Memory: Cognitive Biases

Question 1

Memory Cognitive Bias

Answer 1

In psychology and cognitive science, a memory bias is a cognitive bias that either enhances or impairs the recall of a memory (either the chances that the memory will be recalled at all, or the amount of time it takes for it to be recalled, or both), or that alters the content of a reported memory. There are many types of memory biases.

Question 2

Bizarreness effect

Answer 2

Bizarre material is better remembered than common material.

Question 3

Choice-supportive bias

Answer 3

The tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were.

Question 4

Conservatism or Regressive bias

Answer 4

Tendency to remember high values and high likelihoods/probabilities/frequencies as lower than they actually were and low ones as higher than they actually were. Based on the evidence, memories are not extreme enough.

Question 5

Consistency bias

Answer 5

Incorrectly remembering one’s past attitudes and behaviour as resembling present attitudes and behaviour.

Question 6

Context effect

Answer 6

That cognition and memory are dependent on context, such that out-of-context memories are more difficult to retrieve than in-context memories (e.g., recall time and accuracy for a work-related memory will be lower at home, and vice versa).

Question 7

Cross-race effect

Answer 7

The tendency for people of one race to have difficulty identifying members of a race other than their own.

Question 8

Cryptomnesia

Answer 8

A form of misattribution where a memory is mistaken for imagination, because there is no subjective experience of it being a memory.

Question 9

Egocentric bias

Answer 9

Recalling the past in a self-serving manner, e.g., remembering one’s exam grades as being better than they were, or remembering a caught fish as bigger than it really was.

Question 10

Fading affect bias

Answer 10

A bias in which the emotion associated with unpleasant memories fades more quickly than the emotion associated with positive events.

Question 11

False memory

Answer 11

A form of misattribution where imagination is mistaken for a memory.

Question 12

Generation effect (Self-generation effect)

Answer 12

That self-generated information is remembered best. For instance, people are better able to recall memories of statements that they have generated than similar statements generated by others.

Question 13

Google effect

Answer 13

The tendency to forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines.

Question 14

Humor effect

Answer 14

That humorous items are more easily remembered than non-humorous ones, which might be explained by the distinctiveness of humor, the increased cognitive processing time to understand the humor, or the emotional arousal caused by the humor.

Question 15

Lag effect

Answer 15

The phenomenon whereby learning is greater when studying is spread out over time, as opposed to studying the same amount of time in a single session. See also spacing effect.

Question 16

Leveling and sharpening

Answer 16

Memory distortions introduced by the loss of details in a recollection over time, often concurrent with sharpening or selective recollection of certain details that take on exaggerated significance in relation to the details or aspects of the experience lost through leveling. Both biases may be reinforced over time, and by repeated recollection or re-telling of a memory.

Question 17

Levels-of-processing effect

Answer 17

That different methods of encoding information into memory have different levels of effectiveness.

Question 18

List-length effect

Answer 18

A smaller percentage of items are remembered in a longer list, but as the length of the list increases, the absolute number of items remembered increases as well. For example, consider a list of 30 items (“L30”) and a list of 100 items (“L100”). An individual may remember 15 items from L30, or 50%, whereas the individual may remember 40 items from L100, or 40%. Although the percent of L30 items remembered (50%) is greater than the percent of L100 (40%), more L100 items (40) are remembered than L30 items (15).[132][further explanation needed]

Question 19

Misinformation effect

Answer 19

Memory becoming less accurate because of interference from post-event information.

Question 20

Modality effect

Answer 20

That memory recall is higher for the last items of a list when the list items were received via speech than when they were received through writing.

Question 21

Mood-congruent memory bias

Answer 21

The improved recall of information congruent with one’s current mood.

Question 22

Negativity bias or Negativity effect

Answer 22

Psychological phenomenon by which humans have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories.(see also actor-observer bias, group attribution error, positivity effect, and negativity effect).

Question 23

Next-in-line effect

Answer 23

When taking turns speaking in a group using a predetermined order (e.g. going clockwise around a room, taking numbers, etc.) people tend to have diminished recall for the words of the person who spoke immediately before them.

Question 24

Part-list cueing effect

Answer 24

That being shown some items from a list and later retrieving one item causes it to become harder to retrieve the other items.

Question 25

Peak-end rule

Answer 25

That people seem to perceive not the sum of an experience but the average of how it was at its peak (e.g., pleasant or unpleasant) and how it ended.

Question 26

Picture superiority effect

Answer 26

The notion that concepts that are learned by viewing pictures are more easily and frequently recalled than are concepts that are learned by viewing their written word form counterparts.

Question 27

Positivity effect (Socioemotional selectivity theory)

Answer 27

That older adults favor positive over negative information in their memories.

Question 28

Serial position effect

Answer 28

That items near the end of a sequence are the easiest to recall, followed by the items at the beginning of a sequence; items in the middle are the least likely to be remembered.

Question 29

Processing difficulty effect

Answer 29

That information that takes longer to read and is thought about more (processed with more difficulty) is more easily remembered.

Question 30

Reminiscence bump

Answer 30

The recalling of more personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than personal events from other lifetime periods.

Question 31

Self-relevance effect

Answer 31

That memories relating to the self are better recalled than similar information relating to others.

Question 32

Source confusion

Answer 32

Confusing episodic memories with other information, creating distorted memories.

Question 33

Spacing effect

Answer 33

That information is better recalled if exposure to it is repeated over a long span of time rather than a short one.

Question 34

Spotlight effect

Answer 34

The tendency to overestimate the amount that other people notice your appearance or behavior.

Question 35

Stereotypical bias

Answer 35

Memory distorted towards stereotypes (e.g., racial or gender).

Question 36

Suffix effect

Answer 36

Diminishment of the recency effect because a sound item is appended to the list that the subject is not required to recall.

Question 37

Suggestibility

Answer 37

A form of misattribution where ideas suggested by a questioner are mistaken for memory.

Question 38

Tachypsychia

Answer 38

When time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts.

Question 39

Telescoping effect

Answer 39

The tendency to displace recent events backwards in time and remote events forward in time, so that recent events appear more remote, and remote events, more recent.

Question 40

Testing effect

Answer 40

The fact that you more easily remember information you have read by rewriting it instead of rereading it.

Question 41

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Answer 41

When a subject is able to recall parts of an item, or related information, but is frustratingly unable to recall the whole item. This is thought to be an instance of “blocking” where multiple similar memories are being recalled and interfere with each other.

Question 42

Travis Syndrome

Answer 42

Overestimating the significance of the present. It is related to chronological snobbery with possibly an appeal to novelty logical fallacy being part of the bias.

Question 43

Verbatim effect

Answer 43

That the “gist” of what someone has said is better remembered than the verbatim wording. This is because memories are representations, not exact copies.

Question 44

von Restorff effect

Answer 44

That an item that sticks out is more likely to be remembered than other items.

Question 45

Zeigarnik effect

Answer 45

That uncompleted or interrupted tasks are remembered better than completed ones.