Download Forgetting

Constructing Fake Memories
and Forgetting Real Ones
Forgetting and Distortions of
Memory
• In the 80’s and 90’s “recovered
memories” were big headlines.
• Individuals of all ages were claiming to
suddenly remember events that had been
“repressed” and forgotten for years.
• Often these memories were of abuse.
• Sometimes these recovered memories
were corroborated with physical
evidence and justice was served.
• Other times they were discovered to be
fabricated or constructed memories
Constructed memory
• A memory or recollection of
an event that is false or
contains false details that
never actually occurred
– Theory that holds that
memory is not a replica of the
past but a representation, or
reconstruction, of the past
– Reconstruction can lead to
distorted memories of events
and experiences
Elizabeth Loftus
 Famous Memory researcher
 showed that leading questions can easily
influence us to recall false details
 questioners can create entirely new
memory by repeatedly asking leading
questions
 Especially true in children
Why Do We Forget??
It is inevitable we all will forget
things…but why and how much?
• Retention
– The proportion of learned information that is
retained or remembered
– The flip side of forgetting
Forgetting as an Encoding Failure
 Forgetting
is often a problem with how
information was encoded
 You sometimes haven’t forgotten
information



The information was actually never encoded
in your memory or not encoded at a deep
enough level
It never has a chance to enter our LTM.
Sometimes called pseudoforgetting
Encoding Failure
Forgetting as a Storage Failure
• Memories, even saved ones, can decay over
time
– Decay Theory
• Memories just go away over time
– Without rehearsal, we forget thing over time.
• Hermann Ebbinghaus and his
Forgetting Curve
– Said as time passes by information is forgotten
gradually
– Actually spent time plotting this on a graph
– Example – remembering new vocab. words and
forgetting more as time goes by
– Example – first day forget very few, but forgetting
speeds up over time
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Forgetting as a Retrieval Failure
• It’s in there but you can not get it out
– Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon
• Forgotten information feels like it is just out of
reach
• Interference
– One memory gets in the way of another
• Two Kinds of Interference
– Proactive Interference
– Retroactive Interference
Proactive Interference
• Earlier memories
interfere with new ones
– Remembering earlier
addresses while having a
hard time remembering
your new one
If you call your new girlfriend your
old girlfriend’s name.
Retroactive Interference
• New memories reduce
ability to retrieve older
memories
• Remembering new sport
champs and forgetting
older ones – or forgetting
your old phone number
when you get a new one
When you finally remember this
years locker combination, you
forget last years.
Other Reasons We May Forget
• Motivated Forgetting
– Forgetting can sometimes provide a protection from
painful memories
– Repression
• Psychogenic Amnesia
• The process of moving anxiety producing
memories to the unconscious – Freud
• Physical Injury or Trauma
– Anterograde Amnesia
• The inability to remember events that occur
after an injury or traumatic event
– Retrograde Amnesia
• The inability to remember events that occurred
before an injury or traumatic event
Other Reasons We Forget
• Distortions of Memory
– We sometimes construct memories that did not
happen or distort the ones that we do have
– Misinformation Effect
• Incorporating misleading information of an event into
one’s memory
• Possible planted memories
• Example – sometimes used by lawyers – Law and Order
Clip
– Children’s Recall
• Very open to misinformation effect
• Often provide memories they think an adult expects
to hear or when asked very leading questions
• Can be a problem when testifying against an accused
or falsely accused person
Other Reasons We May Forget
• Source Amnesia
– Having to remember at the time of recall where
memories came from
– “did I read that in the Post or NY Times?”
– It is also common for people to mix up fictional
information from novels and movies with factual
information from news and personal experiences
• Cryptomnesia
– Inadvertent plagiarism that occurs when people come up
with an idea that they think is original when they were
actually exposed to it earlier
• Confabulation
– is the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the
confusion of true memories with false memories
– Trying to fill in the blanks of something you are trying
to remember with false memories
Deja Vu



Usually translated as already lived or already felt
the experience of feeling sure that one has
witnessed or experienced a new situation previously
Possible explanations

An anomaly of memory


an overlap between the short-term memory (events
which are perceived as being in the present) and the
long-term memory (events which are perceived as
being in the past)
Neural misfiring

Two neurons firing from different sources, thus
coming up with two sensations (of the same stimulus)
each seeming like a different event at a different
time
Don’t Always Trust Your Memory!!!
M emory
Accuracy
Was the
memory
encoded?
Has the
memory
decayed?
Is there
information
interfering
with the
memory?
Is there a
reason not to
remember?
Are there
falsely
constructed
memory
details?