Week 9 Flashcards
Fundamental Nature of Memory
3
1) Memory representations are only as good as the input
2) Memory is reconstructive
3) Expectations can be manipulated
Memory only as good as the details which are encoded
1) Sensory limitation
2) Attentional bottleneck
Sensory limitations prevent all of the details of a scene or an event from being registered in memory
Attentional bottleneck limits the amount of information that is perceived
Distance and perception
Distance affects perception => which in turn affects memory
The visual system spatially removes details (proportional to distance)
Practical aspects:
How can someone recognise ppl from line ups?
Often why there are misidentification
Distractions and encoding
Daniels (1895)
Distraction interferes with encoding => thus memory
The amount of interference increases the longer you have to wait before recall
like forgetting the name of ppl you just met.
Distinctive Features attract attention
1) Light, Kayra-Stuart & Hollander (1979)
2) Fleischman et al. (1976)
1) Faces which are dissimilar to prototypical or average faces are easier to remember
2) Attractive & Unattractive faces are recalled better than moderately attractive faces
Weapon focus!
Loftus et al. (1987)
People FIXATE faster and for longer on unusual (i.e., salient) or highly informative (i.e., valid) objects
Weapon focus: Fixating on the salient stimulus rather than the the faces Line up identifications: Control: 38% hits Weapon: 11% hits
1) Memory representations are only as good as the input
Summary
Memory of details is only as good as the perception of those details
Attention, salience, & distraction affect what “gets in” to memory
Construction of memory:
Schema
Schema:
1) is a concept or set of ideas or framework for representing some aspect of the world.
2) influence how you interpret new information and impt in determining what you pay attention to when learning.
3) determine what you learn and how you represent that knowledge.
Construction of memory:
Schema
Pros and Cons
often very beneficial. Schema improves comprehension and recall for passages.
BUT
it can also lead to distortions in memory:
1) Information inconsistent with the schema is often reinterpreted or distorted to fit the schema
2) Schema are very hard to change; even in the face of contradictory information
Constructive Memory
Carmichael, Hogan & Walter (1932)
12 trials; participants can look at the image as many times as possible;
2 Condition: varied by label (the same pic , ambiguous, presented as 7 or 4. etc)
objective: What % of the drawings were distorted to the label?
Recollections were altered in the direction of the label (70%)
Knowledge of the item superseded the actual details of the studied item
Constructive Memory
Sir Frederick Bartlett (1932
Sydney)
Details
Memorise stories or pictures
Examine how those memories changed over time/ or passed along
Experiment 1:
Presented British participants with a Native American folk tale “The War of the Ghosts”
Immidiate repeat
Several days/weeks/years later
each time transcribing the changes in the narrative
Constructive Memory
Sir Frederick Bartlett (1932)
Analysis of changes
General outline stays constant for each subject after first recall
Style and rhythm are altered
Forms and items become stereotyped
Story is rationalized; meaning of various symbols is added
Conclusion
With infrequent reproduction, details are omitted or simplified and items be transformed to more familiar forms (fitting schema)
Summary?
hmm
Memory is reconstructive
thus misleading
Providing a misleading cue affects how the schema is retrieved and altered to explain that detail
Big picture:
Cues are data, the schema is a hypothesis which adapts to explain that data
Oral Traditions:
Lynne Kelly (2016) The Memory Code
Some strange to others is familiar to the ingroup (Indigenous stories)
