Everyday memory & Memory errors

1. Everyday memory& Memory errors Part I พญ. กาญจนา พิทักษ์วัฒนานนท์

2. Everyday memory • memory • Is notjust a “ stamp pad of experience ” • Is a place where information comes in • Is automatically stored for future reference • Experiences become encoded • Manipulated by a short-term process called working memory • Admitted or not admitted to LTM • Solidified over a period of time through the process of consolidation • Transferred back to working memory when needed

3. Memory errors • Why what we remember sometimes does not correspond to what actually happened • Studying the errors we make when remembering leads to the conclusion that • what we remember is determined by creative mental processes • This creativity is a gift that helps us determine what happened when we have incomplete information • This creativity can affect the accuracy of our memory

4. Chapter summery 1 • To truly understand memory we need to consider how memory operates in the environment. • When have we do this, we find that we make many errors in memory and that these errors have something to tell us about the basic mechanisms of memory.

5. Prospective memory Remember to perform intended action • “To do” list สิ่งที่ต้องทำในวันนี้ • Going to class • Taking your books to school • Keeping an evening appointment • Taking medications

6. Prospective memory Regular events : easier • Brushing your teeth in the morning Occasional events : harder • Task of delivering a message to your friend Ralph • cue to remind • Seeing Ralph later in a day

7. Prospective memory :what I’m going to do later Prospective memory : How to success….. • Remembering what you want to do • Remembering to do it at the right time Giles Einstein and Mark McDaniel hypothesis • Distinctive cues are more effective than familiar cues

8. Cues to remind Remembering to deliver the message to Ralph might be harder than to stranger • Distinctive cue (unfamiliar cue) • Stranger • Familiar cue : harder • Ralph • Seeing Ralph might trigger associations • Talking about the movie your saw last night • Which could distract you from remembering to deliver the message

9. Prospective memory Einstein and McDaniel’s experiment • Study the effect of cue familiarity on prospective memory • Participants see a list of words on a computer screen • They should press a key when a cue word was presented • Familiar cues : rake , method • Unfamiliar cues : sone , monad

10. Results of Einstein and McDaniel study • Correct responses were three times more likely for unfamiliar cue words than for familiar cue words • Unfamiliar cues result in better prospective memory Fig. 7-2, p. 237

11. Event – based task Task is triggered when an external event occurs Task : • pushing a button • Delivering a message when seeing Ralph External event : • presentation of the cue word • Talking with Ralph

12. Time – based task Task is to remember to do something at a particular time • Your doctor tells you that you need to take a pill every morning for the next2 weeks This task more difficult than event – based task Because there is no cue

13. Time – based task Daniel Schacter 2001 • Suggests (make it easier) : create cues that turn time – based task into event – based task • One way to remember to take a pill in the morning would be to place the medication next to your toothbrush , so when you brush your teeth in the morning you will remember to take a pill

14. Chapter summery 2 • Prospective memory is remembering to perform intended actions. • Einstein and McDaniel showed that prospective memory is better when cues for remembering are distinctive. • Time-based prospective memory tasks are more difficult to remember than event-based tasks. • A solution is to turn a time-based task into an event-based task.

15. Autobiographical memory :what has happened in my life Rubin 2005 • Autobiographical (episodic) memory = recollected events that belong to a person’s past อัตถ์ชีวประวัติ • Field perspective = you remember the event as you would see it • Observer perspective = seeing yourself in the event

16. Fig. 7-3, p. 238

17. Autobiographical memory Recent memory • Field perspective > observer perspective Remote memory • Observer perspective > field perspective

18. Autobiographic memory • Usually considered to be episodic memories • Episodic memories for events in our lives • Can have semantic components as well • Personal semantic memories of facts about our lives (remember without reexperiencing events) • Where we lived at various times • The schools we went to • The name of a childhood friend

19. Chapter summery 3 • Autobiographical memory has been defined as recollected events that belong to a person’s past. • It can also be defined as episodic memory for events in our lives plus personal semantic memories of facts about our lives.

20. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Autobiographical memory • Spatial component • Emotional component • Sensory component • Damage visual area of cortex • Visual memory loss (ability to recognize visualize object) • Without blindness • Loss visual retrieval cues • Loss of autobiographical memory • blind people • Auditory experience plays a role in forming autobiographical memories

21. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Roberto Cabeza and coworkers 2004 • Brain – scanning study that illustrates a difference between autobiographical memory and laboratory memory • Measured the brain activation caused by two sets of stimulus photographs • A-photos : photos taken by participant • L-photos : photos taken by someone else

22. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Roberto Cabeza and coworkers 2004 • A-photos (Autobiographical photos) • By 12 Duke University students digital cameras • Take pictures of 40 specified campus locations • Over a 10-day period • L-photos (Laboratory photos) • Seen before testing (a few days later) • Unseen before testing

23. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Roberto Cabeza and coworkers 2004 • Testing + brain scan • A-photos • L-photos (seen) • L-photos (unseen) • Color plate 7.2 a : parietal cortex activity • Same response of A & L-photos • Color plate 7.2 b : hippocampal activity • Response of A-photos more than L-photos

24. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Roberto Cabeza and coworkers 2004 • Response in brain • Color plate 7.2 a • A & L-photos both activated many of the same structures in the brain • MTL : episodic memory • Parietal cortex : processing scenes

25. The multidimensional nature of Autobiographical memory Roberto Cabeza and coworkers 2004 • Response in brain • Color plate 7.2 b • Greater A-photos activation compared to L-photos activation in hippocampus • A-photos • Richness of experiencing autobiographical memories • Memories associated with taking the picture • L-photos

26. Chapter summery 4 • The multidimensional nature of autobiographical memory has been studied by showing that people who have lost their memory due to brain damage experience a loss of autobiographical memory. • Also supporting the multidimensional nature of autobiographical memory is Cabeza’s experiment, which showed that a person’s brain is more extensively activated when viewing photographs he or she took him- or herself than when viewing photographs taken by another person.

27. NEXT 15 MIN • จงเขียนอัตถ์ชีวประวัติของตนเองตั้งแต่เกิดจนปัจจุบัน ระบุอายุของแต่ละเหตุการณ์ ( เรียงลำดับ )

28. Memory over the life span Which particular life events we will remember years later? • Transition point in people’s lives • Graduating from college • Receiving a marriage • Highly emotional events • Surviving a car accident • Reminiscence bump • Enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood in people over 40 years old

29. Chapter summery 5 • When people are asked to remember events over their lifetime, transition points are particularly memorable. • Also, people over 40 tend to have good memory for events they experienced from adolescence to early adulthood. • This is called the reminiscence bump.

30. Fig. 7-4, p. 241

31. Reminiscence bump • Participants over 40 are asked to remember events in their lives. • Memory is high for recent events and reminiscence bump • Why are adolescence and young adulthood special times for encoding memories ? • Life-narrative hypothesis • Cognitive hypothesis • Cultural life script hypothesis

32. Table 7-1, p. 242

33. Reminiscence bump :life-narrative hypothesis • People assume their life identities during that time • It is time when lots of “first” occur • Going to college • Committing to a partner • Starting a career • It is time of “Our” generation • It is time that people return to when they become nostalgic for the “good old days”

34. Reminiscence bump :cognitive hypothesis Encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability • Adolescence and young adulthood fit this description • Memory of immigrants • Robert Schrauf and David Rubin 1998 • Shows the memory curves for two groups of immigrants • Reminiscence bumb occurs at normal age for people who emigrated early • But is shifted to 15 years later for those who emigrated later

35. Fig. 7-5, p. 242

36. Reminiscence bump :cultural life script hypothesis Events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture Person’s life story : • all of events that have occurred in a person’s life

37. Reminiscence bump :cultural life script hypothesis Cultural life script : • The events that commonly occur in a particular culture • Most occur during reminiscence bump • Dorthe Berntsen and David Rubin 2004 • Asked people to list when important events in a typical person’s life usually occur • Falling in love (16 years) • College (22 years) • Marriage (27 years) • Having children (28 years)

38. Chapter summery 6 • The following hypotheses have been proposed to explain the reminiscence bump • Life-narrative • Cognitive • Cultural life script

39. Next 15 min จงเล่าเหตุการณ์ 911 โดยละเอียด • ท่านได้ยินเหตุการณ์ดังกล่าวครั้งแรกจากที่ไหน และกำลังทำอะไรอยู่ • ท่านรู้สึกอย่างไรกับเหตุการณ์ในขณะนั้น • ท่านทำอย่างไรเมื่อทราบเหตุการณ์ดังกล่าว

40. Flashbulb memories The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov.22,1963 The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 • Do you remember when you first heard about the attacks ? • How you found out ? • Where you were ? • Your initial reaction ? • What you did next ?

41. Fig. 7-6, p. 243

42. Flashbulb memories I remember walking into the psychology department office and hearing from a secretary that someone had crashed a plane into the World trade center. At the time , I picture a small private plane that had gone off course , but a short while later , when I called my wife from a pay phone near my classroom , she told me that the first tower of the World Trade Center had just collapsed. Shortly after that , in class , my students and I discussed what we knew about the situation and decided to cancel class for the day.

43. Flashbulb memories :Roger Brown and James Kulik 1977 • A person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking , highly charged important events. • Not memory for the event itself • Remember for long periods of time + more details • Likened the process of forming a memory to the taking of a photograph

44. Chapter summery 7 • Brown and Kulik proposed the term flashbulb memory to refer to a person’s memory for the circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking , highly charged , important events. • They proposed that these flashbulb memories are vivid and detailed like photographs.

45. Flashbulb memory Brown and Kulik’s idea • The mechanism responsible for these vivid and detailed memories as a “Now Print” mechanism , as if these memories are created like a photograph that resists fading. • Problem : Accuracy ???

46. Flashbulb memories • Check for accuracy • Compare the persons memory to reports collected immediately afterthe event. • This technique called repeated recall

47. Repeated recall • Idea : memory changes over time • Test : compare baseline reports with later reports • Baseline report • The person’s memory is first measured immediately after a stimulus is presented or something happens • Later report • Days , months , or years later , when participants are asked to remember what had happened

48. Repeated recall • Shown that flashbulb memories are not like photographs • Flashbulb memories change over time • Main finding : people report that memories surrounding flashbulb events are • Especially vivid • Often inaccurate • Lacking in detail

49. Repeated recall • Ulric Neisser and N. Harsch 1992 • Asked participants how they heard about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger that occurred in 1986 • Participants filled out a questionnaire within a day after the explosion • Then filled out the same questionnaire 2 ½ to 3 years later

50. Fig. 7-7, p. 245