Cognition - Chapter 8: Everyday memory and memory errors

How are memories constructed

1. What actually happened

2. Other things that happened later

3. Our general knowledge about how things usually happen are combined to create our memory of an event

The thing about memories

They’re constructive and reconstructive

Autobiographical memory

Memory for specific events from a person’s life, which can include both episodic and semantic components.

e.g. For a birthday party, it may include images of the cake & people at the party (episodic), as well as knowledge about when the party occurred & where your family was living at the time (semantic memory)

Two important traits of autobiographical memory

1. They’re multidimensional and

2. We remember some events in our lives better than others.

The prefrontal cortex and the self

The PFC is associated with processing information about the self

Reminiscence bump

The empirical finding that people over 40 years old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence and early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives.

Reminiscence bump’s explanations

1. The self-image hypothesis

2. Cognitive hypothesis

3. The cultural life script hypothesis

The self-image hypothesis

Proposes that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed

e.g. “I am” statements, such as “I am a mother” or “I am a psychologist,” that individuals felt defined them as a person

Cognitive hypothesis

An explanation for the reminiscence bump that proposes periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories

e.g. The rapid changes of Adolescence and young adulthood, like going away to school, getting married, and starting a career, etc., that occur during these periods are followed by the relative stability of adult life

The cultural life script hypothesis

The idea that events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture.

e.g. When people were asked to list when important events in a typical person’s life usually occur, some of the more common responses were falling in love (16 years), college (22 years), marriage (27 years), and having children (28 years), which all lined up with the period associated with the reminiscence bump

Youth bias

The tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when the person is young.

Youth bias (con’t)

Most people would perceive most important public events to occur before they were 30

The relationship between memory and emotions

Emotions and memory are intertwined as they’re often associated with “special” events

e.g. Beginning or ending relationships or events experienced by many people simultaneously, like the COVID-19 pandemic

The relationship between memory and emotions (con’t)

Research has demonstrated a link between emotion and improved memory consolidation through a process that takes place over minutes or hours after the experience

e.g. Cortisol (stress hormones) released after an emotional experience increase consolidation of memory for that experience

The amygdala

A subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience

e.g. Memory for emotional events

Flashbulb memory

Accurate and vivid memories for the circumstances that surround hearing about shocking, highly charged events.

e.g. For the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be a memory of where a person was and what they were doing on the day they found out about the onset of the pandemic, when that day would’ve been unremarkable otherwise

Flashbulb memory’s shortcomings

The only way to check for accuracy is to compare the person’s memory to what actually happened or to memory reports collected immediately after the event (repeated recall)

Flashbulb memory’s shortcomings (con’t)

They’re subject to change

Flashbulb memory’s duration

It’s susceptible to decay like any other memory, even though people can still remember them

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

An explanation for “flashbulb” memories in that we remember some life events better because we rehearse them

Media coverage and memory

Extensive media coverage of events apparently caused some people to remember things that didn’t happen

e.g. Princess Diana’s death, where media coverage led to some people believing the crash was shown on TV, when it actually wasn’t

Nostalgia

A memory that involves a sentimental affection for the past.

e.g. Hearing a song that transports one back to a concert you attended over 10 years ago

Music-enhanced autobiographical memories (MEAMS).

Autobiographical, involuntary memories elicited by hearing music.

Proust effect

A phenomenon in which olfactory (smell) stimuli trigger vivid and emotional memories.

The constructive nature of memory

The idea that what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors

e.g. Expectations, other knowledge, and other life experiences.

Source monitoring

The process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs.

e.g. Remembering that you heard about something from a particular person

Source monitoring

Is an example of the constructive nature of memory because when we remember something, we retrieve the memory (“I remember becoming interested in seeing that movie”) and then determine where that memory came from (“It was that review I read online”)

Source monitoring error

Misidentifying the source of a memory.

Source monitoring error (con’t)

Are common, and people are often unaware of them

Source misattributions

When the source of a memory is misidentified.

Cryptomnesia

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others that’s been associated with errors in source monitoring.

e.g. Beatle George Harrison was sued for unknowingly appropriating the melody from the song “He’s So Fine” (originally recorded by the 1960s group the Chiffons) for his song “My Sweet Lord.”

Illusory truth effect

The enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation.

Fluency

The ease with which a statement can be remembered.

Fluency’s impact on credibility judgments

It can influences people’s judgments as to whether a statement is true or false

Repeated reproduction

A method of measuring memory in which a person is asked to reproduce a stimulus on repeated occasions at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered.

Pragmatic inference

Inference that occurs when reading or hearing a statement leads one to expect something that isn’t explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the statement

e.g. While reading that a baby stayed awake all night doesn’t include any information about crying, knowledge about babies might lead a person to infer that the baby was crying

Schema

A person’s knowledge about what is involved in a particular experience

e.g. A person’s schema of a bank might include what banks often look like from the outside, the row of teller windows inside the bank, and the services a bank provides

Schema (con’t)

They’re developed through experiences in different situations

e.g. Making a deposit at a bank, going to a ball game, or listening to lectures in a classroom

Schemas and memory

People might report stimuli that wasn’t present in a particular situation as it fit into their schema of said situation

Script

A type of schema taking the form of a sequence of actions that describe a particular activity

e.g. The sequence of events that are associated with going to class (e.g. entering the building, walking down the hall, etc) would be part of a “going to class” script.

The misinformation effect

When misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event changes how the person describes that event later.

The misinformation effect’s cause

It may be caused by source monitoring

The misleading post-event information (MPI)

The misleading information that causes the misinformation effect.

The misleading post-event information (MPI)’s implications

It can alter not only what participants report they saw, but their conclusions about other characteristics of the situation

e.g. When people who saw a car crash video were asked about broken glass after being asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” they reported seeing broken glass, when in reality there wasn’t.

People who were asked broken glass after being asked “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, they correctly reported seeing no broken glass

Infantile amnesia

A normal part of development characterized by an inability to recall memories from infancy and early childhood, considered to be a normal part of development

Repressed childhood memory

Memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness

Eyewitness testimony

Testimony by eyewitnesses to a crime about what they saw during commission of the crime.

Eyewitness testimony (con’t)

It’s an extremely important source of evidence to jury members, because it is provided by people who were present at the crime scene and who are assumed to be doing their best to accurately report what they saw

The criteria for the acceptance of eyewitness testimony

1. The eyewitness was able to clearly see what happened

2. The eyewitness was able to remember their observations and translate them into an accurate description of the perpetrator and what happened

Why might errors occur in eyewitness identification

Jurors, judges, and law enforcement carry into the courtroom common misconceptions about the accuracy of memory

Weapons focus

The tendency for eyewitnesses to a crime to focus attention on a weapon, which causes poorer memory for other things that are happening.

Post-identification feedback effect.

An increase in confidence of memory recall due to confirming feedback after making an identification, as in a police lineup where an officer’s response of “okay” may have influenced a witness to think that they had correctly identified the suspect

Cognitive interview

A procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involves letting witnesses talk with a minimum of interruption and decreases the likelihood of any suggestive input by the person conducting the interview

Cognitive interview (con’t)

It also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by:

• Having them place themselves back in the scene

• Recreating the emotions they were feeling

• Where they were looking

• How the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives.

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of memory for something that happened prior to an injury or traumatic event

e.g. A concussion.

Graded amnesia

When amnesia is most severe for events that occurred just prior to an injury and becomes less severe for earlier, more remote events.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)

A progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries, characterized by symptoms such as memory loss, behavioral changes, and cognitive decline.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) [con’t]

It’s commonly associated with contact sports such as football, boxing, hockey, and soccer, but it can also occur in individuals who have experienced repetitive head trauma in other contexts, such as military combat or physical abuse

Retrograde amnesia and long-term-memory

Retrograde amnesia applies to information already stored in LTM, and sufferers a therefore either have damage to their LTM or an inability to retrieve the information stored in LTM

Anterograde amnesia

A type of memory loss in which new memories are unable to be created or stored.

Dementia

A broad term used to describe a group of cognitive disorders characterized by a decline in memory, thinking, and reasoning abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life and activities.

Highly superior autobiographical memory (hyperthymesia)

Autobiographical memory capacity possessed by some people who can remember personal experiences that occurred on any specific day from their past.

Misleading postevent information

Inaccurate data presented after a person witnesses something

Repeated recall

Memory tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event