Long-Term Memory: Errors - PSYC 224

In the Loftus and Palmer "car crash" experiment, participants were asked to recall whether they saw any broken glass after the cars "smashed" into each or after they "hit" each other. An important take-away from the results of this experiment is that: A) Interviewers must be careful with how they probe a person's memory, since even the question phrasing could lead to memory errors. B) Asking about a memory will rarely influence recall, because we retrieve the memory before we fully process the question. C) People are generally resistant to any form of suggestibility. D) Only certain phrases can influence recall, and even then only mildly.

A

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) "sleep list" false memory experiment creates false memories through A) constructive memory process B) exact recall C) blocking D) none of these

A

Which explicit measure of memory retrieval is generally the hardest? (if this is looked at alone, people might think we are generally very bad at retrieval) A) recall tests B) cued recall tests C) recognition tasks D) they are all equally as hard

A

You witness a minor car accident. That day, you tell a friend some of the details that you saw at the scene. A few days later, the insurance agency calls you to ask what happened. Assuming your memories are being affected by blocking, which memories are you most likely to recall? A) The details you told your friend B) Information that you didn't tell your friend C) All the information about the accident will be difficult to recall D) Blocking does not usually affect autobiographical memories

A

In Jacoby's experiment, which asked participants to report whether or not they had seen the names of famous and non-famous people, inaccurate memories from source misattributions happened after A) one week B) 24 hours C) one hour D) three weeks

B

Which group of people are more susceptible of generating false memories? A) Those with bad visual imagery abilities B) Those with poor source memory C) Those who don't think they have a good memory D) Those who aren't under social pressure

B (since it will be easier for outside influences to take place of a memory's actual source)

A paradox when studying the tip of the tongue phenomena where we have two types of labels (associated with a set of unfamiliar faces). One being their name (ex: "Baker") and one being their occupation (ex: "baker"). Recall for occupation is better than for names, even though the label is the same word.

Baker/baker paradox

Which of the following is the best characterization of flashbulb memories? A) It is a photograph-like-memory for an emotionally-charged event. B) It is a memory for an emotionally-charged event that may miss some detail but is less susceptible to change over time. C) It is a memory for an emotionally-charged event that stays unusually vivid but is not necessarily precise. D) It is a memory of an emotionally-charged event that people practice more and therefore remember more precisely.

C

Which of the following are examples of failures in source memory? A) Can't tell similar instances of something apart B) Can't differentiate between having done something and having imagined/heard about it C) Can't compare where you parked today with where you parked last week D) All of the above

D

Which of the following are correct ways to interview someone without wording questions in a way that would manipulate their memory? A) Mentally reinstate the environment and personal situation in which the crime occurred B) Encourage the reporting of every detail C) Recount the events in different orders, starting from different points D) Changing perspectives/focusing on different sensory modalities and retelling E) All of the above

E

(T/F): Flashbulb memories are not susceptible to source memory errors.

F

(T/F): We can distinguish true memories from false memories by a person's overt behavior.

F (people behave as if they have in fact experienced those things)

(T/F): Words are more susceptible to blocking than names.

F (the opposite is true)

(T/F): If you give subjects a list of words to learn and give them some of the words from the list as freebees, they will do a better job at recalling the remainder of the words than those who were not given any freebees.

F (they actually performed worse; calling to mind some information can inhibit other, related information)

(T/F): Because our long-term memories have a high capacity and can last a lifetime, we can remember everything that we have stored.

F (we sometimes fail to retrieve information when we want to and we sometimes retrieve inaccurate information)

(T/F): Implicit measures sometimes show evidence for memory that cannot be found with explicit measures.

T

(T/F): Implicit memory depends on modality and other perceptual characteristics.

T

(T/F): Older adults have more difficulty than young adults with separating content and their sources if those sources are less distinct.

T

(T/F): Through repeated questioning, people could come to have memories of a crime they did not commit.

T

(T/F): We tend to incorporate misleading information from external sources into our personal recollections.

T

(T/F): Explicit memory doesn't care about modality change.

T (an example would be studying an auditory word list, people generally have good recognition for visual words)

A failure to be able to retrieve information that we know is stored in the system (transient failure - can recall that information at a later time). (ex: can't think of a word)

blocking

A common strategy for learning names is to associate with __________ ___________. (ex: make up a story related to the person's name)

conceptual information

What are the three parts of a single memory that must be brought together at retrieval?

contents, source, fluency/familiarity

Method of memory retrieval where we ask people to make overt references to their memory. (ex: "What can you remember?", "What does this cue remind you of?", "Which of these items have you seen before?")

explicit measures

Certain, particularly traumatic, incidents that are "immune" from forgetting of source information. Assumed to be stored as a whole, like snapshots.

flashbulb memories

In Loftus & Palmer's experiment regarding the misinformation effect (1974), participants who were asked about the speed of the cars when they "smashed into" each other reported ______ speeds compared to those asked about the speed of the cars when they "hit" each other.

higher

Method of memory retrieval where we do NOT ask people to reference their own memory. (ex: performance measures such as priming and word completion, physiological measures such as eye movements and ERPs)

implicit measures

A memory fault that occurs when we fail to correctly put the contents, source, and fluency/familiarity of a single memory together.

misattribution

Tendency to misattribute fluency -- ease of processing -- with memory of prior exposure. (ex: Whittlesea, 1993: subjects study a list of words. At test, get those words and new ones as the endings of sentences. Say "old" or "new". We tend to misclassify predictable new endings as old despite never seeing them before.)

misattribution of fluency

Memories are stored in pieces and _____________ during recollection (important source for memory errors).

reconstructed

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information (ex: we typically associate an office with having books)

schema

What do failures in source memory result from?

separation of content and source of memory

Memory for contextual elements. (ex: where you learned something, who told you something)

source memory

We are certain we know the word or person we are searching for, but we can't recall it. Can often get some partial information about the word (meaning, initial sound, approximate length).

tip of the tongue