Chapter 8
Reminiscence Bump for different age groups
FIGURE 1. Temporal distributions of autobiographical memories (AMs). Participant age at the time of a recalled event was computed as the midpoint of its assigned temporal bin (see Materials and Methods); the proportions of AMs retrieved across the life span are plotted according to subject age at the time of the event (n: number of dated AMs). Younger subjects displayed the greatest retention of recent AMs, which gradually decreased with increasing age. The reminiscence bump (an increase in AMs recalled from adolescence to early adulthood) emerged in subjects in their mid-to-late 20s and was most prominent in subjects older than 45 years old. Childhood amnesia (a paucity of AMs recalled from the first few years of life) was clearly observed in younger subjects (18-45 years old). Its absence in older subjects (46-78 years old) is likely due to our dating procedure, as the first 10th of life in this age group is longer than the typical interval of childhood amnesia. Gardner, R. S., Mainetti, M., & Ascoli, G. A. (2015). Older adults report moderately more detailed autobiographical memories. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 631. "The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits." T. Roosevelt
Repressed and Recovered Memories?
Fact: Large % of abuse recallers were actually abused Problem = We do not know who has been abused and who hasn't Recovery: could be in presence of new cues... "forgot it all along" effect: people underestimate what they previously rememebered. (or maybe as children they didn't report or weren't believed) gaining new perspective on a prior experience can be upsetting, can feel like recovered memory? especially: children perhaps don't understand the meaning of sexual behavior from an adult, might not realize until years later that it was a terrible thing. "It's not repression; it's just that the person hasn't thought about it in many years, hasn't appreciated how reprehensible it was," Dr. McNally said. The notion of repressed memory, he went on, is a "culturally provided narrative to account for the fact that the memory is now retrospectively reappraised as traumatic." "As they grow older, children may attribute new meaning to their previous observations. As a result they may later experience additional distress upon recalling specific details. For example, one adolescent witnessed his mother's murder at the age of 7, but has only recently begun to focus on the possible significance of what he views as his mother's flirtatious behavior. He now concludes that his mother was "cheating" on her boyfriend and that this was the subject of the fatal argument." Pynoos & Eth 1984
Theory: Self-Memory System part 4
Hierarchical structure of the autobiographical knowledge base These three areas are organised in a hierarchy within the autobiographical knowledge base and together make up the overall life story of an individual.[3] Knowledge stored in lifetime periods contain cues for general events, and knowledge at the level of general events calls upon event-specific knowledge.[2] When a cue evenly activates the autobiographical knowledge base hierarchy, all levels of knowledge become available and an autobiographical memory is formed.[2]
it's possible to create false memories in people part two
Loftus & Pickerell (1995)Lost in a Shopping Mall(Creating new memories) https://web.bvu.edu//faculty/ferguson/Course_Material/GenPsy/Loftus_Pickerell.htm Participants: 24 adults, 18-53 yrs old, plus one parent or older sibling for each subject Procedures: 1.The parent or older sibling in each pair was interviewed to obtain: 1.Information about 3 events that actually happened to the younger person between the ages of 4-6 2.Information about where the family might have gone shopping, and who would likely have been on a shopping trip, when the subject was 4-6 years old. 2.4 paragraphs were then written for each subject--3 about real events, plus a false story about a "shopping trip". These stories included the following elements: 1.name of the mall & family members on the trip 2.the participant was 5 years old at the time 3.he/she was lost for an extended period of time 4.crying 5.found and returned to family by an elderly woman 6.example of a false story: "You, your mom, and your sister all went to the Bremerton K-Mart. You must have been five years old at the time. Your Mom gave each of you some money to get a blueberry ICEE. You ran ahead to get into the line first, and somehow lost your way in the store. Your sister found you crying to an elderly Chinese woman. You three then went together to get an ICEE." 1.Each of the 24 subjects then received a booklet with the 4 paragraphs (3 true and one false) and told that all were based on stories from the parent or older sibling. 2.The subjects then read the 4 paragraphs and wrote down all that they could remember about each incident. This was repeated 1-2 weeks later (same paragraphs) and then one more time a couple of weeks later. 3.At the end of the experiment, the subjects were told that one of the paragraphs was false, they they were asked which one.
Magic shrinking machine Simcock & Hayne, 2002
Maybe childhood amnesia is in part due to language... 2-3 year old kids. à 1 year later kids remembered the magic shrinking machine, and how to use it. but they described it only using words they'd already known at the time. language is still developing... up to 1 year: babbling. around 1 year: first word. around 2 years: phrases. around 3 years: grammar, vocabulary of 100s of words.
It's possible to create false memories in people part three
Results: •68% of true events were remembered, 25% of false events were "remembered" •The participants' descriptions of the false events often included additional information--how they felt while lost, what the woman was wearing, what they talked about, etc. •Descriptions of the false events were briefer (50 vs 138 words) than for the real events, and average clarity ratings of the memories were higher for the true events than for the false events (clarity ratings of 3.6 vs.6.3 out of 10) •This quote from the original Loftus & Pickerell (1995) article may help you understand:Here is an example from one subject who was led to believe that she had been lost at the Hillsdale Shopping Mall. She described her getting lost experience using 66 words (as opposed to a mean of 128 words for her true memories). During the second interview she said "I vaguely, vague, I mean this is very vague, remember the lady helping me and Tim and my mom doing something else, but I don't remember crying. I mean I can remember a hundred times crying..... I just remember bits and pieces of it. I remember being with the lady. I remember going shopping. I don't think I, I don't remember the sunglasses part." She went on to remember that the elderly lady who helped her was "heavy-set and older. Like my brother said, nice." She gave her false memory a clarity rating of 4 [out of 5]. •When told that one of the paragraphs was false and asked which they thought it might be, 19 of the 24 subjects correctly picked the "lost in a mall" story; five (21%) selected an event that had really happened. In more recent research, people have been led to "remember" spilling punch on a bride's dress at a wedding reception and being in the hospital.
2 types of powerful cues:
Smell Music the appearance of seemingly forgotten, emotional memories evoked by an unexpected sensation Involuntary memories are memories that come to mind with no preceding attempt at retrieval. These memories may seem to arise from nothing, or they may be cued by your current surroundings or thoughts. The key is that they pop into your mind without you trying to remember. ODORS and MUSIC seem to be particularly powerful cues for involuntary memories...
Reminiscence Bump: Why? some theories... part 3
The biological/ maturational account suggests that genetic fitness is improved by having many memories that fall within the reminiscence bump. Cognitive capacities are at their optimum from the ages of 10 to 30 and the reminiscence bump may reflect a peak in cognitive performance. This account is therefore sometimes called the cognitive abilities account. Researchers have suggested that the increase of cognitive ability in early adulthood may cause memories during this time period to be more adequately stored (Ece & Gulgoz, 2014). The reminiscence bump is caused by age-related differences in encoding efficiency, which cause more memories to be stored in adolescence and early adulthood.
Reminiscence Bump: Why? some theories... part 2
The cognitive account suggests that memories are remembered best because they occur during a period of rapid change followed by a period of relative stability. There is an assumed memory advantage for the novel and distinct events that is followed by a period of stability. The novel events are subject to greater elaborative cognitive processing leading to better encoding of these memories. Moreover, the period of stability that follows increases the stability of the cues for these memories and increases the chances of recall. The narrative/identity account suggests that the reminiscence bump occurs because a sense of identity develops during adolescence and early adulthood. Research suggests that memories that have more influential and significance to one's self are more frequently rehearsed in defining one's identity, and are therefore better remembered later in life (Ece & Gulgoz, 2014). Identity formation provides added motivation for using cognitive processes to ensure recall of these memories. The events from this period are more likely to be organized into a story or view of oneself, and benefits from the advantage of schematic organization in memory.
Peak-end rule:
The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. (from wikipedia) duration doesn't matter so much (?) "You are thinking of your failed marriage entirely from the perspective of the remembering self. A divorce is like a symphony with a screeching sound at the end—the fact that it ended badly does not mean it was all bad." "This is a bad case of duration neglect. You are giving the good and the bad part of your experience equal weight, although the good part lasted ten times as long as the other." "What truly matters when we intuitively assess such episodes is the progressive deterioration or improvement of the ongoing experience, and how the person feels at the end."
Theory: Self-Memory System
Themes ex: education, work, family, relationships... Lifetime Periods General events Repeated events Sequence of events Episodic Memories Details of specific events (note the below text refers to an older version of such a figure. Episodic Memories were referred to as event-specific knowledge) Figure 1. The autobiographical memory knowledge base. Note that event-specific knowledge (ESK) is shown as an undifferentiated pool of features, regions of which (the circles) are activated by cues held at the general event level. The small black and white squares indicate activated ESK. The authors describe a model of autobiographical memory in which memories are transitory mental constructions within a self-memory system (SMS). The SMS contains an autobiographical knowledge base and current goals of the working self. Within the SMS, control processes modulate access to the knowledge base by successively shaping cues used to activate autobiographical memory knowledge structures and, in this way, form specific memories. The relation of the knowledge base to active goals is reciprocal, and the knowledge base "grounds" the goals of the working self. It is shown how this model can be used to draw together a wide range of diverse data from cognitive, social, developmental, personality, clinical, and neuropsychological autobiographical memory research.
Reminiscence Bump: Why? some theories... part 4
There is one additional theory that explains the occurrence of the reminiscence bump: the life script account. A life script refers to the series of culturally important transitional events that are expected to occur in a certain order at various points during the life span.[9] During early adulthood one starts to make important decisions and have influencing experiences on his or her identity. The memories during this time period are therefore more significantly remembered because they are what has essentially determined and influenced their life script (Habernas & Bluck, 2000). A life script typically has the majority of expected transitional experiences occur during early adulthood (Gluck & Bluck, 2007), and usually include includes positive experiences such as marriage, the birth of a baby, or buying a house. Events that deviate from the life script are typically sad and traumatic. These events, such as the death of a child, are not culturally expected and often do not show a peak of recall at any specific point during the life span. Life scripts act as a way to structure memory and lead to the expectation that the happiest and the most important life events form the reminiscence bump. Contrary to the recall of happy events, the recall of sad events remains stable across the life span and does exhibit a bump in recall.
Eyewitness testimony and cognitive psychology part two
This tendency is what I have called the relative judgment process ( see Wells, G. L., 1984, "The psychology of lineup identifications", Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 14, pp. 89-103). In addition to having implications for how eyewitnesses should be instructed, the relative judgment process helps to explain why each member of the lineup should fit the general description of the perpetrator. Notice that the relative judgment process has no mechanism for rejecting the entire lineup. The relative judgment process can be contrasted with an "absolute judgment process" in which the eyewitness compares each lineup member to his or her memory for the perpetrator and decides whether or not that person is the perpetrator. In addition to having implications for how eyewitnesses should be instructed and how the fillers in a lineup should be selected, the relative judgment process has led to the development of superior identification procedures, such as the dual-lineup procedure and the sequential lineup procedure. For a recent discussion of the relative judgment process and the proposals for minimizing this problem, you can download an "in press" article dealing with lineups and photospreads
Normal aging vs. dementia
excerpt: "The most common symptom of Alzheimer's is difficultly remembering things , particularly new information, such as an appointment you have made. While people who are aging normally may forget things as well, they will typically remember them later -- in other words, you remember that you forgot. But in some people with Alzheimer's disease , that doesn't happen. "You forget something and then you don't get that information back, it doesn't seem familiar to you even if someone reminds you," Snyder said. Another example might be forgetting to pay your monthly bills, which would be a sign of normal aging, versus forgetting how to pay your bills or how to manage your budget, which would be a sign of Alzheimer's, Snyder said. Snyder stresses that Alzheimer's affects individuals differently, so not everyone will have the same symptoms." https://www.livescience.com/35643-alzheimers-disease-signs.html
Childhood Amnesia: Why?... Some theories part 1 explanation
first few years of life are times of momentous enormous intellectual growth implicit memory: infants will prefer voices that they heard while in the womb. month 7-8 in womb: heart rate slows when hears mother's voice vs stranger. "By the time they're born, babies can actually recognize their mother's voice. In one study, doctors gave day-old infants pacifiers that were connected to tape recorders. Depending on the babies' sucking patterns, the pacifiers either turned on a tape of their mother's voice or that of an unfamiliar woman's voice. The amazing result: "Within 10 to 20 minutes, the babies learned to adjust their sucking rate on the pacifier to turn on their own mother's voice," says the study's coauthor William Fifer, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. "This not only points out a newborn's innate love for his mother's voice but also a baby's unique ability to learn quickly."" https://www.parenting.com/article/what-babies-learn-in-the-womb
The Reminiscence Bump
for participants 50 years old (presumably) same pattern holds for people 35 and up Sharda: for people younger than like 30, you don't see the bump, just recency effect. holds across cultures. times of change? more rehearsal? Cultural Life Scripts? Berntsen & Rubin, 2004. schema. Qatar american cultural life script... things that happen in early adulthood... finishing high school, college, moving away from childhood home, falling in love, first kiss, first sex, first job... HOW TO COME UP WITH THIS FUNCTION? The reminiscence bump can be examined by timeline, free recall, fluency or cued recall. TIMELINE: Have subjects indicate important personal events on a timeline. FREE RECALL: In the free recall method subjects just talk and give personal events from their life. Then we figure out when they're from. FLUENCY: In a fluency test subjects are given a certain time period (e.g., ten minutes) to recall as many personal events as possible from a certain lifetime period (e.g., when they were between 5 and 10 years). Then, they are given the same time period to recall as many events as possible from another lifetime period (e.g., when they were between 10 and 15 years old). CUED RECALL: In cued recall tests subjects are asked to describe the personal event that comes to mind first when presented with a cue word. This word can be an object (cat, house, sister) or an emotion (angry, happy). The reminiscence bump is also found in the temporal distribution of -memory for public events, favourite books, favourite movies and favourite music records. Exists in memory for songs (given cue word), memory for baseball stats.
Childhood Amnesia: Why?... Some theories part 2 explanation
synapses still forming. axons still becoming myelinated frontal lobes: important for coordinating flow of memory processes maybe the stuff you learn as a baby all takes the form of implicit memory? facial expressions, moving your hands, etc. no real reason for there to be explicit memories? MOBILE TASK: "During training (a), the infant's kicks move the mobile by means of the ankle ribbon that is connected to the mobile hook. During baseline and all retention tests (b), the ankle ribbon and the mobile are connected to different hooks so that kicks cannot move the mobile." DV: # kicks. "In the mobile task, infants learn to move a crib mobile by kicking via a ribbon strung between the mobile hook and one ankle (see Fig. 2a). The rate at which they ini- tially kick before the ankle ribbon is connected to the mobile serves as a baseline for comparison with their kick rate during the subsequent recognition test, when infants are again placed under the mobile while the ankle ribbon is discon- nected. If they recognize the mobile (see Fig. 2b), they kick above their baseline rate; otherwise, they do not." theory of mind: understanding that you are a distinct mind and other minds are different. sense of self (aka self concept) is necessary step for that. Rouge test: see if baby has sense of self yet... https://app.jove.com/v/10111/the-rouge-test:-searching-for-a-sense-of-self 21st century: SnapChat filters! put halo filter on kid's picture on the phone and see if they reach up to their head! language is still developing... up to 1 year: babbling. around 1 year: first word. around 2 years: phrases. around 3 years: grammar, vocabulary of 100s of words.
Fallibility of Human Memory and Implications for Eyewitness Testimony?
• •Source monitoring and familiarity-based errors -Unconscious transference (a different kind of bystander effect) -Greater familiarity leads to greater confidence ... -If the fillers don't look anything like the suspect... (a biased lineup) •The misinformation effect -Leading questions? •Cross-race identification... UNCONSCIOUS TRANSFERENCE - PICK SOMEONE FAMILIAR B/C CAN'T REMEMBER SOURCE....... There have been cases where an eyewitness to a crime later identified someone as the perpetrator who had actually been a bystander at the crime... their face was familiar. WHEN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS ARRESTED FOR THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, HIS STEPS WERE TRACED TO A RYDER TRUCK RENTAL OUTLET. A WORKER AT RYDER TRUCK PLACE ALSO REPORTED ANOTHER MAN WHO HAD BEEN WITH MCVEIGH. POLICE SOUGHT HIM AS WELL, CONSIDERING HIM A POSSIBLE CO-CONSPIRATOR, AND CALLING HIM "JOHN DOE #2". He was actually an innocent man who had come into the Ryder truck rental an hour or so after McVeigh. Davis et al. (2008) Participants saw a video of a mock theft in a supermarket Perp stole a bottle of liquor while bystanders walked around the store 52% of participants misidentified a bystander! Greater familiarity leads to greater confidence - asking witnesses questions about information (post-event questioning) makes them more confident of their recall......increased retrieval increases confidence perhaps b/c of familiarity? Also, repeatedly having witnesses do the lineup identification, or even just showing them pics of the suspect Biased lineups: if there's only one guy in the lineup that looks remotely like the perpetrator, well that guy will look most familiar and witness might pick them b/c they stand out.... also, it's important to tell witness the real perp might not be in the lineup, so they know it's okay t
Narratives/Stories... but memory is (re)constructive!
•''Memory is a central part of the brain's attempt to make sense of experience, and to tell coherent stories about it. These tales are all we have of our past, so they are potent determinants of how we view ourselves and what we do. Yet our stories are built from many ingredients. Snippets of what actually happened, thoughts about what might have happened, and beliefs that guide us as we attempt to remember. Our memories are the powerful but fragile products of what we recall from the past, believe about the present, and imagine about the future.'' Schacter (1996, p. 308) •"Our memoir will come not only from our memories, but also from our imaginations" - Lucy Calkins •"A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?" (Smith, 2004: 189) [via Fivush 2008]
Eyewitness memory
•A perpetrator commits a crime •An eyewitness sees this happen -Eyewitness may give general description of the perpetrator to police -Police might have other clues to identity of perpetrator •Police apprehend a suspect -might or might not be the real perpetrator •Police create a lineup of people/photos including the suspect and other filler people who are known innocents •Eyewitness is brought in to see if they recognize the perpetrator in the lineup lineup size? usually like 5-7 if eyewitness says they see the perp, that is called them making an "identification". ideally, they also rate how CONFIDENT they are. if the eyewitness identifies one of the filler people, nothing happens. if the eyewitness identifies the suspect, that can be used as evidence toward a guilty charge in court.
Childhood Amnesia: why?... some theories
•Brain development? Memory is made of multiple systems, handled by different parts of the brain. they develop at different rates. -implicit memory: very early, some structures present at birth •infants CAN remember! mobile tasks (Rovee-Collier, 1999) -episodic memory: •frontal lobes: not fully functional until 1+ years •hippocampus: continues to develop into childhood •Sense of self? Infants lack a clear self-concept around which memories can be structured (Howe & Courage, 1997) -don't yet understand that they're a separate entity from environment -Rouge test (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979): don't pass until ~2 •Language? language helps organize memory. pre-verbal infants encode things so differently that we can't access those memories after we have language? -Magic Shrinking Machine study (Simcock & Hayne, 2002) ...
Emotion & Memory?
•Emotions: -biologically-based responses to events or situations that are seen as personally relevant. -usually involve changes in physiology [e.g., heart rate], expressive behavior [e.g., smiling, screaming], and subjective experience [feeling happy, afraid, etc.] •Amygdala involved in encoding emotionally arousing events •Emotional arousal (cortisol) à better encoding •Emotional stimuli à better remembered •State Dependent Memory: retrieval is better when mood (emotion) is similar at encoding and retrieval cortisol = stress hormone optimal arousal theory yerkes dodson inverted U
Smell & Memory
•Flavor = taste + smell •smell is the oldest sense •neural pathway bypasses thalamus, straight to limbic system (amygdala & hippocampus) {emotion & memory!} •L.O.V.E.R.: limbic system, old memories, vivid recall, strong emotions, rarely happens •odor stimuli are usually close to you in space. response is more urgent. (friend, foe, food, fire?) •odors are complex and distinctive -1000s of different kinds of olfactory receptor cells (vs. 1 in hearing, 4 in vision) -cues aren't overloaded. usually only one thing smells exactly like that. A "Proustian moment" or "madeleine moment" has come to mean the appearance of seemingly forgotten, emotional memories evoked by an unexpected sensation. And usually the sensation that's meant is smell, or taste. But although Proust does talk about "odor" in the passage from Volume 2, in the original madeleine (Vol. 1) he never mentioned smell! Smith (2016), a philosopher, explains that the experience of flavor is a combination of smell and taste. direct connection from olfactory bulb to limbic system (amygdala & hippocampus) There are thousands of different kinds of olfactory receptor cells, for different chemicals. (versus 1 type of sensory receptor for hearing [hair cells], and 4 types for vision [rods, red cones, blue cones, green cones]) So it stands to reason there are FAR more possible unique smell profiles than visual or auditory profiles... limbic system: ancient structure in brain, does emotions and drives, processes emotions from sensory input. major parts include: hippocampus and amygdala
It's possible to create false memories in people
•Hyman et al (1995) -Told students about false events (they had no memory of them) -Brought them back 2 days later and asked them about the event. They remembered and made up new details. -Why? Familiarity, source monitoring error •Loftus & Pickerell (1995): lost in shopping mall -told 24 participants 4 stories ostensibly from their childhood •3 were real, obtained from parent or older sibling •1 was fake: that they got lost in a mall -25% falsely "remembered" the lost in the mall story, even described additional details. THE OTHER STUDIES ARE ALL ABOUT MODIFYING MEMORY. BUT WHAT ABOUT CREATING AN ENTIRE FALSE MEMORY? Amazing Hyman study Hyman Jr, I. E., Husband, T. H., & Billings, F. J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied cognitive psychology, 9(3), 181-197. A) told college students real and fake stories (said they all came from their parents). [categories: getting lost, going to hospital, eventful birthday, loss of a pet, family vacation, interaction with famous person] Typically, they said they didn't remember the fake ones. B) brought them back 2 days later. Now they recalled 20% of the fake ones, and even gave extra details! C) WHY? Familiarity......source monitoring error (from my real memory, or you just told me?) SIMILARLY, LOFTUS DID A "LOST IN A SHOPPING MALL" STUDY. HAD SIBLINGS TELL STORY ABOUT WHEN THEY GOT LOST IN A MALL WHEN THEY WERE LITTLE (along with 4 other stories). Participants read them, and then recalled them later. 25% thought it actually happened, and even gave extra details.
It's possible to create false memories in people
•Hyman et al (1995) -Told students about false events once (they had no memory of them) -Brought them back 2 days later and asked them about the event. They remembered and made up new details. -Why? Familiarity, source monitoring error •Loftus (1992) lost in a shopping mall •Consider: some forms of psychotherapy use methods that could induce false memories... THE OTHER STUDIES ARE ALL ABOUT MODIFYING MEMORY. BUT WHAT ABOUT CREATING AN ENTIRE FALSE MEMORY? Amazing Hyman study A) told college students real and fake stories (said they all came from their parents). Typically, they said they didn't remember the fake ones. B) brought them back 2 days later. Now they recalled 20% of the fake ones, and even gave extra details! C) WHY? Familiarity......source monitoring error (from my real memory, or you just told me?) SIMILARLY, LOFTUS DID A "LOST IN A SHOPPING MALL" STUDY. HAD SIBLINGS TELL STORY ABOUT WHEN THEY GOT LOST IN A MALL WHEN THEY WERE LITTLE (along with 4 other stories). Ps read them, and then recalled them later. 25% thought it actually happened, and even gave extra details.
Eyewitness Testimony
•Important. Juries find it very convincing. •But Fallible. Innocence Project: https://innocenceproject.org/ -DNA Evidence has exonerated 193 wrongfully-convicted people, as of Dec 2021 -63% of those cases involved eyewitness misidentification of perpetrator -58% of the wrongfully convicted people were Black. racial bias in justice system. •Procedural practices to improve lineup memory performance? -double-blind lineup administration -make sure the "fillers" in the lineup are similar to the suspect -lineup instructions: say that the perpetrator might not be present -lineup method: sequential vs. simultaneous. •Cognitive Interview... Sequential vs Simultaneous Finley even did some research along these lines. Sequential seems to be a better method for maximizing memory performance. Cognitive interview---just have them talk and reinstate context, recreate things like emotions, where they were, from different perspectives. don't introduce any info to them via questioning ---yield more info, less possibility for leading/misleading info
Eyewitness testimony
•Important. Juries find it very convincing. •But Fallible. Innocence Project: https://innocenceproject.org/ -DNA Evidence has exonerated 193 wrongfully-convicted people, as of Dec 2021 -63% of those cases involved eyewitness misidentification of perpetrator -58% of the wrongfully convicted people were Black. racial bias in justice system. •Procedural practices to improve lineup memory performance? -double-blind lineup administration, so the cop can't give hints -make sure the "fillers" in the lineup are similar to the suspect so the suspect doesn't stand out -lineup instructions: say that the perpetrator might not be present -lineup method: sequential vs. simultaneous. •Cognitive Interview... Sequential vs Simultaneous Finley even did some research along these lines. Sequential seems to be a better method for maximizing memory performance. Cognitive interview---just have them talk and reinstate context, recreate things like emotions, where they were, from different perspectives. don't introduce any info to them via questioning ---yield more info, less possibility for leading/misleading info
Marcel Proust French author(1871-1922)
•Madeleine moment: -the taste and smell of a cookie dunked in tea brought back a flood of memories he hadn't thought of in years (pronounced "Proost") In Search of Lost Time (aka Remembrance of Things Past) published 1913-1927 over 3,000 pages. 7 volumes. semi-autobiographical. recollections of childhood and adulthood. themes: memory, identity, loss of time (love, people, innocence), meaninglessness, sexuality techniques: detailed inner monologue, not much of a plot, unreliable narrator (?) extremely influential some even consider it best novel ever written, or at least in the top few "follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood during late 19th century to early 20th century aristocratic France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning to the world." wikipedia PLOT: gradual social climb, love affairs unreliable narrator? narrator is quasi-Proust... declares heterosexuality, when Proust himself was homosexual (to use terms of the time)narrator also claims not to be a snob, but clearly is flashback in final volume begins the ending note: Proust didn't read Freud, and vice versa Two long passages read... involuntary memory smell the greater part of our memory lies outside of us... In reality each reader, when he is reading, is uniquely reading himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument which he offers the reader to enable him to discern what without this book he might not have seen in himself. (Proust, 2003, pp. 219-220) Proust began writing it in 1909, when was 38 years old, and continued working on it until he died at age 51. The final volumes were published after his death.
Autobiographical Memory
•Memory for your own life -episodic: your experiences -semantic: facts about yourself (Often these two are combined, or work together. Examples? ... think of a vacation or trip from your past....) •Multidimensional -all of perception! vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell -spatial: a scene or arrangement in 3D space -thoughts -emotions •Purpose?... Events (Episodic Memory) - Examples: 18th birthday party, high school graduation, yesterday's dinner, etc. Knowledge (Semantic Memory) - Examples: Your name, where you were born, where and when you graduate high school, what your mother looks like, etc. Many of our memories contain a combination of both. Your memories of a trip or vacation: may include episodic information such as particular experiences (e.g., parasailing in Hawaii with my sister, luau with my dad), and semantic information (e.g., that I've been to Hawaii 3 times total so far, my age when I went [or the year], who was with me, the fact of the location) Remembering an episode or a fact involves a reconstructive process drawing on bits of episodes as well as general knowledge about your own like, like what you usually eat for breakfast [schemas] "Not only is a memory a complex amalgam of all of your senses (sight, hearing, smell, and so on), but it is also a function of the emotional state and cognitive processes of the person forming the memory, both at the time the memory is being formed, and when it is being recalled. " Tom Corboy
Why are our memories prone to errors?
•Memory is reconstructive... -Remembering is an active process - combining information from multiple sources Memory = what actually happened + person's knowledge, experiences, and expectations Retrieval context could include misleading information, the way the Qs are asked...
Music & Memory
•Music activates emotion -Emotion can enhance memory •Music can take us back to a different time and place -especially the reminiscence bump period •Music activates many brain regions at once -can especially help when some regions have been damaged •Music has helped Alzheimer's patients "come alive" retrieve autobiographical memories • "People with dementia are confronted by a world that is unfamiliar to them, which causes disorientation and anxiety," said Jeff Anderson, MD, PhD, associate professor in Radiology at U of U Health and contributing author on the study. "We believe music will tap into the salience network of the brain that is still relatively functioning."
Re-consolidation.... (an area of ongoing research)
•New memories are fragile and need to be consolidated •When you RETRIEVE an old memory, it becomes fragile again! Malleable. Has to be re-consolidated. -allows us to update memories -also means memories are vulnerable to distortion... •Memory is a "work in progress" ... constantly constructed and remodeled in response to learning and conditions A memory is a fragile treasure. You can leave it in its case and never see it and it will stay pure but fade ever further from your grasp. Or you can handle and enjoy it but every time distorting it with wear. ~Finley 2017 DANIELA SCHILLER: "Imagine something precious in a box. And then each time you take it out, it changes a little bit. And then you put it back. Then take it out, changes a little bit. That's how your memory works." Memory Hackers (Nova 2016) RECONSOLIDATION: consolidating again after another retrieval of it. Fragile when retrieved and thus needs to be consolidated again! Think about this: -learn something -when you retrieve it, it's fragile SO THAT YOU CAN MODIFY IT, CHANGE IT, IF NECESSARY! Is adaptive! Allows for updating!
Improving Facial Recognition
•Other race effect interventions (Wilson, Hugenberg, & Bernstein, 2013) •Lineup construction •Social interventions •Recognition is more accurate if people can decide based on photos of faces from different angles (Jones et al., 2017)
The "Room Study": Brewer & Treyens (1981)
•Procedure: -Encoding Phase: Experimenter (grad student): "I have to check to make sure that the previous hour's subject has completed the experiment... wait in my office." [35 sec] -Test phase: •Participant take to another room •Free recall of the "waiting room"! • Bill Brewer, a grad school mentor at U Illinois unintentional encoding naturalistic setting retention interval: ~1 min. why no distractor task needed? unintentional encoding! no way people were rehearsing contents of room in working memory. N = 30 schema: a framework/template or set of expectations about a situation. ex: grad student's office. From the paper: A questionnaire given after the memory task showed that most subjects spent their time in the experimental room seated in the chair, looking around the room in order to guess what kind of person the graduate student was or to see if there were any indications as to what the experi- ment was going to be about. The deception appears to have been quite successful. The crucial item on the questionnaire was, "Did you think you would be asked to remember the objects in the office?" On this item, 93% of the 86 subjects responded "no." Recall test: "We would like you to describe for us everything you can remember about the room you were just in. . . . For each object please try to give its location and as complete a description as you can provide (shape, size, color, etc.). Write your description as if you were describing the room for someone who had never seen it." only 1/30 recalled papers on the shelf!
Alzheimer's Disease
•Progressive neurodegenerative disease. -Neurons damaged, lose connections, and die. -Gets worse and worse. -No cure. No effective treatments yet. •Profound impact on individuals and families/caretakers •Pathology: -neuron death starts in hippocampus, entorhinal cortex (interface between hippocampus and cortex). later spreads all over the cortex. -Amyloid plaques between neurons -Tau protein tangles in neurons protein troubles can start years before any noticeable symptoms. eventually interfere with neurons communicating (whem some neurons die in a pathway between brain regions, the connections between those regions are disrupted and eventually lost), and eventually neurons die. atrophy. growing problem with aging population (baby boom generation) as of 2019, no cure. can only be delayed or slowed. healthy lifestyle, some drugs, education. profound impact on individuals and families/caretakers
Experiencing Self: Life as a sequence of many moments(you in the moment)
•Psychological present: ~15 seconds (working memory) •1,000s of moments per day •each very rich: mental content, emotions, physical state, goals, context •What happens to them all? -mostly lost without a trace •Experiencing self barely has time to exist! Kahneman: "Memories are all we get to keep from our experience of living, and the only perspective that we can adopt as we think about our lives is therefore that of the remembering self." "What we learn from the past is to maximize the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience. This is the tyranny of the remembering self." Experiencing self: fast, intuitive, unconscious mode of thinking that operates in the present moment, focusing on the quality of our experience IN our life - living life rather than thinking about it
Reminiscence Bump: Why? some theories...
•Self-image -identity formation occurs in young adulthood -memory is better for crucial self-defining events •but why? ... encoding? retrieval? testing effect? [reconsolidation] •Cognitive -encoding is best during periods of rapid change followed by stability •Cultural Life Script -memory is better for events that fit into the expectations of a culture REMINISCENCE BUMP -go over definition -examples: *given cue words (e.g., bananas), recall more AB episodic memories *given cue words, recall more song titles from that time in life (sem) *recall happy, sad, and traumatic events (ep) -explanations SELF IMAGE HYPOTHESIS -LOTS OF STUFF THAT DEFINES YOU HAPPENS THEN. "I" am a college graduate, PhD, wife, mother, etc.) -identity formation occurs in young adulthood (important events that occur are.......college, partner, career, kids, etc.). Lots of "firsts" happen then. emotional intensity, vividness, rehearsal, links to other memories COGNITIVE HYPOTHESIS -encoding is best during periods of rapid change followed by stability (lots of change happens in early adulthood, followed by stability) *EVIDENCE FOR THIS: REM BUMP IS LATER IN PEOPLE WHO EMIGRATED TO THE US AT 30...CHANGE FOLLOWED BY STABILITY! (see next slide!!!!!!!) CULTURAL LIFE SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS: Culturally shared expectations structure recall -events that COMMONLY happen in a culture --- memory is better if it fits in with the "script" for what is typically expected/common in our culture, NOT JUST IF IT HAPPENS TO YOU (e.g., falling in love, college, marriage, kids) Culturally shared representations of the timing of major transitional life events. Semantic knowledge transmitted by tradition. - Example: Young people know the life script. Life scripts are distorted from actual lives to favor positive events.
Implications for Eyewitness Testimony?
•Source monitoring and familiarity-based errors -Unconscious transference (a different kind of bystander effect) -Greater familiarity leads to greater confidence •The misinformation effect -Leading questions? UNCONSCIOUS TRANSFERENCE - PICK SOMEONE FAMILIAR B/C CAN'T REMEMBER SOURCE....... There have been cases where an eyewitness to a crime later identified someone as the perpetrator who had actually been a bystander at the crime... their face was familiar. WHEN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS ARRESTED FOR THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, HIS STEPS WERE TRACED TO A RYDER TRUCK RENTAL OUTLET. A WORKER AT RYDER TRUCK PLACE ALSO REPORTED ANOTHER MAN WHO HAD BEEN WITH MCVEIGH. POLICE SOUGHT HIM AS WELL, CONSIDERING HIM A POSSIBLE CO-CONSPIRATOR, AND CALLING HIM "JOHN DOE #2". He was actually an innocent man who had come into the Ryder truck rental an hour or so after McVeigh. Greater familiarity leads to greater confidence - asking witnesses questions about information (post-event questioning) makes them more confident of their recall......increased retrieval increases confidence perhaps b/c of familiarity? Also, repeatedly having witnesses do the lineup identification, or even just showing them pics of the suspect
Autobiographical Memory and The Self
•The Self: your mental representation of your identity, you as a person. •Our memories form a narrative... a coherent framework for understanding ourselves... -central to identity formation, maintenance, change. Autobiographical knowledge contains knowledge of the self (past, present, future). Autobiographical events form important parts of people's life narrative.
Memory as Constructed
•The constructivist approach to memory: reported memories = memory + knowledge, experience, expectations tell me an everyday example of constructed memory....... *PEPPERMINT PIG. First had it in NY. Brian's girlfriend brought one (NY eve thing). Comes with its own tiny hammer. Had at millenium. G's bro was there. -separate memory, George's brother came to in-laws' house one time. Brought small hammer and pulled it out at some appropriate manner from pocket. *my recollection: Hoss had small hammer in NY. NOW have them draw their drawings on board (2 from each side). Have them look at their neighbor's. How are they different? Get examples from the class if necessary.
Other-Race Effect
•The finding that people are worse at making cross-racial identifications than same-race identifications (e.g., Meissner & Brigham, 2001) •This is actually a perceptual effect, not just an inaccuracy of memory •But gets larger when face is not present (Megreya et al., 2011) •~40% of convictions lateroverturned included a cross-racial ID (despite low rates ofcross-racial crime) •Lack of expertise, categorical thinking ~40% of wrongful convictions later overturned included a cross-racial ID despite relatively low rates of cross-racial crime Caused by lack of expertise and categorical thinking More diverse communities Social cohesion
Bartlett: "War of the Ghosts" (1932)
•UK people heard story: "One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they were there it became foggy and calm... " •At various intervals, people were asked to recall/retell the story -their retellings were shorter and more coherent, contained omissions and errors -conformed more to cultural expectations -SCHEMAS • native american legend unfamiliar to british participants supernatural aspects of story were often omitted in recall "something black came out of his mouth" à "he foamed at the mouth" Neisser 1967 p285: "The traces are not simply 'revived' or 'reactivated' in recall; instead, the stored fragments are used as information to support a new construction." like paleontologist reconstructing a dinosaur from a few bone fragments. from Roediger, Meade, Gallo, & Olson (2014): In the classic book, Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, Bartlett (1932) argued that memory is a recons- tructive process. He theorized that individuals rely on pre-existing knowledge, or schemas, to encode and remember information. Schemas can aid encoding and retrieval, but during the course of recall, they may also distort recollections of the event to be more in line with the prior schema. Bartlett noted several processes (level- ing, sharpening and others) that may distort recollection of an episode through repeated retelling.
Alzheimer's Disease part two
•symptoms: -loss of memory(•trouble learning new info •losing things •not recognizing family members •forgetting familiar routes •WM: lose thread, repeat Qs •Prospective: forgetting to do things in near future •Procedural: forgetting how to do things •Episodic: forgetting the past (graded: earlier memories better preserved) •Semantic: forgetting facts) -loss of language -impaired decision-making -disorientation (time & place) -impaired perception -changes in personality, mood • INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in manifestation of symptoms. perception: depth perception: hard time telling 2D from 3D. contrast on floor might look like hole also, harder time in low-contrast settings (e.g., white toilet in white bathroom) also, harder time handling lots of noise. can get emotional. disorientation: wandering. (especially after sundown) getting lost in familiar places personality: might even become hostile MOOD: emotions persist after memory. (amygdala deteriorates later than hippocampus) Semantic: ex: forget # children, whether or not spouse is alive
Misinformation/Suggestibility:
Loftus & Palmer, 1974 •Show participants a film of an automobile accident •IV: Wording of the question. 2 conditions: •"About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" •"About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" DV: participants' estimated speed of the cars the words weren't underlined and bolded in the experiment. that's just for teaching purposes to highlight the difference. experiment was between-subjects (I'm pretty sure) malleable: can be re-shaped]
Continuum/progression of AD vs. normal aging
dementia as an abnormal form of accelerated cognitive aging due to one or more disease processes. preclinical: NO NOTICEABLE SYMPTOMS can start off as just absentmindedness figure caption: -The current consensus on the continuum of Alzheimer's disease vs. Normal aging (concept is adopted from (Gale and Acar, 2012; Sperling et al., 2011))
The distribution of memories across the lifespan
•As adults, when we think back on our lives so far... do we remember some time periods more than others? •Suppose you are 55 years old, and I ask you to retrieve a bunch of episodic memories, by cue-ing you with random words (e.g., kiss, lake, vehicle)... in studies, people would retrieve like 20 memories, and then try to date them. we compile data across lots of participants
Cognitive Interview
•Geiselman et al., (1985) -Reinstate environment mentally -Encourage reporting of every detail regardless of how small or unimportant it seems -Describe the event in various orders -Report the event from varying viewpoints (other witnesses, etc) •Promotes recall of more correct details (Memon et al., 2010) Why? -Encoding specificity principle -Create various cues/routes to remembering •Limitations -Recall of more details can cause recall of more incorrect details -Does not prevent misinformation effects -Less effective for stressful events, more effective with eyes closed
More Misinformation
•Memory distortions arising from the integration of misleading post-event information •Loftus, Miller, and Burns (1978) -People viewed slides showing a traffic crossing [stop sign or yield sign] -Then asked: "Did another car pass the red Datsun while it was stopped at the _?" •"Stop sign" or "yield sign" or just "while it was stopped" -More often selected wrong slide when shown misleading information -Even though they were told the question might have been wrong What predicts resistance to the misinformation effect? Working memory capacity, g, fear of negative evaluation, low cooperativeness
Dementia
•definition: deterioration of memory and other cognitive functions -bad enough to interfere with life (activities of daily living, social, occupation) -usually gradual and inexorable •cause: damage to brain cells -Lewy Body, vascular (stroke), Parkinson's, etc. -Alzheimer's disease (AD): most common form of dementia (60-70%) progressive: doesn't get better. tends to happen more with aging. but not to confuse with normal decline in memory due to healthy aging.
"Memories don't just fade, as the old saying would have us believe; they also grow. What fades is the initial perception, the actual experience of the events. But every time we recall an event, we must reconstruct the memory, and with each recollection the memory may be changed - colored by succeeding events, other people's recollections or suggestions, increased understanding, or a new context." Loftus & Ketcham (1991, p.20) •
1. How can genuine recovered memories be explained? People may come to view (i.e. remember) the abuse in a qualitatively different way, and then interpret the experience as recovery of a memory. 2. What is imagination inflation? Repeatedly imagining an event increases the likelihood of developing a false memory that the event occurred. 3. What is source monitoring? Our ability to remember the source of a memory (internal vs. external; specific sources within either category). Why are photos so effective for causing people to develop false memories? Photos provide people with vivid imagery that helps them to construct a false memory.
Two ways to think about evaluating long-term memory
1. •Completeness -How much of what happened do you remember? 2. •Accuracy -How much of what you remember actually happened that way? [Errors and Distortions (Re)Constructive nature of LTM •inferences, knowledge (schemas) •suggestion, misinformation] this also shows how we remember the GIST (meaning) of things, rather than verbatim (exact wording). but even further than that, what we remember is the INFERRED meaning. 16 items common error: hungry python ATE the mouse. (11 Ss said this, vs. 2 who got it correct) common error: professor LOST his car keys. (16 Ss said this, vs. 4 who got it correct) top-down processing. schemas Brewer 1977: Memory for the pragmatic implications of sentences ----- Meeting Notes (2/28/17 12:16) ----- 2/3 of class ATE the mouse sp 2017 3/4 of class: lost or forgot. sp 17
Repressed and Recovered Memories? slides
1.Trauma (e.g., abuse) (?) 2.Memory is not retrieved for some time -Repression??: the mind pushes painful memory out of consciousness (Freudian idea of a defense mechanism) [as we know, Freud was almost completely full of just straight-up bullshit] -Normal forgetting.... -Dissociative Fugue (amnesia) appears to be real, but rare 3.Memory "recovered" -certain therapy methods may induce false memory (e.g., guided imagery) -"forgot it all along": people might forget that they had previously remembered the trauma. -gain new perspective on the trauma -or maybe repression and recovery are sometimes real?
Fluid intelligence:
Ability to reason speedily and abstractly, as when solving unfamiliar logic problems Decreases with age; declines gradually until age 75 and then more rapidly after age 85
Crystallized intelligence:
Accumulated knowledge, as reflected in vocabulary and word-power tests Increases as we age, into middle age
Functions of Autobiographical memory part 2
Autobiographical memory performs a self-representative function by using personal memories to create and maintain a coherent self-identity over time. This self-continuity is the most commonly referred to self-representative function of autobiographical memory. A stable self-identity allows for evaluation of past experiences, known as life reflection, which leads to self-insight and often self-growth. Finally, autobiographical memory serves an adaptive function. Recalling positive personal experiences can be used to maintain desirable moods or alter undesirable moods. This internal regulation of mood through autobiographical memory recall can be used to cope with negative situation and impart an emotional resilience. The effects of mood on memory are explained in better detail under the Emotion section. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory ex: positive affirmations, "people like me" etc
Memory and normal aging
Cross-sectional aging data adapted from Park et al. (2002) showing behavioral performance on measures of speed of processing, working memory, long-term memory, and world knowledge. Almost all measures of cognitive function show decline with age, except world knowledge, which may even show some improvement.
Theory: Self-Memory System part 3
Event-specific knowledge (ESK) is vividly detailed information about individual events, often in the form of visual images and sensory-perceptual features.[2] The high levels of detail in ESK fade very quickly, though certain memories for specific events tend to endure longer.[5] Originating events (events that mark the beginning of a path towards long-term goals), turning points (events that re-direct plans from original goals), anchoring events (events that affirm an individuals beliefs and goals) and analogous events (past events that direct behaviour in the present) are all event specific memories that will resist memory decay.[5] The sensory-perceptual details held in ESK, though short-lived, are a key component in distinguishing memory for experienced events from imagined events.[6] In the majority of cases, it is found that the more ESK a memory contains, the more likely the recalled event has actually been experienced.[6] Unlike lifetime periods and general events, ESK are not organized in their grouping or recall. Instead, they tend to simply 'pop' into the mind.[2] ESK is also thought to be a summary of the content of episodic memories, which are contained in a separate memory system from the autobiographical knowledge base.[3] This way of thinking could explain the rapid loss of event-specific detail, as the links between episodic memory and the autobiographical knowledge base are likewise quickly lost.[3]
Study Techniques
How you retrieve information is extremely dependent on how you encode the information! 1.Generate and Test - Generate your own situations in which you must retrieve the information (generation and testing effect) 2.Elaborate - Think about your information and address meaning to it (deep processing) ... imagery can help too! 3.Organize - converting small elements into larger more meaningful ones (chunking) 4.Space- Don't cram, spread your studying out over time in small intervals 5.SLEEP! 6.Match your conditions - matching your retrieval condition with your encoding condition (state-dependent learning, encoding specificity) -Transfer appropriate processing
Theory: Self-Memory System part 2
Lifetime periods are composed of general knowledge about a distinguishable and themed time in an individual's life, such as the period you spend at school (school theme), or when you entered the workforce (work theme). Lifetime periods have a distinctive beginning and ending, but they are often fuzzy and overlap.[2] Lifetime periods contain thematic knowledge about the features of that period, such as the activities, relationships, and locations involved, as well as temporal knowledge about the duration of the period.[2] The thematic information in these periods can be used to group them together under broader themes, which can reflect personal attitudes or goals.[2] As an example, a lifetime period with the theme of "when I lost my job" could fall under the broader category of either "when everything went downhill for me" or "minor setbacks in my life." General events are more specific than lifetime periods and encompass single representations of repeated events or a sequence of related events.[2] General events group into clusters with a common theme, so that when one memory of a general event is recalled, it cues the recall of other related events in memory. These clusters of memories often form around the theme of either achieving or failing to achieve personal goals.[2] Clusters of general events that fall under the category of "first-time" achievements or occasions seem to have a particular vividness, such as the first time kissing a romantic partner, or the first time going to a ball game.[4] These memories of goal-attainment pass on important information about the self, such as how easily a skill can be acquired, or an individual's success and failure rates for certain tasks.[2]
Eyewitness testimony and cognitive psychology part three
Practices in conducting and constructing lineups and photospreads vary widely. One of the most fundamental principles of proper lineup construction involves the selection of fillers (non-suspects) who are placed with the suspect in the lineup or photospread. There is wide agreement among eyewitness scientists that the chances of mistaken identification are greatly affected by the selection of fillers. Here is the basic reason why the selection of fillers is so important: Eyewitnesses tend to select the person from a lineup who best fits their memory of the perpetrator relative to the other members of the lineup. As long as the actual perpetrator is in the lineup, this "relative judgment strategy" works quite well. Unfortunately, when the perpetrator is not in the lineup there remains nevertheless someone who better matches the witness's memory than do the others. The purpose of the fillers is to try to make sure that the chances that an innocent suspect will be the "relative best choice" are 1/N, where N is the number of persons in the lineup. Suppose, however, the suspect is the only one who actually fits the verbal description that the eyewitness had given of the perpetrator. Such a situation virtually guarantees that the suspect will be the "relative best choice."
Schema
a framework/template or set of expectations about a situation. ex: grad student's office. one way in which our knowledge of the world is structured. proposed by Piaget (1920s), Bartlett (1930s). summarize the broad pattern of what is normal (based on your experience) other examples: sitting in a class, going to restaurant, going to baseball game HELPS: organize encoding, CHUNKING (don't have to remember all details), and helps fill in blanks at retrieval. HURTS: but can lead to errors. Can lead to misremembering a specific event via generalizations or confusion With limited time, we don't remember schema-inconsistent information. Schema-inconsistent information is often lost (unless it is really vivid or surprising) MEMORY RETRIEVAL IS A RECONSTRUCTION! active process. often we're INFERRING what must have happened. try recalling the story of the original star wars trilogy... •Schemas and scripts influence memory -Memory can include information not actually experienced but inferred because it is expected and consistent with the schema -Office waiting room: books not present but mentioned in memory task -The constructive nature of memory can lead to errors or "false memories"
Memory across the human lifespan...
•Childhood amnesia (aka Infantile Amnesia) •The Reminiscence Bump •Normal Aging •Alzheimer's
Repressed & Recovered Memories?
•Freudian psychology: -Memories are repressed (unconsciously blocked) when they're associated with high levels of stress or trauma • •Freudian psychotherapists used Recovered-Memory-Therapy (RMT) to "recover" these memories -Hypnosis -Dream interpretation -Guided imagery •oh no... what does this sound like? • Claim that childhood sexual abuse is very likely to be repressed because of betrayal trauma Active inhibition of abuse out of necessity because the abuser is a caretaker
Remembering Self: Life as a tale of significant moments
•Long-term memory •Representative moments -beginnings -peaks -endings •Durations don't matter as much as events •Remembering self keeps score and is in charge. Remembering self: slow, rational, conscious mode of thinking that tells the story of our experience, how we think ABOUT our experience. we can't really take perspective of experiencing self. Also, people will tolerate/prefer a greater total amount of pain as long as it gets better at the end. Power of endings...
Associations: a double-edged sword
•Spreading activation in an associative network can lead to: -correct retrieval -failure to retrieve (interference) -incorrect retrieval •Brewer's "room study" •Pragmatic inference (the hungry python...) •Bartlett's "War of the Ghosts" •DRM word lists •work by Loftus et al
False memory recipe
•Suggest what might have happened -Make up stories -Ask leading questions •Make your story believable -Show misleading pictures (e.g., wrong mug shot) -Say other evidence confirms your story -Say: if you can imagine it, it's true •Encourage vivid imagery -Guided imagery -Context reinstatement •Put the target in a suggestible state -Hypnotized -Social pressure -Stressed (during encoding or "retrieval") •Repeat, repeat, repeat -the more times repeated, the more familiar the "memory" becomes... •
Eyewitness testimony and cognitive psychology
•Tip 1 **: -Inform witness whether perp in lineup •Tip 2: -Use "fillers" similar to suspect •Tip 3: -Use sequential, not simultaneous presentation •Tip 4: -Eliminate leading info •Cognitive interview •Confirming/disconfirming perp selection (double-blind lineup) You identified the wrong person. The fact is that none of these five people is the gunman. And that is one of the simplest and most important points that has come out of research on eyewitness identification. People have great difficulty when they encounter a lineup or photo spread in which the actual perpetrator is not present. It is no coincidence that the DNA exoneration cases (cases in which people were convicted of crimes erroneously based on their being falsely identified by one or more eyewitness) are cases in which the actual perpetrator was not in the lineup or photospread. That is why the instructions to eyewitnesses prior to their viewing a lineup must include a specific and explicit warning that the actual culprit might not be in the lineup. Even when eyewitnesses are given this warning, there is a natural tendency for them to select the person who most looks like the culprit relative to the other members of the lineup.
Implicit memory can lead us astray
•When something feels familiar, but we don't remember the source. -failure of Source Monitoring •False fame effect (Jacoby et al., 1989) -shown a list of fictitious names (e.g., Sebastian Weisdorf) -Later, shown a list of real famous names (e.g., Christopher Wren) and fictitious names. rated fame of each name. -Some fictitious names rated as famous -The familiarity of those names was misattributed to fame. •Illusory truth -familiarity of statements increases their credibility -"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth" Goebbels (Nazi head of propaganda) -lesson: don't expose yourself to bad sources of information! (like what?...) Illusion of truth: (ex: Begg, Ana, & Farinacci, 1992) In one study demonstrating an illusion of truth, participants first read a series of statements and were told that some of them were false; for example, "Gail Logan says that crocodiles sleep with their eyes open." Later, participants saw the sentences again and had to judge whether they were true. Statements that were heard before—even those that had been labeled as false—were later judged to be more credible than sentences they had not heard before
Functions of Autobiographical Memory?
1)Directive - Using past experiences to solve current problems 2)Social - Develops and maintains social bonds 3)Self-representative - Create and maintain a coherent self-identity 4)Adaptive? - Internal regulation of mood Baddeley (1988): self definition and self regulation Neisser (1988): creation and maintenance of social relationships Autobiographical memory serves three broad functions: directive, social, and self-representative. A fourth function, adaptive, was proposed by Williams, Conway and Cohen (2008). The directive function of autobiographical memory uses past experiences as a reference for solving current problems and a guide for our actions in the present and the future. Memories of personal experiences and the rewards and losses associated with them can be used to create successful models, or schemas, of behaviour. which can be applied over many scenarios. In instances where a problem cannot be solved by a generic schema, a more specific memory of an event can be accessed in autobiographical memory to give some idea of how to confront the new challenge. Examples?: what you've learned about how to do well in a college course, troubleshooting computer issues The social function of autobiographical memory develops and maintains social bonds by providing material for people to converse about. Sharing personal memories with others is a way to facilitate social interaction. Disclosing personal experiences can increase the intimacy level between people and reminiscing of shared past events strengthens pre-existing bonds. The importance of this function can easily be seen in individuals with impaired episodic or autobiographical memory, where their social relationships suffer greatly as a result. ex: sharing with others, reminiscing together
Childhood amnesia (aka infantile amnesia)
As adults, we can't really retrieve anything from our first few years of life. Our oldest memories tend to be from when we were ~2-4 years old. memories of VERY early experiences might have originated much after the original experience, for example when a relative told you about it, or from a photo or video... but hey, that doesn't mean it's IMPOSSIBLE that an adult might have a memory from way back when they were <1... just really unlikely given all the data Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories which are memories of specific events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual who, what, when, and where) before the age of 2-4 years, as well as the period before age 10 of which adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time. earliest memories tend to be fragmentary and sparse. isolated vignettes. "childhood amnesia" is kind of a theory-laden term. it's supposed to just describe a pattern of data. but "amnesia" makes it sound like the memories are lost. but maybe they're not? or maybe they were never encoded to begin with? We'd have to make sure that this isn't just an effect of RETENTION INTERVAL. Suppose the college students were all 20 years old. Maybe you just don't remember anything from 18+ years ago? We check this by asking people who are older. 30 year olds can certainly remember things from when they were 12 and younger. RESULTS? Adults of all ages show the "childhood amnesia" effect.
