Week 5 Flashcards
Role of memories
Connect social relationships
-shared experiences
Connect with our own identities
- amnesia
- Alzheimer’s disease
Memories change our perception of who we are
Questions to ask when we remember something…
Are we remembering the original event?
Are we remembering what we remembered the last time we tried to think of that event?
Is it because we’ve been told the story or seen a picture of the event?
Motivated forgetting
The idea that we forget because we are motivated to forget, usually because a memory is unpleasant or distrubing
Two types: supression (conscious) and repression (unconscious)
Two types of motivated forgetting
- Supression
- Motivated forgetting that occurs consciously
- Repression
- Motivated forgetting that occurs unconsciously (Freud)
- Makes all other defense mechanisms possible (Freud)
- Motivated forgetting that occurs unconsciously (Freud)
Supression
Motivated forgetting that occurs consciously
Consciously avoid thinking about it, and attend to other things
Repression
Motivated forgetting that occurs unconsciously (Freud)
Some memories are so horrible that our mind automatically pushes them into our unconscious
Makes all other defense mechanisms possible (Freud)
Recovered memory and false memory
Recovered memory
- a repressed memory that has once again become consciously accessible
False memory (i.e., pseudomemory)
- a memory for an event that never occured
Repression vs. Natural forgetting
NOT the same!
Natural forgetting
- tends to occr when people do not think about prior events
- little controversy
Repressed memory debate
Clinicians side
- traumatic event
- memories can be repressed
- memories can be recovered accurately, years or event decades after an event occurs
Experimental psychologist side
- no traumatic event
- memory unavailable because it does not, and never has existed
- memory is falsely created (suggestion, leading questions, coercion)
Statute of Limitations
The maximum amount of time after a crime that legal proceedings can be initiated
- Fraud, 3 years in Cali
Murder, NONE
Purpose:
To protect people against claims made after
- physical evidence has been lost
- witnesses become impossible or difficult to find
- memories for the event have faded
Child Sexual Abuse
Sex abuse alleged to have been committed when victim was under 18 years old
-> anytime prior to victim’s 28 birthday
Employmeny of minor to profeorm prohibited acts
-> 10 years after offense
Ruth v. Dight, 1969
Ruth went to hospital for surgery by Dr. Dight
After, abdominal pain -> x-ray -> surgical instrument still inside
X-ray taken 22 years after surgery (long after statute of limitations expired)
–> Doctrine of delayed discovery
Doctrine of Delayed Discovery
Statue of limitations commences when the plantiff knew, or should have known, that they were injured
- statute of limitations is tolled when the plantiff’s ignorance is “blameless”
Statute of limitations and doctrine of delayed discovery require a blancing act between
Right of plaintiff to prosecute
Protection of respondent from stale claims
Tyson v. Tyson
Nancy (daughter) in therapy
Recovered memories of father’s sexual abuse (father denied)
Nancy 26 when filed claims
- > father made motion for summary judgement (request for review of case to see if even worth trial)
- > Wash State Supreme Court decided it wasn’t worth it
- > psychoanalysis/therapy is for assistance, not about if recovered events are true
- > Wash State Supreme Court decided it wasn’t worth it
Lead to new legislation:
Wash state passed doctrine of delayed discovery to be applied to repressed memory cases
People v. George Franklin
FIRST case to admit repressed memory as testimony
-> defendant’s daughter recovered memory after therapy (hypnosis) and cue
convicted 20 years after crime
Washington v. Paul Ingram
Daughter accused father of abuse
Father underwent hypnosis, confessed to: rape, animal sacrifice, being leader of satanic cult that killed 25 babies
Richard Ofshe showed that father was highly suggestible
- asked father something that daughter never reported, father confessed to doing it
—> used as evidence for false confession
Conviction never overturned
Ramona v. Isabella
Gary Ramona (father) accused by daughter to have abused her
Claim came after daughter attended therapy by Marche Isabella
—> “80% of all bulimics have been sexually abused”
Father lost wife, daughters, job
–> sued daughter’s therapist as third party
- \> awarded damages - \> first time third party sued therapist and won
For a theory based on repressed & recovered memories to be supported, what must be true?
- Traumatic memories must be - at least sometimes - repressed
- Repressed memories must be - at least sometimes - recovered accurately
Issues with repressed memories
Memory of traumatic events
- assumption: traumatic memories are “different”
- > may depend on the question asked
Repression
->PTSD as counterargument because cannot get trauma out of mind
Dissociation
- split in consciousness; psychologically detach themselves from traumatic situation
- > in turn may affect normal cognitive functioning, including attention and memory processes
- evidence that we can process info below conscious awareness
- > Madame D: told husband dead, no memory but bad feeling at door where she was told
- > Claparede: anterograde amnesia, dr. shakes her hand with pin in it, next time she refuses to shake his hand stating “sometimes pins are hidden in people’s hands” (evidence that some memories form without conscious awareness)
Cue-dependent retrieval
- dichotic listening task (difference seen in implicit task, but not explicit)
- > recognition task, poor
- > spelling task, nearly twice as likely to spell less common homophome (evidence for unconscious processing)
- people may forget things not because it’s not in memory, but because we don’t have the right cues
- > along with event/memory, code context, which can be used as a cue
- People v. George Franklin
- > daughter remembered what father did by cue
Suggestiveness and social influence
- Goodman et al. (2003) 30% African Americans did not disclose as opposed to 15% overall
Memory of traumatic events
- assumption: traumatic memories are “different”
- > may depend on the question asked
Repression
->PTSD as counterargument because cannot get trauma out of mind
Dissociation
- split in consciousness; psychologically detach themselves from traumatic situation
- > in turn may affect normal cognitive functioning, including attention and memory processes
- evidence that we can process info below conscious awareness
- > Madame D: told husband dead, no memory but bad feeling at door where she was told
- > Claparede: anterograde amnesia, dr. shakes her hand with pin in it, next time she refuses to shake his hand stating “sometimes pins are hidden in people’s hands” (evidence that some memories form without conscious awareness)
Cue-dependent retrieval
- dichotic listening task (difference seen in implicit task, but not explicit)
- > recognition task, poor
- > spelling task, nearly twice as likely to spell less common homophome (evidence for unconscious processing)
People may forget things not because it’s not in memory, but because we don’t have the right cues
-> along with event/memory, code context, which can be used as a cue
People v. George Franklin
- daughter remembered what father did by cue
Anderson & Green
Presented word-pairs to subjects
- think/ no think
- > respond to words / supress words
Cued recall
-> supressed words were recalled less often
Willians- Seminal study
Claimed to be evidence for repressed memories
- 38% did not report having been abused
- > some not old enought during event to remember (10 months old)
- > some may not have been ready to admit/ face abuse
Goodman et al. (2003)
Increased likelyhood of disclosing
- older when abuse ended
- maternal support following disclosure of abuse
- more severe abuse
Ethnicitiy & dissociation
- 30% African Americans did not disclose as opposed to 15% overall
Does NOT support idea of special memory mechanisms
Repressed memory studies
Loftus, Polonsky, & Fullilove (1993)
- 18% claimed forgot the abuse for a period of time and later regained the memory
Herman and Schatzow (1987)
- 28% reported severe memory deficits
Briere and Conte (1995)
- 59% reported that, at some point, they had not remembered the forced sexual experience
Evidence that people can experience events for which they have no conscious memory
Madame D (told husband dead, no memory but fear at doorway where told)
Korsakoff’s patient (cannot store new memories, but won’t shake had because previos time had pin)
Eich, 1984 (word pair implicit task, spelled less common homophome)
Evidence that people can supress memories for non-traumatic events
Anderson & Green, 2001
Presented word-pairs to subjects
- think/ no think
- > respond to words / supress words
Cued recall
-> supressed words were recalled less often
Evidence (perhaps) that people can repress memories for traumatic events
Williams, 1994
Claimed to be evidence for repressed memories
- 38% did not report having been abused
- > some not old enought during event to remember (10 months old)
- > some may not have been ready to admit/ face abuse
