Transcript Introduction to Psychology

Retrieval Cues
 After learning to move a
mobile by kicking,
infants had their
learning reactivated
most strongly when
retested in the same
rather than a different
context (Butler &
Rovee-Collier, 1989).
9-3 Forgetting &
Constructive Memory
Forgetting:
9. Explain why the capacity to forget can be beneficial, and discuss the role of encoding
failure and storage decay in the process of forgetting.
10. Explain what is meant by retrieval failure, and discuss the effects of interference and
motivated forgetting on retrieval.
Constructive Memory
11. Describe the evidence for the constructive nature of memory and the impact of
imagination and leading questions on eyewitness recall.
12. Discuss the difficulties in discerning true memories from false ones and the reliability
of children’s eyewitness recall.
13. Discuss the controversy over reports of repressed and recovered memories of
childhood sexual abuse.
Forgetting

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
4 types/ Reasons
As Encoding Failure
Storage Decay (Decay Theory)
Retrieval Failure
Interference
Motivated Forgetting (Repression)
Forgetting
 Forgetting as encoding failure
 Information never enters the long-term memory
 Age effects: As age inc, encoding dec – Brain less responsive w/
age
Attention
External
events
Short- Encoding
Sensory
term
memory Encoding
memory
Encoding
failure leads
to forgetting
Longterm
memory
Forgetting
 Forgetting as encoding
failure
 Which penny is the real
thing?
 See p 366 in text
Forgetting-Storage Decay
Percentage of
list retained
when
relearning
 Forgetting
Curve/ LawEbbinghaus
forgetting curve
over 30 days-initially rapid,
then levels off
with time
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
12345
10
15
20
25
Time in days since learning list
30
Forgetting Curve
<<rem Ebbinghaus gave us this>>
 The forgetting curve for Spanish learned in school
Percentage of 100%
original
90
vocabulary
80
retained
Retention
drops,
70
then levels off
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 3 5
9½
14½
25
35½
49½
Time in years after completion of Spanish course
Retrieval Failure
 Forgetting can result from failure to retrieve
information from long-term memory
Attention
External
events
Sensory
memory
Encoding
Encoding
Short-term
Long-term
memory
Retrieval memory
Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Forgetting as
Interference
 Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of other information
 Proactive (forward acting) Interference
 disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information
(eg. Buy new comb lock, Ebbinghaus)
 Positive transfer- exception; eg. Latin helps learning of French
 Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference
 disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information
(teacher learning student names of class effects recall of
names in previous class)
 Sleeping/ Exc minimizes retroactive int
Forgetting as
Interference
Forgetting
 Retroactive Interference – sleep reduces interference
Percentage
of syllables
recalled
90%
Without interfering
events, recall is
better
80
After sleep
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
After remaining awake
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Hours elapsed after learning syllables
8
Forgetting
 Forgetting can occur at
any memory stage
 As we process
information, we filter,
alter, or lose much of it
ForgettingInterference
 Motivated Forgetting
 people unknowingly revise memories
 Repression
 defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxietyarousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
 Protects self-concept & minimizes anxiety
 *researchers think rep rarely really occurs
Memory Construction
 “Like a scientist who infers a dinosaur’s
appearance from its remains, we infer our past
from stored information plus what we now
assume.”
 Schemas Direct memory construction
 >>framework for organizing and interpreting
unfamiliar information/ stimuli
 Restaurant Exp. p372
Memory Construction
Elizabeth Loftus- Memory
Researcher
Depiction of actual accident
 Eyewitnesses
reconstruct
memories when
questioned
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?” (v. control group hit each other)
Memory
construction
Memory Construction
 We filter information and fill in missing pieces
 Misinformation Effect
 incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event
 Can result from suggestibility of leading questions
 As memory fades (time), misinf becomes easier
 the effect is so strong that most people find it hard or impossible to
tell the difference b/w real and suggested memories
 as well tell a story from memory we fill in gaps with logical
assumptions, and the more we recall the experience, the more the
assumptions become part of the memory
 After retelling story, guessed details get into our memory as if
we’ve actually observed them
Memory Construction
Source Amnesia
 when we encode memories we sort diff. aspects of them to diff.
parts of the brain
 the source of the memory is usually one of the weakest parts of our
memory

ex. Did an event really happen or do we remember it from a
dream?
 source amnesia (sometimes called source misattribution)attributing to the wrong source an event that we have experienced,
heard about, read about, or imagined
Ex. Mr. Science Exp (Debra Poole & Stephen Lindsay)
Ex. Ronnie Reagan patriotic campaign speech-misattributed WWII
heroic commander from movie
>>both on p 374 text
Memory Construction
 Discerning true v. false memories
 Hippocampus equally involved/ active in false recalling
Roediger & McDermott Study (1996):
 Presented word lists such as candy, sugar, honey & taste
 Then asked if they saw sweet
 Participants swore they did
 PET Scan showed activity in hippocampus but none in
Temp Cortex(Wernicke’s Area) on false memory
 No sensory record in Temp Lobe
 Caveat: This technique only works for recent memories
 Constructive memories feel real to person telling them
 Only true way to diff true v. false is w/ physical evidence
or validated reports of an event (eg. written records)
Memory Construction
 Memories of Abuse
 Repressed or Constructed?
 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some adults do actually forget such episodes
 False Memory Syndrome
 condition in which a person’s identity and relationships
center around a false but strongly believed memory of
traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Memory Construction
Children’s Eyewitness Recall
 Preschoolers more suggestible than older children/ adults
 Use “cognitive interviewing” technique to boost accuracy
by 50%(less suggestive ?’s, ask to visualize scene to
activate retrieval cues)
 Neutral adult must use words they’ll understand
 Involved adults should not talk with them
 Stephen Ceci and Maggie Bruck (1995)
Memory Construction
 1990s “Memory Wars”Controversy over “The Courage to
Heal” and “Memory Worker” Therapists
 One woman in a 30 sec therapy session recalled that her
father had abused her at 15 months. Roseanne Barr
then came forward in 1991 claiming recal sexual abuse
beginning in infancy
 Who is most often victimized-abused children whose
recollections are disbelieved or falsely accused adults
whose reputations are ruined?
Memory Construction
 Most people can agree on the following:
Injustice happens
Incest happens
Forgetting happens
Recovered memories are commonplace
Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs
are especially unreliable
 Memories of things happening before age 3
are unreliable
 Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting

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Improve Your Memory
 Study repeatedly to boost recall
 Spend more time rehearsing or
actively thinking about the material
 Make material personally meaningful
 Use mnemonic devices
 associate with peg words--something
already stored
 make up story
 chunk--acronyms
Improve Your Memory
 Activate retrieval cues--mentally recreate situation and mood
 Recall events while they are fresh-- before you encounter
misinformation
 Minimize interference
 Test your own knowledge
 rehearse
 determine what you do not yet know
>>humans are overconfident—
Self-test especially recall