Lecture 19 - Constructive Memory

Be able to explain some of the difficulties of eye-witness testimony.

-Discrimination is difficult, people build memory based on reasoning, logic, memory sites.

-Recall information that might be related to the task from memory. Determine if the memory is actually for the correct event. (Did he wear green last class? or the one before?) Determine if the memory is actually for the correct moment in time (was this Wednesday? or Monday?

Why is memory on such tasks constructive?

We construct memory (what we think we saw). What was professor wearing last class? we infer our own logic (there was no way he wore flip-flops).

Be able to describe the memory reports from studies by Penfield (1959).

-Brain surgeon, done on epilepsy patients, stimulates brain regions before operation, patient is awake during the surgery/process.

-Triggers temporal lobes, people report vivid memories unable to normally recall, like seeing self give birth.

-Led to the idea of repressing memories

Be able to describe the problems with Penfield’s line of research.

-Memories were impossible to verify, fantasy, could have been a seizure halluncination (since patients are epileptic, stimulation caused this).

-Most likely feels like memory, but is not, awareness of remembrance is product of brain and can be stimulated without real memory (people think something happened, nothing really occurred)

Know the characteristics of “flashbulb” memories.

-Strong memories caused by highly emotional events (JFK assassination, 9/11, death)

Know some of their limitations as indications of really good memory.

-people vividly recall details (clothing, location, time)

-People are confident about their reports, but Talarico and Rubin (2003) asked about 9/11 1 day, 7 days, 42 days, and 224 days later about an ordinary event and 9/11 WTC attack.

Be able to describe the experimental study of flashbulb

memories compared to memories of ordinary events.

-WTC attack memories more vivid, subjects believed reliable over time

-Ordinary memories faded into vividness and belief

-In reality, reliability fades for both, misleading confidence. Real phenomenon about experience of memory, but not “super memory”

-People remember the story they tell, not what actually happened.

Understand the characteristics of memory misattribution in the case of Donald Thomson.

Accused of rape because he was seen on tv when the lady was being raped. She missatributed his face with the face of the rapist

Be able to describe the Loftus & Palmer (1974) experiment that shows how easily memories can be influenced by subsequent questions. Understand the significance of these studies for trusting eye-witness testimony.

-“Misinformation effect”

-Bus pictures: subjects without misleading question had 90% accuracy, subjects with misleading question had 20% accuracy. Misleading question involved a stop sign, but the picture had no stop sign, but rather a yield sign.

-90% of subjects with the misleading question did NOT believe they were mislead

-Money had no effect

-Misinformation effect is stronger with a week delay before a memory test

Understand, in general, how memory misattribution can allow for memory “implants” and potentially cause problems for patients undergoing therapy.

-Therapists can plant/manipulate memory by asking misleading questions and getting family on board to help pretend the story is true

-Memories are fallible, malleable, “tell me more”