Memory and its distortions Flashcards
What are Schachter’s Seven Sins of Memory? (7)
Transcience
Absent-mindedness
Blocking
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence
Which seven sins of memory relate to forgetting? (3)
Transcience
Absent-mindedness
Blocking
Which seven sins of memory relate to distortion or inaccuracy (3)
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Which sevens sins of memory relate to pathological remembering? (1)
Persistence
What is transience? (3)
Forgetting a phone number, name,
appointment, etc.
Ebbinghaus (1885): Forgetting
curve
Shows that information is rapidly
forgotten over time
What are flashbulb memories? (4)
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
What can long-term forgetting may be due to? (2)
Retrieval of failure
Actual loss of a memory
Slave systems in the working memory model - visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop (3)
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
Phonological loop of working memory model (3)
Responsible for ‘inner speech’
Measured using memory span
tasks
Most people can remember 7±2
items
How is the phonological loop implicated in transience (1)
Unless attended to and ‘rehearsed’
information may be lost very quickly
Neuropsychology evidence for transience (6)
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
How to reduce transience (3)
Greater mental effort
Deep processing
What do animal models suggest about the regions of the brain involved in transience and its reduction (2)
Animal models support the
view that distinct, identifiable
regions of the brain - including
the hippocampus – play a role
in transience and its
reduction
What is absent mindedness? (2)
Absent mindedness occurs due to paying insufficient attention at encoding or encoding has been
only superficial
Absent mindedness and age (3)
People of all ages report absent-mindedness
Older adults are much more absent minded than young adults
How can attention explain the effect of age on absent-mindedness and recall (3)
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
What is blocking (2)
Temporary inaccessibility of required information
Tip-of-the-Tongue (T.O.T.) states
How is blocking different to transience (2)
The information has been encoded
The information is still stored (has
not been ‘lost’)
How is blocking different to absent mindedness (2)
The information has been encoded
You are often able to retrieve partial
information
How did Shaw, Bjork & Handal (1995) investigate blocking? (3)
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)
What did Shaw, Bjork & Handal (1995) find about blocking? (3)
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
What is misattribution? (1)
Memories may sometimes be
attributed to the wrong ‘source’
What is the DRM (Deese/Roediger-McDermott) procedure in misattribution? (3)
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’
What is the problem with DRM and source misattribution? (2)
Source misattribution involves real memories, but they become confused, whereas the DRM procedure is based on falsely recalling / recognising information
that never happened
What is suggestibility? (3)
Incorporation of external
information into personal
recollection
Eyewitness testimony very
susceptible
Who shows how easy it is to distort memories through suggestion? (1)
Loftus and Palmer
What is consistency bias? (1)
Recollections typically exaggerate the consistency between past and present attitudes
What is persistence? (3)
Problematic remembering
The inability to unwanted memories
Influenced by emotion
Which brain region plays a role in persistence? (3)
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
What is Post-traumatic stress disorder? (7)
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
Why are the seven sins of forgetting not always problematic? (7)
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
