Cognitive Note - Lecture 8 Chapter 8 on Memory PDF

Lecture 8 Chapter 8 Everyday memory and memory errors Autobiographical Memory (AM) key words: Autobiographical Memory (AM) • memory for specific experiences from our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components. visual memory still can see x Two characteristics of Autobiographica...

Lecture 8 Chapter 8 Everyday memory and memory errors Autobiographical Memory (AM) key words: Autobiographical Memory (AM) • memory for specific experiences from our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components. visual memory still can see x Two characteristics of Autobiographical Memory (AM) 1. multidimensional • consist of spatial, emotional and sensory components ~ Autobiographical ~ memory e.g. patients who have brain damage that causes a loss of visual memory, without causing blindness, illustrates the importance of the sensory component of AM. e.g. patients who have lost their ability to recognise or visualise object, because of damage to visual cortex also have lost of AM. X recognise x visual 2. We remember some events in our lives better than others x Cabeza 2004 purpose: illustrates a difference between AM and laboratory memory X visual contex Autobiographical memory procedure: 1. brain activation patterns were compared with 2 sets of stimulus photographs 2. one set: ppt took themselves (own photos) 3. another set: taken by someone else (lab photos) few days later 4. Ppt saw their own photos and the lab photos, and some new photos they have never seen -> indicate whether each stimulus was an own photo, lab photo or new photo -> Brain photos were measured by fMRI process scenes parietal in treat Result: • ↑ both own photos and lab photos: -> activated same structures in the brain ; - medial temporal lobe associated with episodic memory hippo - ↑ mental travel time • parietal cortex involved in processing scenes • own photos caused more activation than the lab photos in the prefrontal cortex • prefrontal cortex: associate processing information about self • hippocampus: involve in recollection ‘mental time travel’ = add richness to autobiographical memories => elicit emotions which activate Amygdala Memory over the lifespan 1. Significant events in person’s life e.g. first date with someone you have long term relationship 2. highly emotional events e.g. birth of child 3. Transition points e.g. University life Key words: Reminiscence Bump 回憶顛簸 Pillemer 1996 purpose: transition points in people’s lives appear to be particularly memorable e.g. when you ask students to recall the most influential event from their first year at university, they will mainly provide descriptions of events that had occurred in their first month in study e.g. if ask the alumni the same question, they will remember more events from the beginning of their first year and from the end of their final year Reminiscence bump key word: Reminiscence bump (past memory) • memory is high for events that occurred in adolescence and young adulthood that is typically found in people over 40 why do Reminiscence bump? why are adolescence and young adulthood special times for encoding memories? 1st explanation = adolescent and adulthood is the time when you develop your self-identity key word: Self-image hypothesis key word: Cognitive hypothesis 2nd explanation: memory is better when there are rapid change, a lot of things change key word: cultural life-script hypothesis e.g. a record of culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the lifespan, when the important events in a typical person’s life usually occur. ↳ fall in love at 16, finishing university at 22, getting married at 27 and having children at 28. • most commonly mentioned events occur during the period associated with the reminiscence bump • doesn’t mean events in a specific person’s life always occur at those times • according to the cultural life-script hypothesis, events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture. ↑ memory Memory for ‘exceptional’ events amygdale en #* Key word: cortisol enhance memory Expose stress following the encoding period C result: • hormone activation that occurs subsequent to arousing emotional experiences enhances memory consolidation in humans Flashbulb memories EY • • • I the process of forming memory to the taking of a photograph itE :Y a link between emotion and memory for highly memorable events refer to memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an event, not memory for the event itself 7 -> ↑ EINE E VS 44 , Only way to check for accuracy is to compare the person’s memory to what actually happened or to memory reports collected immediately after the event. , ‘Flashbulb memories’ aren’t like photographs Repeated recall task show memories are not like photographs remain the same for many years TE # - * e.g. people’s experiences following the event (people may have seen accounts of the explosion) and their general knowledge (people often first hear about important news not on TV. = flashbulb memories are not so special after Tararioco and Rubin 2003 purpose: doubt that flashbulb memories are different from regular memory procedure: 1. asked ppt about the terrorist attacks ‘when did u first hear the news?’ 2. asked ppt about the other everyday event in the person’s life that occurred in the days just preceding the attacks 3. Some ppts were re-tested after one week, some six weeks and some 32 weeks 4. Rating the vividness and how well they could 'relive’ the events • also stayed high and constant for the flashbulb result: • flashbulb memory is special appears to be based at least partly fact that people think their memories are stronger and more accurate • however, in reality, there was little or no difference between flashbulb and everyday memories in terms of the amount and accuracy of what is remembered. e.g. weapon focus Rehearsal, media coverage, flashbulb memories key word: narrative rehearsal hypothesis • rehearse these events after they occur • rehearsal and media coverage affect memory • if rehearsal is the reason for our memory of significant event, then the flashbulb analogy is misleading The constructive nature of memory H * -> This approach of memory is ‘constructive’ because the first study memory is constructive - recall as accurately as possible The nature of errors ppt has made key approach: source monitoring • memories are comprised of details from various sources involves a phenomenon • the process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge or beliefs e.g. eye witness testimony source monitoring error/ source misattribution: remember the wrong crime scene e.g. you had experience of remembering that one person told you about something but later you realising you had heard it from someone else, the experience of claiming you had said something you had only thought about B Y 177 key word: crypto amnesia : - sensational examples of source monitoring errors - potential worry in creative industry: a mental illusion in which people believe that they have produced a new idea when in fact they have simply unwittingly retrieved an old, previously encountered idea from memory 42 ⑧ = How real-world knowledge affects memory 73.97] , Schemas and scripts result: • information in schemas can provide a guide for making inferences about what we remember, although in this particular example, the inference is wrong • falsely recalling schema-consistent items increase over longer retention intervals = our memory becomes more reliant on schemata over time Script • script can influence our memory by setting up expectations about what usually happens in a particular situation result: • created stories included much material that matched the original stories also included materials that wasn’t presented in the original story, but it is part of the script for the activity described Memory can be modified or created by suggestion key word: the misinformation effect witness MPI change description P.244 MPI as causing source monitoring errors A De False memories for early events in people’s lives Purpose: to create false memory in students for long ago events using the procedure Procedure: 1. Ask ppt’s parents about the actual events that happened when ppt was a child 2. experimenter added descriptions of false events such as spilling a bowl of punch at a wedding reception results: - experiment 1: told ppt that he went to a wedding and turned a bowl of punch over ppt respond ‘No’ no memory of attending the wedding - experiment 2: told ppt again that he had attended the wedding after 2 days = waiting 2 days caused the event to merge as a false memory = explain familiarity and source of attribution Eye witness testimony -> I actually happen expectation experience knowledge , , Bystanders add another dimension to the testimony because they may mistakenly identified as a perpetrator because of familiarity from other context This increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification What is being done? that Increase similarity does result in missed identification of some guilty suspects , greatly reduces the error identification of innocent people