Memory Pt 3: Repression, Memory Construction, And Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
Motivated forgetting
Idea that people UNKNOWINGLY revise their history
Motivated forgetting example
I broke up with her;she didn’t break up with me
What purpose might motivated forgetting serve?
Protects ego and self esteem
Motivated forgetting as a Freudian concept
Repression
Repression: Idea put forth by psychoanalytic theorists like Freud which states anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings and memories can be banished from
consciousness into unconsciousness
Repression example
Child abuse, rape, incest may be repressed and not be able to be actively recalled
Freud believed that repression was a
Defense mechanism
Freud argued individuals often “ forget” traumatic incidents to
Protect their self concepts and to minimize external anxiety
Freud argued “forgotten” incidents are
Banished the “unconscious”
Freud defense mechanism belief
The incidents may cause you to have unexplained phobias or problems, that wont be helped until you uncover the incident
Controversy of repressed memories: although there have been documented cases of forgotten trauma, many psychologists argued that
Some repressed memories may have been constructed by therapists
Controversy of repressed memories: False memory syndrome foundation
Argues it is possible for individual relationships to center around a false belief
Controversy of repressed memories: some psychologists have argued against the very existence of repressed memories since most memories that take place during stressful events are
Remembered more vividly
False memory syndrome foundation example
Woman identifying the wrong rapist
Memory construction
Idea that memories are NOT objective, recordings of the actual events we experience
Memory construction: our memories are often affected by
Our pre-existing schemas and involve information filtering and interpretations.
Memory construction: we can have real memories of events that never took place or are filled with inaccuracy because
We fill in memory gaps with plausible guesses
Elizabeth Loftus’s research on
Eyewitness testimony
Eyewitness testimony
Loft us had individuals watch car accidents and then recorded results based on questioning procedures
Questioning procedures
Framing effect
Loftus’s research: subjects were asked to reveal
How fast they thought cars were going
Loftus’s research questioning: “How fast were the cars going when they ____________ each other?”
She filled in the blanks with different words like BUMPED, collided, contacted, hit or SMASHED
Loftus’s research: bumped vs smashed and being asked about broken glass
Speed was elevated to a great degree when smashed was used and subjects were likely to remember broken glass when there was none
Misinformation effect
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Misinformation effect with children
Children are most susceptible to the misinformation effect
Source amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (misattribution)
Source amnesia example
Reagan’s story about WW2 gunner was actually from a movie that he saw
False memory syndrome
Condition in which a person’s identity and relationships center around a false but strongly believed memory of traumatic experience
False memory syndrome is sometimes induced by
Well-meaning therapists
Technical term for photographic memory
Eidetic imagery
Eidetic imagery
An especially clear and persistent form of memory that is quite rare
Eidetic imagery examples
Being able to re-read a book in your mind after having read it once
Mental images appear “outside” and can last up to several minutes
