PSYB57H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Ram Parity, Photo Manipulation, Knitting
Chapter 7: Remembering Complex Events
Memory Errors: Some Initial Examples
•An emotional event, a plane crash: so many participants reported having seen a television broadcast of
the plane crash even though there was no filming; and in another study, participants’ expectations of the
room having a bookshelf led them to incorrectly state that there was a bookshelf in the room
Memory Errors: A Hypothesis
•Within a network, there are no boundaries keeping memories of one episode separate from the
memories of other episodes
•As you add more and more links between the bits of this episode and the bits of that episode, you’re
knitting the two episodes together and may lose track of which bits of information were contained within
which event. Thus you become vulnerable to “transplant” errors, in which a bit of information
encountered in one context is transplanted into another context
Understanding Both Helps and Hurts Memory
•Memory connections allow you to locate information in memory, but can also make it difficult to see
where the remembered episode stops and other, related knowledge begins
•Intrusion errors: errors in which other knowledge intrudes into the remembered event
•Understanding promotes recall;
•In a study, a prologue to set the stage for passage to be remembered helped; however, the participants
that read the prologue made four times as many intrusion errors than those who did not read it because
it influenced the participants’ understanding of the passage. The understanding is remembered
The DRM Procedure
•Given a list of words with a theme (with the theme not being a part of the list), participants are just as
likely to recall the theme as they are to recall the actual words on the list
•The same pattern emerges in recognition testing: if participants are shown test words and asked which
ones appeared in the original list, they are just as likely to recognize the theme word (which did not
appear) as they are to recognize actually-appearing words, and feel confident about it
•This paradigm is called the DRM procedure, which yields a large number of memory errors, even if
participants are told explicitly about the nature of the lists. Even with these warnings, they still make
DRM errors; the mechanisms leading to these memory errors are quite automatic
Schematic Knowledge
•Background knowledge guides you as you interpret the situations you find yourself in, but can also be a
source of memory error
•Schemata summarize the broad pattern of what’s normal in a situation
•Schemata also helps when the time comes to recall how an event unfolded (you can be reasonably
sure that the restaurant had menus, even though you do not remember them)
Evidence for Schematic Knowledge
•Schematic knowledge can also promote errors in perception and memory
•If there are things you don’t notice in a situation or event, your schemata will lead you to fill in these
gaps with what’s normally in place in that setting
•The bookshelf error was made by schematic knowledge; and the misremembered plane crash too, the
memory error distorted reality by making the past seem more regular, more typical. After all, the
participants probably hear about most major news events via television broadcast
The Cost of Memory Errors
•Memories can be wrong, misrepresenting how the past unfolded
•Eyewitness errors account for three-quarters of false convictions
Planting False Memories
•Participants shown a series of slides depicting an automobile collision; half of the participants were
asked, “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”, and others were asked
“how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
•The difference of one word biased their estimates of speed. Those asked with “smashed” estimated a
higher speed than those asked with “hit”
•One week later, in a perfectly neutral way, participants were asked if they saw any broken glass. Those
asked with “hit” said no, and those asked with “smashed” said yes
•It’s easier to plant plausible memories rather than implausible ones
•False memories are also more easily planted if the research participants don’t just hear about the false
event but are urged to imagine how the suggestion unfolded—”imagination inflation”
Are There Limits on the Misinformation Effect?
•The pattern of results just described are called the misinformation effect because the participants’
memories are being influenced by misinformation they received after an episode was over
•All sorts of memory errors can be created, including how people are remembered: a clean-shaven man
as bearded, young people as old, and fat people as thin
•By photoshopping a hot-air balloon into participants’ childhood photos, experimenters created a
memory of the non-existent hot air-ballon
•By showing participants a childhood photograph and convincing that the experimenters had information
about the participants’ childhood, they could create false memories in about 80% of the participants
•Children are more vulnerable to this memory “planting”
Avoiding Memory Errors
•Memory errors are more common than most expect, but our memories overall are quite accurate—
more often than not, our recollection is complete, detailed, long-lasting and correct
Memory Confidence
•People sometimes announce that they’re confident in their recall, and then say the opposite: juries
believe that confident recall is likely to be accurate recall. Less faith is placed in hesitation in court
•However, studies show that in many circumstances, there’s little relationship between memory
confidence and memory accuracy
•How could this be? One reason is that our confidence in a memory is often influenced by factors that
have no impact on memory accuracy
•For example, in a study, when identifying a culprit for a crime and given feedback (“Good, you identified
our suspect”) before indicating their confidence, participants’ confidence increased; but this has no
effect on accuracy
The “Remember/Know” Distinction
•People often become emotional when recalling events of their lives; false memories can be just as
emotional as memory for real events
•A feeling of “remembering” is more likely with correct memories than with false memories; false
memories often arrive with only a general sense of familiarity and no recollection of a particular episode
•However there are many exceptions to this pattern, such as fully correct memories arriving with only a
feeling of knowing, and false memories with a detailed sense of remembering
•As a result, the distinction between knowing and remembering cannot serve as a reliable means of
distinguishing correct memories from false memories
•No indicator can reliably guide us in deciding which memory to trust so far. For now, it seems that
memory errors are usually undetectable
Forgetting
The Causes of Forgetting
•An example of not-so-real forgetting is failure in acquisition, when you barely pay attention to stimuli
Document Summary
Thus you become vulnerable to transplant errors, in which a bit of information encountered in one context is transplanted into another context. Drm errors; the mechanisms leading to these memory errors are quite automatic. After all, the participants probably hear about most major news events via television broadcast. The cost of memory errors: memories can be wrong, misrepresenting how the past unfolded, eyewitness errors account for three-quarters of false convictions. Planting false memories: participants shown a series of slides depicting an automobile collision; half of the participants were asked, how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? , and others were asked. How fast were the cars going when they hit each other? : the difference of one word biased their estimates of speed. Those asked with smashed estimated a higher speed than those asked with hit : one week later, in a perfectly neutral way, participants were asked if they saw any broken glass.
