Memory

Question 1

Factors that can make memory inaccurate

Answer 1

• How a question is asked
• The phrasing of a question

Problems can occur at any of the 3 general stages of memory

Question 2

General agreement

Answer 2

• There are 3 general stages of memory
  1. Perception
  2. Storage
  3. Retrieval
• We perceive something (stimuli), then that info goes into memory storage and sit there until we want to retrieve it, then we go through the process of retrieval

Question 3

Perception

Answer 3

• Memory can be inaccurate before it even gets to be stored
• We don’t interpret the same sensory stimuli whether it’s sound or things that we are seeing
• We have expectations and biases (sometimes we refer to them as schemas)
• Same info can be taken into the sense receptors and yet interpreted differently, then it goes into memory storage through our own personal interpretation
• Perception is highly subjective
• We don’t interpret the world impartially

Question 4

Factors that influence how we process info as it’s coming through our sense receptors (as it’s being perceived)

Answer 4

• Attention
• Interpretation
• Duration
• Conditions
• Perceptual abilities
• Familiarity
• Stress

Question 5

Attention

Answer 5

• We can hear something but not process it
• We all pay attention to a different degree
• Might have something on my mind that won’t let me pay attention
• Our attention change (we might be focused one minute and the next we might be focused on something else)

Question 6

Interpretation

Answer 6

• We all interpret things differently

- How we interpret things influences what we remember

Question 7

Duration

Answer 7

How fast someone says something

Question 8

Conditions

Answer 8

Outside factors affect what we are receiving

Question 9

Perceptual abilities

Answer 9

We don’t all see and hear things the same way

Question 10

Familiarity

Answer 10

If we are learning something for the first time it’s more difficult to understand

Question 11

Stress

Answer 11

• Something is stressing me out so I barely pay attention to what someone else is saying to me
• I know they’re talking but I’m not processing what they’re saying

Question 12

Cognitive short-cuts

Answer 12

• What we do when we processing info is that we tend to organize it according to our own biases and we make our own interception of it even if we have just a lil bit of info
• We end up incorporating into memory the ‘usual’ detail, even if inappropriate
• We tend to organize info according to our own biases and schemas (how important something is)
• We fill in gaps
• We create to a certain degree our mental representation which then goes into memory storage

Question 13

Post-event storage

Answer 13

• Once we perceive something, that info goes into storage
• A lot of things can happen to a memory while it’s stored
• Memory can’t be more accurate than perception

Question 14

Factors

Answer 14

1. Forgetting
2. Enhancing memory while it’s in storage
3. Compromising memory
4. Introducing false objects into memory

Question 15

Forgetting

Answer 15

• Memories start decaying as soon as they’re stored
• The more detailed the information, the harder it is to remember all the details
• Most of the irrelevant details get discarded
• Take things we remember and mix them with things we believe we remember

Question 16

How to run a simple experiment to demonstrate memories have been changed while in STORAGE

Answer 16

1. Expose participants to a stimulus
   - Stimulus could be anything
2. Introduce biasing info
   - Only for half of the participants in the experiment
3. Let some time elapse
4. Test participants memory for the original stimulus
   - Using unbiased or neutral questions

Question 17

Why are experiments important (STORAGE)

Answer 17

• In an experiment, what we want to do is look for a comparison usually between two groups or more
  
  • In psychology they like to see if manipulation of one variable affects the difference between two groups
• Want to test if the biasing info introduced to half the participants affects their memory compared to the other half of the participants
• Want to see if there is a difference and if it’s related to the biasing info

Question 18

Enhancing memory

Answer 18

• Confirmatory info (even if casual) strengthens memory for the confirmed details
• We can give ppl some info after witnessing an event that strengthen some of the details of what they witnessed
• Affecting their memory while in storage: in this case making certain details stronger

Question 19

Enhancing memory EXPERIMENT

Answer 19

LOFTUS 1975

1. Short film (less than 1 minute long) of a car failing to stop at a stop sign, turning right, and causing a 5-car collision
2. • Half of the participants were given biased info suggesting there was a stop sign
   • Subjects asked 10 questions
   • Ex. How fast was the car going when it ran the stop sign
     - The other half were asked normal questions
   • Subjects asked 10 questions
   • Ex. How fast was the car going when it turned right
3. Time passes
4. ‘Tell us everything you remember about the short film”
   
   • Researchers test to see if the group that was given the biased info that suggested there was a stop sign had a better memory for the stop sign compared to the other group
   • 53% of the participants who were given the biased info remembered there being a stop sign when they were tested
   • 35% of the participants who weren’t given the biased info remembered there being a stop sign

• Demonstrates: after witnessing an event and that info goes into memory storage, info we are exposed to later can affect that memory while it’s sitting in storage

Question 20

Compromising memory

Answer 20

• Changing some details about what we actually witnessed

- New info conflicting with info in memory can cause the memory to be compromised, in the direction of the new info

Question 21

Compromising memory EXPERIMENT

Answer 21

LOFTUS 1977

1. 30 picture slide-show of auto-pedestrian accident
   - A red car approaches an intersection, turns right, and struck a pedestrian in a crosswalk
   - Green car in the background
2. • Half of the participants were asked a leading question suggesting the car was blue and not green
   • The other half did not get the colour info
3. Time passes
4. In this case the memory test was very simple
   
   • Participants were asked to indicate on a colour-wheel the colour they remember the car in the background being
     - Those who received misleading info tended to pick a more blue-green shade
     - The others tended to pick a more pure shade of green

• Demonstrates: a little bit of info that we receive after witnessing an event can alter our memory of a detail when asked later what we remember

Question 22

Introducing false objects

Answer 22

• We can actually be made to remember things that didn’t happen
• We can manipulate memory while its sitting in storage

Question 23

Introducing false objects EXPERIMENT AUTO-PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT

Answer 23

LOFTUS 1978

1. Same auto-pedestrian accident slide-show than before
   
   • For half the subjects, the slides showed a stop-sign at the intersection
   • For the other half, the slides showed a yield sign
2. • Subjects who saw a stop-sign
   • Half were given info suggesting that the car turned right at a stop sign (what they actually saw so it would enhance the memory)
   • Other half were given info that the car turned right at a yield sign (inconsistent with what they saw)
     - Subjects who saw a yield sign
   • Half were given info suggesting that the car turned right at a stop sign (inconsistent with what they saw)
   • Other half were given info that the car turned right at a yield sign (what they actually saw so it would enhance the memory)
3. Time passed
4. Simple memory test
   
   • The participants are shown both pictures and are asked which one was the one they saw
     - 75% of those who were given info that was consistent with what they saw answered correctly (saw car turn at a stop-sign and was given info that the car turned at a stop-sign ; saw car turn at a yield sign and was given info that the car turned at a yield sign)
     - 41% of those who were given info that was inconsistent with what they saw answered correctly (saw car turn at a stop-sign and was given info that the car turned at a yield sign ; saw car turn at a yield sign and was given info that the car turned at a stop-sign)

• 41% is below chance (there are only two options so they should have a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong)
  
  • This tells us that there is a systematic process in which a sizeable proportion of ppl’s memories in this experiment are being altered
• Tells us that when ppl witness an event and later are exposed to info that contradicts what they saw, it can change their memory in the direction of that new info

Question 24

Introducing false objects EXPERIMENT SHORT-FILM COUNTRY ROAD

Answer 24

LOFTUS 1975
1. Short-film of a car driving down a country road
- There was no barn
2.
- Half the participants are given biased info suggesting there was a barn along that country road “how fast was the white sports car going when it passed the barn while traveling along the country road?”
- The other half aren’t given the biased info “how fast was the white sports car going while traveling along the country road?”
3. Time passes
4. Participants are asked to tell them everything they remembered from the short film
- 17% of the participants who received the biased info suggesting there was a barn reported remembering there being a barn
- 3% of the participants who didn’t receive the biased info reported remembering there being a barn (even though they didn’t receive the biased into, some time passed and it is normal to see barns down country roads so their head filled in the gaps and that’s why they remembered seen a barn)

• Moral: post-event info can alter memory

Question 25

Retrieval

Answer 25

• The way a question is asked has an impact on what/how you remember something
• Once we start telling someone about our memory or what we remember, as we say it, that can affect our memory as we are retrieving it
  
  • We have different vocabularies
    
    • Some ppl have greater vocabularies than others and those words can elicit thoughts that can have an effect on our memory as we are relieving
  • As we speak our memories, that can influence our memories during the retrieval stage and as that happens that will become the memory that goes back into memory storage
    
    • We tend to remember the things we say (once we say it out loud it becomes our reality)
• Memory is not static, but reconstructive and malleable
• People don’t know whether they are accurate or not
  
  • But we believe our memories to be accurate
• Implications for interviewing and questioning
  
  • Ex. leading questions

Question 26

How to run a simple experiment to demonstrate memories have been changed during RETRIEVAL

Answer 26

1. Expose participants to a stimulus
   
   • Stimulus could be anything
2. Let some time elapse
3. Test participant’s memory of the original stimulus
   
   • USING BIASED QUESTIONS
   • This is when the manipulation comes in

Question 27

Question EXPERIMENT BASKETBALL PLAYER

Answer 27

HARRIS 1973

1. Participants see an image of a basketball player
2. Time passes
3. • Half the participants are asked to remember how TALL the basketball player was
   • Other half asked to remember how SHORT the basketball player was
   • Compared both groups
   • On average, the different hight estimate were 10 inches different

Question 28

Question EXPERIMENT MOVIE

Answer 28

HARRIS 1973
1. Participants watched a movie
2. Times passes
3.
- Half the participants were asked to remember how LONG the movie was
- The other half were asked to remember how SHORT the movie was
- Compared both groups
- On average, the groups that was asked how long the movie was ended up estimating it being 30 minutes longer than the group asked to remember how short it was

Explanation: biasing info has an effect on the process of retrieving that memory

Question 29

Question EXPERIMENT COLLISION FILM

Answer 29

LOFTUS AND ZANNI 1975
1. Participants watch a 5-car collision film
- There was no broken headlight
2. Time passes
3.
- Half of the participants are asked if they saw A broken headlight
- Suggest there was possibly a broken headlight
- Other half asked if they saw THE broken headlight
- Suggests there was in fact a broken headlight
- 7% of the participants asked if they saw a broken headlight remembered seeing one
- 15% of the participants asked if they saw the broken headlight remembered seeing one

Question 30

Question EXPERIMENT CAR-CRASH

Answer 30

LOFTUS AND PALMER 1974

1. Participants saw a short-film about a car crash
2. Time passes
3. • Some participants were asked how fast they remembered the cars going when they SMASHED each other
   • Other participants were asked how fast they remembered the cars going when they COLLIDED with each other
   • Other participants were asked how fast they remembered the cars going when they BUMPED each other
   • Other participants were asked how fast they remembered the cars going when they HIT each other
   • Estimates of the velocities in order: 40.8 (s), 39.3 (c), 38.1 (b), and 34 (h) mph
   • This has an effect because of the association of the words used (smash sounds harder than collide or bump)
   • Simple wording can have an effect on retrieving memories out of storage (can have an effect with estimates)

Question 31

Confidence

Answer 31

• Confidence displayed by an individual when retailing an event can make others believe what they’re saying is accurate
• Researchers state that there is typically very little relationship between confidence and accuracy
• Even if ppl tell the same thing again and again it doesn’t mean they remember it accurately (the story they’re telling might be the same all the time but it might vary from the original memory)

Question 32

Predictors of accuracy

Answer 32

• Sex, race, intelligence, and various personality characteristics predict only weakly, if at all
• Expectations of being tested doesn’t predict accuracy, and training has little effect
• Consistency is unrelated to accuracy, as is memory for peripheral details
• Age does predict accuracy (very young and very old witnesses are less accurate)
  
  • Has to do with brain development and deterioration
• Intoxication does predict accuracy
• Various aspects of social psychology affect retrieval
  
  • Reluctance to say “I don’t know”
  • Ppl are not likely to say I don’t know, they always try to answer even if they don’t remember
• Persistence of initial response

Question 33

Moral

Answer 33

• Memory is not static, but reconstructive and malleable
• People don’t know whether they are accurate or not
  
  • But we believe our memories to be accurate
• Implications for interviewing and questioning