PSYCH101 Module 24

Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Kateham

our memories are flexible and super imposable, a panoramic blackboard with an endless supply of chalk and erasers

memory trace

physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed

proactive interference

prior learning disrupts recall of new information

memory construction errors

memories biased by imagination, expectations, and misinformation

anterograde amnesia.

During a basketball game, Tyree suffered a concussion. Afterward, he could not remember the game or what happened when he was treated in the hospital. Tyree was experiencing:

misinformation

After being verbally threatened by a person in a passing car, Samantha was asked if she recognized the man who was driving the car. Several hours later, Samantha mistakenly recalled that the driver was male rather than female. Samantha's experience BEST illustrates the _____ effect.

motivated forgetting

Freud argued that we repress painful/unacceptable memories to protect our self-concept and to minimize anxiety Today's researchers think repression rarely, if ever, occur

70

In a study of several hundred convicts later exonerated by DNA evidence, just over _____ percent were convicted by faulty eyewitness accounts.

reconsolidation

It's evening and Benson is mentally replaying the day's events. He pictures his facial expression as he listened to a friend's tale of woe. Because he was unable to see his expression at the time, his recall necessarily illustrates:q

proactive interference

Professor Maslova has so many memories of former students that she has difficulty remembering the names of new students. The professor's difficulty BEST illustrates:

Ceci and Bruck

Researchers studied effect of suggestive interviewing techniques. 58 percent of preschoolers produced false stories about one or more unexperienced events.

reconsolidation

a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

SQ3R

a study method incorporating five steps: Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

source amnesia

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

misinformation effect

corruption of a memory by misleading information; even repeatedly imagining fake actions and events can create false memories

why do we forget?

encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure

encoding memory: age

encoding lag is linked to age-related memory decline

storage decay

even after encoding something well, we sometimes later forget it

encoding memory: attention

failure to notice or encode contributes to memory failure

encoding failure

failure to process information into memory

William James

founder of functionalism "if we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing"

deja vu

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

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

the course of forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time

retroactive interference

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

retrieval failure

the inability to recall long-term memories because of inadequate or missing retrieval cues