Autobiographical Memory: Reminiscence Bump & Amnesia

• Autobiographical memory involves both semantic and episodic elements.
• Autobiographical memory shapes identity through facts and events.
• Autobiographical memories are not evenly distributed throughout life.
• Autobiographical memories are made up of what has happened in life.
• Autobiographical memory consists of semantic (knowledge and concepts) and episodic (experienced events).

Reminiscence Bump

• People tend to remember events from ages 10 to 30.
• Reminiscence bump was discovered by Rubin and colleagues in 1998.

Infantile Amnesia

• Refers to the lack of memories from early childhood.
• Lack of memories is due to the brain learning regularities and not strong memory formation.

Self-Image Hypothesis

• Memory is linked to forming self-identity, taste, and preferences.
• People tend to list memories from when growing up and after reflecting on "I am."
• Identity-relevant memories typically formed between ages 10 and 30.

Cognitive Instability Hypothesis

• Unstable memories are more effective for people in stable environments.
• Many changes occur during growth (moving, losing friends, new jobs, marriage, kids).
• Immigration to the US leads to instability in memory.
• Immigrating between 20-24 results in more memories compared to immigrating at 34-35.
• Massive change encodes these memories effectively as is novel and involves cognitive processing.

Cultural Life Script Hypothesis

• Knowledge of episodic moments and events that everyone experiences.
• First date, graduation, marriage, and the birth of a first child are all examples of these events.
• These events provide a framework or template allowing for easier recall.

Emotional Memory

• Emotional memories are highly emotionally charged.
• The amygdala is involved in emotional processing and memory formation.
• Normal amygdalas are used to test how well people remember mundane vs emotional stimuli.
• Exposing individuals to images while their hand is in ice increases cortisol (the stress hormone).
  • Ice bucket and bowl of water were used as controls.
  • Neutral stimuli included soccer balls.
  • Emotionally charged stimuli included weapons.
• Cortisol aids memory consolidation via amygdala activation.
  • Increased stress and amygdala activation lead to better encoding.

Weapon Focus

• People focus on an item someone is holding.
• Neutral stimuli cause people to remember details of the person.
• Emotional objects can impair focus on details of the person.
  • This is due to the tendency to focus on weapons.
  • Weapons cause bottom-up attention capture.

Flashbulb Memories

• Refer to vivid and detailed emotional memories.
• Flashbulb memories are believed to be stable (Brown and Kulik, 1977).
• Flashbulb memories are recalled when talking to people about the JFK assassination.
• Flashbulb memories are vivid, stable recollections of what people were doing.
• Neisser and Harsch (1992) studied flashbulb memories of the Challenger Disaster in 1986.
  • The study looked into how accurate flashbulb memories are.
  • 75% of memories changed and did not match after 2 years.
  • Example testimony from 1986: "I was in my religion class...I watched the TV program."
  • Example testimony from 1988: "I was sitting in my freshman dorm room...I called my parents."
• Talarico and Rubin (2003) studied memories of 9/11.
  • The study looked into memories of what happened that day and the days prior.
  • Recall details are just normal memories, remembering more for everyday details than from the event.
  • Believe Rate: Beliefs increase beliefs about this memory, regardless of reality.

Wrong Time Slice Hypothesis

• Memories jumble up when rehearsing different sources.
• Misattribution of source results in mixing information.

Narrative Rehearsal Hypothesis

• Memories are refreshed on the events every time it is seen.
• Each time an event is rehearsed, the context changes and details mix.
• Media influences memory.
• 44% of people remember seeing a car chase in relation to Princess Diana's car crash (Ost et al, 2002).
• Hyperthymesia is excessive remembering.
  • Only 62 people have this good and detailed memory of events.
• Memory construction is actively reconstructed, rather than passively reproduced.
• Knowledge is used to fill the gaps of missing information.

Cultural Influences (Bartlett, 1932)

• "War of the Ghosts" demonstrated how cultural knowledge is integrated.
• Originally the story involved two young men hunting seals.
• Details such as canoes and war cries were integrated.
• People insert details from their own culture.
• When episodic details are forgotten, they are replaced with semantic details.

Role of General Knowledge

• Pragmatic inferences (McDermott and Chan, 2006) demonstrate general word-filling.
  • When participants did not remember, they made mistakes that made sense.
  • Prior knowledge helps in filling gaps.
• Schematic knowledge involves environmental regularities or patterns.
• Schematic knowledge is based in mental templates, images, or representations developed through repeated exposure.
  • People recall objects from an office (Brewer and Treyens, 1981).
• Errors in recall come from schema, from schematic knowledge.
• Scripts involve a sequence of actions for certain situations.
• Going to the dentist is a script, as detailed by Bower et al (1979).
• Spreading activation is built from personal experience.
• The network of neurons encodes a concept and maps related ideas and semantics

Misinformation Effect (Elizabeth Loftus)

• Event- misleading information - memory test

Retroactive Interference

• Misleading information affects recall.
  • "Car hitting a pedestrian": Video of a car approaching and hitting a pedestrian.
  • Participants were asked whether another car passed the red Datsun while it was stopped at the stop sign.
  • The control group was asked about the car passing when it was a yield sign.
• Suggestibility occurs when individuals are asked more misleading questions.
  • How much do you exaggerate by saying two cars colliding?
  • "How fast was the car traveling when it smashed into the other car? (41 mph)"
  • How fast was the car traveling when it bumped into the other car? (34 mph)
  • "Did you see broken glass?" (32% said yes when smashed, 14% when bumped)
• Lost in the mall study tests if memories can be implanted in people.
  • Suggesting something happened and giving details after building trust, asking about what might have happened.

Implications for Therapy

• Eyewitness testimony is important for courts and legal settings.
• Accuracy in memory is critical across many contexts.

Eyewitness Testimony

• Weapon focus is a tendency to focus on weapons (Stanny & Johnson, 2000).
• Witnesses focus on the weapon and not the other information when a gunshot occurs.
• Line-ups: what are the issues?
  • There is pressure to choose when doing a line-up.
  • Witnesses may assume the suspect is in the lineup.
  • Benefits of interactive exploration lets each perpetrator explore different angles (Meyer et al 2023).

Fillers

• Fillers should be similar suspects (Lindsay and Wells, 1980).
• In high vs low similarity lineups, those who don't see a perpetrator but do see similar people will select someone anyway.

Sequential Lineups (Lindsay and Wells, 1985)

• Sequential is a testing mode versus simultaneous.
• Sequential line-ups require no comparing, instead making individual judgments.

Feedback (Wells and Bradfield, 1998)

• Suggestibility is important, so administer with a "blind" administrator.