PSY 368 Human Memory

1. PSY 368 Human Memory Reconstructive Memory cont.

2. Announcements • Experiment 3 Report due April 16 • If you missed the details of the Experiment, I included them in the lectures last week

3. Experiment 3 • Interaction of Episodic and Semantic Memory (Exp 3) (Download detailed instructions form Blackboard) • Modification of Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork (1994) • (see Blackboard Media Library Optional Readings to download a pdf of this paper if you want to read more) • Question: Can the retrieval of some items impact the retrieval of others? • e.g., Suppose that you are studying for a test. You decide to study half the material. Does studying half the material have an impact on the half of the material that you didn’t study?

4. Experiment 3 Results • Interaction of Episodic and Semantic Memory (Exp 3) • Scoring: Sample data Banana Orange Lemon Tomato Club Sword Bomb Guppy Trout Ale Rum Vodka Beer Don’t count “beer”, not on list • “drinks – v”, “weapons – s”, “drinks – r”, “weapons – r”, “drinks – g”, “weapons – t”

5. Experiment 3 Results • Interaction of Episodic and Semantic Memory (Exp 3) • Scoring: * ANOVA results * F(2,118) = 59.49 comparisons: Practice vs control t(59) = 8.9, p < .05 Non-practice vs control t(59) = -2.0, p < .05 General conclusions: Evidence for “retrieval induced forgetting.” Items within the same category as those studied, that weren’t studied were worse than controls. May be due to inhibition of items following spreading of activation.

6. Experiment 3 Results • Interaction of Episodic and Semantic Memory (Exp 3) bourbon rum vodka gin beer whiskey ale General conclusions: Evidence for “retrieval induced forgetting.” Items within the same category as those studied, that weren’t studied were worse than controls. May be due to inhibition of items following spreading of activation.

7. False Memories • Memory is reconstructive • Sometimes we may “remember” things that never actually happened • And for these “false memories” we may be as confident in them as we are with actual memories • We are surprisingly unaware of how unreliable our memory can be and overly confident in the accuracy of our memories • Overconfidence comes from two factors: • Source Memory: Memory of the exact source of the information (original event, later information, or general knowledge of the situation) • Processing Fluency: The ease with which something is processed or comes to mind (remember “sleep” too easily for you to have imagined it)

8. False Memories • Why do we study them? • Real World Implications • Perceptual illusions, can give better understanding of “normal” processes • DRM procedure • Eyewitness testimony credibility • Recovered memories issue

9. False Memories Roediger & McDermott (1995) study • DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) • Creates false memories in the lab • DEMO (like the task that we saw Schacter give Alan Alda)

10. False Memories • A week ago I gave you a long list of words to remember (1) haystack (13) airplane (25) rye (37) thief (2) sandals (14) flow (26) melody (38) hill (3) fright (15) pretty (27) spider (39) power (4) weather (16) ankle (28) music (40) butter (5) sharp (17) awake (29) girl (41) foot (6) hot (18) doctor (30) bread (42) father (7) creek (19) frame (31) sweet (43) jagged (8) king (20) jelly (32) stream (44) door (9) thread (21) top (33) soft (45) throne (10) shoe (22) jazz (34) river (46) money (11) winter (23) sugar (35) jail (47) mountain (12) tide (24) needle (36) glacier (48) steal

11. False Memories Studied list words - Accurate memories • A week ago I gave you a long list of words to remember (1) haystack (13) airplane (25) rye (37) thief (2) sandals (14) flow (26) melody (38) hill (3) fright (15) pretty (27) spider (39) power (4) weather (16) ankle (28) music (40) butter (5) sharp (17) awake (29) girl (41) foot (6) hot (18) doctor (30) bread (42) father (7) creek (19) frame (31) sweet (43) jagged (8) king (20) jelly (32) stream (44) door (9) thread (21) top (33) soft (45) throne (10) shoe (22) jazz (34) river (46) money (11) winter (23) sugar (35) jail (47) mountain (12) tide (24) needle (36) glacier (48) steal

12. False Memories Studied list words - Accurate memories Critical theme words - False memories • A week ago I gave you a long list of words to remember (1) haystack (13) airplane (25) rye (37) thief (2) sandals (14) flow (26) melody (38) hill (3) fright (15) pretty (27) spider (39) power (4) weather (16) ankle (28) music (40) butter (5) sharp (17) awake (29) girl (41) foot (6) hot (18) doctor (30) bread (42) father (7) creek (19) frame (31) sweet (43) jagged (8) king (20) jelly (32) stream (44) door (9) thread (21) top (33) soft (45) throne (10) shoe (22) jazz (34) river (46) money (11) winter (23) sugar (35) jail (47) mountain (12) tide (24) needle (36) glacier (48) steal

13. False Memories Roediger & McDermott (1995) • Recall: ~ 40% recalled “sleep” • Recognition: Remembering the lure (sleep) during recall strengthened participants memories of the lure during recognition • Participants claimed to “remember” the lure rather than merely “know” it had been on the list

14. DRM Paradigm • How strong is this effect? • Recent studies indicate it is very robust • Replicated may times • Explicit warnings fail to eliminate the effect • May see a reduction in the effect • As the number of list items increases, rate of false recollection increases (Robinson & Roediger, 1997) • Young children are less susceptible to DRM paradigm • Have not yet developed associations • But they are easily influenced by suggestive questioning • Older adults are more susceptible to the illusion • Rely more on gist than verbatim traces

15. False Memories • So what is going on in the DRM task? • The lists rely on properties of semantic association • Words that are similar in meaning or co-occur in language are associates • Look at the original list (different order now) Thief Foot Bread King Mountain Needle Steal Robber Crook Burglar Money Cop Bad Rob Jail Shoe Hand Toe Kick Sandals Soccer Yard Walk Ankle Butter Food Eat Sandwich Rye Jam Milk Flour Jelly Queen Crown Castle England Throne Ruler Prince Royalty Power Hill Valley Climb Summit Top Molehill Peak Plain Glacier Thread Pin Eye Sewing Sharp Point Prick Thimble Haystack

16. False Memories • So what is going on in the DRM task? • Two main theoretical accounts • Activation/Monitoring Theory • Fuzzy Trace Theory • Status of the debate: mixed results, with each theory having some support

17. False Memories • Activation-Source Monitoring Theory: Two components • Part I. Activation • Lure is consciously or unconsciously activated • Activation is automatic • High activation results in false recollection “Did I see it?” • Part II. Source Monitoring • Memories for imagined events are attributed to other source prince royalty crown power king jewel queen ruler throne • Participants think they studied items they thought about • Increased familiarity England castle

18. False Memories • Fuzzy-Trace Theory • Information is encoded in two formats in parallel • Gist – meaning based representation • Longer lasting representations • Verbatim – details • Are not as well preserved • More sensitive to interference effects • List memory = verbatim + gist • Lure memory = gist only • The verbatim memories for all items may not be there so rely on gist, which may include the lure (since it is consistent with the general gist)

19. Eyewitness Testimony • Eyewitness Testimony • Reconstructive memory • Schema driven errors • Effect of leading questions

20. Eyewitness Testimony • Persuasiveness • Most persuasive form of evidence • Eyewitnesses believed ~80% of the time (Loftus, 1983) • Juries cannot tell the difference between an accurate and an inaccurate witness • Accurate witness believed 68% of time • Inaccurate witness believed 70% of time

21. Eyewitness Testimony • Persuasiveness • Juries cannot tell the difference between an accurate and an inaccurate witness • Wells et al. (1998) • Studied 40 people who were convicted but later cleared by DNA • In 90% (36) of the cases, there was false eyewitness identification • Rattner (1988) • Studied 205 wrongfully convicted defendants • 52% were due to inaccurate eyewitness testimony • Brandon and Davies (1973) • Described 70 cases of people wrongfully convicted due to inaccurate eyewitness testimony

22. Eyewitness Testimony • Persuasiveness • Experimental studies • Buckhout (1975) • Simulated crime on a TV newscast • 2,145 callers • 14.7% were accurate • Buckhout (1974) • Staged assault on professor in front of 141 students • 7 weeks later, students shown line-up of six photographs • 40% identified attacker • 36% identified bystander • 23% identified person not there

23. Eyewitness Testimony • What do witnesses report? Fashsing, Ask, & Granhag (2004)

24. Eyewitness Testimony • Schema Driven Errors • Witnesses to crimes filter information during acquisition & recall • Their schematic understanding may influence how info is both stored & retrieved • Distortions may occur without the witness realizing, based on things like: • Past experiences • Assumptions about what usually happens • Stereotypes & beliefs about crime & criminals

25. Eyewitness Testimony • Experimental Evidence: Interference paradigms • Information presented after an event can lead to distortions • Post-event information can be incorporated into the original memory • Misinformation effects • Repeated questioning about an event can enhance recall of certain details and induce forgetting of others (also increases confidence in memory of the event) • Repeated exposure to misinformation strengthens memory about the misinformation • Are even found when participants are warned that misleading information might be presented

26. Eyewitness Testimony • Effect of leading questions on recall • Leading questions introduce new information • Leading info may activate wrong schemas in witness‘ mind • Consequently, witness may recall events incorrectly • Most affected by leading Qs when: • Witness believes questioner knows more than them • Witness does not realize they may be misled • Leading information is peripheral, not central • Leading information is not blatantly incorrect

27. Eyewitness Testimony • Effect of leading questions on recall • Loftus & Palmer (1974) • Showed film of car accident • Estimated speed • How fast were the cars going when they ____ into each other? (smashed, hit, collided, etc) • ‘Smashed’ led to higher speed estimates • Did you see a/the broken headlight? • ‘The’ produced more affirmative (incorrect) responses Smashed 40.8 mph Collided 39.3 mph Bumped 38.1 mph Hit 34.0 mph Contacted 31.8 mph

28. Eyewitness Testimony • Effect of misleading information on recall • Loftus, Miller, & Burns (1978) • Saw slides of car turning to hit a pedestrian • Either saw stop or yield sign • Asked questions including: • “Did another car pass the red Datsun while it was at the ____ sign?” (consistent vs. inconsistent)

29. Eyewitness Testimony • Effect of misleading information on recall • Loftus, Miller, & Burns (1978) Consistent “… while it was at the stop sign?” Inconsistent) “… while it was at the yield sign?” Consistent “… while it was at the yield sign?” Inconsistent) “… while it was at the stop sign?” Accuracy Immediate Consistent 75% Inconsistent 40% 2 week delay Inconsistent 20% • Recognition test for correct photo of car with sign

30. Misattribution & Misinformation • Genuine alteration for the original memory may be only one part of the memory distortion explanation • Three important effects: • Overconfidence in the accuracy of the memory • Source misattribution • Misinformation acceptance

31. Misattribution & Misinformation • Source Misattribution • The inability to distinguish whether the original event or some later event was the source of the information (misremember what we have experienced) • Did I remember the word “sleep” because it was actually in the list ? OR • Because I thought about the word when I heard the list?

32. Misattribution & Misinformation • Misinformation Acceptance: • Accepting additional information as having been part of an earlier experience without actually remembering that information (form memories on the basis of suggestion from some other source) • Do I remember the car speeding because it was? OR • Because the policeman said it was? • Tendency grows stronger as more time elapses

33. Recovered Memories • A person remembers a traumatic event from many years ago • The memory was “repressed”, but is now recovered in therapy • Intentional forgetting of painful or traumatic experiences • Little empirical evidence for this type of forgetting (could have the opposite effect)

34. Recovered Memories • In 1986, Nadean Cool, a nurse’s aid in Wisconsin, sought therapy from a psychiatrist to help her cope with her reaction to a traumatic event experienced by her daughter • Psychiatrist used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to uncover buried memories of abuse that Cool herself had experienced

35. Recovered Memories • Cool became convinced that she had repressed memories of • having been in a satanic cult • eating babies • being raped • having sex with animals • being forced to watch murder of her 8-year-old friend • Cool came to believe that she had more than 120 alter personalities: children, adults, angels, duck

36. Recovered Memories • Cool eventually came to believe that false memories had been implanted • Cool sued psychiatrist for malpractice • in March, 1997, after 5 weeks of trial, her case was settled for $2.4 million

37. Recovered Memories • Increasing numbers of people believe that they were sexually abused as children, but repressed the memory until it was later recovered, often with help of therapist • 1990’s: A big spike in cases of people in therapy recovering memories of childhood sexual abuse • “Courage to Heal”: General premise that we were all abused as children, we need help to remember • Even if there is no evidence and we have no recollection of being abused • Therapies included… • Hypnosis (uses imagery, suggestive questioning, & repetition) • Guided Imagery (for now, just imagine that you were abused by your father) • Drug Therapies (sodium amytal, mostly)

38. Recovered memories • Could some of the recovered memories be false? • If it is possible to create false memories, then some recovered memories might be false • Stakes are high • must find justice and safety for victims of abuse; must prevent perpetrators from harming others • must protect individuals from false charges that can destroy their lives

39. Recovered memories • Recovered Memory • all memories recovered in therapy should be taken seriously • False memories are rare • If raise doubts, betray children and support pedophiles • Pseudomemory • Memories recovered in therapy should be viewed with skepticism • False memories can be manufactured by naïve/unscrupulous therapists • Many false accusations

40. Recovered memories • Loftus’s “shopping mall” studies • asked subjects to try to remember childhood events that had been told to researchers by their parents, older siblings, or other close family members • 3 events were real; 1 event (getting lost in a shopping mall at age 5) was false • 29% “remembered” false event

41. Recovered memories • Hyman and colleagues (reported in Loftus, 1997) • asked college students to recall childhood experiences told to the researchers by their parents • each subject given one false event (either an overnight hospitalization for a high fever and ear infection or a birthday party with pizza and a clown) • during first interview, no one “remembered” false event • during second interview, 20% “remembered” false event

42. Recovered memories • McNally (2003) – review of several studies • Identified 4 groups • Repressed memory • Recovered memory • Continuous memory • Control

43. Recovered memories • McNally (cont.) • No differences in terms of personality traits between continuous & control • Repressed scored higher than all other groups in terms of negative affectivity • Repressed also reported more dissociative & PTSD symptoms • Repressed & recovered scored higher in terms of fantasy proneness

44. Recovered memories • Recovered are more likely than control to develop FM in laboratory paradigms • Clancy et al. (2002) • Ss reported being abducted by aliens • Exhibited robust FM effects

45. Recovered memories • Brief Summary • Both extreme positions of “children always lie” and “children never lie” are wrong • Most children do recollect accurately most of what they have seen or observed • Some children will say something happened when it did not • Like adults, children can be influenced to report an event in a certain way, depending on the frequency of suggestions and the insistence of the person making them