Transcript Autobiographical memory

4/1/2016
• Interactions in Long Term Memory
» Scripts
» False memory
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Misinformation effect
Source misattribution
Memory and confidence
Repressed and recovered memory
» Autobiographical memories
◊ Very Long Term Memory
◊ Real World Memories
◊ Emotion and Memories
– Flashbulb memories
Study Questions.
• Compare and contrast misinformation effects with retroactive interference.
• According to research, what do you expect will happen to your knowledge of
Cognitive Psychology over the next several years?
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Propositions
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Empirical support for propositional theory
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Content memory vs. technical memory
Sachs (1967)
– Participants listened to story
– Four test sentences
Identical: Test sentence was identical
He sent a letter about it to Galileo, the great Italian scientist
Formal: Form was different, meaning preserved
He sent Galileo, the great Italian scientist a letter about it
Voice: Changed from active to passive voice
A letter about it was sent to Galileo, the great Italian scientist
Semantic: The meaning was changed
Galileo, the great Italian scientist sent him a letter about it
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Propositions
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Empirical support for propositional theory
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Content memory vs. technical memory
Sachs (1967)
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Propositions
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Other Empirical Support
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The fan effect
Propositions versus images
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Propositions
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Propositions versus images
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Richman et al. (1979)
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts »
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Large scale semantic and episodic knowledge structures that
guide comprehension
Thorndyke (1975)
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Story
Setting
Theme
Plot
Episode
Attempt
Outcome
Resolution
Subgoal; goal
Characters; location;
Time
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Setting + Theme + Plot + Resolution
Characters + Location + Time
(Event) + Goal
Episode
Subgoal + Attempts + Outcome
Event episode
Event state
Event state
Desired state
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Stative (rather than active)
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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Schank & Abelson (1977)
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Headers: Words that activate a script
– E.g., Menu, Waiter, etc. activate restaurant script
– Two headers will ‘prime’ a script
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Frames: details about specific events in the script
Default value: the common, typical concept that occupies a frame
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Unmentioned details get filled in with default values
Cognitive ergonomics
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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Bower et al. (1977)
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Asked people to write down component actions of scripts
Determined which were most central or typical
When events happen that are not in a script, they can be either:
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More salient and more likely to be remembered
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if they are important story events that interrupt the usual routine of the script
E.g., The waiter spills coffee. (restaurant script)
Less salient and less likely to be remembered
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if they are largely irrelevant “asides”
E.g., The was a picture of a flower on the menu. (restaurant script)
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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Bower, Black & Turner (1979)
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Participants read 18 stories based on scripts
1, 2, or 3 stories based on each script (I.e., 3 versions )
Not all actions or events included in each story
Recognition test for memory for stories
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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Bower, Black & Turner (1979)
Scripted Events
Stated
Not Stated
Other
No. of Scripts
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5.46
3.91
1.71
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5.40
4.62
1.76
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5.59
4.81
1.86
Recognition: 7-point Scale, 1=sure new, 7=sure old
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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Smith & Graesser (1981)
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Memory for typical and atypical script actions
Found better memory for atypical events
The Script-Pointer-Plus-Tag theory
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When a script is activated:
– store script in episodic memory
– script represents both stated and inferred typical events
– “tag on” atypical actions of story to script
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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Scripts
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The Script-Pointer-Plus-Tag theory
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Connolly, Hockley & Pratt (1996)
– presented 6 different stories based on scripted routines
– typical and atypical actions presented 0-4 times
– surprise frequency test
- subjects asked to judge how often different actions were presented
Interactions in Long Term Memory
Scripts
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Connolly, Hockley & Pratt (1996)
Mean Frequency Estimates
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Typical
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Atypical
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Actual Frequency
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Interactions in Long Term Memory
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False Memory
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Roediger’s False memory effect
1. (8 X 6) / 3 =
2. (3 + 7 - 2) X 3 =
3. 4 / (2 + 2) + 3 =
4. (6 + 3)/3 + 2 =
5. (23 - 17) X (32 - 15) =
6. (9 + 2 + 3) - (4 + 2 + 5) =
7. (3 X ( 3 X ( 2 + 1))) =
8. (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) X 10% =
9. 33 X 37 =
10. 44 X 46 =
1. Road
11. Rough
2. Chilly
12. Robber
3. Chess
13. Animal
4. Poison
14. Steep
5. Cake
15. Piano
6. Gravel
16. Spider
7. King
17. Boards
8. Bottom
18. Palace
9. Charred
19. Soccer
10. Crown
20. Crawl
Interactions in Long Term Memory
False Memory
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Roediger’s False memory effect
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Lure Words
Proportion “Yes”
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List Words
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Nonstudied
Study
Arithmetic
Study
recall
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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False Memory
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Leading Questions
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Loftus & Palmer (1974)
– View a film of a car accident.
– Tested one week later with different verbs:
How fast was the red car going when it <smashed into/made contact with> the
other car?
Smashed: 40.8 mph, contact: 31.8 mph
One week later, asked if there had been broken glass (there was not)
Smashed: 32 % - Yes, contact: 14 % - Yes
Memory Impairment: A genuine change or alteration in memory of an
experienced event as a function of some later event
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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False Memory
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Misinformation Effect
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A tendency to remember
misinformation
The question about
“smashed” was not just a
leading question, it was a
source of misleading
information
Tools, faces, ages, body
size, vehicles, signs, etc.
As interference
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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False Memory
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Source Misattribution: error in identifying the true source of
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Misinformation Acceptance: accepting that additional
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Confidence and accuracy
a memory
information was part of the original memory
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There is little or no relationship between memory accuracy
and confidence
Juror instructions
Interactions in Long Term Memory
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False Memory
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Stronger memory distortions
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Repeated exposure
Repeated recall of false information
Repeated questioning
Imagery/hypnosis
Occur even when warned about them
Repressed and recovered memory
Autobiographical Memory
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Episodic vs. Autobiographical memory
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Autobiographical memory: The study of one’s lifetime
collection of personal memories.
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The lab meets the real world
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Ecological validity of cognitive research, revisited
Pertinence of studying autobiographical memory
1. Refers to self
2. Contains memory for very long term events
3. Contains an emotional component
Autobiographical Memory
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Autobiographical memory and the self
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The self-reference effect
Self schema
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Facilitates retrieval
Biases retrieval
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Bahrick et al. (1975)
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400 participants aged 17-74 yrs
Graduated between 2 wks and 57 yrs earlier
– Various memory tasks concerning graduating high school class
– Recognition & Matching
• Names & pictures
– Recall
• Free and picture cued recall
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Bahrick et al. (1975): Recall
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Bahrick et al. (1975): Recognition
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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VLTM for spanish (Bahrick, 1884)
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Maintenance of Spanish over 50 years
773 participants (learned Spanish in high school)
Tested on
– Reading comprehension
– Recall and recognition
– Vocabulary, grammar and idioms
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Findings
– Sharpest decline in first 3 yrs
– Then stable for 30 yrs
– “permastore”
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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VLTM for Cognitive Psychology (Conway et al., 1991)
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373 students who completed Cog. Psych. course up to 12
years prior.
Tested on various items
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General and specific facts
Names
Research methods
Concepts and concept grouping
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Recognitition (Conway et al., 1991)
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Recall (Conway et al., 1991)
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Real world memories
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Linton (1982)
– Episodic experiences over 6 yrs
– Wrote down 2 or more events on a card every day
– Every month randomly selected a card
• Attempted to recall and set date
– Found that forgetting was a linear function of time
• 5 % drop in recall each year.
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Real world memories
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Thematic life events (Schulster, 1989)
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Attended the Metropolitan Opera for 25 yrs.
Attempted to recall 284 performances
Found a recency and primacy effect
“Significant” performances were better remembered
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Real world memories
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Wagenaar, 1986
– Recorded 2400 daily events over six years
– Four cue types: What/Who/Where/When/
– Found pleasant events were better remembered at short intervals
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Memory and Emotion
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Emotional events
– Trigger amygdala, production of ACl
– Consolidates memory
– Raises overall arousal
• i.e., general processing resourses
– Focusses attention
Central vs. peripheral remembering
“weapon focus”
Autobiographical Memory
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Very Long Term Memory
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Memory and Emotion
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Flashbulb memory
– Brown & Kulik (1977)
JFK assassination
– People seem to remember a lot of detail, but is it accurate?
– Neisser & Harsh (1992)
• Interviewed students one day after Columbia explosion
• Re-interviewed three years later, asking the same questions
• Very little agreement with original answers
Consequentiality, I.e., personal relevance.