Memory and its distortions

Question 1

What are Schachter’s Seven Sins of Memory? (7)

Answer 1

Transcience
Absent-mindedness
Blocking
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence

Question 2

Which seven sins of memory relate to forgetting? (3)

Answer 2

Transcience
Absent-mindedness
Blocking

Question 3

Which seven sins of memory relate to distortion or inaccuracy (3)

Answer 3

Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias

Question 4

Which sevens sins of memory relate to pathological remembering? (1)

Answer 4

Persistence

Question 5

What is transience? (3)

Answer 5

Forgetting a phone number, name,
appointment, etc.
Ebbinghaus (1885): Forgetting
curve
Shows that information is rapidly
forgotten over time

Question 6

What are flashbulb memories? (4)

Answer 6

Distinct, vivid, detailed memories, often for some sort of public event

Participants report very strong memories about which they are extremely confident

They report details like who told them, where, ongoing event, emotional responses (self and other) and any consequences

Memories for crimes may be like FB
memorie

Question 7

What can long-term forgetting may be due to? (2)

Answer 7

Retrieval of failure
Actual loss of a memory

Question 8

Slave systems in the working memory model - visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop (3)

Answer 8

Visuo-spatial sketchpad stores a limited amount information

Information is stored here in a
temporal and serial fashion

Allows rehearsal for the retention
of information

Question 9

Phonological loop of working memory model (3)

Answer 9

Responsible for ‘inner speech’

Measured using memory span
tasks

Most people can remember 7±2
items

Question 10

How is the phonological loop implicated in transience (1)

Answer 10

Unless attended to and ‘rehearsed’
information may be lost very quickly

Question 11

Neuropsychology evidence for transience (6)

Answer 11

HM had drastic brain surgery to
reduce epilepsy
- non-functioning hippocampus
- the hippocampus must be crucial
in memory formation
- Not where memories are stored,
but involved in the gradual
transition from STM to LTM

Patient HM was unable to remember
information for more than a few
seconds

Could retain some information from
the past, but unable learn anything
new

Question 12

How to reduce transience (3)

Answer 12

Greater mental effort
Deep processing

Question 13

What do animal models suggest about the regions of the brain involved in transience and its reduction (2)

Answer 13

Animal models support the
view that distinct, identifiable
regions of the brain - including
the hippocampus – play a role
in transience and its
reduction

Question 14

What is absent mindedness? (2)

Answer 14

Absent mindedness occurs due to paying insufficient attention at encoding or encoding has been
only superficial

Question 15

Absent mindedness and age (3)

Answer 15

People of all ages report absent-mindedness

Older adults are much more absent minded than young adults

Question 16

How can attention explain the effect of age on absent-mindedness and recall (3)

Answer 16

Oolder adults have less capacity to
direct attention to the task at hand

Attention is clearly involved in the encoding stage – you cannot recall what you do not
attend to

Less attention results in poorer recall later, often due to the automaticity of tasks

Question 17

What is blocking (2)

Answer 17

Temporary inaccessibility of required information
Tip-of-the-Tongue (T.O.T.) states

Question 18

How is blocking different to transience (2)

Answer 18

The information has been encoded

The information is still stored (has
not been ‘lost’)

Question 19

How is blocking different to absent mindedness (2)

Answer 19

The information has been encoded

You are often able to retrieve partial
information

Question 20

How did Shaw, Bjork & Handal (1995) investigate blocking? (3)

Answer 20

Participants observed slides of a ‘crime scene’

They were asked repeated questions about some items from some
categories (e.g. clothes), but some items from that category were not asked about at all

Some categories were not asked about at all (e.g. books)

Question 21

What did Shaw, Bjork & Handal (1995) find about blocking? (3)

Answer 21

Reported inhibitory effects of practice on recall, leading to blocking

Participants recalled more about items from non-asked about
categories than they did about the non-retrieved items from ‘asked about’ categories – successful retrieving of some items blocks access to related
items

Question 22

What is misattribution? (1)

Answer 22

Memories may sometimes be
attributed to the wrong ‘source’

Question 23

What is the DRM (Deese/Roediger-McDermott) procedure in misattribution? (3)

Answer 23

Easy to get participants to say with confidence that they have seen items that they have not in fact encountered previously

Veridical versus illusory recognition

DRM – participants rely on semantic features or ‘gist’

Question 24

What is the problem with DRM and source misattribution? (2)

Answer 24

Source misattribution involves real memories, but they become confused, whereas the DRM procedure is based on falsely recalling / recognising information
that never happened

Question 25

What is suggestibility? (3)

Answer 25

Incorporation of external
information into personal
recollection

Eyewitness testimony very
susceptible

Question 26

Who shows how easy it is to distort memories through suggestion? (1)

Answer 26

Loftus and Palmer

Question 27

What is consistency bias? (1)

Answer 27

Recollections typically exaggerate the consistency between past and present attitudes

Question 28

What is persistence? (3)

Answer 28

Problematic remembering
The inability to unwanted memories
Influenced by emotion

Question 29

Which brain region plays a role in persistence? (3)

Answer 29

Amygdala
Plays a crucial role in
the consolidation of emotional
long-term memories – the degree
of amygdala activation by
emotional content, during encoding
correlates with subsequent reca

Question 30

What is Post-traumatic stress disorder? (7)

Answer 30

Traumatic event

Impairment to important areas of function (work, social life)

Intrusions – memories, dreams, sense of event recurring

Avoidance – unwillingness to recall event or see people / places etc.

Hyperarousal – irritability / anger, self-destructive behaviours

Negative alterations to cognitions: Inability to recall
details, persistent exaggerated negative beliefs

Symptoms persist for 1 month or more

Question 31

Why are the seven sins of forgetting not always problematic? (7)

Answer 31

Transience, absent mindedness and blocking are essential, we would be
overwhelmed without them

Misattributions – frequently we do not need all of the detail, just the key
aspects

Suggestibility results from the weak encoding of some of these
aspects

Biases frequently result from the application of schema-like material, and these are essential for our day-to-day functioning

Persistence – it is important that we recall information about traumatic
events for our future survival