week 4 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Assumption processes
Encoding-> storage-> retrieval
Long-term memory
Declarative (episodic, semantic)-> breakdown associates to temporal lobe
Non-declarative (priming, motor skills, conditioning, habituation)-> breakdown damage to temporal lobe
Declarative
Episodic memory-> damage to hippocampus
Semantic memory-> damage to anterior temporal lobes
Amnesia
Retrograde amnesia: not able to remember information from before brain damage
Anterograde amnesia: not able to learn new information
Priming and implicit memory
Tulving et al., 1982
ENCODING: Participants shown 48 words.
IMPLICIT RETRIEVAL: Asked to complete words that were either seen at encoding or not, e.g., F_O_ _AL.
EXPLICIT RETRIEVAL: Asked to consciously remember words that were either shown at encoding or not (recognition test).
1 week later: Tested again on words that were at encoding or not (i.e., targeting delayed memory performance).
Memory
Semantic memory is our store of knowledge. The remembering of semantic information does not entail re-experiencing.
Episodic memory is a type of memory that is specific in time and place. Additionally, it is associated with a different process at retrieval.
The self-memory system
Martin Conway elaborated a theory of autobiographical memory
personal memories differ on levels of abstraction from self-images to specific episodic memories
Measuring memory
In recognition memory tests, when material is re-presented and participants must say whether it is OLD or NEW:
In recall memory tasks, we ask participants to try to recall information from memory and produce it (i.e., it is not re-presented like in recognition). Responses are either accurate, completely false
False memory
False memory: Memory of an event one believes to have happened in the past, that in fact did not
Roediger & McDermott (1995)
Experiment 1.
Methods: Recall (i.e., write down all words you remember from the list), at the end of each list (verbally read aloud)
With a recall test, presented words (M = 65%) were recalled more than critical lures (M = 40%).
Recognition test included a mix of presented, and three types of non-presented words: critical lures, weakly related and unrelated words.
With a recognition test, 86% of presented words were correctly recognised and 84% of critical lures were falsely recognised. Hardly different at all!
Can we reduce false memories
Gallo et al. (1997)
Before they studied any lists, participants were warned about the DRM lists and presented an example DRM list.
False recognition reduced, but only to 46%.
Roediger et al. (1998)
Also warned participants and provided 1-item memory tests after each list (e.g., Was ‘needle’ in the list?) This should have been easier for people to reject critical lures.
False recognition was reduced to 38% (hence, false memory was still evident).
Warnings after encoding but before testing are generally not effective (e.g., Anastasi et al., 2000).
Misinformation effect
An early memory technique to induce false information with post-event information. This is a form of ‘leading question’ that you may be aware of. Can subtle changes in questioning change the memory of a car crash?
Loftus & Palmer (1974), Exp 2.
Participants watched a video of a car crash (session 1)
Question A. How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?
Question B. How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
After one week (session 2), Question A led to higher speed estimates (10.46 mph versus 8.00 mph)
Interestingly, more people reported seeing broken glass from the “smashed” vehicles (16 versus 7 people, over ½ the sample!)
Memory Implanting Studies
Reviewed by Hyman and Loftus (1998, Clinical Psychology Review). Hyman has found evidence for false memory using the following scenarios:
Spilling a bowl of punch over the bride at a wedding
Overnight hospital visit for earache
Minor car accident
Hyman et al. (1995). None of these were believed at first but after the third interview, 25% people ‘remembered’ a false memory.
Garry et al. (1996). Imagining an event can also increase the likelihood people say it happened to them (imagination inflation).
Belief and memory
McNally et al. (2004)
Recollection of alien abductions provoked the same physiological sensations that would be expected from a real traumatic memory.
An instance in which there is no corroboration and descriptions follow cultural agreements of what an ‘alien’ looks like (and all tend to happen in the USA which has more exposure to images of aliens)
Belief most likely precedes cases of alien abductions
Research has shown that those who report alien abductions have higher percentages of false memory on the DRM test (Clancy et al., 2002).
