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Cognitive Psychology > Everyday Memory and Memory Errors > Flashcards

Everyday Memory and Memory Errors Flashcards

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1
Q

Define memory.

A

The process involved in retaining, retrieving and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.

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2
Q

Explain how memories are created by a process of construction.

A

The construction process is based on what actually happened, combined with other things that have happened, and our general knowledge about how things usually happen.

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3
Q

Define autobiographical memory.

A

Memory for specific experiences from our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components.

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4
Q

What kind of memory involves mental time travel?

A

Episodic memory.

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5
Q

Give two characteristics of autobiographical memory.

A

It is multidimensional, and we remember some events in our lives better than others.

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6
Q

Give the three multidimensional components of autobiographical memory.

A

Spatial, emotional and sensory components.

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7
Q

What did Greenberg and Rubin find regarding visual memory?

A

Patients who lost their ability to recognise objects or to visualise objects, due to damage in visual areas of the cortex, also experienced a loss in autobiographical memory.

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8
Q

Why may Greenberg and Rubin have found that visual information plays a vital role in autobiographical memory?

A

The visual stimuli was no longer present to serve as a retrieval cue.

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9
Q

What part of memory is the hippocampus associated with?

A

Mental time travel.

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10
Q

What part of memory is the prefrontal cortex associated with?

A

Processing information about the self.

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11
Q

What brain areas are activated when a person looks at a photo?

A

The medial temporal lobe and an area in the parietal cortex involved in processing scenes.

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12
Q

What type of memory is the medial temporal lobe associated with?

A

Episodic memory.

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13
Q

What kind of points in people’s lives are more memorable?

A

Transition points.`

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14
Q

What is the reminiscence bump?

A

The enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood found in people over 40.

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15
Q

Who proposed the self-image hypothesis?

A

Rathbone.

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16
Q

Describe the self-image hypothesis.

A

Memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed.

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17
Q

What is the cognitive hypothesis?

A

Periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories.

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18
Q

Give evidence in support of the cognitive hypothesis.

A

The reminiscence bump occurs later for people who experienced rapid change later in life.

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19
Q

What does the cultural life script hypothesis distinguish between?

A

A person’s life story and a cultural life script.

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20
Q

What is a cultural life script?

A

The culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the life span.

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21
Q

Explain the cultural life script hypothesis.

A

Events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture.

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22
Q

Name three theories that attempt to explain the reminiscence bump.

A

The self-image hypothesis, the cognitive hypothesis, and the cultural life script hypothesis.

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23
Q

Give some connections between emotional memory and the amygdala. (2)

A

Amygdala activity is higher upon viewing profane or sexually explicit words, and damage to the amygdala results in normal memory for emotional events, compared to enhanced memory in controls.

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24
Q

What is memory consolidation?

A

The process that strengthens memory for an experience and takes place over minutes or hours after the experience.

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25
The link between emotion and consolidation was initially suggested by animal research. Explain.
Central nervous system stimulants administered shortly after training on a task can enhance memory for the task, due to the effect of cortisol.
26
What is released after an emotional experience to increase consolidation of memory?
Stress hormones.
27
How can emotions impair memory?
Emotions can cause a focus on objects that are particularly important, which decreases memory for other objects.
28
What is weapons focus?
The tendency to focus attention on a weapon during a crime.
29
Who proposed the term flashbulb memory? (2)
Brown and Kulik.
30
Define flashbulb memory.
A person's memory for the circumstances surrounding shocking, highly charged events, but for the circumstances around how a person heard about the event, not the event itself.
31
What is repeated recall?
The technique of comparing later memories to memories collected immediately after the event.
32
What does repeated recall function as?
A baseline to measure later changes in memory.
33
How are flashbulb memories different from everyday memories?
People think flashbulb memories are stronger and more accurate than everyday memories, but ultimately there is no difference.
34
What enhances the subjective sense of remembering?
Emotions.
35
What is the subjective sense of remembering? (3)
The vividness of the memory, confidence that it is accurate, and the sense of reliving an event.
36
What decreases memory for details of a scene?
Emotions.
37
What did Rimmele find regarding emotion and memory?
Emotions enhance our ability to remember that an event occurred and some general characteristics, but not details.
38
Give the three factors that can affect flashbulb memories.
Emotion, rehearsal, and media coverage.
39
Who came up with the narrative rehearsal hypothesis?
Neisser.
40
Explain the narrative rehearsal hypothesis.
We remember flashbulb events, not because of a special mechanism, but because we rehearse these events after they occur.
41
Explain the constructive nature of memory.
What people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, like knowledge, experiences, and expectations.
42
Who conducted the "war of the ghosts" experiment?
Bartlett.
43
What is repeated reproduction?
A technique where participants attempt to remember features of a stimuli at longer and longer intervals after the first exposure.
44
Why is Bartlett's experiment important?
It was the first to use repeated reproduction.
45
Define source monitoring.
The process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs.
46
What is a source monitoring error?
Misidentifying the source of a memory.
47
Give another name for source monitoring errors.
Source misattributions.
48
What is cryptoamnesia, and what is it associated with?
Unconsious plagiarism of the works of others, and source misattributions.
49
How does Johnson describe memory?
A process that makes use of a number of types os information, primarily information from the event (experiences, emotions, and thoughts), knowledge, and events preceding and after the event.
50
Define pragmatic inference.
A process that occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or implied by the sentence.
51
What is a schema?
A person's knowledge about some aspect of the environment.
52
How are schemas developed?
Through our experiences in different situations.
53
What is a script?
A type of schema that is our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience.
54
How do scripts influence memory?
By setting up expectations about what usually happens in a particular situation.
55
The constructive property of memory reflects the creative nature of our mental processes, which enable us to do things like:
Understand language, solve problems, and make decisions.
56
What were the negative consequence of Shereshevkii's near limitless memory? (2)
He had trouble forgetting what he had just remembered, and was not good at reasoning that involved making inferences based on partial information.
57
What does A.J. have excellent memory for?
Personal experiences.
58
What did A.J. have impaired performance in?
Tests that involved organising material, thinking abstractly, and working with concepts.
59
Define the misinformation effect.
Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how the person describes that event later.
60
Who discovered the misinformation effect?
Loftus.
61
What is retroactive inference?
More recent learning interferes with memory for something that happened in the past.
62
Give the two explanations for the misleading post-event information effect.
The original information is forgotten due to retroactive inference, and source misattribution.
63
Explain the source misattribution explanation for the misleading post-event information effect.
The person incorrectly concludes that the source of their memory for the incorrect event was the original event, and not the experimenter's statement.
64
How can familiarity explain false memories?
Familiarity with the concept of the false memory from previous exposure causes people to accept them as a real event.
65
What is eyewitness testimony?
Testimony by a person who was present at the crime about what they saw during commission of the crime.
66
What did Wells and Bradfield find?
The post-identification feedback effect.
67
What is the post-identification feedback effect?
The increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification.
68
Give two explanations for why being tested increases the misinformation effect.
The attention explanation, and the reconsolidation explanation.
69
Describe the attention explanation for the misinformation effect.
Taking the test draws attention to specific events in the original, and these events may have stood out more as the misinformation was presented, so were more likely to be changed.
70
Describe the reconsolidation explanation for the misinformation effect.
Having subjects take the recall test reactivated their memory and opened a window during which memory became fragile, so it was more likely that the misinformation would be confused with the original memory.
71
What is the reconsolidation effect?
The act of remembering causes reactivation of the memory, and once memory is reactivated, it becomes fragile and subject to change until it is strengthened by reconsolidation.
72
Give some recommendations to prevent inaccurate eyewitness testimony in lineups. (4)
Inform the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the particular lineup they are viewing; use fillers who are similar to the suspect; sequential rather than simultaneous presentation; and use a blind lineup administration and get an immediate confidence rating.
73
What is the cognitive interview based on?
What is known about memory retrieval.
74
Describe the process of the cognitive interview.
The witness talks with a minimum of interruption, and uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the crime scene by having them imagine they are back in the scene, recreating emotions, sights, and how the scene may have appeared from different angles.
75
What does the cognitive interview decrease?
The likelihood of any suggestive input by the person conducting the interview.
76
Give a disadvantage of the cognitive interview.
It takes longer than standard interviewing procedures.
77
Comparisons of cognitive interviews to police interviews have show that the cognitive interview results in:
A large increase in the reports of correct details, and a small increase in incorrect details.

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