W5: Remembering Complex Events Flashcards
Looking at the circumstances in which material can both helped and hurt our memories. Although our memories are accurate most of the time, we show systematic errors. These errors can be simple mistakes about words that we have no heard or more complex personal events. How we remember complex personal information and what types of memory errors we show. * Memory errors * False memories * Forgetting * Autobiographical memories * Very long-term remembering
Schema
a persons knowledge about some aspect of the environment, developed through experience
Script
a persons conception of sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience
Demonstrations of memory errors
Crombag et al (1996) and Brewer & Treyens (1981).
Plane crash in Amsterdam - people recalled footage of the crash while actually there was none.
Office experiment - people recalled items which weren’t actually presented because of office schema.
Why is memory not like a tape recorder?
Our system is designed to selectively remember things that are important to use, whether personally, important or in a more survival way.
Thus, it can be quite difficult for us to remember specific details and we often fill in the blanks.
Hyperthymesia
Not forgetting anything.
Example: Russian memory expert “S” had remarkable memory, but seemed not to “forget” ANYTHING. He lived in a haze of recollections; assaulting memories.
DRM Effect / Paradigm
When people falsely recall words which are related to a set of other words (which themselves relate to a theme).
Experiment: Deese (1959), Roediger & McDermot (1995)
“Bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, …”
Word not included but falsely recalled: “sleep”
DRM procedure
A procedure in cognitive psychology used to study false memory in humans. i.e. word lists with a related word not mentioned.
Experiment: Deese (1959), Roediger & McDermot (1995)
“Bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, …”
Word not included but falsely recalled: “sleep”
How false memories occur
Connections in your memory are part of the story.
Consider how things are stored: a representation is probably linked with a number of other nodes that have been built up over time and with experience. When asked about an event, there would be a spreading activation to connected nodes. Associated nodes can interfere with/ intrude on a true memory - hence causing a problem, false recall.
How schemas contribute to memory errors
Our schemas are used to fill in the blanks when we have missing knowledge/info based on what we expect to be the answer, built upon repeated past experience.
Sometimes our expectations don’t match/reflect the true situation, and therefore contributes to memory errors.
Ways memory errors can occur
Schemas, False suggestions, misleading information
The Misinformation Effect
Being given misleading information (at or after seeing “correct info”) can later cause recall of incorrect information. // Verbs used in a question can influence people’s memories (smashed v hit).
Experiment: Loftus et al. (1978)
Participants either got consistent information or misleading information about a road sign. Later, they were given a memory test. The mislead group only answered correctly 45% compared to the control group that got it correct 75% of the time.
Picture with sign > “Did another car pass the red Datsun while it was at the (control/misled) sign?” > Memory test: was the sign stop or give way?
Imagination Inflation
Merely through imagining events - false events - people become more confident that they’d actually experienced those events.
Experiment: Garry et al (1996)
People became more confident about imagined events than non-imagined events…
“Did you get a haircut” (before 10yo) - yes > etc. > Imagine 4 events that didnt happen > same list as before given again
Implanting false memories
Can occur. Can impact eye witness testimony.
Experiment: Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
Parents wrote 3 true events and participants given these plus one lie. 25% developed false memories of the lie.
Experiment: Porter et al (1999)
1 true event + 1 lie about a serious medical procedure. 25% developed false memory.
Experiment: Wade et al (2002)
Doctored photos. 50% developed false memory.
Experiment: Lindsey et al (2004)
True photo false story (“slime events”). 78% developed false memories.
Eyewitness Testimony
Jurors are more likely to believe someone who’s more confident about his/her memory rather than someone who is less confident. Yet, not good.
Memory confidence often a poor indicator of memory accuracy.
Eyewitness Influences
Cross-race bias, weapon-focus, time, age, stress, lighting, distance, talking with other witnesses, media reports/ questions, line up instructions, content, presentation.
Reform: sequential line-ups
In justice system - picking out a suspect.
Simultaneous line-ups (all at the same time):
52% correct identification
28% false identifications
sequential line-up’s (one at a time):
44% correct identifications
15% false identifications
Reform: double-blind procedure
“Clever Hans” - hoof-clopping mathematical horse.
Line-up administrators can influence witness choice via unconscious communication.
Administrators who knew: 60% identified suspect
Administrators who didn’t know: 32% identified
Thus, it is really important to that the administrator should not know who the suspect is. It is important to avoid:
1) unconscious communication
2) post line-up feedback
Tips to avoid memory influences
1) Don’t talk to anyone else post-event
2) write down/ record as much as you can before memory is decontaminated
Decay theory of forgetting
Memories fade or erode with the passage of time.
May be because relevant brain cells die off. Or maybe the connectiosn among memories need to be constantly refreshed.
Interference theory
The passage of time creates the opportunity for new learning, and it is the new learning that disrupts the older mamories
Retrieval failture
The “forgotten memory” is still in LTM but the person trying to retrieve ithe memory simply cannot locate it.
Which hypothesis best explains forgetting?
Decay, interference, and retrieval failure all have evidence.
Partial retrieval failure
You can recall some aspects of the desired content, but not all. TOT phenomenon.
TOT phenomenon
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. People experiencing this state can often recall the starting letter of the sought-after word and approximately what it sounds like.
Context reinstatement
Get back into the mindset that they were in at time of learning/ event.
Purpose of retrieval paths
Makes memory search possible.
Benefits of schematic knowledge
Schemata guide your attention to what’s informative in the situation, rather than what’s self-evident, and they guide your inferences at the time of recall.
If schemata leads you astray, it’s a small price to pay for the gain in efficiency that schemata allow.
Autobiographical memory
Memories for the episodes and events of our lives. Plays a central role in shaping how each of us thinks about ourselves and, therefore, how we behave.
Consolidation
The process through which memories are biologically “cemented in place”. Takes place “behind the scenes”. Emotion enhances consolidation. If consolidation is interrupted for some reason, no memory is established and recall later will be impossible.
Flashbulb Memories
A highly detailed, exceptionally vivid ‘snapshot’ of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.
