Memory 1 - memory distortions + EWT Flashcards
(12 cards)
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
focuses of essay
memory quality
memory consistency/accuracy
false memories
memory for time
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
memory quality - research
Much research: emotion ‘boosts’ the likelihood that we will remember at least some aspects of an experience. But memory quantity is not the only thing affected by emotion – the quality of memory or feeling of remembering can also be influenced
Flashbulb memories – characterised by a very vivid re-experiencing of an event. Similar is true of more common emotional experience in autobiographical memory
Research by Kensinger & Corkin (2004) had Participants view neutral and negative words and Immediate recognition test ‘Remember’/’Know’/’New’. The Participants ‘Remember’ more negative than neutral. So emotion can enhance memory quality here.
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
memory consistency/accuracy
research x2
Research by Talarico & Rubin (2003) – confidence not consistency. Memory for events of 9/11 and an everyday event from similar time period. Groups of participants have memory tested immediately after the event and at varying delays: 1 week, 6, 32 weeks later. They found belief and recollection ratings reduce more for everyday than flashbulb memory over time.[BUT – similar decline in consistent details and increase in inconsistent details for both types]
Emotion affects subjective quality of memory. Confidence and ‘reliving’ experience remain high despite reduction in consistent and increase in inconsistent detail
Kaplan 2016 highlights that the sobering implication of these findings for the legal system is that, just because a remembered event is reported with high confidence and strong emotion, does not mean it represents authentic experience.
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
false memories part 1 research x2 + critical eval
Research by Loftus, Miller, and Burns (1978) presented participants with a slideshow depicting a car at a yield sign. Later, some participants were informed that the car was at a stop sign rather than at a yield sign. Those exposed to this misleading information were significantly more likely to endorse having seen the nonexistent stop sign. This study inspired hundreds of
investigations of what is now called “the misinformation effect” which revealed the ease with which memories can be distorted by the introduction of misleading information after an event has
been experienced .
Emotion might also leave us more vulnerable to accepting false information. Kaplan et al, 2016 in the review highlighted that Emotional memories are vivid and lasting but not necessarily accurate.
Research from Morgan et al (2004, 2013) involved a mock interrogation set-up this involved participants undergoing military survival school, which involved a mock prisoner of war camp. In some conditions more than half of the trainees falsely identified their interrogator. Showing that, memories of events that are highly stressful and evoke extreme levels of emotional arousal are vulnerable to substantial error following exposure to misinformation.
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
false memories part 2 research x2 + critical eval
Research by Porter, Spencer, and Birt (2003) participants view negative, positive, and neutral images then asked a series of questions – for some participants contain misleading information. Then Y/N questions addressing misleading details. They found the Non-misled group: 0% accepted major misleading detail…vs 54% in the misled group
Also much more common in the negative images – focus on central aspects?
Research by Porter et al, 2015 for false memories of committing crimes found that participants were induced to generate criminal and noncriminal emotional false memories. After three interviews, 70% of participants were classified as having false memories of committing a crime. It appears that in the context of a highly suggestive interview, people can quite readily generate rich false memories of committing crime
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
memory for time part 1 research
Another critical aspect of memory for situations such as EWT is memory for time or estimates of the duration. Anecdotally, passage of time affected by emotion.
Supported by lab and ‘real-world’ studies: Loftus, Schooler, Boone, and Kline (1987)- Stressful video of a bank robbery overestimated
Research by Campbell & Bryant (2007) Novice skydivers overestimate the duration of their first jump degree of overestimation increased with their fear level. In contrast – excitement – associated with speeding up of time.
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
memory for time part 2 research
Also supported by research for Retrospective Time Estimates (Time Recollection); Block & Zakay (2008).
Plenty of evidence: stressful situations result in retrospective overestimates of real events (e.g. Loftus et al., 1987).
Stetson et al (2007): Amygdala activation when we experience an emotional event lays down richer or more dense memory trace. When we come to look back on the time, we overestimate – the more memory we have of an event, the longer we assume it took.
[Though this could be a problem with the task - is it really a surprising threatening event. Mayne enhancement with time expansion countered by poorer task performance under stress?]
- Discuss whether emotion can distort memory?
overall
Overall, although emotional experiences may be remembered vividly, in great detail and held with a high level of confidence, they are still susceptible to inconsistencies and the incorporation of false detail.
Emotion can also impair our ability to accurately estimate the duration of events, sometimes resulting in retrospective overestimates for arousing negative experiences.
- Explaining distortions - eye witness testimonies
Deffenbacher and inverted U
Deffenbacher (1983, 1991) applies the inverted U theory to understand apparently contradictory studies in trauma and memory in eyewitness contexts. Inverted U is an idea that in easy tasks: performance improves with increasing stress and difficult tasks: performance initially increases and then decreases (the Inverted-U) (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908).
He concluded that small increases in arousal are associated with good memories, but highest levels of arousal are associated with poor memory. But the problem with this is that when interpreting findings there is so much flexibility due to no universal greed a prior definition of arousal level.
- Explaining distortions - eye witness testimonies
EWT research part 1
Innocence project (2020) suggests that inaccurate EWT lead to a considerable number of wrongful convictions in the US. It is very hard to conduct research in a high stress in environments due to practical/ethical reasons but there is some research:
Research from Morgan et al (2004, 2013) involved a mock interrogation set-up this involved participants undergoing military survival school, which involved a mock prisoner of war camp. They then underwent a low stress and high stress interrogation. Then 24 hrs after they had their memories tested and found that only just over a quarter of the participants could identify the interrogator from the high stress environment but over two thirds could identify the interrogator from the low stress environment. This supports the idea that EWT can be poor following high stress situation.
[But the extended duration of the stress is not typical of criminal investigations.]
- Explaining distortions - eye witness testimonies
EWT research part 2
Valentine and Mesout (2008) conducted a study with a London Dungeon ‘Horror Labyrinth’. They found high state anxiety had a catastrophic effect on eye-witness memory as only 18% of people could identify the scary person that jumped out at them who experienced high levels of anxiety. But those with low self-reported anxiety were able to identify them three quarters of the time. Their research highlights that it is not just the event itself but also the individual’s perception of them.
- Explaining distortions - eye witness testimonies
EWT research part 3 + critical eval
Paradigmatic case of attention focusing in memory is the possibility of ‘weapon focus’ in EWT (Loftus, 1979).
Research by Loftus, Loftus & Messo (1987) weapon focus found poorer memory for perpetrator details in weapon condition. So there is a memory trade off such that the memory for the weapon is good but for the perpetrator (background) is poor. The study also involved eye tracking which revealed that participants spent more time fixating on the gun than the cheque indicating a focus on the weapon.
[but eye tracking and memory results were analyzed separately so we cannot find support for a causal link between memory narrowing and weapon focus effect on memory.] [ALSO, weapon focus effects are not universal in their effects, Fawcett et al. (2016) argued that weapon focus effects are more likely to be observed when a crime event is brief, involved unexpected weapon, unknown perpetrator or when witness has no prior exposure to weapon, these criteria are rarely met by real world crimes]
