Week 10 Constructive Memory Flashcards
Is memory like watching a movie?
No
- Memory is constructive so memory formation is not like pressing play on a video camera memory formation is more like taking snapshots
- Memory is reconstructive memory retrieval is not like watching a video memory retrieval is more like editing a video
What influences how memories are retrieved?
Peoples knowledge, experiences, expectations, biases etc.
What are some aspects that memory formation depends upon?
- Perception and attention
- Emotions mood and physical/mental state
- Prior knowledge (schemas, expectations, etc)
- The context (novelty)
What are false memories?
Wide variety of memory errors or distortions
- Subjective reexperiencing of an event or detail that did not actually happen
What are false memories NOT?
- lying or “known error”
- In many cases, people really believe the false memory actually happened
- biased guessing
What happened in “War of Ghosts” study?
Story from indigenous tradition essentially became westernized by people who had to recall it and we’re not indigenous
Edwardian British adults read a traditional indigenous story called “War of the Ghosts” and participants recalled story across several years. The story became shorter and more coherent as it was retold and there was no trace of an odd or supernatural element left. It became a perfectly straightforward story of a fight and a death.
- omission of the ghost early on
- rationalization: coherency among parts
- Transformation of details into more familiar and conventional
- Changing order of events
What can lead to distortions in our memory?
Schemas
what is a schema?
Schemas are a mental framework that organizes knowledge of the world and refer more to a particular context such as a grocery store or a movie theatre.
How do you schemas have a beneficial effect on encoding?
- Schema presented before but not after typically improve memory such
- laudry example
- Schemas help to select relevant information to read encoding
- Makes it easier for us to encode new information by providing a way to organize our memories
What is an example that relates schemas with expertise?
Chess piece positioning
When chess pieces were laid out on a board and then Novus intermediate and expert players got to look at the board and then had to recall where pieces were experts record the position of chess pieces from real chess games so we’re able to better recall the positions. However experts and non-experts are no better from each other in recalling random configurations of chess pieces
How are schemas and memory error related?
- Using schemas to infer waht happened can fill in gaps in knowledge so we don’t have to remember every single detail
- Can lead to errors in memory
- Ex. Office room
What is the Deese- Roediger and McDermott DRM paradigm?
The Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm is a procedure in cognitive psychology used to study false memory in humans
What explains the DRM affect?
When participants might create a schema on the fly for the particular situation
- recognition word test
What explains the DRM affect?
Associative Network
what is associative network?
Semantic memory is organized in a network of related concepts
- A massive Network of associated ideas and concepts
How does prime mean occur in the DRM paradigm?
Spreading activation in the network primes the word
- Prior exposure to info leads us to be faster and more biased to residing towards a false word later without our conscious awareness
What is priming?
Refers to the activation of one concept or one unit of information by another.
What is the neural network ?
Each Concept in the associative network is represented by a particular pattern or set of notes that becomes activated simultaneously.
What are some functions of false memories?
- Self-functions
- social functions
- allows us to imagine the future
- Allows us to reimagine the past
How can false memories be good for the self?
Falsely recalling the past can help to maintain our sense of identity by making us appear better or worse than we actually were.
How can false memories function in social relationships?
We may adopt false beliefs or memories that are consistent with other peoples recollections to improve social relations/
How many false memories allow us to imagine the future?
- Flexible nature of memory
- We can buy any details from the past in novel ways
- Supports our ability to make a future plans, set goals etc.
How do you false memories allow us to reimagine the past?
- Counterfactual thoughts such as “if I only had set my alarm this morning I wouldn’t have been late”
- Helps us to learn from our mistakes and guide our future behaviour.
What is memory similar to?
Imagination
Distortion and false memories might actually be ___________
Adaptive
