Memory

Memory Stages and Analogy to a Computer

  • Acquisition: process of attending to a stimulus and encoding it into memory

    • Analogy: saving a file onto a CD

  • Retention: preservation of stored material over an interval

    • Analogy: if the file stays on the CD, it is retained

  • Retrieval: process of getting information back for use

    • Analogy: "load" command on computers; getting stored information back

Main difference between computer and human memory

  • Human memory is not passive like computer memory

  • Observer plays a role in inferring what must have occurred

  • Current context and interpretation of the world affect memory

The Multi-Store Model of Memory

  • Memory consists of 3 types of storage compartments: sensory, short-term, and long-term

  • Sensory memory: immediate formation of sensory memory upon stimulus presentation

    • Iconic memory for visual stimuli (very short duration)

    • Echoic memory for auditory stimuli (about 4 seconds)

  • Short-term memory (STM): consciousness; limited capacity

    • Can remember between 5 and 9 items (7 +/- 2)

    • Items can be lost from STM through decay or displacement

    • Rehearsal can prevent loss from STM

      • Maintenance rehearsal keeps items active in STM

      • Elaborative rehearsal can transfer items from STM to LTM

    • Chunking can increase the capacity of STM

Long-Term Memory

  • Information passed from STM to LTM through elaborative rehearsal

  • Memory is determined by how information is processed, not by the storage box (STM or LTM)

  • Levels of Processing (LoP): memory is better when information is processed deeply for meaning

  • LTM has two types of memory: episodic and semantic

    • Episodic memory is context-specific and retrieval cues matching encoding and retrieval context improve memory

    • Semantic memory is general knowledge and forms a semantic network

      • Activation can spread around the network, and related concepts can enhance processing (semantic priming)

Passive and Active Memory

  • Retrieval in memory can be trace-driven or schema-driven

  • Trace-driven memory is literal re-experiencing of the past

    • Flashbulb memories for vivid experiences are highly recoverable

  • Schema-driven memory is influenced by expectations, interpretation, and biases

  • Bartlett's research on schemas in memory showed their crucial role

    • Method of Serial Reproduction: drawings transformed into more conventional representations

    • Schemas affect what is attended to and remembered

Page 6: Bartlett - War of the Ghosts

  • Two young men from Egulac went hunting seals and encountered a war-party.

    • They hid behind a log and saw canoes approaching.

    • The men in the canoe invited them to join the war-party.

    • One of the young men refused, fearing for his life and the safety of his relatives.

    • The other young man agreed to go with them.

  • The warriors went up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama.

    • They fought with the people of the town, and many were killed.

    • The young man realized the warriors were ghosts when they mentioned he had been hit, even though he didn't feel sick.

  • The canoes returned to Egulac, and the young man went home.

    • He told everyone about his experience and then became quiet.

    • When the sun rose, he fell down and died.

Page 7: Example of Rationalisation from "War of the Ghosts"

  • The original story described the young man's death with supernatural elements.

  • Reproductions of the story simplified and rationalized the events.

    • The young man lived through the night and the next day but died at sunset, and his soul passed out from his mouth.

    • The mysterious black thing that came out of his mouth became interpreted as his soul leaving his body.

  • Bartlett's research shows that memory is not a passive re-experiencing of the past but an imaginative reconstruction based on past experiences and details.

Page 8: Loftus and Eyewitness Memory

  • Loftus and Palmer's experiment showed that memory for events can be influenced by post-event information.

  • Experiment 1: Participants were asked about the speed of a car using different verbs.

    • The choice of verb influenced the reported speed of the car.

  • Experiment 2: Participants were asked about the speed of cars and later asked if they saw broken glass.

    • The wording of the question influenced the participants' memory of seeing broken glass.

  • Post-event information can alter how a person reconstructs the original event based on their schema and perception.

  • False confessions can also be influenced by external pressure and the belief in one's own guilt.

Page 9

False Confessions

  • The Paul Ingram case

  • Kassin & Kiechel (1996) experiment:

    • Participants asked to type letters on a computer keyboard quickly

    • A confederate reads the letters aloud

    • Participants instructed not to press the ALT key or the program will crash

    • Midway through, the program crashes

    • Experimenter accuses participant of pressing ALT key, even though they didn't

  • Research question: Will the participant believe they were responsible for the crash due to post-event suggestion?

  • Results of Kassin & Kiechel (1996) experiment:

    • Slow Pace, No Witness: Compliance - 35%, Internalisation - 0%, Confabulation - 0%

    • Slow Pace, Witness: Compliance - 89%, Internalisation - 44%, Confabulation - 6%

    • Fast Pace, No Witness: Compliance - 65%, Internalisation - 12%, Confabulation - 0%

    • Fast Pace, Witness: Compliance - 100%, Internalisation - 65%, Confabulation - 35%

False Confessions - TED Talk by Lindsay Malloy

  • Title: "Why Teens Confess to Crimes They Didn't Commit"

  • Link: TED Talk

  • Discusses the phenomenon of false confessions among teenagers

Recovered/False Memory Debate

  • Research on the reconstructive (schema-driven) approach to memory

  • Belief influences memory

  • Core ideas fundamental to Repressed Memory Therapy:

    1. Incest is epidemic (e.g., The Courage to Heal: 1/3 girls; 1/7 boys are abused)

    2. Adult symptoms of psychopathology reflect long-term reactions to repressed memories of childhood abuse

    3. A significant proportion of adult survivors completely block out their traumatic memories of abuse through repression

    4. Accessing and accepting the memories as real is a critical step in the recovery process

    5. Individual and group therapy offer healing resolution and renewal

Page 10

Core Ideas Fundamental to Repressed Memory Therapy (cont.)

  • Continued from page 9

  • Rosanne Barr (Arnold) quote on sexual abuse as a child

  • Memory Research: Therapists must be careful about how people are interrogated to avoid implanting false memories

  • Characteristics that make suggestibility troublesome in this context:

    • Increased delay between event and question increases suggestibility

    • Heightened by perceived authority of the source

    • Repetition increases impact

    • Plausible suggestions more likely to be believed than implausible

  • Characteristics that make suggestibility troublesome in this context (cont.):

    • Lax memory monitoring increases suggestibility

    • Increased level of arousal or emotionality of the event