Everyday Memories and Memory Errors

Memory Loss

  • Amnesia: Loss of memory.
  • Infantile Amnesia: Inability to recall episodic events of young childhood.
  • Anterograde Amnesia: No memory for events after trauma (inability to form new memories).
  • Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memory for events before trauma (inability to remember past information).
    • Graded Amnesia: Memory for recent events is more fragile than for remote events.

Memory Errors

  • Forgetting is the inability to retrieve memory from long-term storage
  • The ability to forget is as important as the ability to remember as normal forgetting helps us remember and use important information.

Seven Sins of Memory (Schacter, 2001)

  • Three categories of memory errors:
    • Forgetting.
    • Remembering.
    • Distortions of memory.
  • Seven types of sins:
    • Forgetting:
      • Transience/Memory Decay: Reduced memory over time.
      • Blocking/Retrieval Failure: Inability to remember needed information.
      • Absentmindedness/Encoding Failure: Reduced memory due to failing to pay attention.
    • Remembering:
      • Persistence: The resurgence of unwanted or disturbing memories.
    • Distortion:
      • Misattribution: Assigning a memory to the wrong source.
      • Suggestibility: Altering a memory because of misleading information.
      • Bias: Influence of current knowledge on memory for past events

Forgetting: Transience/Memory Decay

  • Interference Theory:
    • Proactive Interference: Previously learned information interferes with learning new information.
    • Retroactive Interference: New learning interferes with remembering old learning.
  • To minimize interference effects:
    • Sleep on it
    • Rehearse fresh memories
    • Take breaks
    • Avoid studying similar material sequentially

Forgetting: Blocking/Retrieval Failure

  • Blocking: Temporary inability to remember something (tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon).
  • Often due to interference from similar words.

Forgetting: Absentmindedness/Encoding Failure

  • Absentmindedness: Inattentive or shallow encoding of events.
  • Occurs when sufficient attention is not paid during encoding.

Remembering: Persistence

  • Persistence: Continual recurrence of unwanted memories.
  • Common symptom of PTSD.

Distortion of Memory

  • During memory reconstruction, people tend to recall their past beliefs and past attitudes as being consistent with their current ones.
  • Source Monitoring:
    • Source Memory: The origins of our memories.
    • Source Monitoring: The process of determining the origins of memories.
    • Source Monitoring Error: Misidentifying the source of a memory, also called “source misattributions”.

Distortion of Memory: Source Misattributions

  • Source Misattribution: Misremembering the time, place, person, or circumstances of a memory.
  • Source Amnesia: Memory for an event but inability to remember where the information was encountered.
  • Cryptomnesia: Unconsciously retrieving a stored idea and failing to attribute it to its proper source (can lead to plagiarism).
  • Illusory Truth Effect: Enhanced probability of evaluating a statement is true after repeated presentation becaus of familiarity with the information

Distortion of Memory: Memory Bias

  • Memory Bias: Changing memories over time to be consistent with current beliefs or attitudes.
  • Collective memories can distort the past.
  • Flashbulb Memories: Vivid episodic memories for circumstances of learning about a surprising, consequential, or emotionally arousing event, but they may distort over time.
  • Narrative rehearsal hypothesis: Repeated viewing/hearing of events introduces errors.

Distortion of Memory: Suggestibility and Misinformation

  • Suggestibility: Development of biased memories from misleading information (misinformation effect).
  • Misinformation Effect: Inclusion of misleading information that did not happen.
  • False Memories may be implanted with false information.

Memory and Effective Studying

  • Elaborate: Associate new information with existing knowledge.
  • Generate questions and self-test.
  • Take breaks (spacing effect).
  • Avoid the "illusion of learning."

Mnemonics

  • Mnemonics: Learning aids that improve recall through retrieval cues.
  • Method of loci (memory palace): Associating items with physical locations.
  • Verbal mnemonics: Memorizing information by using words (e.g., acronym)