Week 7: False Memories Flashcards
What are everyday memories?
Behaviour designed to fufil specific goes and influenced by
Past experiances
Culture
Motivation
Personality
What is episodic memory?
Memories of personally experianced events including flashbulb memories
What kind of memories are flashbulb memories?
Episodic
What factors can affect everyday memories?
Past experiences, history and culture
Current motives and emotions
Intelligence and personality traits
Future goals and plans
What factors can affect episodic memories?
The context we remember them in
The cognitive state of the person
How deeply the original memory was processed
What are autobiographical memories?
Somewhere between semantic and episodic memory including facts about your life such as your age or where you used to live.
How can our autobiographical memory be inaccurate?
Some events can distract our memories from other events
We make errors on the details but generally remember the gist of the event
What are flashbulb memories?
These are a type of autobiographical memory that is exceptionally vivid and detailed. They occur when the event is surprising and important for the person receiving the news.
What parts of the brain are involved in flashbulb memories?
Hippocampus and amygdala
What was the Brown and Kulik study into flashbulb memory?
Participants were asked what they remembered about major events. 79/80 remembered where they were when they learnt about the assassination of JFK. 73/80 also reported experiencing a flashbulb memory for a personal event.
How did Brown and Kulik demonstrate the importance of personal relevance in flashbulb memories?
The presence of flashbulb memories also depends on personal relevance. 30/40 african americans had flashbulb memroies of where they were when they heard about the assassination of MLK compared to 13/40 white americans
How did Neisser and Harsch demonstrate the inaccuracy of flashbulb memories? (Challenger)
Over time, accurate recall can decrease. Participants were given a questionnaire the day after the Challenger shuttle exploded, and then another 32 months later. Only 7% were completely accurate. Confidence in their own memories still remained high.
What is the effect of delayed questioning after an incident?
Participants are given more time to consolidate memories so less suseptable to memory alteration
Although they showed less recall overall
Are flashbulb memories consisant over time when compared to everyday memories?
Everyday memories were more conssitant but flashbulb memories were more accurate and vivid
What is imagination inflation?
False memories can be strengthened through repeated retrieval
What was the ‘lost in the mall’ study by Loftus and Pickrell?
Participants read short narratives of childhood events provided by family members including the false one about the mall
They were then asked to recall their own memories of the events
25% of the participants ‘remembered’ being lost in the mall
What is the misinformation effect?
Misleading information can replace true information which then leads to inaccurate information being retrieved
What is the difference in brain activities between real and false memories?
True memories show more activation in the visual processing areas
How can we criticize research into flashbulb memories?
Participants aren’t generalisable
Lab stories aren’t ecologically valid
What is an eyewitness testimony?
An account given by people relating to a crime they have witnessed
How accurate is our recognition of faces in CCTV images?
65%
35% false positives when the target is not present
What percentage of prosecutors think a confident witness is more accurate?
75%
How does eyewitness testimony relate to wrongful convictions?
It’s the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the US
After looking at DNA evidence, over 350 people have been exonerated
Why do witnesses make mistakes when recalling crimes?
Wepon focus
Stress
Anxiety
