Transcript C LOA Our reconstructive memory 100309 4

Our reconstructive memory
Learning Outcome:
With reference to relevant research studies, to what
extent is one cognitive process reliable?
A lost memory
Elizabeth was only 14 years old when her mother drowned.
Although Elizabeth remembered many things about visiting
her Uncle Joe’s home in Pennsylvania that summer, her
memory of the details surrounding her mother’s death had
always been hazy. As she explained:
” In my mind I’ve returned to that scene many times, and each
time the memory gains weight and substance. I can see the
cool pine trees, smell their fresh tarry breath, feel the lake’s
algae-green water on my skin, taste Uncle Joe’s iced tea with
fresh-squeezed lemon. But the death itself was always vague
and unfocused. I never saw my mother’s body, and I could not
imagine her dead. The last memory I have of my mother was
her tiptoed visit the evening before her death, the uick hug,
the whispered ”I love you”. ”
Some 30 years later, Elizabeth began to remember the details of
her mother’s death. While at her Uncle Joe’s 90th birthday
party, Elizabeth learned from a relative that she had been the
one to discover her mother’s body in Uncle Joe’s swimming
pool. With this realization, memories that had eluded
Elizabeth for decades began to come back.
”The memories began to drift back, slow and unpredictable,
like the crisp piney smoke from the evening campfires. I could
see myself, a thin, darkhaired girl, looking into the flickering
blue-and-white pool. My mother, dressed in her nightgown, is
floating face down. ”Mom? Mom?” I ask the question serval
times, my voice rising in terror. I start screaming. I remember
the police cars, their lights flashing, and the stretcher with the
clean, white blanket tucked in around the edges of the body.
The memory had been there all along, but I just couldn’t
reach it.
As the memory crystallized, it suddenly made sense to Elizabeth why she had
always felt haunted by her vague memories of the circomstances
surrounding her mother’s death. And it also seemed to explain, in part,
why she had always been so fascinated by the topic of memory.
However, several days later, Elizabeth learned that the relative had been
wrong – it was not Elizabeth who discovered her morhter’s body, but her
Aunt Pearl. Other relatives confirmed that Aunt Pearl had beenthe one
who fund Elizabeth’s mother in the swimming pool. Yet Elizabeth’s
memory had seemed so real.
The Elizabeth in this true story is Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who is
recognized world wide as the leading expert on the distortion that can
occur in the memories of eyewitnesses.
Therapy, interviews (especially with
leading questions) and hypnosis can
also be said to produce:
The False Memory Syndrome
Investigate the False memory syndrom
page on i-net + the innocence
project’s home page:
www.innocenceproject.org
”Memories
– can they be forgotten, not
ever to be recovered”
OR
”Are they there always, but hidden or not
accessible for other reasons?”
Discuss! Link to Tsai (MIT) research on
Alzheimer, recovered memories etc.
(Mice and memory)
On Reconstructive
Memory
The study
Done by Allport and Postman, 1945
This is a classic study of rumor transmission.
One participant saw the slide, then told the
next, who told the next… after 6 or seven
participants the knife had migrated from the
white man to the black man. The white man
was also reported to be better dressed than
the black man – stereotypes affecting
memory.
Bartlett and Our Reconstructive
Memory
Here using his method ”serial reproduction”
The War of the Ghosts
•
One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they
were there it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war-cries, and they thought: "Maybe
this is a war-party". They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up,
and they heard the noise of paddles, and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five
men m the canoe, and they said:"What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are
going up the river to make war on the people".One of the young men said: "I have no
arrows". "Arrows are in the canoe", they said. "I will not go along. I might be killed. My
relatives do not know where I have gone.But you", he said, turning to the other, "may go with
them." So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went
on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. Thepeople came down to the water,
and they began to fight, and many were killed. But presently the young man heard one of the
warriors say: "Quick, let us go home: that Indian has been hit". Now he thought: "Oh, they
are ghosts". He did not feel sick, but they said he had been shot.So the canoes went back to
Egulac, and the young man went ashore to his house, and made a fire. And he told everybody
and said: " Behold I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were
killed, and many of those who attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, and I did not feel
sick".He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose he fell down. Something
black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried.He
was dead.
Serial Reproduction 10
• Two Indians were out fishing for seals in the Bay of
Manpapan, whenalong came five other Indians in a warcanoe. They were going fighting. "Come with us," said the five
to the two, "and fight." "I cannot come," was the answer of
the one, "for I have an old mother at home who is dependent
upon me." The other also said he could not come, because he
had no arms. "That is no difficulty" the others replied, "for we
have plenty in the canoe with us"; so he got into the canoe
and went with them.In a fight soon afterwards this Indian
received a mortal wound. Finding that his hour was come, he
cried out that he was about to die. " Nonsense," said one of
the others, "you will not die." But he did.
The War of the Ghost study
Method: Using serial reproduction to observe and content analyse over time
what differences are seen. Aimed for a naturalistic study.
Procedure: Each participant read the story (a native… ) twice. Then they were
to recall the story.
Characteristic changes:
• The story became shorter
• But was still coherent
• The store became more conventional and ”westernized”. Odd things were
left out.
• Form and and items become stereotyped and then do not change
Conclusion: People reconstruct the past by trying to fit it into existing
schemas. ”Efforts after meaning” Bartlett said.
Focus on Elizabeth Loftus
An american psychologist and expert on
human memory.
Especially interested in false memories,
our reconstructive memory (including
schemas).
Prime research:
reconstruction of an automobile
destruction study on misinformation
effect.
Loftus and Palmer (1974) – About how
fast were the cars going when they
hit each other (smashed, bumped…)
The role of leading questions in recall
(did you see broken glas/the broken
glas)
Lost in a shopping mall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQr_
IJvYzbA
Read about Loftus and
Palmer’s research (1974)
on p. 84
• State the hypothesis
• What is the independent
variable
• What is the dependent
variable
• Describe the procedure
• What was the result.
• Implication and analysis of
the result
Create your own youtube news report
Your task will be to create a news report on the topic of
memory. It is up to you how to approach this but
your report:
- Should be filmed and added to youtube.
- Should be 3-5 minutes long.
Also, in the report you should at least refer to two
relevant research studies and bring up a fabricated
case.
Important note: It is important that you make clear, in the beginning of your youtube
clip, that this is a school assignment and the case is based on research but not real.