Interactions in Long Term Memory

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1/19/2014

• Interactions in Long Term Memory
• Scripts
• False memory
• Misinformation effect
• Source misattribution
• Memory and confidence
• Repressed and recovered memory
• Autobiographical memories
• Very Long Term Memory
• Real World Memories
• Emotion and Memories
• Flashbulb memories

Study Questions. Compare and contrast
misinformation effects with retroactive
interference. According to research, what do
you expect will happen to your knowledge of
Cognitive Psychology over the next several years?
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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Propositions
• Empirical support for propositional theory
• Content memory vs. technical memory
• Sachs (1967)
• Participants listened to story
• Four test sentences
• Identical Test sentence was identical
• He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great
  Italian scientist
• Formal Form was different, meaning preserved
• He sent Galileo, the great Italian scientist a
  letter about it
• Voice Changed from active to passive voice
• A letter about it was sent to Galileo, the great
  Italian scientist
• Semantic The meaning was changed
• Galileo, the great Italian scientist sent him a
  letter about it

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Propositions
• Empirical support for propositional theory
• Content memory vs. technical memory
• Sachs (1967)

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Propositions
• Other Empirical Support
• The fan effect
• Propositions versus images

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Propositions
• Propositions versus images
• Richman et al. (1979)

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts -
• Large scale semantic and episodic knowledge
  structures that guide comprehension
• Thorndyke (1975)
• Story gt Setting Theme Plot Resolution
• Setting gt Characters Location Time
• Theme gt (Event) Goal
• Plot gt Episode
• Episode gt Subgoal Attempts Outcome
• Attempt gt Event episode
• Outcome gt Event state
• Resolution gt Event state
• Subgoal goal gt Desired state
• Characters location
• Time gt Stative (rather than active)

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Schank Abelson (1977)
• Headers Words that activate a script
• E.g., Menu, Waiter, etc. activate restaurant
  script
• Two headers will prime a script
• Frames details about specific events in the
  script
• Default value the common, typical concept that
  occupies a frame
• Unmentioned details get filled in with default
  values
• Cognitive ergonomics

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Bower et al. (1977)
• Asked people to write down component actions of
  scripts
• Determined which were most central or typical
• When events happen that are not in a script, they
  can be either
• More salient and more likely to be remembered
• if they are important story events that interrupt
  the usual routine of the script
• E.g., The waiter spills coffee. (restaurant
  script)
• Less salient and less likely to be remembered
• if they are largely irrelevant asides
• E.g., The was a picture of a flower on the menu.
  (restaurant script)

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Bower, Black Turner (1979)
• Participants read 18 stories based on scripts
• 1, 2, or 3 stories based on each script (I.e., 3
  versions )
• Not all actions or events included in each story
• Recognition test for memory for stories

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Bower, Black Turner (1979)
• Scripted Events
• Stated Not
  Stated Other
• No. of Scripts
• 1 5.46
  3.91 1.71
• 2 5.40
  4.62 1.76
• 3 5.59
  4.81 1.86
• Recognition 7-point Scale, 1sure new, 7sure old

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Smith Graesser (1981)
• Memory for typical and atypical script actions
• Found better memory for atypical events
• The Script-Pointer-Plus-Tag theory
• When a script is activated
• store script in episodic memory
• script represents both stated and inferred
  typical events
• tag on atypical actions of story to script

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• The Script-Pointer-Plus-Tag theory
• Connolly, Hockley Pratt (1996)
• presented 6 different stories based on scripted
  routines
• typical and atypical actions presented 0-4 times
• surprise frequency test
• - subjects asked to judge how often different
  actions were presented

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Scripts
• Connolly, Hockley Pratt (1996)

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Roedigers False memory effect

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1. (8 X 6) / 3
2. (3 7 - 2) X 3
3. 4 / (2 2) 3
4. (6 3)/3 2
5. (23 - 17) X (32 - 15)
6. (9 2 3) - (4 2 5)
7. (3 X ( 3 X ( 2 1)))
8. (1 2 3 4) X 10
9. 33 X 37
10. 44 X 46

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1. Road
2. Chilly
3. Chess
4. Poison
5. Cake
6. Gravel
7. King
8. Bottom
9. Charred
10. Crown

1. Rough
2. Robber
3. Animal
4. Steep
5. Piano
6. Spider
7. Boards
8. Palace
9. Soccer
10. Crawl

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Roedigers False memory effect

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Leading Questions
• Loftus Palmer (1974)
• View a film of a car accident.
• Tested one week later with different verbs
• How fast was the red car going when it ltsmashed
  into/made contact withgt the other car?
• Smashed 40.8 mph, contact 31.8 mph
• One week later, asked if there had been broken
  glass (there was not)
• Smashed 32 - Yes, contact 14 - Yes
• Memory Impairment A genuine change or alteration
  in memory of an experienced event as a function
  of some later event

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• A tendency to remember misinformation
• The question about smashed was not just a
  leading question, it was a source of misleading
  information
• Tools, faces, ages, body size, vehicles, signs,
  etc.
• As interference

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Source Misattribution error in identifying the
  true source of a memory
• Misinformation Acceptance accepting that
  additional information was part of the original
  memory
• Confidence and accuracy
• There is little or no relationship between memory
  accuracy and confidence
• Juror instructions

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Interactions in Long Term Memory

• False Memory
• Stronger memory distortions
• Repeated exposure
• Repeated recall of false information
• Repeated questioning
• Imagery/hypnosis
• Occur even when warned about them
• Repressed and recovered memory

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Autobiographical Memory

• Episodic vs. Autobiographical memory
• Autobiographical memory The study of ones
  lifetime collection of personal memories.
• The lab meets the real world
• Ecological validity of cognitive research,
  revisited
• Pertinence of studying autobiographical memory
• Refers to self
• Contains memory for very long term events
• Contains an emotional component

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Autobiographical Memory

• Autobiographical memory and the self
• The self-reference effect
• Self schema
• Facilitates retrieval
• Biases retrieval

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Bahrick et al. (1975)
• 400 participants aged 17-74 yrs
• Graduated between 2 wks and 57 yrs earlier
• Various memory tasks concerning graduating high
  school class
• Recognition Matching
• Names pictures
• Recall
• Free and picture cued recall

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Bahrick et al. (1975) Recall

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Bahrick et al. (1975) Recognition

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• VLTM for spanish (Bahrick, 1884)
• Maintenance of Spanish over 50 years
• 773 participants (learned Spanish in high school)
• Tested on
• Reading comprehension
• Recall and recognition
• Vocabulary, grammar and idioms
• Findings
• Sharpest decline in first 3 yrs
• Then stable for 30 yrs
• permastore

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• VLTM for Cognitive Psychology (Conway et al.,
  1991)
• 373 students who completed Cog. Psych. course up
  to 12 years prior.
• Tested on various items
• General and specific facts
• Names
• Research methods
• Concepts and concept grouping

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Recognitition (Conway et al., 1991)

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Recall (Conway et al., 1991)

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Real world memories
• Linton (1982)
• Episodic experiences over 6 yrs
• Wrote down 2 or more events on a card every day
• Every month randomly selected a card
• Attempted to recall and set date
• Found that forgetting was a linear function of
  time
• 5 drop in recall each year.

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Real world memories
• Thematic life events (Schulster, 1989)
• Attended the Metropolitan Opera for 25 yrs.
• Attempted to recall 284 performances
• Found a recency and primacy effect
• Significant performances were better remembered

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Real world memories
• Wagenaar, 1986
• Recorded 2400 daily events over six years
• Four cue types What/Who/Where/When/
• Found pleasant events were better remembered at
  short intervals

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Memory and Emotion
• Emotional events
• Trigger amygdala, production of ACl
• Consolidates memory
• Raises overall arousal
• i.e., general processing resourses
• Focusses attention
• Central vs. peripheral remembering
• weapon focus

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Autobiographical Memory

• Very Long Term Memory
• Memory and Emotion
• Flashbulb memory
• Brown Kulik (1977)
• JFK assassination
• People seem to remember a lot of detail, but is
  it accurate?
• Neisser Harsh (1992)
• Interviewed students one day after Columbia
  explosion
• Re-interviewed three years later, asking the
  same questions
• Very little agreement with original answers
• Consequentiality, I.e., personal relevance.