Transcript When Memory Sins

When Memory Sins
Daniel L. Schacter
Presented by Tonya Slager
Preview
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Cognitive neuroscience vs. social
neuroscience
“Seven sins of memory”
Research- examining errors and
illusions of memory
Cognitive Neuroscience & Social
Neuroscience
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Both seek to link levels of analysispsychological and biological
Techniques used:
• Cognitive and behavioral analysis
• Studies of brain-damaged patients
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI)
Differences
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Cognitive neuroscience focus:
• Language
• Memory
• Thought regardless of social contexts
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Social neuroscience focus on the
same areas as well as basic
psychological processes
Attempts to explain the psychological
and neural basis of social and
emotional behaviors in humans and
animals
New multi-level integrative analysis
approach, rather than solely
biological or social.
“Seven Sins of Memory”
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First 3: sins of omission
Next 3: memory is present, but
wrong
Final sin: unwanted memories
1st Sin
Transcience
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Memories become decreasingly
accessible over time
Ex. No longer remember 3rd grade
teachers name at age 50
2nd Sin
Absentmindedness
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Lapses of attention that result in
forgetting to do things
Ex. Husband “forgets” to do the
dishes, walk the dog, wash the car,
buy milk, pick the kids up from
school, or buy you a card on your
anniversary
3rd Sin
Blocking
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Information that has not faded out of
memory but is temporarily
inaccessible
Ex. That word on the tip of your
tongue you just can not remember to
save your life
4th Sin
Misattribution
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Remember that something happened
to us and attribute the memory to an
incorrect source
Ex. Remember that Joe broke up
with you in a post-it note but it was
really Bob
5th Sin
Suggestibility
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Implanted memories that are
produced by leading questions or
suggestions
Ex. “Didn’t Joe break up with you
with a post-it note?”
Rare cases people will recall
traumatic events that never
happened to them
6th Sin
Bias
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Current knowledge and beliefs can
skew our memories
“I DID NOT vote Bush for President!”
7th Sin
Persistence
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Unwanted memories of difficult or
traumatic experiences that can not
be forgotten
In extreme cases it changes the
perception of their world- i.e. war
veterans
Amnesic Syndrome
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Inability to retain new memories that
can later be recollected
Results from damage to the inner or
medial aspects of the temporal lobes
• hippocampus
Research on Amnesic Patients
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Lower levels of false recognition to
critical attractive words then healthy
participants
Lower levels of false recognition to
attractive items that are related to
previously studied shapes and
objects compared to healthy
participants
Again: damage to the medial
temporal lobe
Implications
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Regions within the medial temporal
lobe, including the hippocampus, are
involved in storing and retrieving
associative information that attribute
to false recognition of critical lures or
attractive words/objects
Research on Transcience
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Previously focused on amnesic
patients and those with medial
temporal lobe damage
Recently fMRI’s and healthy
volunteers
Focus: initial encoding of information
into memory
Results
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At the time of encoding, significant
activation in the left medial temporal
lobe and several left prefrontal
regions
Level of activity during encoding
determined ability or inability to
retain information
Transcience is more likely to occur
when those areas are not strongly
engaged
Research on Misattribution
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Large focus placed on false
recognition- mistakenly claim they
have already previously experienced
something
Patient B.G.:
• Falsely recognized words, sounds, etc.
• Lesion to the right frontal lobe
Further Research
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FMR study examined memory for
previously encountered words
Remember an item and its source
Small differences in familiar items
Right frontal regions
QUESTIONS