Transcript Blocking

I CAN
• Describe and Distinguish the seven sins
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Why Does Memory
Sometimes Fail Us?
Most of our memory
problems arise from
memory’s “Seven Sins” –
which are really by-products
of otherwise adaptive
features of human memory
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Memory Failure
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Memory’s “Seven Sins”
Transience
AbsentMindedness
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Blocking
Transience/Decay Theory
Long term memories gradually weaken over
time
Biologically, we lose dendrites when LTM is
unrehearsed
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Percent retained
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
5
10
15
Days
20
25
Recall decreases rapidly, then
reaches a plateau, after which
little more is forgotten
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30
Absent-Mindedness
Forgetting caused by lapses
in attention
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Blocking
• Forgetting that occurs
when an item in
memory cannot be
accessed or retrieved
• Caused by
interference
– Proactive interference
– Retroactive interference
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
– Serial position effect
Blocking (PORN)
Proactive Interference:
Earlier learning interferes with memory for
later information
Old memories move ‘forward’ in time to block
your attempt at new learning
Example:
When you drive a new car, you still reach for
where the radioCopyright
was© Allyn
in &your
old car
Bacon 2007
Blocking (PORN)
Retroactive Interference:
New information interferes with memory for
information learned earlier
New material reaches back into your memory to
block old material
• Example: After driving your Mom’s car that
has no clutch, you forget to use the clutch
when your drive you own car
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Blocking
Serial Position Effect:
Interference related to the sequence in
which information is presented
…usually items in the middle of a
sequence are remembered less than
lose first (primacy effect) or last
(recency effect)
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Serial Position Effect
Probability of Recall
1.00
Theoretically, the primacy effect represents recall
from long-term memory and the recency effect
represents recall from short-term memory.
Primacy
Effect
.50
.00
1
5
Recency
Effect
10
Serial Position of Item
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15
Next-in-line-Effect:
When you are so
anxious about
being next that
you cannot
remember what
the person just
before you in line
says, but you can
recall what other
people around
you say.
CopyrightNot
© Allyn
Bacon
2007
in &the
textbook/notes
Misattribution
• Memory fault that occurs when
memories are retrieved, but they are
associated with the wrong time, place,
or person
The older the memory, the more likely it
is to suffer misattribution.
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Suggestibility
When external cues
distort or create
memories
• Suggestibility refers to false
memories that you develop
because someone or
something gives you some
key information at the same
time that you’re trying to
retrieve a memory.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Suggestibility
• Imagine that you saw
someone fleeing from a
car as its antitheft
alarm was blaring.
• You didn’t get a good
look at the thief, but
another person on the
street insisted that it
was a man wearing a
green plaid jacket.
• Later, when the police
show you photos of
possible suspects,
you’re confused until
you see a man dressed
in green plaid coat.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
• Then you point to him.
Misinformation Effect
• Loftus and Palmer found in studies that
after seeing two cars collide, responses
depended heavily upon how the
questions were worded….using the
word ‘smash’ instead of ‘hit’
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Misinformation Effects
A
week
later
they
were
Eyewitnesses
reconstruct
their
memories
Group when
A: How
fast
were
the
cars
questioned about the event.
asked:
going when they
hit each other?
Was there any broken glass?
Group B: How fast were the cars
Group B (smashed into)
going when they smashed into
reported
more
broken
glass
each other?
than
Group
Aaccident.
(hit).
Depiction
of the actual
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Fabricated Memories
Repressed or Constructed?
Some adults actually do forget childhood episodes of
abuse.
False Memory Syndrome
A condition in which a person’s identity and
relationships center around a false but strongly
believed memory of a traumatic experience, which is
sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Repressed Memories…
The Return of Freud
• The scientific concept of
repression is extremely
shaky. No evidence that it
can happen.
• In fact, the opposite seems
to be true (PTSD)
• It has been shown that very
vivid memory can be
implanted into the minds of
both adults and children.
The subjects can´t
discriminate real vs.
implanted memories.
• The process of recovery
(recovery therapy) is very
similar to the process used
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon for
2007 artificial implantation
Reconstructed Memories
• Time, misattribution,
suggestibility can lead
to false -orRECONSTRUCTED
memories
Bias
• Feelings, beliefs, values, personality
characteristics, etc can color a memory.
– EX a particularly happy person will have
happily colored memories
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Persistence
• This failure of the memory system involves
the unwanted recall of information that is
disturbing
• This “bad memory” won’t leave you alone
– Associated with OCD, Depression, Anxiety
Disorder, Panic Disorder, Phobias, and Suicide
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
CAN I?
• Describe and Distinguish the seven sins
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
CAN I?
Describe and Distinguish the seven sins
Transience
AbsentMindedness
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Blocking