Lect8_Everyday Memory and Memory Errors PDF

In this topic, we will discuss: Everyday Memory – And  Memory for Personal Events Memory Errors...

In this topic, we will discuss: Everyday Memory – And  Memory for Personal Events Memory Errors Autobiographical memories Flashbulb memories KMF 1023  Causes of Memory Errors: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Inferred memories Lecturer: Norehan Zulkiply FSKPM False memories Universiti Malaysia Sarawak  Practical consequences Eyewitness testimony errors Memory for traumatic events Memory for Personal Experiences: Autobiographical Memory  Autobiographical memory Recollected events that belong to a person’s past (Rubin, 2005). Includes.. Memory for Personal Events  Episodic memory for dated events in our lives (i.e., must be part of our life stories)  Semantic memory (e.g., knowledge about your birth date, where did you celebrate it last 2 years)  Example: Your arrival at UNIMAS…  How are these events remembered? Episodic memory can fade with time, leaving semantic memory.  Memory for distant events become more semantic Memory for Personal Experiences: Life Life Span Memory: Span Memory The Reminiscence Bump  Life Span Memory : Schrauf & Rubin (1998): Enhanced memory for (episodic and semantic) facts of adolescence & young adulthood  Some events (about your own life) are remembered better than others Examples: milestones, transition periods… Percentage of memories People tend to have enhanced memory for from different ages, beginning of college year and end of college recalled by a 55-year old, showing the year. reminiscence bump (Rubin et al., 1998). The Reminiscence Bump phenomenon (reminiscence – to recall/ remember the past) People at this period of age (RB) assumes that “it is the time of our generation” 1 Hypotheses about the reminiscence bump Hypotheses about the reminiscence bump  Self-image hypothesis Memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-  Cognitive hypothesis image or life identity is being formed Memories during RB period are remembered best People assume identities during adolescence and young because they occur during a period of rapid change and adulthood stability  Many transitions occur between ages 10 and 30  Cultural life-script hypothesis Each person has  A personal life story  An understanding of culturally expected events Personal events are easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script. When does each of these event usually occur in a typical person’s life  Falling in love  Graduated from University/College  Marriage  Having children Memory for Personal Experiences: Flashbulb Memories (FbM)  Phenomenon: Shocking and emotionally charged events tend to be remembered very vividly (and more detailed than other events) Examples: Tsunami, Highland tower tragedy, the day the Penang jetty collapsed  Demonstration: What did you do on Aug 31 2001? Memories of personal experiences which are shocking and comprises of emotionally charged events. What did you do on Dec 26 2005? Not only occurs under highly emotional circumstances that What did you do on Sep 11 2001? are remembered for long periods of time BUT that they are vivid and detailed memories FbM: Evidence for a Special Mechanism  Strong Emotions Can Enhance Memory  Hamann et al. (1999): Use of PET scans to measure brain activity Emotionally charged images (pleasant and unpleasant) lead to higher amygdala How is Memory Constructed? activation and were more likely to be remembered (than neutral pictures)  Cahill et al. (1995): Case of patient B.P. who had amygdala damage Resulted in no enhanced memory for emotional events 2 How is Memory Constructed? The Constructive Nature of Memory  Bartlett’s “war of the ghosts” experiment Had participants read a story from Canadian folklore (about the sailing expedition of two Canadian men) and  Constructive approach to memory: asked participants to recall it as accurately as possible. The mind constructs memories based on a Used “Repeated Reproduction” - Participants came back number of sources of information a number of times to try to remember the story at longer and longer intervals after they first read it Knowledge,  Results  Memory = Actual event + experience & Over time, reproduction became shorter, contained expectations omissions and inaccuracies based on cultural expectations (e.g. the word “canoe” reproduced as “boats” (fits the England culture) Participants changed to make the story more consistent with their own culture Cultural expectations/knowledge can caused errors in memory 1. False Inferred Memories due to Evidence for Constructive Memory Experience  Possible memory ‘errors’: Omissions (when you omit or neglect)  Knowledge about our particular culture and day- to-day experience can lead to false memories Changes Role of schema & scripts Constructions (fabrications) Sets up expectations about what usually happened  Making errors in constructing memory  Schema : (false memories) due to : knowledge of the typical components of an experience Eg. Schema for studying at university, working as a Experience – eg. Inferred Memories, Schemas waiter at KFC and scripts Personal Bias Suggestions False Inferred Memories due to Experience False Inferred Memories due to Experience  Script :  Brewer & Treyens (1981) Type of Schema study: Schema for sequence of action that describe a  False memories due to highly familiar activity “office schema” Eg. Script for going to the cinema, for dining at a restaurant, for visiting the dentist  Result: Participants reported seeing items that were not in the real office but fitted into the regular schema of “office” 3 False Inferred Memories due to Experience False Inferred Memories due to Experience  Example of a script  Bower et al.’s (1979) study on script for  If you go to a new restaurant, in a city you have visiting a dentist never visited, you use a script that you usually Results: Participants added their own use in restaurants: knowledge on the script for visiting a dentist in You expect on entry to be greeted by a host/hostess. their memory recall test Shown to a table that is available. Reported remembering events they had not Given a menu. been shown in the test but which were Given some time to decide what you want to eat. consistent with the visiting a dentist script Waitress comes to your table to take you order Tell waitress clearly what you want. Waitress repeats your order…………………………. False Inferred Memories due to Experience 2.False Memories due to Personal Bias  Memory can be affected, and sometimes  Results from schema and scripts show distorted, by common biases that are how knowledge can affect memory related to personal and social factors such  People’s knowledge about the world has as : caused errors in their episodic memory how people perceive themselves and how they think about events in their lives False Memories due to Personal Bias 3.False Memories due to Suggestion  People are suggestible  Three types of false memories from our  Question: How easily can memory be modified by personal bias: suggestion? Eg: Advertisements, Political propaganda  Egocentric bias Tendency to remember positive traits about oneself  Misinformation effect : memory modification by misleading post-event  Consistency bias: information (MPI) Tendency to remember attitudes and behavior consistent with past attitudes and behavior. MPI: Misleading information presented after a person has witness an event can change how that person describes that event later  Positive change bias : Tendency to perceive things as ‘getting better’ Study by Loftus et al. 4 False Memories due to Suggestion Memory ≠ Video Recording A) Loftus et al. (1978): Stop vs. ‘yield’ sign …  Memory record is ‘imperfect’ Ps saw a series of slides depicting a – Errors of omission (incomplete, selective) traffic accident in which one car runs a stop sign & hit another car. – Errors of commission (distortions, Some Ps then listened to an accurate modifications) description of the event, but others heard MPI (that it was a yield sign at the intersection instead)  Question: Why has our memory system Those in MPI later reported they saw a yield sign been ‘designed’ (evolved in) that way? B) Loftus & Palmer (1974): cars ‘hit one another’ vs. ‘smashed’ into each other’ Speed estimates: 34 (hit) vs. 41 mph(smash) Picture of traffic accident similar to one seen by the participants in the ‘Broken glass’: Loftus et al. (1978) “misleading 14(hit) vs. 32% yes(smash) postevent information “ experiment. Why it is better to forget or have a Not so Perfect Memory? Analogy: ‘Fast & frugal’ Memory  Luria (1975): case of “S”- ‘virtually limitless’ memory  Like our perceptual system (see Ch. 3) our – could not forget irrelevant details memory system is primarily designed to work – bad at inductive reasoning (‘filling in the blanks’) efficiently  her ability to record massive amount of information and her inability to erase it may hinder her ability to perform IR  Anderson & Schooler (1991):  Tradeoff: Speed vs Accuracy  We remember relevant and frequent information to avoid system overload system design to selectively remember things that are important and often occur Eyewitness Testimony  Eyewitness testimony Testimony by an eyewitness to a crime about what he or she saw during the crime Eyewitness Testimony  People can make errors in giving eyewitness testimony 5  Errors Due to Emotions Errors in Eyewitness Testimony Stanny & Johnson (2000): The use of weapons…  The Problem: Fact 1: 200 people/day are incriminated based on eyewitness testimony Ps were asked to watch a Fact 2: Errors occur. film simulated crime and later asked to remember  Innocent people are convicted the details of it. 2 groups: Shoot – the gun was  Reasons for this phenomena: fired No shoot - a gun was Emotions present but not fired Familiarity (& source misattribution) Suggestion (& consistency bias) Results of Stanny and Johnson’s (2000) weapons-focus experiment. Presence of a weapon that was fired is associated with a decrease in memory about the perpetrator, the victim, and the weapon. Errors Due to Familiarity Errors Due to Familiarity Ross et al. (1994)’s study: Results of Ross et al. (1994): Note: Photospread included male teacher, but not actual robber! (b) Results of experiment when the actual robber WAS NOT in the photospread. In this condition, the male teacher was erroneously identified as the robber 60 percent of the (a) Design of Ross et al.’s (1994) experiment on the effect of familiarity on eyewitness time. testimony (continued on next slide). (c) Results when the actual robber WAS in the photospread. In this condition, the male teacher was erroneously identified less than 20 percent of the time. Errors Due to Suggestion Can Lost Memories be Recovered?  Recovered Memories: Wells & Bradfield (1998)’s study: Memories that occur when a situation caused the ‘Good, you identified the suspect…’ person to relive the memory Hypothesis: Past painful memories are repressed in a person’s unconsciousness until it is brought up years 1. Ps watched a video of an actual later usually through therapy crime 2. Ps were then asked to identify the  But there are reported cases of false Recovered perpetrator from a photospread Memories (that did not actually contain the pic of the perpetrator) no convincing evidence that the hypothetical 3. Ps received one of the 3 types of mechanism of repression actually exists feedback 4. A short time later, Ps were asked It is proposed that remembering painful experiences how confident were about their from the past involves the same mechanisms of identification/choice memory (due to creative mental processes)  Difficult to determine which recovered memories are true or false 6 Summary Summary What you need to know:  Autobiographical memories  Constructive memory A form of episodic memory for dated events Memory is constructed based on the actual event and additional information surrounding  Life span memory the actual event Memory for significant events in our life The constructive approach to memory also The Reminiscence Bump – better memory for allows for errors in remembering an event events in adolescence & young adulthood But can be shifted  False constructive memories can be due to  Flashbulb memories a person’s: Memory for shocking and emotionally charged events Experience – eg schema & script There are evidence for and against a special memory Personal bias mechanism for flashbulb memories Suggestions by others Summary  It is better to have an imperfect memory where we only remember relevant and frequent information Case patient S  Eyewitness testimony errors due to: Emotions Familiarity (& source misattribution) Suggestion  Recovery of lost memories is possible but sometimes you remember false lost memories 7