Memory Retrieval

Question 1

What does memory retrieval refer too?

Answer 1

IHow we obtain our memories

Factors which affects our ability to obtain memory

Question 2

What are autobiographical memories?

Answer 2

Interconnected, rich memories of our own lives

Brings in memories from lots of sensory modalities, to get a subjective image

Question 3

What is the reminiscence bump?

Answer 3

Enhanced memories during adolescence and young adulthood

Vidid and details

Question 4

What are the reasons for the reminiscence bump?

Answer 4

Self-image hypothesis - memories linked to events are important (marriage)

Cognitive hypothesis - memories enhanced for a period of many life changes followed by a stable period (e.g. get married, then have a stable period, so remember important period)

Cultural life script hypothesis - there are expected events to occur within certain events which will occur at a certain age. enhanced memory for these

Question 5

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 5

Memories for when we first hear about a highly emotional event e.g. assassination of John F Kennedy or Martin Luther Kind - detailed and vivid and persistent over time

Question 6

Are flashbulb memories vivid?

Answer 6

NO

Neisser and Harsch - Recalling items, repeated recall showed discrepancies between reports 1 day after challenger disaster and 2.5 to 3 years later

Question 7

Talarico and Rubin

Answer 7

Using questionnaires, measured everyday and 9/11 memories after 1,7,42,224 days after

Consistent everyday and 9/11 memories decreased at the same rate
Inconsistent (inaccurate) everyday and 9/11 memories increased
People’s beliefs in accurate memories were greater for 9/11 than everyday memories

Question 8

Are flashbulb memories special?

Answer 8

They aren’t special with respect to accuracy because remembered the same as everyday memories but are special in terms of our perceptual of the memory - subjectively think we are better

Question 9

What is the explanation for flashbulb memories?

Answer 9

Emotional information enhances the subjective of remembering

Question 10

Rimmele et al - frame colour

Answer 10

Memory for negative pictures remembered more
but when put pic in frame, and asked what colour the frame was, remembered more of the frame colour in the neutral pictures - less able to remember colour of frame if emotional, emotional stimuli at expense of peripheral info at the time of memory encoded

Question 11

Why do people remember emotional photos more?

Answer 11

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis - emotional information undergoes extensive rehearsal - repeated on tv etc so people rehearse it

Question 12

Evidence for the narrative rehearsal hypothesis

Answer 12

Ost et al - over 40% of participants reported seeing non existent video footage of princess Diana’s fatal car crash

Question 13

Why is memory constructive?

Answer 13

Memory content is constructed from information of the actual event, expectations, knowledge and experiences

Question 14

Evidence that memory is constructive

Answer 14

War of the ghosts

Source monitoring errors/misattributions

Question 15

War of the ghosts story

Answer 15

Bartlette - Britain incorporated parts of their own culture when asked about native Canadian folklore story

Question 16

What are source monitoring errors?

Answer 16

Ideas that we make errors about where and from who we acquire information from

Question 17

Evidence for source monitoring

Answer 17

Gendered statements misattributed to individual - masculine statement given to female

Becoming famous overnight - asked ppts to identify famous and infamous names from a lift of words. Immediately after recall, judged new names as famous. Longer delay - new faces less likely, increase in errors for faces previously seen - a sense of familiarity led to thinking people were famous

Question 18

Do we make inferences about our memory?

Answer 18

Fill in the blanks sentence task influenced by real world knowledge
ppts with greater knowledge about baseball incorrectly inferred a sentence had been presented within a paragraph about basketball
schemas and scrips lead to errors
high levels of false recall and false recognition for associate words

Question 19

How do schemas influence knowledge?

Answer 19

What we expect in situations

Asked ppts to list what items that appeared in office, included items that weren’t there but expected to be there

Question 20

How do scripts influence knowledge?

Answer 20

Series of events we expect to happen
Given a paragraph about bill going to the dentist, asked if sentence appeared about him going to receptionist desk and ppts thought it had appeared

Question 21

Types of interference - memories can change in consequence of:

Answer 21

Proactive interference

Retroactive interference

Question 22

Proactive interference

Answer 22

Memories from before an event interfere with retrieval of memories of that event (knowledge and expectations)

Question 23

Retroactive interference

Answer 23

New information acquired after an event interfere with retrieval of memories of that event (Suggestion, misleading post event information)

Question 24

Misinformation effect - Loftus et al

Answer 24

ppts viewed a stimulus, questionnaire on the stimulus with some inaccurate information (a question refers to a yield sign when it was a stop sign)

ppts given error information later report false memories - they said they thought they saw the car stopping at the yield sign

Question 25

Misinformation effect - Loftus and Palmer

Answer 25

Ppts watched a video of a road traffic accident. questions how fast cars were going when smashed or hit. Thought the car was going faster in smashed condition. After 1 week, 32% reported seeing broken glass in smashed condition compared to 14% in hit condition

Question 26

How can you implant false memories?

Answer 26

using verbal suggestions

presenting doctored photographs and videos

Question 27

Why does the misinformation effect occur?

Answer 27

Some people believe it is retroactive interference or source monitoring (misattributing info told to the event itself)

Question 28

Errors in eyewitness testimony

Answer 28

Perceptual and attentional errors e.g. 
weapons focus
source monitoring
post identification feedback
remembering events

Question 29

Weapons focus

Answer 29

Have good memories for the weapon as attention is on it but memory for other factors diminished

Question 30

Source monitoring eyewitness testimony errors

Answer 30

Ross et al
ppts watched a video of either a male or a female teacher reading to students. ppts viewed a video of the female teacher being robbed. ppts who had viewed the male teacher video often selected him as the robber from a selection of photographs

Question 31

Post identification feedback

Answer 31

Positive feedback following identification in a line up of a perpetrator from a crime increases confidence in their selection

Question 32

Remembering events

Answer 32

Participants who had been given cued recall task regarding a video versus plain a computer game were more susceptible to false memories from suggestion - asking ppl to recall events makes their memory vulnerable, memory is vulnerable when being retrieved before it goes into long term memory

Question 33

Why is remembering events a problem?

Answer 33

Problem for interviewing people because when ask them to retrieve memories, it is vulnerable