Download Everyday Memory and Memory Errors

Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
Goldstein (2011) Chapter 8
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
 Some Questions to Consider
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Autobiographical Memory
Memory for “exceptional” events
The constructive nature of memory
Memory can be modified or created by suggestion
The “seven deadly sins” of memory
Some Questions to Consider
 What kinds of events from their lives are people most likely
to remember?
 Is there something special about
memory for extraordinary events like
the
h 9/11
/
terrorist
i attacks?
k
 Some Questions to Consider
 Autobiographical Memory
 Memory for “exceptional” events
 The constructive nature of memory
 The “seven deadly sins” of memory
Some Questions to Consider
 What kinds of events from their lives
are people most likely to remember?
Some Questions to Consider
 What kinds of events from their lives are people most likely
to remember?
 Is there something special about memory for extraordinary
events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
 What properties of the memory
system make it both highly functional
and also prone to error?
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Some Questions to Consider
 What kinds of events from their lives are people most likely
to remember?
 Is there something special about memory for extraordinary
events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
 What properties of the memory system make it both highly
functional and also prone to error?
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
 Some Questions to Consider
 Autobiographical Memory
 Memory for “exceptional” events
 The constructive nature of memory
 The
Th “seven
“
deadly
d dl sins”
i ” off memory
 Why is eyewitness testimony often
cited as the cause of wrongful
convictions?
MY COPY
Autobiographical Memories
Wagenaar’s Diary study
 Diary studies of Autobiographical
memory
 Each day
Wagenaar (1986)
Memory for episodic events
 covering 6 year period’
Wagenaar’s Diary study
 Each day
wrote down 1
1--2 events
 scaled each event’s saliency
• a common event
• or an uncommon event
 assessed degree of emotional involvement
 also assessed pleasantness of event
wrote down 1
1--2 events
 reported:
• who was involved
• what happened
• when it occurred
Wagenaar’s Diary study
 Recalled events written down
spaced out over 12 month period
 Used cued recall
cued
d with
ith who,
h what,
h t when,
h
or where
h
recalled rest of info
used:
 1, 2, and 3 cues
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Wagenaar’s Diary study
Memory Over the Lifespan
 What events are remembered well?
Significant events in a person’s life
Highly emotional events
Transition points
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Wagenaar’s Diary study
Reminiscence Bump
 Participants over the age of 40 asked
to recall events in their lives
 Memory is high for recent events and
for events that occurred in
adolescence and early adulthood
(between 10 and 30 years of age)
Reminiscence Bump
 Hypotheses about the
reminiscence bump
Caption: Percentage of memories from different ages, recalled by a 5555-yearyearold, showing the reminiscence bump. (Reprinted from Journal of Memory
and Language, 39, R.W. Schrauf & D.C. Rubin, “Bilingual Autobiographical
Memory in Older Adult Immigrants: A Test of Cognitive Explanations of the
Reminiscence Bump and the Linguistic Encoding of Memories,” pp. 437
437--457,
Fig. 1, Copyright © 1998 with permission from Elsevier.
Caption: Explanations for the reminiscence bump
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Reminiscence Bump
 Self
Self--image hypothesis
Memory is enhanced for events that occur
as a person’s selfself-image or life identity is
being
g formed
People assume identities during
adolescence and young adulthood
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Reminiscence Bump
 Cognitive hypothesis
Encoding is better during periods of rapid
change that are followed by stability
Evidence from those who emigrated to
the US after young adulthood indicates
reminiscence bump is shifted
 Many transitions occur between ages 10 and
30
Reminiscence Bump
 Cultural lifelife-script hypothesis
Each person has
 A personal life story
g of culturally
y expected
p
 An understanding
events
Personal events are easier to recall when
they fit the cultural life script
Caption: The reminiscence bump for people who emigrated at age 34 to 35 is
shifted toward older ages, compared to the bump for people who emigrated
between the ages of 20 to 24. (Reprinted from Journal of Memory and
Language, 39, R.W. Schrauf & D.C. Rubin, “Bilingual Autobiographical
Memory in Older Adult Immigrants: A Test of Cognitive Explanations of the
Reminiscence Bump and the Linguistic Encoding of Memories,” pp. 437
437--457,
Fig. 2, Copyright © 1998 with permission from Elsevier.
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
Flashbulb Memories
 Some Questions to Consider
 Autobiographical Memory
 Flashbulb memory
 Memory for “exceptional” events
 The constructive nature of memory
 The
Th “seven
“
deadly
d dl sins”
i ” off memory
Term suggested by Brown & Kulik (1977)
 Tested memory of Americans for important
events of the 1960s.
• Tested 40 African Americans and 40 European
Americans
• Asked about different events
 E.g., JFK assassination
 RFK assassination
 MLK assassination
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Brown & Kulik (1977)
Brown & Kulik (1977)
 Results
 Conclusion
Flashbulb memories affected by
consequentiality and personal relevance
of event
 For JFK assassination
• Almost 100% reported FB
• Equal number among both groups
Novel and shocking events activate
special brain area
 “Now Print”
Record many details of circumstances at
time of hearing news.
 For MLK assassination
• 75% of African Americans had FB
• Only 33% of European Americans had FB
Flashbulb Memories
Flashbulb Memories
 FBs are vivid, but are they accurate?
 Neisser & Harsch (1992).
 Memories of the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks
Interviewed people after Challenger
disaster
 24 hours later
 2.5 years later
Accuracy levels low after 2.5 years
However, confidence in memory very high
Flashbulb Memories
 Talarico and Rubin (2003)
Asked series of openopen-ended questions:
Studied by Talarico & Rubin (2003)
 Compared flashbulb memories of the attack
with memories for an everyday occurrence
• Happened within 3 days of 9/11 attacks
 Tested recall of event
•
•
•
•
Immediately after event
1 week later
6 weeks later
32 weeks later
Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Consistency declined
for both types of
memory
 “Who or what first told you of the
information?”
 “When did you first hear the news?”
 “Where were you when you first heard the
news?”
 “Were there others present, and if so, who?
Asked similar questions about the
everyday event.
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Confidence in FBMs
higher
Flashbulb Memories
 FBs very vivid
 FBs not necessarily accurate
 Confidence in accuracy of FBs very
high
hi h
The Constructive Nature of
Memory
 Memory actually composed of:
What happens to the individual
the individual’s knowledge,
experiences,
experiences and expectations
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
 Some Questions to Consider
 Autobiographical Memory
 Memory for “exceptional” events
 The constructive nature of memory
 The
Th “seven
“
deadly
d dl sins”
i ” off memory
Bartlett’s “war of the ghosts”
experiment
 Participants required to remember
story
Story actually from a different culture
Tested on multiple occasions
 Example: Bartletts “war of the
ghosts” experiment
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Bartlett’s “war of the ghosts”
experiment
 Results
Over time, reproduction became shorter
 Contained omissions and inaccuracies
Participants changed the story to make it
more consistent with their own culture
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Source Monitoring
 Source memory: process of
determining origins of our
memories
 Source
S
monitoring
it i
error:
misidentifying source of memory
Also called “source misattributions”
Source Monitoring
 Jacoby et al. (1989)
After 24 hours, some nonnon-famous names
were misidentified as famous
Explanation
Caption: Design of Jacoby et al.’s (1989) “becoming famous
overnight” experiment.
Making Inferences
 Memory can be influenced by
inferences that people make based
on their experiences and knowledge
 Some non
non--famous names were familiar, and
the participants misattributed the source of
the familiarity
 Failed to identify the source as the list that
had been read the previous day
Making Inferences
 Memory can be influenced by inferences that people make
based on their experiences and knowledge
 Memory often includes information
that is implied by or is consistent
with
i h the
h toto-be
b -remembered
beb
d
information but was not explicitly
stated
Pragmatic inferences: based on
knowledge gained through experience
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Schemas and Scripts
 Schema: knowledge about what is
involved in a particular experience
Post office, ball game, classroom
 Script:
S i t conception
ti
off sequence off
actions that occur during a
particular experience
Going to a restaurant; to the dentist
Caption: Design and results of Bransford and Johnson’s
(1973) experiment that tested people’s memory for the
wording of action statements. More errors were made by
participants in the experimental group because they
identified more sentences as being originally presented, even
though they were not.
Schemas and Scripts
Construction of Memories
 Schemas and scripts influence
memory
 Advantages
Allows us to “fill in the blanks”
Memory may include information
inferred because it is expected and
consistent with the schema
Cognition is creative
Understand
d
d llanguage
Solve problems
 Office waiting room: books not present but
mentioned in memory task
Make decisions
 The constructive nature of memory can
lead to errors or “false memories”
Construction of Memories
 Disadvantages
Sometimes we make errors
Sometimes we misattribute the source
of information
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors




Some Questions to Consider
Autobiographical Memory
Memory for “exceptional” events
The constructive nature of memory
 The “seven
seven deadly sins
sins” of memory
Was it actually presented, or did
we infer it?
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Memory’s “Seven deadly sins”
Memory’s “Seven deadly sins”
 Schacter (1999) identified 7
important memory errors
 Sins of forgetting (errors of
omission)
 7 deadly sins of memory
Transience
 Decreasing accessibility of memory over
increasing time.
Absent
Absent--mindedness
 Inattentive or shallow processing
Blocking
 Temporary inaccessibility of information
Memory’s “Seven deadly sins”
Memory’s “Seven deadly sins”
 Sins of distortion or inaccuracy
(errors of commission)
 The sin of over
over--remembering
Misattribution
Attributing a recollection or idea to the
incorrect source
 Persistence
 Constantly remembering past events
• Often unpleasant
• PTSD
 Suggestibility
Implanted memories
Bias
Retrospective distortions
The sin of Suggestibility
Misleading Feedback (Wells &
Bradfield, 1998)
 Way people incorporate false
information into memory
 Participants viewed videotape of
crime
 E.g., misleading feedback
 Wells & Bradfield (1998)
 Later, asked to identify gunman from
set of photos
 Actual gunman not in photos
 After making choice
 Portion given confirming feedback
• “You’re correct”
 Other given no feedback
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Misleading Feedback (Wells &
Bradfield, 1998)
 Later, asked to remember crime
 Those receiving feedback
 More certain of accuracy of memory
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
The sin of Suggestibility
 Way people incorporate false
information into memory
 E.g., misleading feedback

Wells & Bradfield (1998)
 Suggestive
S
ti Questioning
Q
ti i
 Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
Suggestive questioning
(Loftus & Pickrell, 1995)
Suggestive questioning
(Loftus & Pickrell, 1995)
 Had participants answer questions
 Participants given booklets
 about events from childhood
 3 real events
• Relatives provided story
 1 fictional
 Write down what you remember
 Indicate if no memory
 Interviewed 2 other times
• Lost in the mall
Suggestive questioning
(Loftus & Pickrell, 1995)
 Results
 29% recalled something from false
events
 25% of these p
provided details in every
y
interview
The sin of Suggestibility
 Way people incorporate false
information into memory
 E.g., misleading feedback

Wells & Bradfield (1998)
 Suggestive
S
ti Questioning
Q
ti i

Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
 Hyman and colleagues
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Suggestive Questioning
(Hyman and colleagues)
Adults also vulnerable
 Hyman, Husband, & Billings (1995)
 Hyman, Husband, & Billings (1995)
Obtained information from college
students’ parents
 Events that happened
pp
to them when they
y were
young
• E.g. an overnight hospitalization
• Spilling punch at a wedding reception
Results:
Students did not remember events at first
After several interviews
• Approximately 20 to 30 percent
generated false recollections
Queried the students about actual and
fabricated events
The sin of Suggestibility
Dream Interpretation (Mazzoni
& Loftus, 1998)
 Way people incorporate false
information into memory
 Ranked experiences
 E.g., misleading feedback

Wells & Bradfield (1998)
 Suggestive Questioning


Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
Hyman and colleagues
 Dream interpretation
 Mazzoni & Loftus (1998)
 Confidence that had/had not had
experience
 10
10--15 days later
 Clinical psychologist interpreted
dreams
 Dreams included repressed memories
• Childhood abuse
• Lost in public place
• Etc.
Dream Interpretation (Mazzoni
& Loftus, 1998)
The Sin of Suggestibility
 Then, completed life events
questionnaire
 Only certain memories likely to be
falsely remembered
 10
10--15 days later
 Pezdek, Finger, & Hodge (1997)
 Results
 Majority claimed experiencing
suggested event
 Previously had no memory for it
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Psyc 3705, Cognition--Everyday Memory
and Memory Errors
Only certain memories
implantable (Pezdek et al.,
1997)
 Tested memories of different
religious groups
 Catholic and Jewish
 Implanted false memories of
particular service
Jan. 10 and 17, 2014
Only certain memories
implantable (Pezdek et al.,
1997)
 Results
 Only falsely remember own religious
activity
 No “script”
script for other religious service
 Catholic or Jewish
Elizabeth Loftus gives a TED talk
Everyday Memory and Memory
Errors
 http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth
_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory.html
 Flashbulb memories are quite
remarkable
Not necessarily 100% accurate
Also decay over time
 Memories can be implanted
False memories are possible
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