memory lecture 1

Question 1

what is recovered memory?

Answer 1

reappearance in consciousness of memories for past events, after a period during which these memories were not accessible

Question 2

what are the requirements for memories being recovered?

Answer 2

reality of the event
reality of forgetting
reality of recovery (needs to be spontaneous and internally generated)

Question 3

what is an example of recovered memory?

Answer 3

Professor Cheit’s recovered memory for events
events occurred 24 years earlier
no memory of Childhood Sexual Abuse, but one day woke up and remembered the abuse he faced at summer camp
contacted other victims and proved to be true

Question 4

what is false memory syndrome?

Answer 4

systematic creation of memories for events which never actually occurred

Question 5

why does false memory syndrome suggest we shouldn’t trust recovered memory?

Answer 5

memories are falsely created, sometimes due to the approach taken in psychotherapy

Question 6

what is an example of false memory syndrome?

Answer 6

Paul Ingram’s memories- was a convicted abuser, when describing the shocking acts he had performed some were true but some were false memories

Question 7

what happened in Roediger and McDermott (1995) research?

Answer 7

read out a list of words

participants wrote down which words they could remember

shown on the serial position curve

Question 8

what were the results of Roediger and McDermott’s research?

Answer 8

65% probability of recalling an item which was on the list

40% false recall

better at remembering things at the front (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of the list

Question 9

what happened in Roediger and McDermott (1995) recognition experiment 1?

Answer 9

tests to recognise a specific item

hit= correctly recognise, miss= fail to recognise

mean hit rate for items on list= 86%, mean false alarm rate for critical items not on list= 84%

critical lures are semantically similar, so designed to cause mistakes

Question 10

what happened in Roediger and McDermott (1995) recognition experiment 2?

Answer 10

used longer and more lists (16 lists with 15 items)

only attempted recall for half the lists, but attempted recognition for all the lists

false recall was 55%

Question 10

what does the DRM paradigm suggest?

Answer 10

easy to create false memories

participants were unable to distinguish between false and true memories

Question 10

what are remember items according to Tulving’s recognition research?

Answer 10

participants have a vivid memory for the presentation of the item

Question 10

what are know items according to Tulving’s recognition research?

Answer 10

participants are sure the word was on the list, but don’t have a memory for the moment of hearing the word

Question 11

who came up with the DRM paradigm?

Answer 11

Deese, Roediger and McDermott

Question 12

what was the scenario for Loftus and Pickrell’s (1985) research?

Answer 12

Lost in a Shopping Mall

Question 13

what happened in Loftus and Pickrell’s research?

Answer 13

24 students with their parent/older sibling

4 short stories about events from student’s childhood given by older relative, last story made up- lost in a shopping mall aged 5 (didn’t actually occur)

students filled in questionnaire about what they remember about each event, after this interviewed some time later

Question 14

what were the results of Loftus and Pickrell’s research?

Answer 14

7/24 students accepted the false memory and 6 maintained this at interview

around 25% of false childhood memories accepted and elaborated

when debriefed, 19/24 correctly identified false event

study has been replicated- rates can be higher with false or real photograph cues