When memory fails Flashcards
“Drawing a blank” and Mistaken memory:
“Drawing a blank”: no memory at all is recovered
Mistaken memory: we think we remember, but we make a mistake in what we recall in subtle or significant ways
Memory failures
The Seven Sins of Memory
-Sins of Omission (Act of Forgetting)
- Absentmindedness
- Transience
Blocking
(Act of Remembering)
Persistence (unwanted remembering)
Sins of Commission (Reconstructions) Bias
Memory misattribution Suggestibility
Absentmindedness
- Lapse in attention that results in memory failure
- Inattention to a stimulus impairs one’s ability to encode, store, and later retrieve information
Transience
Forgetting with the passage of time
Hermann Ebbinghaus nonsense syllables
The Forgetting Curve
Overcoming the Curve
Decay vs. Interference
- Passage of time does not seem to be a powerful factor in explaining forgetting. Number of intervening events a more useful variable to examine to explain forgetting
Interference:
-Proactive interference
- Old learning interferes with the ability to remember new information
Retroactive interference
- New learning interferes with the ability to remember old
information
Blocking – Tip‐of‐the‐tongue‐phenomenon
An inability to retrieve stored information
Tip‐of‐the‐tongue phenomenon
Interference from words that are similar in
some way (e.g., sound or meaning)
Persistence
Recurrence of unwanted memories
Flashbulb memories
Vivid visually and emotionally Occurs in PTSD
Role of Amygdala
Sins of Commission
Commission
Bias
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Consistency bias
Change bias
-exaggerate difference in how we feel now versus then
Egocentric bias
-self‐enhancing
Intrusion: Misinformation
Memory misattribution
- Primary cause of eyewitness
misidentifications
Source monitoring
- Internal, external or reality based: checking on yourself
False recognition
- Can be reduced with distinctive information
False Memories
Suggestibility, Memory, and Trauma
- Most traumatic events are well‐remembered
- Some events seem to be “enhanced” or even more vivid
than other memories
Exceptions do exist and memory may be troubled/incomplete/absent:
Age at time of event
Other confounding factors (sleep deprivation, head injury,
medication/drug usage at time of event) Extreme stress
Eyewitness testimony
Loftus & Palmer (1974) Study Results
Take‐Home Message
- Memory is distributed among different brain regions. Memory does not “live” in one part of the brain.
- Many variables come into play when discussing common principles / phenomena of memory
- Links among memory, attention and perception: trying to inform us about “reality”
To Remember is an Action
