motivated forgetting Flashcards
what is the positivity bias?
tendency to recall more pleasant memories than neutral or unpleasant memories
what is the relationship between the positivity bias and age?
the positivity bias increases with age
what did charles, mather & cartensen (2003) discover about the positivity bias?
older people recall 2x more positive memories than negative
in what way are adults better at emotion regulation?
they are better at evaluating, altering and gating memories and emotions
what is repression?
unconscious forgetting
what is suppression?
conscious forgetting
what are 3 methods to control what we remember?
- limit encoding
- prevent retrieval
- stop retrieval
what is psychogenic amnesia?
profound forgetting, typically of significant events and major periods
what are the two types of psychogenic amnesia?
global or situation specific
what is the item method of directed forgetting?
p’s told to ‘forget’ or ‘remember’ certain items
what did basden & basden (1996) find in their item method study?
better recall of ‘remember’ items, effects reflect differences in encoding
how do ‘forget’ instructions affect encoding?
release attention and stop rehearsal
how do ‘remember’ instructions affect encoding?
elaborative semantic coding
what is encoding suppression?
‘forget’ instructions engage an active process that disrupts encoding
what is the list method of directed forgetting?
told to ‘forget’ list 1 or told to ‘remember’ list 1 and 2
what did gieselman, bjork & fishman (1983) find in their list method study?
‘forget’ impairs recall of list 1 but reduces proactive interference on list 2, effects reflect differences in retrieval
what did joslyn & oakes (2005) find in their diary study?
‘forget’ impaired recall of week 1 events
what is the retrieval inhibition hypothesis?
‘forget’ inhibits list 1 by reducing the activation level
what is the context shift hypothesis?
‘forget’ mentally separates list 1 and 2 by causing a context shift, the list 2 context lingers into the test
what did sahakyan & kelley (2002) discover about the context shift hypothesis?
there was a context shift without ‘forget’ instruction so part of directed forgetting always comes from context shift
what is behavioural/action inhibitory control?
initiate, discontinue or prevent motor actions based on goals
what task is used for behavioural/action inhibitory control?
go/no go task
what is cognitive inhibitory control?
control thoughts in accordance to goals
what task is used in cognitive inhibitory control?
think/no think task
how do more suppression trials affect suppression?
suppression increase with more suppression trials
who shows diminished suppression?
those with less cognitive control e.g. PTSD
what did catarino et al (2019) discover about PTSD and suppression?
those with PTSD has diminished suppression
what is spontaneous recovery?
re-emergence of forgotten memories, rarely return to full strength
what did underwood (1948) discover about episodic memories and spontaneous recovery?
there is initial retroactive interference but recall improves after 30 mins
what did macleod & macrae (2001) say about inhibition?
inhibition reduces over time
what is reminiscence?
recovery without re-learning
what is hypermnesia?
opposite of amnesia, recall improves with repeated testing
what did erdelyi & kleinbard (1978) discover about hypermnesia?
hypermnesia is better with imageable items
what did bluck, levine & laulhere (1999) discover about hypermnesia?
hympermnesia improves recall in public events
what is cue reinstatement?
cues can reinstate memories for unattended items
what did smith & moynan (2008) discover about cue reinstatement?
category cues eliminate the forgetting effect
what are source misattribution errors?
struggle to remember where memory came from e.g. dream, movie
what are 2 avenues of memory recovery?
suggestive therapy and spontaneous recovery
what is a problem with suggestive therapy?
memories may reflect therapist’s suggestions
is suggestive therapy or spontaneous recovery more likely to be genuine?
spontaneous recovery
what did geraerts et al (2007) say about memory recovery?
not all recovered memories are the same
what did geraerts et al (2006) say about context and recovery?
recovery is diminished if the perspective/context differs
