
- Bridge between pop psychology and research
- Educational tool about false memories
