Remembering Complex Events: Memory Errors and Memory Gaps

1. CHAPTER 8 Remembering Complex Events

2. Remembering Complex Events: 1 Lecture Outline Memory Errors, Memory Gaps Memory Errors: A Hypothesis The Cost of Memory Errors Avoiding Memory Errors Forgetting Memory: An Overall Assessment Autobiographical Memory How General Are the Principles of Memory?

3. Remembering Complex Events: 2 A small number of people have hyperthymesia. They can recall the details of every single day of their lives. But that ability has not made them incredible geniuses or scholars. They only have superior autobiographical recall.

4. Remembering Complex Events: 3 In this chapter we will consider how knowledge people bring with them to a situation can promote accurate retrieval but also promote errors. We also consider some of the factors that are directly pertinent to memory as it functions in day-to-day life.

5. Memory Errors: Memory Gaps An example of a memory error: An airplane lost power to two engines It crashed into the side of a building in Amsterdam 193 people were interviewed 10 months later More than half the participants reported seeing the crash on TV However, no footage of the crash exists

6. Memory Errors: Memory Gaps (cont.) Participants in one study remembered seeing books in an academic office when there were none.

7. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 1

8. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 2 Connections serve as retrieval paths. Connections can also lead to memory errors. Shared connections make similar memories less distinguishable. Elements might be connected because they are associated or because they were actually part of the memory. One type of error is called an intrusion error.

9. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 3

10. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 5 Nancy woke up feeling sick again, and she wondered if she really were pregnant. How would she tell the professor she had been seeing? And the money was another problem.

11. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 6 Neutral condition: Worse memory, fewer intrusions Theme condition: Better memory, more intrusions

12. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 7 Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure For example, read the list “bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, nap, peace, yawn, drowsy.” In that case, participants tend to recall “sleep” as well, even though it was not on the list.

13. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 8

14. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 9 Other intrusions are due to schematic knowledge. A schema (plural, schemata) refers to knowledge that describes what is typical of a given situation.

15. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 10 Schemata can help us when remembering an event. What was the first thing that happened: • the last time you went to a restaurant? • the last time you went to your favorite restaurant? • the last time you went to a restaurant while on vacation?

16. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 11 However, schemata can also cause us to make errors when remembering an event. For example, you might remember seeing magazines in a dentist’s office even if there were none. Memories tend to be regularized.

17. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 12 A classic demonstration of the effects of schemata on memory was provided by Frederick Bartlett (1932). Native American stories were presented to British participants.

18. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 14 Indians were out fishing for seals in the Bay of Manpapan, when along came five other Indians in a war-canoe. They were going fighting. “Come with us,” said the five to the two, “and fight.” “I cannot come,” was the answer of the one, “for I have an old mother at home who is dependent upon me.” The other also said he could not come, because he had no arms. “That is no difficulty,” the others replied, “for we have plenty in the canoe with us”; so he got into the canoe and went with them. In a fight soon afterwards this Indian received a mortal wound. Finding that his hour was come, he cried out that he was about to die. “Nonsense,” said one of the others, “you will not die.” But he did. Details altered

19. Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 15 Regularization via schemata Books are remembered in an academic office. Video footage of a plane crash is remembered.

20. The Cost of Memory Errors: 1 Another line of research has investigated the misinformation effect. Misleading information becomes part of the remembered event. Time Misleading information Event

21. The Cost of Memory Errors: 2 Loftus and Palmer, 1974 Viewing a series of pictures depicting a car accident How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?

22. The Cost of Memory Errors: 3 Loftus and Palmer, 1974 Viewing a series of pictures depicting a car accident How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?

23. The Cost of Memory Errors: 4 Entire events can be implanted into memory. Easier to plant plausible memories than implausible. Easier to add false memories than to replace true with false. Imagery can increase one’s confidence in a false memory. • Visual imagery (e.g., “picture each event”) • Relevant and tangible photos or videos

24. The Cost of Memory Errors: 5

25. The Cost of Memory Errors: 6

26. The Cost of Memory Errors: 7 False memories can occur for emotional and consequential events. Shaw and Porter (2015): Participants were persuaded that they had committed a crime that in fact had never happened. • Participants remembered this imaginary event a few years later. False memories can be planted through repetition and social pressures. This effect can lead people to confess to crimes they did not commit.

27. Cognition Outside the Lab: “It’s Common Sense” Widespread beliefs about how memory works can be incorrect. Examples of inaccurate beliefs: • Some types of memories will never be forgotten. • Memory errors occur more rarely than they do. • Confidence indicates accuracy. • Memory functions like a video recorder. • Hypnosis can reveal long-lost memories.

28. Avoiding Memory Errors Memory confidence Confidence is an indicator of memory accuracy only in a narrow set of circumstances. • No widespread, reliable indicators of memory accuracy have been found. Confidence is influenced by factors beyond the memory itself. • Example: Repetition can increase confidence without changing recall accuracy.

29. Avoiding Memory Errors (cont.) Participants witnessed a simulated crime and were asked to identify the culprit. Feedback affected confidence but not accuracy.

30. Forgetting: 1 Retention interval—the amount of time that elapsed between initial learning and subsequent retrieval

31. Forgetting: 2

32. Forgetting: 3 Why memories may weaken Decay theory of forgetting—memories may fade or erode over time. Interference—newer learning may disrupt older memories. • Confusable connections in memory network Retrieval failure—memory is intact but cannot be accessed. • Can be partial (e.g., the tip-of-the-tongue [TOT] effect)

33. Forgetting: 4 Number of games Lower recall

34. Forgetting: 5 Hypnosis makes people more open to misinformation. At least some recovered memories may actually be false memories (false either entirely or partially). • Mix of recollection, guesses, and inferences

35. Forgetting: 6 Rather than regressing, the adult draws what he or she thinks a 6-year-old would draw.

36. Forgetting: 7 The cognitive interview procedure can diminish forgetting. Includes context reinstatement Diverse retrieval cues to trigger memories Repeated retrieval and testing can prevent forgetting.

37. Memory: An Overall Assessment Summary of memory errors People can confidently remember things that never happened. Memories are interconnected, creating retrieval paths but also intrusions. Forgetting may be a consequence of how general knowledge is formed. • Specific episodes merge in memory to form schemata. • Schemata guide attention during encoding and inferences during recall. Despite errors, our memory system is efficient and aids in knowledge acquisition.

38. Autobiographical Memory: 1 Autobiographical memory: memory of episodes and events in one’s own life

39. Autobiographical Memory: 2 The self-reference effect—better memory for information relevant to oneself The self-schema is a set of beliefs and memories about oneself.

40. Autobiographical Memory: 3 As with general memories, memories about oneself are subject to errors. Memories about ourselves are a mix of genuine recall and schema-based reconstruction. Our autobiographical memories are also biased to emphasize consistency and positive traits.

41. Autobiographical Memory: 4

42. Autobiographical Memory: 5 Memory and emotion Increased activity in the amygdala Increased activity in the hippocampus Better consolidation Emotional events

43. Autobiographical Memory: 6 Causes of better memory for emotional events • Increased activity in the amygdala and hippocampus • Narrowing of attention • Shift to emotion-relevant goals • More rehearsal

44. Autobiographical Memory: 7 Flashbulb memories Are they accurate?

45. Autobiographical Memory: 8 Flashbulb memories can include substantial errors. After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, 3,000 people were interviewed. One year later, they were reinterviewed. 37% gave a substantially different account yet had high confidence. Three years later, 43% gave a substantially different account.

46. Autobiographical Memory: 9 Other flashbulb memories are well remembered. • Discussion with other people can act as rehearsal. • People will alter their accounts to improve conversation and/or pick up new information from others’ accounts. • This can alter the actual memory for the event. • Co-witness contamination

47. Autobiographical Memory: 10 Traumatic memories • Physiological arousal and stress at the time of event increase consolidation. • These memories can also be lost. • Causes include head injuries, sleep deprivation, drugs or alcohol, and—controversially—“repression.” • Stress during retrieval can also interfere.

48. Autobiographical Memory: 11 Repression Some authors think that traumatic memories can be “lost” and then “recovered.” • Lost memories may be due to ordinary retrieval failure. Some of the memories reported as “recovered” may be actually be false memories. • Leading questions and expectations in therapy can promote this process.

49. Autobiographical Memory: 12

50. Autobiographical Memory: 13 Memory for cognitive psychology class (Conway, Cohen, & Stanhope, 1991) Then fairly stable memory Considerable loss for three years