Module 33

Discuss how forgetting can actually be helpful and efficient.

If we remembered everything, we would be overcome with a "junk heap of memories." Forgetting helps us discard the clutter of useless or out-of-date information.

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

Rashad has recently been in a car accident and suffered damage to his brain, which has him hospitalized and involved in rehabilitative therapy. He can recall his childhood and other memories from his past, but is having difficulty learning the names of his nurses, doctors and aides and cannot recall from one day to the next what he did the day before. Most likely Rashad is suffering from

anterograde amnesia.

source amnesia

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined

Bruck and Ceci's work on children's eyewitness descriptions and accuracy of recollection showed

children's recollections can be easily skewed by suggestive interviewing techniques.

The sense that "I've been in this exact situation before" is referred to as

déjà vu.

Tasnia feels like she encodes material well, but still forgets the material on test day. Explain how her forgetting might be related to problems with each of the following: storage and retrieval

forgetting may be related to the decay of stored material. forgetting may be related to interference during retrieval (or motivated forgetting)

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

In Ebbinghaus' studies involving recall of nonsense syllables he found that

memory for new information fades fast then levels off over time.

example of proactive interference

you can't recall your new cell phone number because your old number interferes

draw a basic cartoon illustrating Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve. 33.2

Answers will vary, but should show understanding of the rapid loss of information followed by a plateau.

What difficulties arise in trying to sort real memories from false memories? Why is it that false memories often seem to be so vivid and strong?

Both the misinformation effect and source amnesia happen outside our awareness, so it is nearly impossible to sift suggested ideas out of the larger pool of real memories. False memories can be very persistent, and we more readily remember the gist and not the specifics.

Summarize and discuss the implications of research on children's eyewitness descriptions.

Children can produce false, often vivid, stories regarding one or more events they have never experi- enced when questioned repeatedly with suggestive interview techniques. Neither psychologists nor the children themselves could separate real memories from false ones.

Caitlin is learning French in college after spending her high school years studying Spanish. Ini- tially, she has difficulty learning the new French words as the Spanish words keep getting in the way. However, over the course of the semester Caitlin becomes much more fluent in French and can no longer even recall the Spanish word for the same item. Which is the best explanation for Caitlin's experience in world languages?

Initially, Caitlin's recall of the French was blocked through proactive interference, and eventually, recall of the Spanish vocabulary is blocked through retroactive interference.

Summarize and discuss the importance of Elizabeth Loftus' work on the misinformation effect. How might the misinformation effect impact those testifying as eyewitnesses in crime? How might lawyers use the misinformation effect to their favor in a criminal case?

Loftus found that when witnessing an event, then receiving or not receiving misleading information about the event prior to a memory test, those exposed to misinformation misremembered. This finding calls into question the use of eyewitnesses in a court proceeding. Lawyers can use this effect by subtly changing the words they use to question witnesses in order to generate "memories" that support their case.

example of anterograde amnesia

Louis can remember his past, but has not been able to form new long-term memories since experiencing a brain infection 4 years ago.

summarize the work of Hermann Ebbinghaus on the retention and recall of nonsense syllables.

Memory for novel information fades quickly (over the first few days) then levels out with time.

the theories that address the reasons we forget: encoding failure

Much of what we sense we never actually notice and if we do not encode the stimuli, it is not there to be remembered. Age can affect encoding as well.

the theories that address the reasons we forget: motivated forgetting/repression

Repression is a psychoanalytic term describing an unconscious forgetting of painful or unac- ceptable memories to protect our self-concept and to minimize anxiety.

The text discusses therapist-guided "recovered" memories. Which of the following statements represents an appropriate conclusion about this issue?

Since the brain is not sufficiently mature to store accurate memories of events before the age of 3, memories from the first 3 years of life are unreliable

the theories that address the reasons we forget: retrieval failure

Sometimes important events defy attempts to access them in memory—tip of the tongue phe- nomenon, where one can just remember the tiniest part of the memory until being provided with context cues, occurs to many of us.

Explain how source amnesia affects our formation of memory.

Source amnesia is attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. We may think an idea is our own because we have forgotten that we actually heard someone else talk about it a month ago. Source amnesia is at the heart of many false memories.

How does source amnesia help explain déjà vu?

The author suggests that the key to déjà vu seems to be familiarity with a stimulus without a clear idea of where we encountered it before—like source amnesia.

the theories that address the reasons we forget: storage decay

The course of forgetting is rapid initially, then levels off with time. There is a gradual fading of the physical memory trace.

. Discuss the controversy surrounding repressed or constructed memories of abuse.

There is a controversy surrounding the validity of recalled memories of abuse. Research on source amnesia and the misinformation effect has shown how flawed memory can be. When combined with suggestions from a respected therapist ("your symptoms are similar to those who have been abused"), hypnosis, and visualization, the patient can create an image of an abuse situation that grows more vivid.

How has the American Psychological Association (APA) helped to negotiate this controversy?

They have convened study panels and issued public statements in order to protect abused children and wrongly accused adults, and have agreed on the following: sexual abuse happens; injustice happens; forgetting happens; recovered memories are commonplace; memories of things happening before age 3 are unreliable; memories "recovered" under hypnosis or the influence of drugs are espe- cially unreliable; and memories can be emotionally upsetting (whether real or false).

the theories that address the reasons we forget: retroactive interference

When new learning disrupts recall of old information—eventually that new phone number becomes the one easily recalled, and it is the old phone number you can no longer retrieve.

the theories that address the reasons we forget: proactive interference

When prior learning disrupts recall of new information—your memorized old phone number makes it harder to memorize your new one after a move.

In what circumstances have children been shown to be reliable eyewitnesses?

When questioned about their experiences in neutral words they understood and when interview- ers used less suggestive, more effective techniques, children have been shown to be reliable eyewit- nesses. Children were especially accurate when they had not talked with involved adults prior to the interview and when their disclosure was made in a first interview with a neutral person who asked nonleading questions.

Explain how anterograde amnesia differs from retrograde amnesia,

With anterograde amnesia, a person cannot form new memories; they can only remember the past. With retrograde amnesia, a person cannot remember their own past.

Muhammad has been in his school cafeteria hundreds of times. It is a large room, and there are nine free-standing pillars that support the roof. One day, to illustrate the nature of forgetting, Muhammad's teacher asks him how many pillars there are in the cafeteria. Muhammad has difficulty answering the question, but finally replies that he thinks there are six pillars. What memory concept does this example illustrate?

encoding

Studies by Loftus and Palmer on the misinformation effect, in which people were quizzed about a film of an accident, indicate that

people's recall may easily be affected by misleading information.

Troy just moved to a new school in the middle of his junior year. He is given a locker combi- nation but keeps entering the combination from his old locker before he remembers his new combination. This occurrence is referred to as

proactive interference.

When he was a young boy, Montel lied to people he respected. This caused him a great deal of distress but he felt he had no choice. Years later, when asked if he lied as a child, Montel re- ported being a pretty honest kid. A psychoanalytic psychologist would likely explain Montel's self-censoring of this painful and anxiety-provoking memory as

repression

Samantha cannot recall her childhood, her name, or most of the events that occurred prior to the trauma that caused her brain damage. She does, however, seem to be making good progress in her therapy and has learned the names of her doctors and nurses. Samantha's condition is likely

retrograde amnesia.

Lindsey has a vivid memory of swimming with dolphins when she was a young girl, but her mother denies that this ever occurred. Her mother explained that Lindsey watched many movies about dolphins and visited them frequently at the aquarium as a toddler, but did not actually swim with them herself. The best explanation for Lindsey's constructed memory is a. retroactive interference.

source amnesia.

deja vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

proactive inference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

What does Hermann Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve show about the nature of storage decay?

the rate of forgetting decreases as time goes on