WEEK 6: Remembering Complex Events Flashcards
1a. Describe Crombag et al. (1996) and Brewer & Treyens (1981), which have demonstrated how people make memory errors.
Also: define crashing memories. (3)
- Asked Dutch participants if they’d seen footage of the moment an LLELAL cargo plane crashed into an 11 story apartment building in Amsterdam.
107 / more than half said yes they saw it. - WHY?
- we fill in the blanks
- huge interconnected node network - may lose track of node boundaries (may be associated, not part of the episode) - Crashing memories: Asking people if they’ve seen non existent footage of an event. Usually a car/plane crash.
2a. Explain how understanding can both help and hurt memory.
Intrusion errors.
Example.
HELP
- recall more (sentences) as it strengthens retrieval path connections
- faster recall
HURT
- more inferences
- intrusion errors: blurred nodes - part of episode vs association
e.g. Nancy’s cocktail party
3a. Describe the DRM effect and why it occurs.
Example
- using schema to fill in gaps
- e.g. list of bedroom words = also recalled seeing word theme 50% of the time. “bed, rest…”. Recalled “sleep” too.
4a. Explain how schema contribute to memory errors.
Define schema.
“Patterns of thinking and behaviour that people use to interpret the world.”
HOW
- filling gaps with what is normal. ‘Clean up’ the past - typical vs atypical.
- normal things remain in memory, abnormal reconstructed / lost.
(good: recall, prepared)
1b. Describe the misinformation effect and why it occurs.
- Loftus et al., 1978 misinformation effect.
stop (41% yes)/yield (75% yes), another car pass? - Loftus & Palmer 1974.
car speed, hit (34 m/ph)/smashed 41m/ph).
2b. Describe how false and true photos have been used to implant false childhood memories.
Define imagination inflation.
- Garry et al., 1996. life event’s inventory.
Confidence of events before age 10, imagine 4 fake events. Later memory test = rate confidence events happened before 10. - Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
Describe 4 childhood events in detail. 1 false. - Porter et al., 1996. Rebuttal. False memory of traumatic event. Presented. Recall. Recall later.
- Wade et al., 2002. Hot air balloon. 3 true, HAB false.
Imagination inflation: increased confidence one has experienced an imagined event that did not really happen during a memory test at a later date.
3b. Explain whether people’s confidence about their memories can be used as an indication of the accuracy of their memories.
- confidence not always = accuracy
- feedback = confidence (Wells & Bradfield, 1998 - lineup feedback).
1c. What are the three possible explanations for forgetting?
Define the retention interval and retrieval failure.
Retention interval: the tendency to lose info over time.
3 main explanations:
1) Decaying:
- Memorises fade or erode over time, weak if not used.
- Brain cells associated with those memories may die.
2) Interference:
- Constantly retrieving a new memory linked to a SPECIFIC TOPIC strengthens, makes old weaker.
E.g. new vs old address retrieval.
Retrieval failure: not enough retrieval cues to access that info. e.g. childhood friend’s name. More clues/hair/first letter.
2c. Explain whether we can “undo” forgetting.
- Hypnosis
More info but might not be accurate. Not undoing forgetting.
e..g drawing like 6 y/o hypnotised. - The cognitive interview
Cues help memory.
Mental context reinstatement: police ask people to mentally reinstate the context - who was there/feeling/thinking etc. Imagine or go back.
1d. What is autobiographical memory?
Example.
- life episode memories.
- identity
- behaviour
- emotional (consolidated well, amygdala and hippocampus)
Kelley et al., 2002.
- applying info to yourself, other (president) or case.
2d. Explain the self-reference effect and self-schema and why they are important in autobiographical memory.
self-reference effect: “a tendency to pay attention to self-referent information and, to evaluate ourselves relative to salient standards.
- self-focused
- hearing name, evaluate if proud?
self-schema: perception of what is usual for oneself.
e.g. false grade recall - fill in gaps.
3d. What is memory consolidation and how is it enhanced by emotion?
“the process through which memories are biologically “cemented”.
emotion:
- important/revisit often, amygdala/hippocampus
also:
- sleep
- emotion
4d. Describe flashbulb memories.
Ask if people remember time hearing about a death/emotion driven event.
Claim good memory.
E.g. Kennedy, personal events.
9/11.
Very confident. 43% different accounts 10y on.
5d. Why are traumatic events typically remembered better than non-traumatic events? Are there any exceptions?
- emotionally driven = enhanced consolidation
- stress = forgetting.
1e. Describe Bahrick and colleagues’ studies to explain how well people remember events over very long periods of time.
- many recognise yearbook people 47 yrs on. faster with name/pic recognition or matching though than free name recall
- episodic = better recall
