The reliability and unreliability of human memory Flashcards
What framework was suggested by Schacter (2001) on the failings of memory?
The Seven Sins of memory.
What are the seven types of error identified by Schacter (2001)?
Transience (forgetting/interference), absent mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.
According to Schacter (2001), what are the types of absent-mindedness?
- Excessive transience (serious memory disorders - storage), atypical.
- Inattention - encoding. Most common, can work on this!
- Failure to retrieve at the right moment - prospective - retrieval.
What did Schacter (2001) state about blocking?
- Retrograde traumatic amnesia (closed-head injury, lose recent memories - stored but irretrievable. Memory steadily improves, filling in memories in chronological order over time).
- Lab examples - part-list cueing, retrieval-induced forgetting, directed forgetting and retrieval inhibition.
- Tip of the tongue states for words - the “Ugly Sister” effect serves the maintain blocking, where if something incorrect is retrieved the correct memory cannot be accessed.
Mostly retrieval effects.
According to Brown (2004), what is déjà vu an example of?
The misattribution of fluency for familiarity - due to easy processing, assume this is because have done in the past.
What did Whittlesea (1993) test?
Déjà vu effect on words - predictability of words in a sentence increase fluency, had pts read sentences. Found that new but fluent words are often falsely recognised.
What did Jacoby et al. (1989) do?
False fame paradigm - had pts read names on day one and judge fame on day two, found misattribution of familiarity for fame.
What are some examples of misattribution, other than déjà vu and the false fame paradigm?
- source and reality monitoring errors - remembering something from the wrong context
- unconscious transference (rapist example from Tuesday)
- misleading police line-ups
- cryptomnesia - unintentional plagiarism
What has research into suggestibility found?
It is possible to make people remember the film of the Schipol plane crash, and suggestive feedback in line-ups affects confidence in correct identification.
What does suggestibility research investigate?
- the misinformation effect
- suggestive feedback
- false confessions
What five types of bias did Schachter (2001) propose?
- consistency (of memories with current attitudes) - Ross (1989), dangers of toothbrushing.
- change - revising the past to justify course (Conway and Ross, 1984)
- hindsight - once you know the punchline it seems obvious (Carli, 1999)
- egocentric - overestimation of own contribution (social function of memory), (Ross and Sicoly, 1979), 70:30 split of work, remembered grades - accurate for 89% of As, 29% of Ds (Bahrick et al., 1996).
- stereotypical - tendency to remember black criminal names (Banaji and Bhaskar, 1999), false fame more likely for male names (Banaji and Greenwald, 1995).
What is persistence?
The remembrance of things you don’t want to - PTSD, getting songs in your head.
What did Wegner (1994) demonstrate?
The ‘ironic’ processes of mental control - trying not to think about something can often increase the chances of it being recalled.
According to Wenzlaff and Wegner (2000), what does suppression lead to?
Immediate suppressed thought enhancement, with or without load, plus post-suppression enhancement.
What does PTSD provide an example of?
Unwanted memories for traumatic events - flashbacks.
What is debated about PTSD flashbacks?
Whether it is the event or the emotion that is critical (Rynearson and McCreery, 1993).
What is PTSD clinically linked to?
Incomplete narrative encoding.
Where in memory is transience present?
Possibly storage and retrieval.
What is the adaptive function of transience?
According to Anderson and Schooler (2000) it’s actually a way of ensuring that the most useful information is most likely to be retrieved.
What did Schacter (2001) state about blocking?
It is most likely for names that are not being used regularly.
What did Schacter, Guerin and St Jacques (2011) propose?
That misattribution and suggestibility errors arise from the power of the memory in simulation and creativity.
What is the adaptive value of memory biases?
Increasing self-esteem (e.g. Wilson and Ross, 2003).
Why do we make so many errors in memory?
It’s adaptive.
What is the adaptive value of persistence?
An adaptive need for resolution/completion (Zeigarnik effects).
What is the adaptive value of absent-mindedness?
It’s an efficient choice of cues attended at encoding (e.g. weapon focus).
What did Ericssson (1988) state were the three skills necessary to have expert memory?
- meaningful encoding (paradox of the expert, taxi drivers’ memories)
- retrieval structure - learn with cues needed for successful retrieval
- speed-up - extensive practice improves storage efficiency
What did Francis Bacon (1620) state about the enhancement of storage through retrieval?
That memory is improved by testing oneself.
What did Roediger and Karpicke (2006) demonstrate?
That people still find it hard to believe that testing improves memory - compared actual and predicted recall for various combinations of studying and testing.
What did Karpicke and Roediger (2010) demonstrate?
That the effect of retrieval on storage is even more dramatic with a retrieval and re-reading condition (i.e. using a plausible everyday learning strategy).
What did Rohrer and Pashler (2007) state?
That ISI is important in enhancing long term retention.
