Cognitive Psych Chapter 7

Im dying

What are the seven sins of memory?

Transience, absentmindedness, blocking, source misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

What is transience?

Memory constantly moves in and out, and you may lose it.

What is absentmindedness?

When your attention is not on something.

What is blocking?

When one memory or rehearsal blocks another.

What is source misattribution?

Misremembering the source of a memory, such as remembering someone else’s experience as your own.

What is suggestibility?

When incorrect information suggested by others becomes incorporated into your memory.

What is bias in memory?

A false memory based on your own biases.

What is persistence?

When a memory will not go away.

What does it mean that memory is not exact?

Memories are not exact copies of events and do not contain every clear detail.

What does it mean that memory is malleable?

Memories can change, so a memory now may differ from the memory you had in the past.

What is autobiographical memory?

Memory for personal events; it is a type of episodic memory.

What did Bahrick’s studies compare?

College freshmen’s and sophomores’ memories of their high school grades with their actual grades.

What did Bahrick find about students’ memories of their grades?

Students inflated their grades, especially students with higher grades. Students with lower grades tend to tell the truth.

Which classes showed more grade inflation in students’ memories?

Classes that students preferred.

What did Bahrick conclude about distortions in autobiographical memory?

Distortions made memories of the self more positive, with errors most likely occurring when memory failed and gaps were filled in.

How does the professor’s senior graduation trip example illustrate memory distortion?

She remembered herself as a leader rather than as bossy, making the memory of herself more positive.

What is a flashbulb memory?

A vivid, detailed, and long-lasting autobiographical memory of first learning about a surprising, emotionally significant, or shocking event.

What events in the notes are examples of flashbulb memories?

The Columbine and Parkland shootings, the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Princess Diana’s death, Michael Jackson’s death, and announcements of COVID lockdowns.

What personal details might people recall in a flashbulb memory?

Where they were, who was with them, and what they were doing when they learned about the event.

Does high confidence in a flashbulb memory mean it is correct?

No. People can have high confidence in memories that are incorrect.

Who conducted the Challenger study?

Neisser and Harsch in 1992.

When were memories collected in the Challenger study?

The day after the event and three years later.

What did the Challenger study find three years later?

Over 40% had errors, but participants felt their memories were correct.

What did the Challenger study show about confidence and memory accuracy?

People can feel confident about their memories even when those memories contain errors.

Who conducted the Bombing of Iraq study?

Weaver in 1993.

What two types of memories did Weaver’s 1993 study collect?

Memories of an ordinary event and memories of the bombing of Iraq on January 16, 1991.

When did Weaver ask participants to recall both memories again?

Three months and one year later.

What did Weaver’s 1993 study find about accuracy and confidence?

Accuracy was poor for both memories, but confidence in the bombing memory was very high.

After what delay were memories examined in the 9/11 study described in the notes?

After a two-month delay.

What were examples of central details in memories of 9/11?

Where, when, and how people found out about the event.

What were examples of peripheral details in memories of 9/11?

The exact time, exact place, and what people were wearing.

What did the notes report about central details compared with peripheral details?

Central details were reported more commonly, but memory for them was also poorer.

Why might central details have been reported more often?

People paid attention to and rehearsed those details through conversations after the event.

When did Weaver’s 2004 study test memories?

At 48 hours, one week, one month, three months, and one year.

What did Weaver’s 2004 study find about memory errors and stability?

Errors occurred at every testing time, but after one week, the flashbulb memory stayed relatively unchanged.

According to the notes, when does a flashbulb memory become consolidated?

Within one week.

What happens after a flashbulb memory becomes consolidated?

It stays relatively unchanged.

What effect did Pezdek’s 2004 study report that emotion has on memory?

Emotion has a negative effect on memory.

What did Pezdek find when comparing people in New York, Hawaii, and California two weeks after the event?

People in New York had the highest-rated emotion but the worst autobiographical memory.

How does arousal affect memory for details NY vs. CA, and Hawaii?

People in NY had high Arousal and it decreases memory for details.

How does rehearsal affect memory for details NY vs. CA and Hawaii?

People in CA or Hawaii talked about the events more than people in NY. People in NY were focused on survival. Rehearsal enhances memory for details.

What happened in the false-memory word-list demonstration?

People remembered seeing words that had never been presented.

What did the false-memory word-list demonstration illustrate?

The activation of nodes and similar meaning related words.

What is the DRM paradigm?

A task in which people falsely remember semantically related words that never appeared on a list.

Who developed the DRM paradigm?

Roediger and McDermott in 1995.

How does priming contribute to false memories in the DRM paradigm?

Presented words activate related words, making people more likely to remember those related words as having appeared.

What type of memory is emphasized in the DRM paradigm?

Semantic memory.

What false recall rate was reported in the notes for the DRM paradigm?

55%.

What difficulty do people have when monitoring reality?

Distinguishing what actually happened from what they thought, dreamed, or heard happened.

Why can memories change?

Memory is a reconstruction of events.

What is source confusion?

Forgetting where information originally came from.

What is source monitoring?

The cognitive process of determining the origin or source of a memory, thought, image, or belief.

What false memory did Piaget have?

He remembered a nanny protecting him from a man trying to kidnap him, although the event never happened.

How did Piaget develop his false kidnapping memory?

He heard his family discuss the nanny’s invented story, imagined it happening, and came to believe he remembered it.

What did Loftus show about exposure to misinformation?

Exposure to misinformation can distort memory.

How did misinformation affect Loftus’s memory of her mother’s death?

After her aunt incorrectly said Loftus had found her mother’s body, Loftus developed a false memory of finding her.

What correction did Loftus’s aunt later make?

It was Loftus’s mother’s sister who had found the body.

What did Loftus and Pickrell’s 1995 little lost child study demonstrate?

False memories of getting lost in a mall as a child could be implanted.

What did participants do after receiving the false suggestion that they had been lost in a mall?

They created details about an event that had never happened.

What false childhood event was planted in Hyman’s 1993 study?

Being hospitalized with a high fever and a possible ear infection.

Who participated in Hyman’s 1993 study?

College students.

What did participants remember during the first interview in Hyman’s study?

They had no recollection of the false event.

What happened seven days later in Hyman’s study?

20% recalled some of the false event and added details.

What did Ceci and colleagues study in 1997?

False memories of classroom events in preschool children.

What suggestion did researchers plant about the teaching assistant in Ceci and colleagues’ study?

That the teaching assistant was clumsy and silly.

Which children were more likely to develop false memories in Ceci and colleagues’ study?

Children ages 3–4 were more likely than children ages 5–6.

What percentage of children still believed the false memory after debriefing?

24–35%.

How did suggestive interviewing affect children’s false memories?

It made false memories more likely and encouraged more details.

What memory error helped explain the children’s false memories?

Source misattribution.

How does forgetting the source of misinformation contribute to false memories?

People may attribute the misinformation to their own experience.

Who may implant false memories, according to the notes?

Therapists, lawyers, police officers or detectives, and family members.

What does the Beth Rutherford example illustrate in the notes?

A hypnotherapist’s suggestions led to a false memory of abuse by her father.

How did hypnosis affect suggestibility in the Beth Rutherford example?

It increased suggestibility.

Does the possibility of implanted memories mean all recovered memories are false?

No. The notes specifically state that not all recovered memories are false.

What external factors can lead to false memories?

Social demands, imagining events, and not allowing people to question whether memories are real.

How can social demands lead to false memories?

Wanting to belong can lead people to agree that something happened when it did not, which can contribute to false memories.