1 Memory: Retrieving & Forgetting. 2 Measures of Memory In recognition the person has to...

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Memory: Retrieving & Forgetting

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Measures of Memory

In recognition the person has to identify an item amongst others e.g., a multiple-

choice test requires recognition.

1. Which is the capital of Kyirblahkyrstan?

a. Trilvb. Groistc. Vliktd. Zostra

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Measures of Memory

In recognition the person has to identify an item amongst others e.g., a multiple-

choice test requires recognition.

1. Which is the capital of Kherblahkyrstan?

NONE ARE CORRECT!

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Measures of Memory

In recall the person must retrieve information using effort, e.g., fill-in-the

blank tests require recall.

1. The capital of Palau is ______.

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PalauMelekeok

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“When I first saw the photo of him and I saw the pictures of the men that were in front of me. Ronald Cotton--he just looked exactly like the man who raped me. And not a lot of time had elapsed between the crime and me looking at the pictures, so my memory was still very fresh. And then when I saw him in the physical line up and I was actually able to see him as a person andhis demeanor and his postures--it just further convinced me that Ronald Cotton was the man. He looked exactly like the man. He looked like the sketch that I had given to the police. His mannerisms, his voice, his height, his weight--it all just added up in my mind. And as the evidence started to come in, it was almost just conclusive to me that this had been the rapist. And so as time goes on, I think that my mind would always see Ronald Cotton.”

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

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11 years in prison for rape

Exonerated by DNA analysis

*About 75,000 criminal trials per year are decided on the basis of eyewitness testimony

*90% of reversed convictions originally involved mistaken eyewitness identification.

*Lineup identification procedures encourage relative judgments.

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“Lineup identification procedures encourage relative judgments.”

• Eyewitness to a crime on viewing a lineup:– Oh, my God … I don’t know .. It’s one of those two … but I don’t

know … Oh, man … the guy a little bit taller than number two … It’s one of those two, but I don’t know.

• Eyewitness thirty minutes later, still viewing the lineup and having difficulty making a decision:– I don’t know … number two?

• Officer administering lineup– Okay

• Defense Attorney, months later at trial:– You were positive it was number two? It wasn’t a maybe?

• Eyewitness– There was no maybe about it … I was absolutely positive.

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The Past is How We Remember It

• Daniel Offer asked 67 men in their late forties:– Think back to your first year of high school

• Did your parents encourage you to be active in sports? (40% now) (60% then)

• Was religion helpful to you? (25% now) (70% then)• Did you receive physical punishment as discipline?

(33% now) (90% then)

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience– Weakening or loss of memory over time

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Amnesia is …

• Anterograde– Inability to create new

memories

• Retrograde– Inability to remember

previous knowledge

Deficit in memory as a result of brain damage, disease, or trauma.

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Memory declines with age

• Greater deficits across longer intervals

• Greater deficits with distraction

• Mild deficits with simple tasks

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Refresh deficits in the elderly(Johnson et al., 2004, Psyc. Sci.)

• Older adults are slower than young adults to think of an item they just saw (refreshing just-activated information)

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Transience: Distraction and Interference

• Distraction– Prevents rehearsal in

working memory.

• Interference– Proactive interference

• Disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

– Retroactive interference• Disruptive effect of new

learning on the recall of old information

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Medical School (and residency) teaches you how to be the best doctor under the WORST conditions

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…

• Elaborate encoding works better– More easier to

retrieve info if we create a larger number of associations or connections to it

Fire Truck

truck

red

fire

heatsmoke

smellwater

hose

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…• Elaborate encoding works better• Emotional arousal also helps

– Flashbulb memories• 40% are inaccurate, but confident. (Neisser & Harsch, 1992)

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How did you learn about the jury’s decision?(Schmolk et al., 2000)

Table 1. Examples of recollectionsNo distortion: Subject K.V.Recollection 1 (3 days):Leaving a 10:00am psych class, my roommate and I heard someone commenting on it, so we asked him the verdict.Recollection 2 (15 months):I first heard the verdict coming out of a lecture with my roommate. The verdict was to be read in the morning and we had psych during that time. As we left the lecture hall, I heard someone tell a girl next to me that he was found not guilty. I was stunned and asked him to repeat himself and tell me about the verdict.Minor distortion: Subject P.H.Recollection 1 (3 days):I awoke to screaming outside my apartment window, so I looked at the clock (10:05) and realized the verdict had just been announced. I stayed in bed and reached for the stereo remote and turned the radio to 100.7 and listened to the verdict replayed.Recollection 2 (15 months):I knew what time the verdict would be read, so I set my stereo to wake me up so I could hear it. I was sitting in bed and listening to the radio and the screams from the other apartments and outside.Major distortion: Subject M.G.Recollection 1 (3 days):I was in the Commuter Lounge at Revelle [College] and saw it on T.V. As 10:00 approached, more and more people came into the room. We kept having to turn up the volume, but it was kind of cool. Everyone was talking.Recollection 2 (32 months):I first heard it while I was watching TV. At home in my living room. My sister and father were with me. Doing nothing in particular, eating and watching how the news station was covering different groups of viewers just waiting to hear the verdict. I think that the focus was mostly on law students and their reactions to the verdict.

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…

• Elaborate encoding works better

• Emotional arousal helps

• Encoding specificity

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PRIMING

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…

• Elaborate encoding works better

• Emotional arousal helps

• Encoding specificity– Context-dependent

memory

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…

• Elaborate encoding works better

• Emotional arousal helps

• Encoding specificity– Context-dependent

memory

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…• Elaborate encoding

works better• Emotional arousal helps• Encoding specificity

– Context-dependent memory

– State-dependent memory

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Ways to Address Transience

• Repetition works, but…• Elaborate encoding

works better• Emotional arousal helps• Encoding specificity

– Context-dependent memory

– State-dependent memory– Mood-congruent memory

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Moods and Memories

Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.

Emotions, or moods serve as retrieval cues.

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Discerning True & False Memories

Just like true perception and illusion, real memories or memories that seem real are

difficult to discern.

When students formed happy or angry memory ofmorphed (computer blended) faces (a), they made

the (computer assisted) faces (b) either happier or angrier.

© Sim

on Niedsenthal

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience• Absent-Mindedness

– Breakdown at the interface between attention and memory that results in failure to remember information that was never encoded properly (if at all) or is available in memory but is overlooked at the time we need to retrieve it.

• Example: your mind being somewhere else as you put down your keys

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience

• Absent-Mindedness

• Blocking– Inaccessibility of stored information

• Tip of the Tongue

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Tip-of-the-tongue: get other examples

• Metal or metal-tipped spear used in contests of distance

• throwing• Mild or hot, red condiment often used on deviled

eggs• Inscription on a tomb• Incombustible, chemical-resistant, material used

for fireproofing• Heavy, broad-bladed knife or hatchet used

especially by butchers

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience• Absent-Mindedness• Blocking• Misattribution

– Assigning a memory to the wrong source

• Ex: Putting words in someone else’s mouth

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FSource Misattribution/Source Amnesia

• Not a problem when it’s something benign

• Has tragic consequences in other contexts

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience• Absent-Mindedness• Blocking• Misattribution• Suggestibility

– Memories implanted as a result of leading questions, comments, or suggestions when a person is trying to call up a past experience.

• “What time was it when Mr. So and So broke into your house?”

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Eyewitnesses reconstruct memories when questioned about the event.

Misattribution & Suggestibility Effects

Depiction of the actual accident.

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Memory ConstructionA week later they were asked; Was there any

broken glass? Group B (smashed into) reported more broken glass than

Group A (hit).

Group A: How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?

Group B: How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

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Memory Construction

The ALT key studyKassin & Kiechel, 1996

Helps explain the “false confession” phenomena of prisoners

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Imagining Effects

• Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events can create false memories– Fake memories feel like real memories– Occurs because visualizing something and

actually perceiving it activate similar brain areas

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Hippocampus & Misattribution

• Hippocampus did not distinguish True from False memories during retrieval.

• Parahippocampal gyrus activity can distinguish True from False memories during retrieval.

(Cabeza, Rao, Wagner, Mayer, & Schacter, 2001)

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Constructed Memories

• Danger of creating false memories of child abuse.

• Children are particularly susceptible.– What happened? (9%

distortions)– Where did you hurt

yourself? (49% distortions)

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Ceci Video demonstratessuggestibility in children

NOTE/WARNING: This video contains triggers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1262410204090315491#

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Retrieval Failure

• Eyewitness testimony– Repeated questioning of

specific aspects of an event may impair other unquestioned aspects of the incident.

• Sexual abuse– Temporary forgetting is

more common when a family member is the perpetrator.

– Nontraumatic, positive memories inhibit negative memories.

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience

• Absent-Mindedness

• Blocking

• Misattribution

• Suggestibility

• Bias– Powerful influences of our current knowledge

and beliefs on how we remember our pasts.

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Bias

• The way we were depends on the way we are

• Relationships– If your current view of your partner is

negative, the more negative your memories are of them, which only further confirms your negative attitudes.

– Couples who stayed together for more than four years recalled that the strength of their love had grown.

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The seven sins of memory“provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory”

• Transience• Absent-Mindedness• Blocking• Misattribution• Suggestibility• Bias• Persistence

– Repeated recall of disturbing information or events that we would prefer to banish from our minds. Ex: flashbacks

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Forgetting

Inability to retrieve information, due to poor encoding, storage or

retrieval.

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Forgetting…it’s a good thing!

Jill Pricehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoxsMMV538U

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Why do we forget?

Forgetting can occur at any memory stage; we filter, alter, or lose

much information during these stages.

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Encoding Failure

Much of what we are exposed to, we never notice. We cannot remember what we did

not encode.

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Encoding Failure1. The standard telephone dial has ten numbers, one through nine plus zero.

However, it doesn’t have all 26 letters of the alphabet. Which ones don’t appear on the dial?

2. What is the color of the top stripe of the American flag? The bottom stripe? How many red and how many white stripes does it have?

3. If you have a watch with mechanical hands, cover the face and try to recall what it looks like. How many numbers does it have? Are they Arabic or Roman numerals—or does it have any numbers at all?

4. Most wooden pencils are not round. How many sides do they typically have?

5. In what hand does the Statue of Liberty hold her torch?

6. The White House is pictured on the back of a $20 bill. What is on the back of a $10 bill? A $5 bill? A $1 bill?

7. What four words besides “In God We Trust” appear on most U.S. coins?

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Encoding Failure1. The standard telephone dial has ten numbers, one through nine plus zero. However, it

doesn’t have all 26 letters of the alphabet. Which ones don’t appear on the dial? (“Q” and “Z”)

2. What is the color of the top stripe of the American flag? (Red) The bottom stripe? (Red) How many red and how many white stripes does it have? (seven red and six white)

3. If you have a watch with mechanical hands, cover the face and try to recall what it looks like. How many numbers does it have? Are they Arabic or Roman numerals—or does it have any numbers at all?

4. Most wooden pencils are not round. How many sides do they typically have? (Six)

5. In what hand does the Statue of Liberty hold her torch? (Right)

6. The White House is pictured on the back of a $20 bill. What is on the back of a $10 bill? (Treasury Building) A $5 bill? (Lincoln Memorial) A $1 bill? (The word “One”)

7. What four words besides “In God We Trust” appear on most U.S. coins? (United States of America)

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Storage Decay

Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay.

Ebbinghaus showed this with his forgetting curve.

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Retrieval FailureAlthough the information is retained in the

memory store it cannot be accessed.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes the blood cells red?) the subject says the word

begins with an H (hemoglobin).

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Motivated Forgetting

Motivated Forgetting: People unknowingly revise their memories.-Ex. Compulsive gamblers frequently recall losing less money than is actually the case

Repression: Defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness-is more automatic and unconscious.

Sigmund Freud

Culver Pictures