Cognitive Psych Module 6 Memory Distortions

Reconstructive retrieval

- schema-guided construction of episodic memories that interpret, embellish, integrate, and alter encoded memory representations

Types of errors in reconstructive retrieval

- leveling

- assimilation

-sharpening

Leveling

- loss of details

- unfamiliar terms and ideas were omitted

Assimilation

- Recollection is rationalized or normalized to fit with preconceived notions/schemas

Sharpening

- Remembering details that were not actually stated but that could be inferred from general knowledge

Autobiographical event

- one that you personally experienced

How do we organize memories

1. Lifetime periods

2. General events

3. Concrete images or sensory replays

Lifetime periods

- the first level of retrieval cues

- serve to orient and trigger more specific recollection

- can evoke mood, goals, and concrete events

General events

- second level of retrieval cues

- Chronologically organized personal experiences that cluster important landmarks in time

-( first of something)

Concrete images or sensory replays

- the third level of retrieval cues

- detailed recollections integrated with schema-based representations of general events

Negative memory

-triggers negative mood

- promotes analytical and detailed processing

- elicits behaviors and decisions to avoid event re-occurrence

Positive memory

- acts as reward

- buffers against stress

- supports positive mood

- promotes heuristic and associative processing

Durability and Accessibility

- Positive memories are durable and easily accessible, often surfacing involuntarily and connecting with other positive memories.

- Positive upward spiral

Fading Affect Bias (FAB)

- Positive experiences retain their emotional impact longer than negative ones, and negative events may eventually elicit more positive emotions over time

Self-Identify and Esteem

- Positive memories reinforce our sense of self and self-esteem, contributing to our positive life narrative.

Social Connection

- Positive memories can be recalled to improve mood, foster social connections, and inspire prosocial behavior

Prospective Memory

- Positive emotions enhance prospective memory, helping us to remember to perform a planned action or intention at the appropriate time in the future

Stress Resilience

- Recalling positive memories reduces cortisol and supports emotional regulation after stressful events, reducing the impact of negative events.

Long-term Decision-Making

- Promotes patience and encourages long-term beneficial choices.

- Promotion instead of prevention tendencies

Encoding Distortions

- Schemas can distort memory during encoding in multiple ways

- selection, interpretation, and integration

Selection

- Selective encoding of information that fits with prior knowledge

Interpretation

- inferences and suppositions are made to conform new material to activated schemas

- prior knowledge provides basis for interpreting the meaning of events and these interpretations become part of memory

Integration

- Combining features of different events into a unified memory representation

- we remember the main idea rather than the details

Source monitoring

- source monitoring refers to evaluating processes that attribute mental experiences to either external or internal sources

- Discriminating internal from external sources is essential to avoid false memories of events

Errors in source monitoring

- Misattributing a self-generated thought or fantasy to an external source

- people with strong mental imagery are more prone to make that misattributions due to highly detailed representations and similarity to reality

Memory illusions

False memories

- remembering something that never occurred

- Semantically related words can activate a false verbal memory

Confabulation

- providing a narrative that accounts of autobiographical events that never happened

- occur when part of a word is falsely linked to a part of another word

Korsakoff's Syndrome

- Pathological condition implying confabulation

- caused by chronic alcoholism

- Key feature: severe anterograde amnesia

- spontaneous outpourings of recollections

- can't control and monitor as false

Eyewitness testimony

- Eyewitnesses can fall in inaccurate encoding or retrieving eve when witnesses are confident

- 8,500 miscarriages of justice, half caused by incorrect eyewitness testimony

Selective encoding

- due to perceptual factors (poor visibility, rapid and unexpected events, drugs)

- lost under emotional duress

ex. anxiety to perform a speech

- info encoded during emotional duress can be consolidated in long-term memory

Can slective encoding interfere with identification

- yes

- cultural familiarity of faces-> grater holistic-> accurate recogntion

Implanted memory

- creation of false memory through direct suggestion

- Delusional false memories reflect socio-cultural implantation

- Beliefs create an illusion of an event having actually occurred

Alternate Explantations of Recovered memories

Repression: defense mechanism that operates unconsciously to prevent conscious recollection of disturbing events

Trauma-induced amnesia

- dissociation of consciousness during the experience that produces selective encoding

False recollection

- through misinformation, implantation, or confabulation the recovered memory never really happened