Memory Issues Due to Brain Damage and Psychological Problems

• Memory problems can arise from physical damage to the brain or psychological issues.
  • Example: Damage can affect the hippocampus, impairing the ability to form new long-term memories.
  • This type of memory loss is known as anterograde amnesia, which is the inability to learn new information after an incident.

Anterograde vs Retrograde Amnesia

• Anterograde Amnesia: Difficulty in forming new long-term memories.

  • Example: A character in the film "50 First Dates" struggles with forming new long-term memories due to this condition.
  • Damage in the hippocampus prevents transfer from short-term to long-term memory.

• Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memories prior to an event.

  • Often partial; individuals may remember certain memories while failing to recall others.
  • Can be complete, losing basic information such as name or origin.

Memory Construction and Reconstruction

• Memory is not a perfect recording but a constructive process:
  • The act of recalling a memory may alter it unintentionally, due to the reconstruction process.
  • Schemas: Cognitive frameworks that help organize and interpret information, leading to altered or false memories during reconstruction.
• Errors in memory recall can be influenced by suggestibility:
  • Misinformation can change how someone remembers an event.

Eyewitness Testimony and Misinformation Effect

• Elizabeth Loftus: Conducted studies on how eyewitness testimonies can be affected by wording in questions.
  • In a car accident experiment, different wording (e.g., "smashed" vs. "contacted") changed the speed estimates by witnesses.
  • Hearing the word "glass" led to increased false memories of seeing broken glass when there was none.
• Eyewitness testimonies might be unreliable due to poor conditions (lighting, stress) at the time of the incident.

Error in Memory and Judicial Cases

• Innocence Project data shows that eyewitness misidentification caused around 75% of wrongful convictions,
  • Factors involved include:
  • Forensic evidence (15%)
  • False confessions (22%)
  • Informant testimony (18%)
• Cross-racial identification is often problematic; people generally struggle to identify individuals outside their own race.

Repressed and False Memories

• False memory syndrome can arise from therapy, where suggested memories of traumatic events may not actually be accurate.
  • Misleading questions can lead to implanted false memories, complicating the understanding in cases of alleged abuse.

Memory Errors: The Seven Sins of Memory

• Transience: Forgetting occurs over time if memories are not used or retrieved.
• Absent-mindedness: Lack of attention during encoding can lead to ineffective storage of memories.
• Blocking: Temporary inability to access a memory (tip of the tongue phenomenon).
• ** Attribution Error (Source Amnesia)**: Confusion about the source of a memory.
• Suggestibility: Memory can be altered by information received after the event.
• Bias: Current beliefs and feelings can distort memories.
• Persistence: Unwanted memories (often linked to PTSD) intrude upon our thoughts.

Memory Techniques

• Utilizing rehearsal, chunking, and mnemonic devices can assist in memory retention.
• Elaborative processing is recommended for deeper memory encoding, as it involves making connections to existing knowledge.
• Practice techniques like the method of loci to enhance recall through visualization.

Interference in Memory

• Proactive Interference: Old information inhibits the ability to remember new information (i.e., switching locker combinations in school).
• Retroactive Interference: New information hinders the recall of old information (marketing changes in phone numbers).

Serial Position Effect

• People tend to remember items presented at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end (recency effect) of a list better than those in the middle.
• Practical implications for studying: spacing out learning leads to better retention than cramming all at once.

Conclusion

• Memory is a reconstructive process that is influenced by various internal and external factors, signifying that our recollections can be fragile and malleable. Intentions and methods used in recalling memories significantly affect accuracy, particularly in high-stakes situations like legal testimonies. Understanding how memory works leads to better memory practices for academic and personal applications.