Lecture 10: Recent advances in LTM, Metamemory & the Law

How Memorable do you think this is? Are some stimuli more memorable than others?

• Heterogeneity of what predicting other people find memorable

• Someone who has a dog or a cat, more memorable verus tennis champ 

• 4 images out of hundreds or thousands were very quite memorable

• Same predicted memory score

• Seem quit difference in features, subject, saturation: yet all predicted to be same degree of memorability

Are some stimuli more memorable than others?

Bainbridge et al (2013)

• Participants showed 2200 images of faces (1 sec/face)

• Press button whenever a face repeats

• Manipulating when face repeats

• Measuring

  • Vigilance (are they paying attention)

  • Memory repeats (After seeing 100 images, and see face again idea is they should have LTM of that face, is that LTM carry and be able to say yes thats old, hit, yes i saw that before)

• Faces equated & cut into oval

• Have to say whether saw face or not

• Were participants more likely to successfully recognize memory repeats for some faces than others?

Are some stimuli naturally more memorable than others?

1. Split participants randomly in ½

• Half A, Half B

2. Rank images from performance from Half A from most to least memorable

3. Sort images for Half B based on Half A rankings

• In one halves half a rank images from performance. See face A how many in this half of participants what the memory score was. Most memorable vs. least memorable faces for first half of participants

• Sort images for Half B vs what half A thought were memorable and try to correlate them to see if there is agreement 

• If high correlation what thought was memorable vs. what second group is showing is memorable, all seem to agree these faces more memorable than others

• See accordance between group A and B

• Suggests some stimuli intrinsically more memorable or more forgettable 

• Carries to voices 

• Mundane scenes super memorable

• Don’t know what makes certain images more memorable than others

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