Problem 6 Flashcards
Source monitoring
Refers to a type of memory error where the source of a memory is incorrectly attributed to some specific recollected experience
ex.: having learned about a plane crash from a friend but saying/recalling to have learned about it on TV
Who is more prone to source monitoring and why?
People with frontal lobe lesions
–> frontal lobes are responsible for evaluating the source of the recollected info
False memory
Refers to a recollection that seems real in your mind but is fabricated in part or in whole
–> usually involves filling gaps of a story to make it whole
Ribot’s law
Regaining partial or full memory gradually after suffering from amnesia due to TBI
–> restricted to damage to the medial temporal lobe
Why is it unlikely that experiences that took place in the moments/seconds before a TBI can be recovered at some point?
Due to the consolidation of info from STM to LTM, which takes a few minutes
–> if this process is interrupted it cannot be stored
Why is our memory imperfect ?
Because events and experiences may be remembered in a distorted way
ex.: remembering a yellow taxi instead of its true blue color
What does confabulation following a neurological disease refer to?
A falsification of memory that occurs in clear consciouses in association with an organically derived amnesia
–> production of false memories, where we don’t know that we are actually confabulating because it feels like we are retrieving a legitimate memory
Which brain areas are related/critical to confabulation?
PFC
–> especially the inferior medial PFC
The right DLPFC and ventromedial VmPFC may subserve 2 distinct monitoring processes.
Name them.
Right DLPFC
–> conscious elaborate monitoring required in EM tasks
VMPFC
–> quick intuitive “feeling of rightness” responses relating to the self + autobiographical memory retrieval
There are 3 different techniques used in pseudo-memory research.
Name them.
- Post-hoc misinformation paradigm
- Imagination-inflation paradigm
- Semantic relatedness paradigm
Post-hoc misinformation paradigm
Involves providing someone with subtle suggestions as to how the event had occured - after the event has occurred
–> may distort the way in which people come to remember the event (e.g. leading questions)
Imagination-inflation paradigm
Thinking or imagining about an improbable event can lead to an increase in subjective confidence that the event did take place
ex.: person is asked to imagine an event in childhood; when asked after a couple of weeks how probable it is that this event took place, the person will tend to overestimate the probability of the event compared to other items that were not imagined previously
Semantic relatedness paradigm
(e.g. DRM task)
Exposure to cues referring to a critical item that is never presented (i.e. the critical lure) will lead to people falsely recognizing 65-80% of the non-presented critical lure words
Pseudo memory
Occurs due to source monitoring errors
–> common to frontal lobe injured patients
Confabulation battery
Measures confabulations, by selecting 5 questions from each of the following categories
1. General semantic memory (GSM)
ex.: What happened to President Kennedy?
2. Personal semantic memory (PSM)
ex.: What is your address?
3. Personal episodic memory (PEM)
ex.: What did you do yesterday?
4. Orientation in time (OT)
ex.: What month is it?
5. Orientation in place (OP)
ex.: What city are we in?
6. Questions to which participants were expected to respond ‘‘don’t know’’ (DK)
ex. : Who is the current world fencing champion?
b) Participants were also asked to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
–> responses were scored as ‘‘correct’’, ‘‘don’t know’’ or ‘‘confabulation’’.
