Psych of Memory Final Exam

Yuille and Cutshall study (1985) methods

1. police interviewed 13/21 eyewitnesses of a shooting in the street (thief shot shop owner, and then shoplifter killed the thief) on the day of the crime --> then re-interviewed by researchers 4-5 months later 2. then added misleading information

Payne sleep study contributions

demonstrates importance of sleep on motor skills --> both groups achieved sequential learning, but the sleep group performed better when tested again - shows you should learn at night, sleep, and continue to learn in the morning

Yuille and Cutshall study (1985) contributions

findings show overall stable and relatively high levels of accuracy in adult eye witnesses --> in real world scenarios

9/11 flashbulb memory study

flashbulb memory: individual memory for who, what, where, and when during the event studied people's memories of the event over time

suggestibility

memories that are implanted as a result of leading questions or comments during attempts to recall past experiences the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections - sources include people, written materials, pictures, media brain regions: - both frontal and hippocampal regions are activated in true and false memories --> with false, one tiny part of frontal lobe and temporal activated more

treasure chest study

studies episodic memory of children

change bias

the tendency to exaggerate differences between what we feel or believe now and what we felt or believed in the past --> sometimes things should have changed i.e. self-help programs i.e. people often remember that earlier in their relationship things were poorer than they reported at the time (things are getting better over time) i.e. often change bias in the earlier phase of marriage and a consistency bias after that ***less bias in reporting associated with overall higher levels of satisfaction in relationship --> suggests bias might be important coping mechanism!

consistency bias

the tendency to reconstruct the past to fit the present --> implicit theory of stability: things should remain constant (why wouldn't they = a good heuristic) i.e. pain ratings of the past depend upon current pain levels --> if pain is currently high, then past pain is rated higher as well i.e. political views will be framed as consistent i.e. people tend to report that how they feel in their relationship now is how they've always felt (but sometimes marriage starts with change bias that it was poor but now it's been good for a while) i.e. every part of relationship after "honeymoon" period can be rough, and people often remember earlier part of relationship as poor too

Baker/baker problem

(proper noun blocking): participants told the man was either named Baker or was a baker (profession) --> came back a couple of days later - participants much more likely to remember that he was a baker --> same information is remembered differently! - he is a baker: gets embedded in semantic network of ideas about what it means to be a baker i.e. associate with bread, cake, etc. - name is abstract piece of info not connected to anything else: makes hard to remember! - no alternatives or variations for proper nouns, but there are for common nouns ***failure to recall proper noun but can recall conceptual details about person - failure increases as delay increases

Loftus false memory study

(suggestibility) shows a film of an accident where car comes to yiels and crashes minorly, after showing the film participant asked a misleading question --> memory test conducted later i.e. what happens when the cars collided vs. when cars smashed together - participants often incorporate the misleading information into their memories --> ***misattribute the source of the memory to the film rather than the misleading question i.e. say the car was going faster when "smashed" and that there was glass on the ground when there was not

how are consistency and change biases adaptive

***less bias in reporting associated with overall higher levels of satisfaction in relationship --> suggests bias might be important coping mechanism! why? 1. reduces cognitive dissonance --> reducing the conflict over a decision i.e. two prints study: conflicted on which to buy, decide, then reflect that the one you picked was really much better i.e. amnesia: also occurs --> suggest biases occur without awareness 2. need efficient systems to organize information --> have categories/biases to do this

Sam Stone experiment methods

- 3-4 y.o. and 5-6 y.o. in childcare - 4 groups: control, stereotype, suggestive, suggestive + stereotype - Sam visited during story reading (2 min event), commented he knew and liked the story - 5 interviews: one/week for 4 weeks, 1 after 10 weeks --> in last one, new experimenter and probed about events that did not occur 1. stereotype condition: pre-event manipulation = one month prior to visit were told 3 stores about Sam Stone, described as a clumsy person 2. suggestion condition: post-event manipulation = during 4 interviews were told 2 pieces of misinformation - Sam Stone ripped a book - Sam Stone made a teddy bear dirty

Zajac study methods

- 8-11 y.o. children - took a trip to the local police station - brief exposure to confederate - lineup task 1-2 days later memory event --> lineup task --> two lineups 1) target-present and 2) target-absent --> control or wildcard condition within each lineup condition, children were either told to tell the experimenter if the target was not present (control condition), or provided with an additional photograph of a silhouetted figure with a large question mark superimposed (wildcard condition), and asked to point to this photograph if the target was not present --> gave kids explicit option to choose "they're not there" used the percent guilty statistic to measure accuracy: = proportion targets selected from TP lineups / proportion targets selected from TP lineups + proportion innocent suspects selected from TA lineups

standard experimental method to generate false memory

- doctored photos - misleading questions - suggestions - hypnosis - visualization: makes the memories seem more vivid and "true" - dream interpretation: told that dreams represent being lost as a child --> 2 weeks later participants more likely to report memories before age 2 - hypnotic suggestion - leading questions: can be incorporated into memory (increases misattribution) ***when you feed people misinformation about some experience they may have had, you can distort or contaminate or change their memory

why study aging

- overall population is aging - life expectancy is increasing - number of oldest old is rising - noncommunicable diseases a growing burden - some populations are shrinking - family structures changing - patterns of work and retirement are shifting - social insurance systems are evolving - new economic challenges are emerging

Sam Stone experiment contribution

- overall there are multiple points when misinformation can be introduced - important to note that in control condition children were highly accurate --> in the presence of good questioning, children are capable of being accurate witnesses

Waagenaar and Groeneweg contribution

- repeated instances of severe trauma are recalled in more detail than single instances - more severe incidents of abuse recounted in as much or more detail than less severe - strong emotion at the time of event is, however, no guarantee after a very long retention interval

treasure chest study findings

1. 3 and 4-y.o.s can complete the task, but 4 y.o.s are significantly better] - most children who pick the key refer to the future/prospective function - 4.y.os also remember after a 1-week delay 2. performance by 3-y.o.s is high when tested immediately, but they show rapid forgetting (after 30 mins decreases rapidly)

suggestibility study example

1. Do you remember TV footage of the plane the moment it hit the apartment building? - 55% people responded yes 10 months after a plane crash in the Dutch town where study conducted, BUT TV footage never captured 2. provost to offer University helicopter tours starting April 1 3. "Lost in the Mall": teenage kid given a journal with four stories, 3 true 1 false (being lost in the mall at age 5) --> asked to write down his memories about each of the events over a 5-day period - over 5 days, story of being lost in the mall became more elaborate, and included details not given in the original story - interviewed again several weeks later and asked to rate each memory on a scale of 1-10 from not clear to very vivid: he gave false memory an 8 ***false memories successfully implanted, inaccurate information from external source encoded into personal recollection 4. participants shown real or doctored photos --> given a series of questions linked to event (how many people were there? how many people obstructed the tank?) - doctored photo increases number of people said to be present and characteristics of the event (reported more confrontations, damage, injuries) 5. Schacter study- picnic with Alan Alda: day 1 filming the picnic with Alan Alda, two days later Alan is shown photos of picnic, some of the events were plausible but incorrect --> after showing photos, read list of items and ask participant whether items present at picnic or not - Alan incorporates/updates the misinformation into his memory, recognizing some of the items that were presented in the photos as present during the event 6. Kassin ALT key study: students asked to complete a computer task but not to press the ALT key or the computer will crash --> half complete task fast, half slow... experimenter leaves, computer crashes, participant accused of pressing ALT, half overhear a "witness" saying they saw the event - 100% of those in fast response and "witness" condition falsely confessed to pressing ALT key 7. Peter Ellis case study (suggestibility and child witnesses): poor interviewing techniques used with children in alleged abuse cases --> recovered memory/false memory 8. Loftus shows a film of an accident where car comes to yiels and crashes minorly, after showing the film participant asked a misleading question --> memory test conducted later i.e. what happens when the cars collided vs. when cars smashed together - participants often incorporate the misleading information into their memories --> ***misattribute the source of the memory to the film rather than the misleading question i.e. say the car was going faster when "smashed" and that there was glass on the ground when there was not 9. Sam Stone experiment 10. Yuille & Cutshall: introduced misinformation but in person didn't have a significant effect on participants

eye witness testimony study example

1. Yuille & Cutshall: shooting in the street, 13/21 witnesses interviewed by police on day of crime then re-interviewed by researchers 4-5 months later - overall high levels of accuracy immediately and after delay (approx 80% accuracy) - errors in person stats (weight, height, hair style, color, clothing), time and date (10/13 couldn't remember month), number of shots fired, and action errors (reported altercation that did not occur between thief and shop owner) - higher levels of reported stress, higher accuracy (90% high stress vs. 75% low) ***findings show overall stable and relatively high levels of accuracy in adult eye witnesses 2. Loftus video with misleading questions of car crash 3. Wells and Bradford study: 4. Peter Ellis case study and child witnesses:

how can bias potentially be reduced

1. be aware 2. question self and others ***challenging information and evaluating it once it's brought into the frontal cortex is the best way to get rid of biases

absentmindedness study example

1. change blindness study (door study) 2. class data: forgotten events were more disruptive on days where stress levels were highest - they fell into major categories of needed objects (tech, keys, others) or forgotten activities (social, professional, or sports/school related) 3. gorilla

Simon task and aging methods

1. click the left button if red, right button if green 2. measure reaction time (msec) of correct responses --> Simon effect: - congruity effect - reaction time on incongruent minus reaction time on congruent

persistence study examples

1. concentration camp Kapos (prisoners given role of torturer to increase camp compliance): interviewed either during 1940s or 1980s or both - memory for general gist of atrocities committed at camp remained high and consistent across witnesses for 40 years - but lots of errors about specific details of perpetrator (i.e. some forgot the name of the accused, some did not recognize photograph, some got hair color or clothing wrong- said uniform but did not) - repeated instances of severe trauma are recalled in more detail than single instances BUT strong emotion at the time of event is no guarantee after a very long retention interval 2. classical fear conditioning: learned emotional (irrational fear) reaction to a previously neutral stimulus --> generalize to similar objects/things as adaptive function 3. SM case study: Urbach-Weithe disease (rare genetic disorder where amygdala calcifies with age, resulting in inability to feel fear, also cannot perceive fear in others) - does not remember emotionally relevant information any differently than neutral information (unlike controls) --> less activation of the amygdala 4. emotional Stroop task: emotional boost enhances retention of memory --> emotional words or experiences garner more attention - slower for people to say the color of negative words; depressed participants are especially slow - non-clinical are slow to name the color of words that are emotional vs. neutral 5. PTSD twin study: 6. positivity bias during aging: tend to remember positive events more than neutral/negative --> change in goals from expansive to bounded because of perceived time (not age per se), which increases memory for positive events

adaptive functions of transcience/forgetting

1. forgetting over time is adaptive to allow for updating 2. trade-off: keep information that is retrieved more frequently 3. benefit: most often correct that other information will not be needed BUT cost: needing some informating not frequently retrieved --> forgetting

cognitive abilities not preserved during aging

1. inhibitory control decreases 2. implicit memory not preserved (deficits in practiced implicit learning- triplets test) --> partly function of caudate (integrating complex associations) 3. reduced sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities 4. reduced lateralization of processing (may be compensatory) 1. processing speed 2. declarative learning 3. executive control

cognitive abilities preserved during aging

1. initial learning (but not implicit learning) --> function of hippocampus (formation of new stimulus representations) 2. short term memory 3. vocabulary / word knowledge 4. emotional regulation

9/11 flashbulb memory contributions

1. level of ensuing conversation (how much people talked about it, media coverage) was the most important factor influencing retention of event memory --> demonstrates the social function in memory 2. emotional response does not lead to event retention 3. memories are corrected or updated with accurate information over time 4. consistency of emotional response was poorer than consistency of other factors

misattribution study example

1. magnifying glass and lollipop experiment: examined the effects of age-related binding deficits on feature information in false memories for imagined objects (i.e. lollipop) that were similar in shape to seen objects (i.e. magnifying glass) --> did I really see this or am I imagining it? need to think about it/track the source, which is harder for older people due to deterioration of prefrontal cortex - location memory for seen objects was lower in older than younger adults - for younger adults, displaying seen objects for less time (1s vs. 4s) reduced both location memory for seen objects and congruent attributions for false memories ***thus, binding deficits may influence the specific content of false memories 2. case study MR damage to frontal lobes, film stars everywhere: did I really see it or imagine it 3. deese-roediger paradigm: misattribution error we make because memory systems and semantic networks are highly organized --> we pull out relevant information all at once and have to sift through for the source - list read out: after delay --> did she say doctor, or just related words? - likely to produce false memory, BUT more likely to remember more item words - frontal and hippocampal regions are activated with both true and false memories; differences were only small (one part of frontal & temporal lobe activated more for false memory) 4. Loftus: shows film of an accident, then asks participant leading question --> memory test conducted later - participants often incorporate the misleading information into their memories --> misattribute the source of the memory to the film rather than the misleading question

Waagenaar and Groeneweg study findings

1. memory for the general gist of atrocities committed at camp Erika remained high and consistent across witnesses for 40 years 2. BUT lots of errors about specific details of perpetrator - some forgot the name of the accused - some did not recognize photograph - some got hair color or clothing wrong (said they wore a uniform and did not)

Loftus lost in the mall study

1. methods: teenager given a journal containing four stories (3 true, 1 false- being lost in the mall at age 5) --> asked to write down memories about each of the events over 5 day period findings: over the 5 days, the story of being lost in the mall became more elaborate, and included details not given in the original story II. several weeks later re-interviewed and asked to rate each memory from 1-10 (not clear to very vivid) --> gave false memory an 8 III. follow-up: 24 participants recruited together with relative, each sent a journal with 4 stories (3 true, 1 false, provided by the relative), asked to write what they remember from each event, interviewed 1-2 weeks after completing the booklet and again 1-2 weeks later findings: persistent false memories successfully implanted in > 25% of participants

Sam Stone experiment findings

1. no children in the control made false allegations, but 10% did when probed 2. stereotype condition: none made false allegations but 37% when probed 3. suggestion condition: 21% younger and 14% older made false allegation, 53% younger and 38% older when probed 4. suggestion + stereotype condition: 46% of youngest and 30% of oldest made false allegation, 77% youngest and 40% older when probed ***children's errors increased due to: 1. age of the child 2. stereotype 3. suggestive information 4. repeated interviews

Yuille and Cutshall study (1985) findings

1. overall high levels of accuracy immediately and after delay --> approx 80% accuracy 2. BUT person statistics (height, weight estimates) 50% errors and about 75% correct for hair style and color and clothing - 10/13 unable to remember the month - number of shots fired difficult to tell - action errors: reported altercation that did not occur between thief and shop owner 2. then no real effect of misinformation on reporting BUT higher levels of reported stress --> higher accuracy (90% high stress, 75% low stress)

bias study example

1. self-bias high school grades study: people reported receiving more As on report card in high school than they did --> shows people believe they are above average (but statistically cannot happen) - John Dean's memory is also self-bias: shows importance of repeated events (rehearsal) and retelling of events (narrative hypothesis) 2. implicit bias: faster reaction time when black paired with a negative word and white paired with a positive word 3. hindsight bias: Barbara and Jack story, read one ending and then later judge the plausibility of two alternate endings --> readers judge the ended that they read and were instructed to ignore as more plausible - they have false recall of content that was not in the story but that is consistent with the bias - self-enhancing to know that "we knew all along", but ***reduces the ability to learn from new experiences 4. two prints study: go to an art gallery and pick one of two prints --> on later reflection decide that the one that was picked was really much better - ***reduces cognitive dissonance --> is this consistency bias? - this finding occurs also in those with amnesia suggesting that biases occur without awareness 5. change bias: sometimes things should change i.e. remember that earlier in relationship things were poorer than reported at the time --> things are getting better over time - often there is a change bias in the earlier phase of marriage and a consistency bias after that - less bias in reporting is associated with overall higher levels of satisfaction in a relationship --> ***suggests bias might be an important coping mechanism

9/11 flashbulb memory study findings

1. the rate of forgetting for flashbulb memories and event memory (memory for details about the event itself) slows after a year 2. the strong emotional reactions elicited by flashbulb events are remembered poorly, worse than non-emotional features (such as where and from whom one learned of the attack) - relatively poor memory for emotional response across time 3. content of flashbulb and event memories stabilizes after a year - event memories are corrected over time (updated with accurate information) due to memory practices in the community (social function) ***what influenced retention: location/residency (living geographically close to the event), personal consequences, NOT intensity of emotional response, but also attention to media coverage/conversations - none of these were related to consistency of flashbulb memory, just accuracy

seven sins of memory

1. transcience 2. blocking 3. absentmindedness 4. misattribution 5. suggestibility 6. bias 7. persistence

Hebb and Skinner suggestions for overcoming aging problems

1. use environment, reminders, and prompts 2. rest more

Rovee-Collier infant learning study methods

2-6 month olds learn to kick a mobile: 1. in the baseline and test phase the ribbon is disconnected from the mobile --> see how much they normally kick in baseline 2. acquisition phase: over 2 days, the baby learns to contingently move the mobile --> then hook them to mobile in test phase to see they learn that when they kick foot, mobile moves 3. test session: LT retention assessed after delay --> see if they remember the association and kick at a higher rate babies learned to associate kicking of their feet with the movements of the mobile/bell that they would hear. implicit memory: "cued recall" the older they are, the longer period of memory span that they would have to remind themselves of how the mobile works 2 mo. 2 days 3 mo. 7 days 6 mo. 14 days 18 mo. 90 days bilinguals: memory generalization can be enhanced in infants by exposing them to different stimuli or different contexts

treasure chest study methods

3-6 year-olds: 1. show hiding game on day 1, find the treasure but no key involved 2. then on day 2, have an "unrelated game" to pick an object (given choice of 3 random items and a key) 3. assess this performance after 1 day delay ***find treasure, no key; after delay, present them with objects --> should choose the key and relate it to future function (prospective memory)

transience study example

Baddley park at the clinic study: 1. park on Monday and Wednesday, or park only on Wednesday --> ask about Wednesday - which do better and why? just Wednesday because proactive interference, learning Monday interfered with memory of Wednesday 2. park on Monday and Wednesday, or park only on Monday --> ask about Monday - which do better and why? just Monday because retroactive interference, learning Wednesday interfered with Monday memory Ebbinghaus Study working study: ask about yesterday and about last week, but one group goes on vacation and one group goes to work --> vacation group remembers better about last week because no work interference in between, what you did yesterday was new, in a different context - last Tuesday for workers was just like yesterday, so it was harder to differentiate sleep studies: amount of forgetting is much less with sleep (sleep causes less memory loss than activity that occurs while one is awake) Spanish vocabulary study: shows rapid drop off in vocabulary over first 3 years that then plateaus over decades - over time need increasingly more cues to retrieve everyday memories as the delay increased

blocking study example

Baker/baker problem: less activated pathways in the semantic network - breakdown at the lexical level so does not match the phonological level - failure to recall proper noun, but can recall conceptual details about person --> because no context, significance, things to associate with it - for common nouns conceptual, lexical, and phonological map directly - failure increases as delay increases - no alternative or variations of proper noun but there are alternatives for common nouns ***system overload if every memory was retrieved with any potential cues participants told the man was either named Baker or was a baker (profession) --> came back a couple of days later - participants much more likely to remember that he was a baker --> same information is remembered differently! - he is a baker: gets embedded in semantic network of ideas about what it means to be a baker i.e. associate with bread, cake, etc. - name is abstract piece of info not connected to anything else: makes hard to remember! TOT phenomenon: ugly step-sisters hypothesis --> retrieval of alternatives block retrieval of word on the tip of the tongue BUT - more TOT errors for words infrequently used - if ugly sisters were blocking TOT word, then should happen more often for frequent words - low frequency words are also isolated from lots of conceptual knowledge --> ugly sisters then exacerbate and prolong the TOT experience --> a consequence, but not the reason for it - younger people generate more partial cues, such as first letter of the word, eventually triggers correct word, so less susceptible to TOT ^^^to get rid of it: 1. think of something else (will reduce the ugly sister effect) 2. sleep 3. run through the alphabet in head ***more likely to experience TOT for names not recently retrieved

gorilla study

How many times do the people in white Pass the basketball? So focused on the passing of the basketball that you don't notice the man in the gorilla suit walk through. central executive: controls selective attention focusing on selected portion of sensory input i.e. gorilla study ***based on the change blindness experiment by Levin and Simons: - methods: confederate asks for directions, during convo people carrying a door walk in between the confederate and participant and completely obscures confederate --> confederate changes.... - findings: only 7/15 notice the change, middle aged/older most often failed to notice the change, college students more likely to notice change when confederate was another college student, but not when confederate was dressed as construction worker (not someone in your community/social group, pay less attention because you probably won't see them again) - mechanism for findings: due to automatic or shallow level processing of a scene --> too much of a cognitive load to actively encode every face in the grocery store (i.e.)

false memory

a distorted or fabricated recollection of something that did not actually occur; an inaccurate memory that feels as real as an accurate memory due to misattribution

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

a neuropsychological test that evaluates a patient's ability to remember that previously learned rules of behavior are no longer effective and to learn to respond to new rules; a test of executive functions involving rule induction and rule use ***tests task switching, working memory: 1. participants shown cards with 3 characteristics (color, shape, number) 2. first cards sorted by one characteristic (i.e. color) 3. later, task is changed and cards must be sorted by another characteristic (shape) - poor in Schizophrenia - poor with dysexecutive syndrome - poor with impaired frontal cortex

Tower of Hanoi

a problem in which you transfer a series of different-sized disks from one spindle to another following a specific set of rules; ***tests setting goals and planning, requires manipulation of working memory - what subgoals have been accomplished - what subgoals remain - what is the next subgoal to be addressed

stroop task

a task invented in which a subject sees a list of words (color terms) printed in an ink color that differs from the word named. The subject is asked to name the ink colors of the words in the list and demonstrates great difficult in doing so, relative to a condition in which non-color words form the stimuli colors: 1. inhibit reading the word --> tests ***response inhibition/inhibitory control 2. report the color of the letters of the word --> stimulus selection emotions: - list of colored words, some neutral, some negative findings: - harder to say the color of the LETTERS of the color-name, not the word --> so slower - typically slower to name the colors of negative words, depressed participants are especially slow - non-clinical subjects typically slower to name the color of words that are emotional vs. neutral

effects of healthy aging on emotion regulation

as the population rapidly ages, typical aging is now an important area of research --> healthy aging is thought to affect emotion regulation

misattribution

attributing a recollection or idea to the wrong source a memory fault that occurs when memories are retrieved but are associated with the wrong time, place, or person; mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source source memory errors; we remember the memory correctly but attribute it to the wrong source - problem can occur at encoding (i.e. binding of features problems- need to match together faces, names, events, and times) --> hippocampus important for binding - problems can occur at retrieval (i.e. source monitoring problems) anecdotal example: sometimes I misattribute real events with things I've dreamed and had to ask my friends whether or not something actually happened - for a while I would quote my mom on my life motto but it was really my dad who said it brain area involved: hippocampus important for binding, frontal lobe important in monitoring

healthy aging and positivity bias

b. shown pictures, asked to recall: older remember more positive items than negative items --> amygdala functions the same with positive and less with negative items (more activation in amygdala for negative events) c. socioemotional selectivity theory: goals are always set in the context of time - expansive: value novelty, invest energy in acquiring information - bounded: value close social/emotional relationships --> change of goals with less time to live, so focus on positive events --> much less activation for negative events in amygdala ***so, aging brings change in goals because of perceived time (not age per se) and this increases memory for positive events

class presentation: multiple choice tests stabilize access to marginal knowledge

background information: - marginal knowledge: information in memory that's not accessible at a given time i.e. author of certain book- might know it just can't think of it in that moment - studies show that multiple choice tests are highly effective for activating marginal knowledge and may be useful as a method for learning, as they are useful for assessing knowledge purpose: whether multiple-choice tests (which by definition expose the learner to the correct answers) can boost accessibility to marginal knowledge and, if so, how testing compares to restudying given that tests can be particularly powerful learning devices - how MC tests methods: I. group of undergrad students on initial knowledge- 42 random MC q's (1/2 real, 1/2 fictitious) - then 28 short answers - 2 more sessions of short answers II. added in feedback condition and extended the delay after learning III. to measure dif between MC and studying, longer MC --> MC test group, studying group, tetris groups; then MC test later on after delay findings: I. multiple-choice tests stabilize access to knowledge, and MC testing is more beneficial for questions targeting marginal knowledge (real questions) than new learning (fictitious questions) - positive testing effect: participants answered more short-answer test questions with the target answer if that answer had appeared on the MC test beforehand --> effect was larger for real items than for fictitious items - MC test successfully reactivated marginal knowledge II. feedback on testing resulted in new learning, not reactivation of marginal knowledge (feedback effect same for real and fictitious q's) - additional 2-day delay did not significantly reduce the positive impact of MC testing on access to marginal knowledge - similar conclusions to I III. studying and MC tests were equally beneficial for stabilizing access to marginal knowledge --> mainly due to fact that studiers are protected from the negative testing effect ***MC had the power to stabilize access to marginal knowledge, and to do so for at least up to a week. ***Importantly, such tests did not need to be paired with feedback (feedback did not result in reactivation of marginal knowledge, but did result in new learning), although testing was no more powerful than studying major conclusions and implications: - results support the idea that one's knowledge base is unstable, with individual pieces of information coming in and out of reach - tests improve the ability to retrieve newly-learned information in classrooms and should be used to review new units or lessons - employee training programs can also utilize MC tests to better prepare new hires for the demands of their job ***MC tests are highly effective at activating marginal knowledge ***may be useful as a method of learning, as it is for assessing knowledge, because it helps stabilize access to information memory principle: - Bjork & Bjork's "New Theory of Disuse" (1992) found that memory encoding depends mainly on how well we can retrieve information, rather than how well we have learned it --> MC testing improves retrieval strength because it provides many of the details necessary for remembering details - for priming, MC sets up the necessary context or information for retrieving the correct response for implicit memory systems --> conceptual priming specifically involves tempo-parietal cortex

what does it mean to say bias is implicit

biases occur without awareness - stereotypes and categories make cognitive lives simpler --> energy savers - biases do not involve the frontal cortex or questioning/challenging information

Hebb and Skinner

both provided personal accounts of aging and its impact on memory processing Skinner: when heforgets names of other guests at parties, he relies on his wife or flatters listener; also describes improving environments to decrease impact of aging - forgetfulness - word-finding - fatigue - repetition Hebb: describes memory blackouts, where he forgets small things; but, he uses strategies to remember, like leaving the umbrella by the door so he doesn't forget it - diminishing effective vocab - persistent and insistent repetition of thought patterns - gross change of motivation

Sam Stone experiment

child suggestibility: experiment to investigate 1) effects of stereotypes and 2) effects of repeated suggestive interviews --> visitor came and read a book; teacher would come in and say they found a ripped up a book and teddy bear, asked suggestive questions like "didn't you see him rip it up"

transience

decreasing accessibility to information over time forgetting what occurs with the passage of time; forgetting over time; inability to recall specific details of events; loss of information over time i.e. Clinton's failure to recall specific episodes with Monica i.e. (rapid) forgetting phone number --> interference with phonological loop ***increases with aging forgetting over time is adaptive to allow for updating; keep information that is retrieved more frequently (and get rid of unimportant information- most often correct that info you rid of will not be needed) - cost = needing some information not frequently retrieved --> forgetting why? 1. encoding failure: when a memory was never formed in the first place 2. memory traces form: physical changes in nervous system during storage 3. memory decay: when memory traces become weaker due to neural connections decaying; retrieval failure from LTM 4. disuse theory: memory weakens with disuse 5. interference theory - retroactive - proactive Ebbinghaus study Spanish vocabulary study brain region: left frontal cortex needs to be activated to reduce it forgetting/transience may be buffered by: 1. more sleep 2. lowered stress 3. elaborative encoding

Simon task and aging

demonstrates inhibitory control: choice reaction task --> click the left button if red, right button if green

Hebb and Skinner major impacts

during aging: 1. memory failures 2. changes in motivation why aging problems? - Hebb: impairment in inhibition and decreased cognitive ability - Skinner: changes in reinforcement received for the same activities

early memories and suggestibility

early memories are so susceptible to suggestibility: 1. visualization: makes the memories seem more vivid and "true" 2. we have low expectations of our early memories so we cannot invoked the distinctiveness heuristic --> if there is some level of familiarity it must be a true memory 3. memory requires evaluation of current environment, expectations, and information recalled --> suggestibility gives more credence to either the information recalled or changes our expectations i.e. dream interpretation: told that dreams represent being lost as a child, then two weeks later participants are more likely to report memories before the age of 2 i.e. hypnotic suggestion: 4/10 remembered event before age 1 --> hypnotized and suggestion that people can remember birth, then guided mneumonic restructuring that people can remember - 50% of hypnotic suggestion and guided mneumonic group but none in control condition said they could remember first 2 days of life

Payne sleep study

effects of sleep on motor skills and false memory

Waagenaar and Groeneweg study methods

emotional memories of torture at concentration camp in the Netherlands: interviewed Kapos (prisoners given role of torturer to increase camp compliance) - interviewed either during 1940s or 1980s or both

absentmindedness

entails inattentive or shallow processing that contributes to weak memories of ongoing events or forgetting to do things in the future forgetting caused by lapses in attention; a form of forgetfulness that results from inattention - less activation in the left frontal lobe (which is responsible for elaborative encoding) result from lapses of attention that result in failing to remember information that was never encoded properly (or at all) or is available in memory overlooked at the time we need to retrieve it ***it is a byproduct of prospective memory function - "absent-minded" encoding operations (at least within a verbal domain) are those that involve relatively little recruitment of left inferior prefrontal and parahippocampal regions

treasure chest study contribution

episodic and prospective memory functioning is fragile in 3-y.o.s, and there is a large gain by 4 years of age

change blindness studies

failing to notice changes in the environment; when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene studies: 1. Levin and Simon's door study: researchers engaged participants in a conversation, asking for directions. Then, during a period of distraction (people walk through with a door), they switched the original confederate to someone else. Surprisingly, only about half of the participants noticed the swap. 2. gorilla study: how many times do the people in white Pass the basketball? So focused on the passing of the basketball that you don't notice the man in the gorilla suit walk through 3. video edit studies: change scene, change person and viewers assume it is the same person --> this occasionally happens in movies but most people don't notice

implicit memory in aging

implicit memory is NOT spared in healthy aging, contrary to popular belief - is typically supported by the hippocampus (early) and the caudate (late) - is characterized by a different balance of brain regions for young and old adults

flashbulb memory

individual memory for who, what, where and when during an event - public, historically significant event - often emotionally salient events, not ordinary or everyday, vivid memories, typically high confidence ratings, public nature of the event --> memories influence the individual and collective identity

conclusions drawn from treasure chest study regarding the offset of infantile amnesia

infantile amnesia: inability to remember events from early childhood - offsets at 3-4 years of age, and prospective memory functioning emerges around 4 years of age: supports findings- by 4 years of age, much better at completing the task and can also remember after a longer delay requires children to mentally travel back in time to an experienced event and us that information to plan for a possible future situation (episodic memory); episodic memories require a conscious sense of self --> by 3-4 years of age infants have this, self-recognition and specific event memory

Rovee-Collier infant learning study contributions

infants become systematically more flexible with increasing age; varies as a function of individual differences such as locomotion

Rovee-Collier infant learning study findings

infants could remember for longer as a function of age influences of infant memory: - more training sessions - longer training sessions - spaced learning more than massed learning ***reminders help --> remind infant of how the mobile works then even after forgetting has occurred they can be reminded... BUT it takes a long time for the reminder to be processed, memory doesn't come back after the reminder for 24 hours

Simon task and aging contributions

inhibitory control declines / is compromised with increasing age; inability to switch between matched cues and mismatch = Simon effect

Simon task and aging findings

inhibitory control declines with increasing age --> the Simon effect increases (the difference between the incongruent and congruent) ***mismatch of cues (harder to press right one when color says left, but it's on the right) --> speed when cues are matched is faster than mismatch - inability to switch = Simon effect

what promotes healthy aging

interventions most effective to promote healthy aging: 1. social networks --> social contact and connections are protective (family, church, etc.) 2. exercise --> cognitive stimulation, blood flow to the brain 3. coffee --> engages frontal cortex, supports WM - positivity bias = protective - experience / expertise

theoretical explanation for Baker/baker problem

less activated pathways with proper noun due to a breakdown at the lexical level so does not map to the phonological level - he is a baker: gets embedded in semantic network of ideas about what it means to be a baker i.e. associate with bread, cake, etc. ***have to employ conceptual, lexical, and phonological map directly - name is abstract piece of info not connected to anything else: makes hard to remember!

Ebbinghaus study

memorized nonsense syllables, more practiced once, remembered better next day RETENTION CURVE; atudied retention of information in the subconscious and relearning - results: its easier to remember info after relearning it and it takes less time or saving score the second time tested self with nonsense syllables, over time measured retention, created curve of forgetting: - graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning) after varying lengths of time - material learned was nonsense syllables ***notice how rapidly forgetting occurs: forgetting curves for meaningful information also show early losses followed by a long gradual decline, but overall, forgetting occurs much more slowly --> slower forgetting with meaningful information ***forgetting not only influenced by time but also by previously learned information

lessons derived from the study of false memory and memory fallibility

memory requires evaluation of current environment, expectations, and information recalled - suggestibility gives more credence to either the information recalled or changes our expectations - individual differences exist in suggestibility - leading questions/misinformation can be incorporated into memory there is misinformation everywhere! other people, media coverage --> all provide opportunity for contamination of memory

Hayne's treasure chest study

methods (3-6 year-olds): 1. show hiding game on day 1, find the treasure but no key involved 2. then on day 2, have an "unrelated game" to pick an object (given choice of 3 random items and a key) 3. assess this performance after 1 day delay ***find treasure, no key; after delay, present them with objects --> should choose the key and relate it to future function (prospective memory) findings: 1. 3 and 4-y.o.s can complete the task, but 4 y.o.s are significantly better - most children who pick the key refer to the future/prospective function - 4.y.os also remember after a 1-week delay 2. performance by 3-y.o.s is high when tested immediately, but they show rapid forgetting (after 30 mins decreases rapidly)

who is more prone to change blindness

middle-aged and older people most often fail to notice change - younger people are also prone when the confederate is not within their social network/community/group --> less likely to see them again, less likely to need to remember their face why? perhaps more automatic processing? - reduced sensory, perceptual, motor abilties - neuronal loss mainly due to shrinkage ***but most occurs in the PFC (executive functioning)

9/11 flashbulb memory study methods

more than 3000 individuals from seven US cities reported on their memories of learning about the terrorist attacks on 9/11, as well as details about the attack - survey at 1 week - survey at 11 months - survey at 35 months - new group of participants was started at survey 2 and 3 to test for effects of repeated participation measured: 1. consistency of memory 2. accuracy of event memory 3. consequence/personal experience 4. intensity of emotional response 5. attention to media/personal conversations

n-back task and petrides

n-back: Task in which items (e.g., letters) are presented one at a time and participants must identify each item that repeats relative to the item that occurred "n" items before its onset; a working memory task; the participant must decide whether the currently presented stimulus is the same as the one presented immediately before (1-back) or two items before (2-back) or three items before (3-back), etc. ***tests working memory and memory updating 1. participant read random list of items 2. remember what was read N (i.e. 2) items back findings: - N-back training increased scores on WM test and on general intelligence - people with dysexecutive syndrome: poor mem updating (N-back, self-ordered mem test) petrides: 1. shown stack of cards (8) with a set of target items in a different spatial order --> sees one card at a time 2. must point to a different item on each card without repeating any items; choose new item on each consecutive card ***must keep track of previous choices to avoid repetitions - or monkey chooses a container with food after containers are covered and shuffled --> THINK POTS

lessons derived from our reliance on visual memory and on media when we recall information

negative: those with better visual memories are more likely to remember false memories - easy to misattribute events seen on the media to personal experiences positive: memory can update information --> event details can become more accuracte over time (i.e. 9/11 flashbulb memory study) Loftus Ted Talk: there is misinformation everywhere! other people, media coverage --> all provide opportunity for contamination of memory 1. just because someone tells you something with confidence 2. with a lot of detail 3. because they express emotion when they say it ***doesn't mean it happened! We can't rely on others' memories ***memory is a fragile thing

retroactive interference

new learning interferes with old learning learn A --> learn B --> interference on A --> memory loss for A i.e. new math problems interferes with the way you learned it in the past i.e. passwords i.e. took Spanish in high school, now taking French and losing ability to speak Spanish ***elaborative encoding and creating semantic networks: better integrated, more organized mapping of information --> less likely you'll be affected by interference

Yuille and Cutshall study (1985)

of eyewitness testimony (ecological validity) Study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver. Participants who reported highest stress levels were most accurate; Used leading questions on witnesses to a real life armed robbery. They found that in real life cases, leading questions did not affect memory. aimed to uphold ecological validity --> different watching a video of an event and being their to witness it ***importance of the proximity and involvement of witness in event - typical lab studies (like Loftus) show films and test suggestibility effects, but this tests real world events

proactive interference

old learning interferes with new memory learn A --> interferes with learning B --> memory loss for B i.e. can't remember your new phone number because keep thinking of old i.e. passwords i.e. trying to learn a new language but stuck with rules of other i.e. learning Spanish in high school then French in college but difficulty learning French because Spanish in the way ***elaborative encoding and creating semantic networks: better integrated, more organized mapping of information --> less likely you'll be affected by interference

positivity bias experiments in aging population

older remember more positive items than negative items --> amygdala functions the same with positive and less with negative items ***frequency of negative affect and incidence of depression actually decrease as we age - emotional regulation is spared in the aging brain

positivity bias experiments in aging population findings

older remember more positive items than negative items --> amygdala functions the same with positive and less with negative items (more activation in amygdala for negative events)

Waagenaar and Groeneweg study

on concentration camp survivors: effects of emotion on memories

Zajac study

on eyewitness identification: lineup experiments and children --> to demonstrate use of wildcard and improving children's accuracy in lineups

explanation for change blindness

one explanation for change blindness is that people typically encode features of a scene at an extremely shallow level, recording the general gist of the scene but few of the specific details due to automatic or shallow level processing of a scene --> too much of a cognitive load to actively encode every face in the grocery store (i.e.) - central executive function: controls selective attention focusing on selected portion of sensory input - less activation in left PFC when doing divided attention task? (and when doing massed vs. spaced practice) absent mindedness: results from lapses of attention that result in failing to remember information that was never encoded properly (or at all) or is available in memory but is overlooked at the time we need to retrieve it

Rovee-Collier infant learning studies

operant conditioning mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm

Payne sleep study methods

participants press a button when it lights up, get faster at the sequence because of learning --> at end of training, you're able to accurately type about 22 or 23 sequences - group tested at 10AM then 12 hours later - group tested at 10PM then 12 hours later

persistence

pathological remembrances: information or events that we cannot forget, even though we wish we could the continual recurrence of unwanted memories; the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget - amygdala modulates the encoding of emotionally salient information --> serves as an important survival function - supposed to happen to make the person confront difficult/evolutionary salient info i.e. PTSD i.e. involuntary flashbacks intrusive memories we can't get out of our head memories are constantly re-experienced, often involuntary flashbacks - emotional boost enhances retention of memory --> emotional words or experiences garner more attention (emotional Stroop task) - focus of attention is often narrow (i.e. weapon focus) ***PTSD: typical coping response is to avvoid thinking about experience, but with PTSD thought suppression has opposite effect --> avoiding thinking about it does not allow the passage of time to reduce the emotional impact - re-experiencing of traumatic event over time reduces the emotional strength of the memory brain region: amygdala modulates the encoding of emotionally salient information - serves an important survival function, but in some cases (PTSD) can be maladaptive ***hippocampus: veteran w/ PTSD and brother --> smaller hippocampus (both of them), smaller volume if you experience early adversity (more likely to develop PTSD later on)

Tulving spoon test

quintessential episodic memory task: a test specifically designed to assess whether nonhuman animals are capable of mental time travel - showed mental time travel is present but not ubiquitous across great apes?? based on a story about a girl who dreams about going to her friend's party but could not eat the pudding because she did not bring a spoon; the next night she goes to bed with a spoon so that she would not repeat her mistake ***required children to mentally travel back in time to an experienced event and us that information to plan for a possible future situation (episodic memory) b. task illustrates prospective function of memory c. (side note) episodic memories require a conscious sense of self which animals lack

bias

retrospective distortions and unconscious influences that are related to current knowledge and beliefs stereotypes like other categories also make cognitive lives simpler; self-bias lead to positive illusions that are actually beneficial to good mental health (less susceptible to depression) current knowledge and beliefs can skew our memory of the past 1. consistency bias: things should remain constant i.e. pain ratings of past depend upon current pain levels; if pain currently high, then past pain rated as higher as well i.e. political views consistent i.e. people tend to report that how they feel in their relationship now is how they've always felt 2. change bias: sometimes things should change i.e. self-help programs i.e. remember that earlier in relationship things were poorer than reported at the time - often there is a change bias in the earlier phase of marriage and a consistency bias after that - less bias in reporting is associated with overall higher levels of satisfaction in a relationship --> ***suggests bias might be an important coping mechanism 3. hindsight bias: I knew it all along i.e. OJ Simpson verdict: people weren't sure if he'd be guilty or not guilty, then afterwards said I knew he would be not guilty i.e. second opinion from a doctor: if doctor told the initial diagnosis he/she is more likely to give the same consistent diagnosis i.e. disregard inadmissible evidence in courtroom ***people find information that confirms the present information because of general knowledge and misattribution 4. self-bias: enhanced recall of our own participation in events over and above others i.e. hence two people can have a very different recollecation of exactly the same event - easier to recall own actions and words over others - recall that self had more responsibility than the partner because can recall own level of responsibility - illusory self-assessment (think we are better than others on average, think we're improving over time) ***self-bias lead to positive illusions that are actually beneficial to good mental health (less susceptible to depression) 5. implicit bias/stereotypes: often seen as energy savers to categorize objects and people rapidly --> remember attributes that are more consistent with a stereotype ***bias more likely when attention is divided

positivity bias experiments in aging population contributions

socioemotional selectivity theory: goals are always set in the context of time - expansive: value novelty, invest energy in acquiring information - bounded: value close social/emotional relationships --> change of goals with less time to live, so focus on positive events --> much less activation for negative events in amygdala ***so, aging brings change in goals because of perceived time (not age per se) and this increases memory for positive events

false memory adaptive function

supports the idea that we can update information and reconstruct memories misattribution and suggestibility: increases when sources are not encoded in detail or forgotten over time --> cost of remembering all source information is high, so instead we respond on the basis of gist - fundamental for categorization and generalization but distortion is an inherent by-product

blocking

the temporary inaccessibility of information that is stored in memory in general due to a breakdown at the lexical-phonological level; information is there, we know it's there, but we can't get it out i.e. proper noun blocking (Baker/baker problem) i.e. tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (ugly step-sisters hypothesis) i.e. trying to remember the name of actress, know it's there but can't

Zajac study findings

the wildcard increased children's accuracy on the target-absent lineup without affecting their target-present performance; in fact, performance was increased to a point at which target-absent and target-present accuracy did not differ significantly - much more accurate at identifying guilty suspect when wildcard is present - hasn't impaired their performance

Hebb and Skinner relation to general theories of memory processing

theory of general memory processing: encoding, storage, and retrieval - encoding: receiving a sensory input and transforming it into a form, or a code which can be stored - storage: the process of actually putting coded information into memory - retrieval: the process of gaining access to the stored, coded information when it is needed ***memory = ability to record, retain, retrieve experience retrieval failure from LTM? memory weakens with disuse?

Zajac study contribution

these findings offer a promising, easily-implemented intervention for reducing children's eyewitness identification errors: - the wildcard shows promise as a very simple means of reducing children's false alarm rates on photographic lineups - wildcard's success cannot be solely attributed to the provision of a tangible rejection option - wildcard has never impaired children's performance - but neither wildcard nor any other lineup intervention has eliminated false alarms

change blindness practical implications

too much of a cognitive load to actively encode every face in the grocery store (i.e.) - decides what to pay attention to vs. ignore - limited capacity of WM / processing information --> automatic processing allows freeing of cognitive resources - we can't pay 100% of attention 100% of the time makes sense not to encode everything in elaborate detail - initially encode elaborately then automatic processing --> highly adaptive for divided attention?

familiarity bias

we have low expectations of our early memories so we cannot invoked the distinctiveness heuristic --> if there is some level of familiarity it must be a true memory i.e. police line-ups: need to make a judgement based on the familiarity of feeling; lack of scrutiny leads to error who is susceptible to familiarity bias: 1. those with better visual memories 2. those who score higher on suggestibility scales 3. greater false recognition of semantic associates

Payne sleep study findings

when tested in the morning after sleep, were able to type more sequences than when tested again at night --> suggests sleep enhances motor performance sleep group: 10PM low, 10AM high, 10PM higher no sleep group: 10AM low, 10PM higher but still low, 10AM high