Memory and Cognition

1
Memory and Cognition

• PSY 324
• Topic 7 Everyday Memory Memory Errors
• Dr. Ellen Campana
• Arizona State University

2
Intro to Everyday Memory

• So far weve talked about a lot of different
  types of long-termmemory, but many of the studies
  have been about memory for lists of words
• In this chapter well be talking more about how
  long-term memory functions in everyday life
• Autobiographical memory
• Flashbulb memory
• Memory as a constructive process
• Source memory

3
Autobiographical Memory
4
Autobiographical Memory

• Autobiographical memory recollection of events
  that belong to a persons past
• Mostly episodic memory
• Field perspective as if experiencing the event
• Common for recent events
• Observer perspective as if seeing the event
  (seeing self)
• Common for more remote memories
• Also includes semantic memories related to the
  self
• Where you were born, what your first word was,
  etc.
• Much more complex than memory of word lists!

5
Autobiographical Memory

• Autobiographical memory is multidimensional
• Spatial, emotional, sensory, etc.
• Visual information plays a large role
• Greenberg Rubin (2003) neurophysiological
  evidence (visual cortex damage)
• Cant recognize objects gt Autobiographical
  memory impaired, even non-visual aspects
• Autobiographical memory is much richer than
  laboratory memory
• Cabeza Coworkers (2004) brain imaging study

6
Richness of Autobiographical Mem.

• Cabeza Coworkers (2004)
• Gave participants cameras to take pics of 40
  specific campus locations
• A-photos photos individuals took themselves
• L-photos lab photos (taken by another student)

7
Richness of Autobiographical Mem.

• Cabeza Coworkers (2004)
• Gave participants cameras to take pics of 40
  specific campus locations
• A-photos photos individuals took themselves
• L-photos lab photos (taken by another student)
• Phase 1 exposed to A-photos L-photos
• Not in the scanner
• Phase 2 shown A-photos L-photos (some new,
  some from before) had to say which was which
• This part was in the scanner

8
Richness of Autobiographical Mem.

• Cabeza Coworkers (2004) Findings
• A-photos L-photos activated many of the same
  structures
• Medial Temporal Lobe episodic memory
• Parietal Cortex scene processing
• A-photos activated many additional areas
• Regions that process memory for self
• Regions that process memory for visual space
• Regions associated with experience of mental
  time travel
• Hippocampus

9
Richness of Autobiographical Mem.

• Why talk about that imaging study?
• Demonstrates that autobiographical memory is
  richer than lab memory
• Even though participants were viewing the same
  location for A-photos and L-photos, A-photos
  activated more areas than L-photos.
• Activation thought to be related to memories of
  the experience of taking the picture
• If even simple, relatively unimportant memories
  have rich representations, what makes some stand
  out in our minds more than others?

10
Memory Over the Lifespan
11
Memory over the Lifespan

• What memories tend to stand out?
• Personal milestones
• Highly emotional events
• Events that become big parts of a persons life
• Major transition points
• Juniors seniors recalled more events from Sept
  of freshman year than any other month
• Alumni recalled both September of freshman year
  and end of senior year events more than other
  times

12
Memory over the Lifespan

• Memory is different for different times in life
• Memory between ages 10 and 30 stands out
• This effect is called the reminiscence bump
• See figure 8.3 to see what this looks like on the
  graph

13
Memory over the Lifetime

• Why the reminiscence bump?
• Life-narrative hypothesis
• People tend to assume their life identities
  between 10-30
• Many important firsts between 10 and 30
• Cognitive hypothesis
• Encoding is better for periods of rapid change,
  followed by stability (10-30change, stability
  after that)
• Evidence bump is shifted for late vs. early
  immigrants

14
Memory over the Lifetime

• Why the reminiscence bump?
• Life-narrative hypothesis
• People tend to assume their life identities
  between 10-30
• Many important firsts between 10 and 30
• Cognitive hypothesis
• Encoding is better for periods of rapid change,
  followed by stability (10-30change, stability
  after that)
• Evidence bump is shifted for late vs. early
  immigrants
• Cultural script hypothesis
• Cultural expectations shape recall (typical
  events, times)

15
Memories Across the Lifespan

• All three hypotheses probably contribute to the
  occurrence of the reminisence bump
• These also interact with the other factors that
  make certain memories stand out
• Milestones, transitions, events that are part of
  our major life story
• Highly emotional events
• Next flashbulb memories (emotional events)

16
Flashbulb Memory

• Flashbulb memories are episodic memories about
  the context in which you found out about highly
  emotional events
• Often culturally-relevant events (JFK,
  challenger, 911)
• Remembered for a long time, in vivid detail
• Why called flashbulb? Brown and Kulik used
  this analogy in a paper about JFKs assassination
• Their paper looked at memory after many years
• but were these memories accurate?

17
Flashbulb Memory

• To test accuracy of flashbulb memories,
  researchers use a method called repeated recall
• Right after an event, people write about it
  (baseline)
• Later they are asked to write about it again
• Researchers compare writings for each person
• Neisser Harsch (1992) repeated recall for the
  challenger explosion

18
Neisser Harsch (1992)

• Quote from day after event
• I was in my religion class and some people walked
  in and started talking about it. I didnt know
  any details except that it had exploded and the
  schoolteachers students had all been watching,
  which I thought was so sad. Then after class I
  went to my room and watched the TV program
  talking about it, and I got all the details from
  that.

19
Neisser Harsch (1992)

• Same person, quote from 2 ½ years later
• When I first heard about the explosion I was
  sitting in my freshman dorm room with my
  roommate, and we were watching TV. It came on a
  news flash, and we were both totally shocked. I
  was really upset, and I went upstairs to talk to
  a friend of mine, and then I called my parents.

20
Schmolke and coworkers (2000)

• O.J. Simpson trial
• Response at 3 days I was in the commuter lounge
  at college and saw it on TV. As 1000 approached,
  more and more people came into the room
• Response at 32 months (same person) I first
  heard it while I was watching TV at home in my
  living room. My sister and father were with me
• Conclusion it seems unlikely that so-called
  flashbulb memories differ from ordinary episodic
  memories in any fundamental way.

21
Are Flashbulb Memories Special?

• Talarico and Rubin (2003) 911 event
• Some evidence that they are not special
• Accuracy and number of details decreased
  similarly for flashbulb and everyday episodic
  memories
• Some evidence that they are special
• Participants beliefs that memories were accurate
  stayed high for flashbulb, but dropped for
  everyday episodic memories
• Participants ratings of vividness and how well
  they could relive events stayed high for
  flashbulb, but dropped for everyday episodic
  memories

22
Are Flashbulb Memories Special?

• Davidson and Coworkers (2006) also 911
• Found flashbulb memories more resistant to fading
• congruence scores high for flashbulb, but dropped
  for everyday events
• All participants remembered 911, but only 65
  were able to recall what the other memory was

23
Are Flashbulb Memories Special?

• Davidson and Coworkers (2006) also 911
• Found flashbulb memories more resistant to fading
• congruence scores high for flashbulb, but dropped
  for everyday events
• All participants remembered 911, but only 65
  were able to recall what the other memory was
• Why?
• Flashbulb memories about emotional events
  (amygdala)
• Added rehearsal narrative rehearsal hypothesis

24
Are Flashbulb Memories Special?

• Whats the point? Are they or arent they?
• Two studies found conflicting results
• Differed with respect to cues
• Talarico Rubins participants created their
  own therefore remembered everyday memories
  better (Mantyla from last time)
• Robinson and Coworkers participants used given
  cues
• Still an open debate
• About memory in general, this tells us
• Emotional context of event can influence memory
• Knowledge (even if it comes later) can affect the
  original memory

25
The Constructive Nature of Memory
26
The Constructive Nature of Memory

• People reporting memories unknowingly
• Omit details
• Distort or change things that actually happened
• Report things that never actually happened
• Constructive approach to memory
• What people report as memories are constructed by
  the person based on what happened plus additional
  factors (knowledge, experience, expectations)

27
War of the GhostsBartlett (1932)

• Description of myth from an unfamiliar culture
• Repeated production participants came back a
  number of times to tell the same story
• Similar to repeated recall for flashbulb memories
• Participants made more errors over time
• Errors reflected something about the process
• Story changed to be consistent with participants
  culture
• Confusing details left out
• Details changed (canoe -gt boat)

28
Educated Guesses

• Bahrick and Coworkers (1996)
• Recall your own high school grades
• A recall 89
• D recall 29
• Why these types of errors?
• People tend to remember positive events more
• Memory is constructive
• If they were A/B students, they make a prediction
  that a specific grade was most likely an A, and
  remember it that way
• How does constructive memory work?

29
Source Monitoring

• Source monitoring (and errors) is part of the
  explanation for how constructive memory works
• Source memory is the memory for how you acquired
  a certain memory
• Did I hear that on the news or did someone tell
  me?
• Source monitoring errors / source misattributions
  are when you remember the fact, but think it came
  from the wrong source
• Memories disconnected from source over time

30
Source Monitoring Errors

• Jacoby and Coworkers (1989) becoming famous
  overnight
• Acquistion read a list of names (all made up,
  and people were told this just after reading)
• Immediate test identify famous names from list
• Non-famous, new names
• Names from prior list
• Famous names
• Delayed test same as immediate, 1 day later

31
Source Monitoring Errors

• Jacoby and Coworkers (1989) becoming famous
  overnight
• Results made-up names from the list that people
  saw in the acquisition stage were more likely to
  be rated as famous (in participants memory these
  fictitious people became famous overnight)
• Explanation Made-up names more familiar than new
  names during delayed test, but participants
  didnt remember why they seemed so familiar
  (source), so they attributed familiarity to
  famousness

32
Constructive Memory

• Source misattribution involves participants
  making inferences about the source, and using
  those to construct / reconstruct memory
• Flashbulb memory studies
• Bartletts war of the ghosts experiment
• Bahrick coworkers high school grades
  experiment
• Jacoby coworkers becoming famous overnight

33
Memory and Inference

• So memory as a constructive process
• What we remember is constructed based on events,
  percepts, experience and knowledge
• The process of memory construction involves
  making inferences
• This is a normal consequence of a largely
  adaptive memory in other words its a good
  thing.

34
Brewer (1977) / McDermott Chan (2006)

• The childrens snowman vanished when the
  temperature reached 80.
• The flimsy shelf weakened under the weight of the
  books.
• The absent-minded professor didnt have his car
  keys.
• The karate champion hit the cinder block.
• The new baby stayed awake all night.

35

• people who read these sentence often
  inaccurate remembered the sentences as

36
Brewer (1977) / McDermott Chan (2006)

• The childrens snowman vanished when the
  temperature reached 80.
• The flimsy shelf weakened under the weight of the
  books.
• The absent-minded professor didnt have his car
  keys.
• The karate champion hit the cinder block.
• The new baby stayed awake all night.

melted
collapsed
lost
broke
cried
37
Pragmatic Inference

• Changes in wording we just saw are examples of
  pragmatic inference
• We use our experience to fill in the details
  without even realizing we are doing it
• Two more in the book you should know about
• Bransford Johnson (1973) hammer example
• Arkes Freedman (1984) baseball example
• Inference uses knowledge and experience, which
  are represented by schemas and scripts

38
Schemas

• Schemas are representations of what is usually or
  prototypically involved in an experience
• A kids birthday party, a movie, oktoberfest,
  holidays
• Even if a movie theater is out of popcorn when
  you go, you may later infer there was popcorn
  there
• Brewer Treyens (1981) - office study
• This type of representation is what causes us to
  substitute cried for stayed up all night in
  the sentences we heard earlier

39
Scripts

• Scripts are representations of the sequence of
  actions that usually occur during an experience
• Restaurant, class, sports, evening out, holidays
• Even if you may not have gone trick-or-treating
  one Halloween, you may remember doing so later
• Bower and Coworkers (1979) dentist office study

40
Bower and Coworkers (1979)

• The Dentist
• Bill had a bad toothache. It seemed like forever
  before he finally arrived at the dentist office.
  Bill looked around at the various dental posters
  on the wall. Finally the dental hygienist checked
  and x-rayed his teeth. He wondered what the
  dentist was doing. The dentist said that Bill had
  a lot of cavities. As soon as hed made another
  appointment, he left the dentists office.

41
Bower and Coworkers (1979)

• Study included many stories like the dentist
• After a delay, participants were given titles and
  asked to write what they remembered about the
  stories
• Bill checked in with the dentists receptionist
  .
• .Common even though it wasnt really there
• People filled in details based on their own
  script for going to the dentist

42
Construction Plusses Minuses

• Inferences in memory are much like gestalt laws
  in perception they are also heuristics
• Heuristics provide a best guess which is
  fast, efficient and easy to store, but sometimes
  inaccurate
• Hammer example how inefficient it would be to
  have to make all these details clear every time!
• Algorithms opposite of heuristics, provide an
  accurate answer but take time, capacity, etc.
• In the case of memory, require infinite storage
• S in the book was said to have this (it wasnt
  all good!)

43
Construction Plusses Minuses

• Like gestalt laws, in practical terms our
  inferences are very often right
• Sometimes our memories can be manipulated by
  suggestions by others
• Memories created
• Memories changed
• Ramifications for law and the court system

44
Memory and Suggestion
45
The Power of Suggestion

• People are suggestible
• Advertisements, political arguments affect our
  attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
• Information presented by others can also
  influence our memory for past events
• Misinformation Effect misleading information
  presented after a person witnesses an event can
  change how the person describes the event later
• Misleading information in this situation is
  called misleading postevent information (MPI)

46
Method Presenting MPI

• Step 1 Information to be remembered is presented
  
• Could be a list of words, film, slideshow, etc.
• Step 2 MPI is presented to some participants and
  not others
• MPI is presented in a natural way so participants
  do not know they are being misled
• Step 3 All participants report on their memory
  of the information presented in step 1
• Reports compared for the two groups of
  participants

47
Loftus Coworkers (1978)

• Step 1 slide show of accident
• Car stops at a stop sign, then turns corner and
  hits pedestrian
• Step 2 participants answer questions
• MPI group did another car pass the red Datsun
  while it was stopped at the yield sign?
• Controldid another car pass the red Datsun
  while it was stopped at the stop sign?
• Step 3 participants see pictures, say which are
  old
• Critical picture car parked at a yield sign (new
  picture)
• MPI group more likely to say yes (which was an
  error)

48
Loftus Coworkers (1978)

• Study demonstrates that misleading postevent
  information (MPI) can affect details of what
  people remember seeing
• Another similar study looks at how MPI can affect
  the conclusions people draw about other aspects
  of the situation
• Also replicates the finding from Loftus
  Coworkers (1978)

49
Loftus and Palmer (1974)

• Participants watched a video of a car crash
• Participants answered questions about the film
• MPI group How fast were the cars going when they
  smashed into each other?
• Control How fast were the cars going when they
  hit each other?
• Answers compared
• MPI group (smashed) answered 41 mph, on avg.
• Control group (hit) answered 34 mph, on avg.

50
Loftus (1993, 1998)

• Participants from Loftus Palmer invited back
  one year later
• Question Did you see any broken glass? (no
  right)
• Results
• MPI group (smashed) answered yes 32
• Control group (hit) answered yes 14
• More evidence that MPI affects memory for details
  (even details that are inferred)
• How does this happen???

51
What Causes the Misinformation Effect?

• Memory-trace replacement hypothesis (Loftus)
• MPI replaces memories for the original event
• Process of consolidation is a possible mechanism
• Retroactive interference hypothesis
• Recent information interferes with (but doesnt
  replace) previously learned information
• Source monitoring error hypothsis
• Both memories are stored, but during recall we
  forget which came from which source

52
Evidence Source Monitoring Error

• Lindsay (1990)
• Day 1 People saw slides, narrated by female
  voice
• Day 2 People heard story (no slides) with a few
  details changed (brand names, etc.)
• All MPI, no control group
• Some participants heard a male voice tell the
  story, while others heard a female voice tell the
  story
• Data answers to questions about details that
  were changed for the story and details that were
  not
• Why are voices important? Voice can be a cue to
  source, which may make it easier to remember

53
Lindsay (1990)
Misled details
Control details
suggested responses (wrong)
Female Voice
Male Voice
54
Source Monitoring Errors

• False memories for early events also related to
  source monitoring
• Hyman, Jr. and Coworkers (1995)
• Got stories from parents of college students
• Asked students about these events (and fake ones)
• With repeated recall, false memories were induced
• How is this a source monitoring error?
• Familiarity caused people to believe it happened,
  and then they happily filled in details via
  inference

55
More on False Memories for Early Events

• Lindsay and Coworkers (2004) Slime study
• False memory effect stronger with a picture
• DuBreuil and Coworkers (1998) Mobiles
• False memories can come out during hypnosis
• People are very confident that these are real

56
Eyewitness Testimony
57
Memory and Law

• Eyewitness testimony when someone who was
  present at a crime reports about what he or she
  saw
• Most convincing types of evidence for a jury
• Witness confident-gt evidence even more convincing
• Accuracy Confidence correlation is 0.29
• Errors have of eyewitness testimony have resulted
  in the conviction of innocent people

58
Memory and Law

• David Webb, Charles Clark, Lenell Gertner all
  went to jail (later released when testimony was
  discovered to be inaccurate)
• 40 cases of exoneration based on DNA evidence
  that became available after conviction
• 36 involved erroneous eyewitness testimony
• 8.5 average years in prison
• 5 death sentences

59
Perceptual Errors

• Eyewitness testimony can be affected by both
  perception and memory well start with
  perception
• Two studies presented videos of crimes to
  participants and then gave them photos, asked
  them to identify the perpetrator
• 100 / 61 picked someone from the photos, even
  though the correct person wasnt in the photos
• In actual crime scenes, many causes

60
Crime Scenes

• Errors associated with Attention
• Easterbrook (1959) as arousal increases,
  attention narrows
• crime scenes arousal is high, relevant details
  can be missed
• Weapons focus presence of a weapon narrows
  attention
• Worse if weapon is fired (Stanny and Johnson,
  2000)
• Decreases memory for victim, perpetrator AND
  weapon

61
Crime Scenes

• Errors due to familiarity
• Crime scenes involve perpetrator, victim, and
  innocent bystanders
• Bystanders can be incorrectly identified as
  perpetrators based on familiarity
• Memory researcher Donald Thompson
• Sailor example
• Confirmed in lab studies

62
Crime Scenes

• Errors due to suggestion
• did you see the white car? later may have a
  false memory of a white car
• which one of these men did it? implies that
  the person is in the lineup
• Witness selects one, then becomes confident over
  time
• that one??? OK confirmation of the
  witnesss choice (which will inflate confidence
  in the choice)
• Wells and Bradfield (1998) confirmed in the lab

63
Crime Scenes

• Increasing confidence due to postevent
  questioning
• Shaw (1996) participants were more confident in
  false memories of items from an apartment if they
  had been asked questions about them
• Answering questions about an object makes it
  easier to retrieve memories about it later
• People mistake ease of retrieval for accuracy

64
What can be done?

• First, recognize the problem and communicate it
  to jurors
• Make some procedural changes
• Inform witnesses that perp may not be in the
  lineup
• In lineups, use fillers that are similar to the
  suspect
• When presenting a lineup use sequential rather
  than simultaneous presentation
• Improve interviewing techniques
• Cognitive interview (25-60 more information than
  police interview)