lecture 5 - the social influences of memory

Question 1

the social context of memories
-significance
-memories are subject to…

Answer 1

Memories have personal and social significance.
Remembering is a social process, e.g., the cultural transmission of memories involves repeated retellings.

→ memories are subject to the same social pressures as
other behaviors, beliefs, or decisions.
→ memories can be constructed and reconstructed both
by the individual and by larger groups

Question 3

terminology of memory conformity

Answer 3

memory conformity (e.g., Roediger et al., 2001)

social contagion of memory (e.g., Wright et al., 2000)
effects of co-witness information

Question 4

asch experiment 1955 ‘vision’ test

Answer 4

-presented to participants as a vision test
-presented with 3 lines and a target line and to match the target with one of the 3 lines eg
- some of them did this on their own
-some were in a group with conderates , the confedrates would choose the wrong answer on purpose to see how pp would react
-even though answer was clear, you see participnat conforming to group answer

Question 5

THE CONFORMITY EFFECT
Roediger, Meade, and Bergmann (2001)

Answer 5

Study: view scenes (e.g., kitchen) with high-expectancy (things we would expect to find) and low-expectancy objects for 15 sec or 60 sec.

manipulation : Collaborative recall: joint memory task with a confederate who recalls studied items but also never-studied high-expectancy and low-expectancy objects (“contagion” items) (other intruding items are called “control” items here)

Final recall (individual testing)

More contagion for high-expectancy items, especially in the fast-study condition.

Question 6

THE CONFORMITY EFFECT
Meade and Roediger (2002)

Answer 6

Exp3: same procedure with exposure to confederates’ written responses (i.e., by reading experimental protocols – 0, 1, or 4 of
these protocols included contagion items).
Test: initial recall test, contagion phase (participants were asked to compare their recall to that of other participants), final test

More false contagion after reading four protocols.
I.e., increased exposure to misinformation → stronger effect.

Question 7

ADDING/REMOVING DETAILS
Wright et al. (2005)

Answer 7

Study: study HF/LF words (Exp1), pictures of cars (Exp2), pictures of faces (Exp3)
Tested with or without a confederate providing incorrect answers

Test results:
* Studied (old) items: weaker effect of confederates’ responses
* Unstudied (new) items: stronger effect of confederates’ responses

Question 8

who do we tend to believe
-factors influencing credibility and misinformation

Answer 8

Factors influencing credibility and misinformation:

• role in the event (innocent by-stander vs. guilty party; Dodd & Bradshaw, 1980)
• identity/status/competence of the co-rememberer
• a partner vs. a stranger (French et al., 2008)
• a psychologist vs. a child (Underwood & Pezdek, 1998)
• a younger vs. old witness (Kwong See et al., 2001; Thorley, 2015)
• study time (Gabbert et al., 2007)
• confidence