unit 8

Question 1

what is meant by error of omission

Answer 1

failure to bring to mind, leave out, block it out

Question 2

what is transcience?

Answer 2

loss of info from memory across time

Question 3

what is absentmindedness?

Answer 3

losing track of info, details, etc; trouble with the interface between attention and LTM

Question 4

what is blocking?

Answer 4

failure to retrieve info in LTM; temporary loss of access to info

Question 5

what is error of commission?

Answer 5

producing unwanted or inaccurate memories

Question 6

what is persistence?

Answer 6

unwanted memories keep intruding

Question 7

what is misattribution?

Answer 7

ascribing a memory to an incorrect source or context

Question 8

what is suggestibility?

Answer 8

suggested info intrudes into memory

Question 9

what is bias?

Answer 9

expectations, beliefs, and or feelings distort memory

Question 10

what factors at encoding are likely to affect the accuracy of eyewitness memories?

Answer 10

perceptual factors & emotional stress

Question 11

explain perceptual factor + give an example:

Answer 11

perceptual factor: quality of the viewing conditions, better conditions = better memory
ex: When witnessing a crime, if a bystander is highly distracted by loud noises or movement in their peripheral vision, their focus on the perpetrator’s details may be significantly reduced, leading to inaccurate recall of facial features or clothing descriptions due to the high “perceptual load” caused by the distractions

Question 12

how does emotion/stress affect the quality of memory encoding?

Answer 12

emotional stress narrows attention
can help memory for central details
can hurt memory for peripheral info (color of clothing)

Question 13

under stress is a person more likely to encode central details or peripheral details?

Answer 13

central details

Question 14

at extremely high levels of stress, how will encoding be affected?

Answer 14

At extremely high levels of stress, encoding will be significantly impaired, meaning the ability to process and store new information into memory will be greatly reduced, as the brain prioritizes the stress response over memory formation.

Question 15

what factors following initial encoding can affect the accuracy of eyewitness memories?

Answer 15

unconscious transference
misinformation effect

Question 16

what is unconscious transference? give example.

Answer 16

transfer parts of memories onto one another
example: Imagine a witness at a crime scene who sees a suspect they don’t recognize. Later, when viewing a police lineup, they might pick someone who looks vaguely familiar but is actually a cashier they frequently see at their local grocery store - they unconsciously transferred their familiarity with the cashier to the suspect in the lineup, even though they are completely innocent

Question 17

what is the misinformation effect? give example.

Answer 17

misleading/wrong info presented between encoding and recall can distract memory for the original event
example: An example of misinformation effect could be as simple as an eyewitness being asked: “Did you see the broken light” rather than “Did you see a broken light”. The first assumes there was a broken light and that influences the possibility of misinformation effect and the response from the eyewitness.

Question 18

what is a simultaneous lineup?

Answer 18

all suspects in view at once
encourages witness to choose the most similar (relative judgement)

Question 19

what is sequential lineup?

Answer 19

suspects one at a time
- better technique
-absolute judgement

Question 20

which are better between simultaneous and sequential? Why?

Answer 20

sequential lineups are better for reducing false identification than simultaneous ones, as they minimize relative judgment.

Question 21

what instruction should you give a witness when viewing a lineup?

Answer 21

encourage witness to choose the most similar
encourage witness to evaluate each for a match
should instruct witness that the real culprit may not appear in the lineup

Question 22

what is a photo bias?

Answer 22

familiarity (due to having seen photo before) increases likelihood of choosing an individual from lineup

Question 23

what are the risks for photo bias? how can we avoid it?

Answer 23

risk: previous exposure increases recognition errors
how to avoid: can be reduced by unbiased lineups

Question 24

describe characteristics of a good lineup.

Answer 24

a suspect should not stand out
options should have equal probability
functional size = actual size

Question 25

what are consequences of repeated questioning?

Answer 25

more likely to invent an answer the more they are asked
can cause memory distortion

Question 26

is hypnosis considered a reliable interview technique

Answer 26

NO it is prone to distortions

Question 27

what is the recommended interview technique?

Answer 27

cognitive interview:
- emphasis comfort of witness
- open-ended questions
-witness can describe events as they choose
-encourage reinstatement of appropriate cues

Question 28

what sort of relationship exists between eyewitness confidence and memory accuracy?

Answer 28

a WEAK relationship, because should we trust a witness just because they are confident??

Question 29

what is the optimality hypothesis? under what conditions is the relationship between confidence & accuracy likely to be stronger?

Answer 29

optimality hypothesis: the relationship between confidence and accuracy is stronger to the degree that the encoding, storage, and retrieval of the event occured under optimal conditions

Question 30

what is DRM paradigm?

Answer 30

list of related words, but with a critical word left out.
example: for example, showing words like “bed,” “rest,” “nap,” and “dream” to induce a false memory of the word “sleep” which was never presented.

Question 31

can false memories for childhood events be implanted?

Answer 31

YES

Question 32

what is imagination inflation?

Answer 32

simply imagining an event increases the likelihood of believing that it actually occured

Question 33

what is source monitoring?

Answer 33

reality monitoring -> did something really happen

Question 34

what is source confusion?

Answer 34

helps account for several effects, misinformation, photo bias, some illusory memories

Question 35

what is the social contagion effect?

Answer 35

memory influenced by others accounts, leading to shared false memories.