memory lecture 4 Flashcards
what is the affect of psychoanalysis on memory?
during analysis, patients may recover memories for traumatic or unpleasant events which seem to have been lost
however, this can lead to false memories
what is the affect of hypnosis on memory?
people may be age regressed to recall lost details of their lives/details from crime scenes
however, suggestibility- may feel inclined to add details
what happened in Penfiel’d work in the 1940s on epileptics?
looked at participants during brain surgery
woke them up with the cortex exposed
asked them what it felt like when they electrically stimulated parts of the cortex
direct stimulation of the temporal lobes often results in patients spontaneously reporting memory like events
what were the results of Pender’s work on epileptics?
out of 1132 patients, only 12 patients reported things that could be identified as past experiences
events reported may be closer to dreams than memories
what are the three mechanisms for forgetting?
encoding failure
storage failure
retrieval failure
what is encoding failure?
not remembering information as we never knew it in the first place
what is storage failure?
decay/interference/repression
when you learn something else, that information has got replaced
what is retrieval failure?
fail to retrieve information at that moment, even when you did know it
what is the Brown-Peterson paradigm?
participants were asked to encode 3 letters
immediately after counted down in threes from a number
asked to recall the 3 letters again
performance depends on delay- after 18 seconds of distraction got less than 20% correct
what is retroactive interference?
new learning causes forgetting of old material
eg) teacher learned so many new names this year that she struggles to remember the names of the students last year
what is proactive interference?
old learning causes forgetting of new material
eg) teacher learned so many names in the past that she struggles to remember the names of her current class
how can we explain the Brown-Peterson paradigm by proactive interference?
previously learned lists may interfere
retention interval prevents rehersal
what happened in Loftus and Palmer’s study of eyewitness testimony?
participants watched a clip of a car accident
‘how fast were the cars going when they… eachother’
changed the critical verb
higher speed estimates for ‘smashed’ into eachother than ‘hit’ eachother
what happened in Loftus and Palmer’s study- misleading information?
asked if they saw any broken glass- none was present
faster verb= more likely to report seeing broken glass
shows that the original memory itself has been distorted by misleading post-event information
what is the misinformation effect?
a person’s memory of an event is altered or influenced by misleading information
what is trace destruction?
theory where memories leave a trace in the brain
if these are not accessed or reinforced through rehersal/retrieval- they gradually weaken and decay
loftus, miller and burns (1978) aim
wanted to investigate whether verbal post-event information can be integrated with visual information
loftus, miller and burns (1978) procedure
students watched 30 slides showing a car accident
critical slide contains either a give way sign or a stop sign
answered a 20 item questionnaire- including the question ‘Did another car pass the red Datsun while it stopped at the stop sign’ or ‘Did another car pass the red Datsun whilst it stopped at the give way sign’
did a 20 minute filler task
loftus, miller and burns (1978) results
question consistent with the slide they had seen= 75% performance
question inconsistent with the slide they had seen= 51% performance
effect increased with delay, was reduced by forwarning and unaffected by incentives
mccloskey and zaragoza (1985) aim
determine the role of response bias in memory reliability
what is response bias?
our tendency to provide inaccurate, or even false, answers to self-report questions
mcloskey and zaragoza (1985) procedure
participants were shown slides of a man holding a hammer
mislead participants by telling them the man held a screwdriver
subjects had two different tests: had to choose between hammer and screwdriver, and hammer and wrench
mcloskey and zaragoza (1985) results
in hammer & screwdriver option, controls mostly selected hammer, while others mostly selected screwdriver
in hammer & wrench option, both groups mostly selected hammer
suggests memory can be influenced by learning cues
nelson (1978) permenance of memory procedure
standard pair associate learning
paired a number with a word, eg) 48-party
4 week delay between learning and recall
nelson (1978) permenance of memory results
at recalll, around half the items were forgotten and 120 not recognised
however, if they had seen the words before, even if they forgot them, there was an advantage for learning old words rather than new ones
nelson (1978) permenance of memory interpretation
apparently forgotten memories can still influence behaviour
forgetting may be partial decay rather than memory deletion
S- ‘mind of a mnemonist’ case study
appeared to have almost unlimited memory for numbers and equations
no specific training- just relied on imagery, synaesthesia and method of loci
however, had very poor memory for faces, and couldnt necessarily interpret the information he remembered
what is synaesthesia
remembering across different modes
what is method of loci
remembering information by creating a picture in your head- map in the brain
what is the paradox of the expert
the more knowledge and expertise someone has in a particular area, the more likely they are to make mistakes or errors in judgment related to that area
