UUCF Summer RE 2011 Brain Glitches Session 7: Memory and Attention

Memory I’m going to read you a list of words. Remember them, I’m going to come back to this later.

Awareness Test How good do you think your brain is at following what is going on in a complicated environment?

Inattentional Blindness We don’t see what we’re not looking for. Magicians use this all the time. If they keep your attention focused elsewhere, you miss what is happening right in front of you.

This is also a big factor in traffic accidents, and why you should never drive while talking on a cell phone. The more your attention is focused on something else, the less likely you are to notice the other car. Or the bike. Or the kid running into the street. Surprisingly, studies show that a hands-free phone does not distract you less. It’s the conversation that’s distracting you, not the fact that you are holding a phone.

We’re just limited There’s only so much that our brain can pay attention to at once, and we tune out the rest. Silencing Effect: 0&feature=BFa&list=FLBOn9CwLdKE7WnyQsc v19bA&lf=BFp

Change blindness Related to inattentional blindness. Things that we are supposedly paying attention to can change, and we don’t notice. Richard Wiseman: EwE&feature=BFp&list=FLBOn9CwLdKE7Wny Qscv19bA EwE&feature=BFp&list=FLBOn9CwLdKE7Wny Qscv19bA

And more: Derren Brown: gTWg gTWg Murder Mystery: NWs&list=FLBOn9CwLdKE7WnyQscv19bA&ind ex=4 NWs&list=FLBOn9CwLdKE7WnyQscv19bA&ind ex=4

Most people take a long time to see it. But once you see it, you can’t go back to “not seeing it”. Something is changing between these two pictures

What is happening there also goes back to “pattern recognition” that we talked about earlier this summer. Once you have seen what is changing, you can’t “unsee it”. Once we’ve picked up a pattern, then our brain locks in on it. You probably can’t “unsee” the moonwalking bear now either.

Back to Memory We are going to talk about a couple of kinds of memory glitches. Short-term working memory – You can’t hold as many things in your mind at once as you probably think you can. Long-term memory – Your memories of things that happened in the past are not as accurate as you think.

Remember that list of words I asked you to remember? Now take a blank sheet of paper, and write down as many of them as you can. No helping each other, please.

How many did you get? Was the word “snooze” on the list? How about “apple”? Sleep? House? Dream?

Here’s the list Bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, (earthquake), blanket, doze, slumber, snore, nap, peace, yawn, drowsy.

Our RAM is smaller than we think Our short-term working memory can only hold a limited number of pieces of information at a time. Researchers have determined that this number is about seven, plus or minus two. Let’s try this out. I’ll read you some random numbers, and you say them back to me:

3 Digit: digit: digit: digit:

7 Digit: digit: digit: digit:

An interesting side effect A study was done where the subjects were given a number to remember, then sent down a hall to another room to complete the study. Along that hall was a refreshment table offering a choice of healthy fruit salad or a big slice of chocolate cake. This table was the real point of the study.

One group of students was given a two digit number to remember. The other group was given a seven digit number. The students with the seven digit number were nearly twice as likely to choose cake as those with only a two digit number. What’s going on here?

The researchers think that making the choice for the healthier option required some thought. And the people trying to remember a seven digit number? Their brains were already too busy with remembering the longer number, and so they just went for want they wanted. Cake!

Long-Term memory People like to think of their memory like a video camera – capturing a true representation of events and storing them perfectly forever. NOPE!

Hillary Clinton in 2008 “I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia... we came in in an evasive maneuver... I remember landing under sniper fire... there was no greeting ceremony... we ran with our heads down, we basically were told to run to our cars... there was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, we basically were told to run to our cars, that is what happened.” Here’s the video of that event:

People forget things that happened. AND – they insert details that didn’t happen, and remember events that didn’t happen. What researchers are finding is that each time we remember something, our remembering it becomes a part of that memory. It’s like we “save over” our old memory file with a new version each time.

False Memories Remember that time when you were a kid and you took that great hot-air balloon ride? No?

Researchers can implant false memories Wade, Garry, Read and Lindsay (2002) used faked images of a hot air balloon ride to convince people they had experienced such an event as a child. Over three interviews they asked people to recall as much detail as possible about four photographs from their 'childhood' (three real, one faked) that had been supplied by a family member. When a person failed to recall any information about an event, typically the balloon ride, the researchers reassured to participant that it was quite common to have difficulty remembering things from so long ago but to keep trying. The experimenters also asked them to visualize the event, such as what the basket felt like, how the ground looked, etc. By the third interview approximately 50% of the participants could 'remember' having a hot air balloon ride as a child, even though none of them had ever had such an experience.

Other studies Lost in a shopping mall: _embedded# In a similar study, 25% of people were eventually convinced that they remembered spilling punch on the parents of a bride at a wedding as a child. Another study - fully 30 percent of people shown a fake print ad of Bugs Bunny in front of Disneyland recalled shaking his hand when they visited there.

Researchers use misleading images, suggestion and leading questions to get people to remember things that didn’t happen. More people believe the false memories when they are discussed over several sessions. People also embellish, add to, and change their own memories all the time, as in the Hillary Clinton example we saw.

How much can we rely on eyewitnesses? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, or whatever it is you think you remember?

How about “retrieving repressed memories”? It’s been claimed that people can remember abuse from their childhood under hypnosis. Family members have gone to prison because of “memories” retrieved like this. Understanding what we have just talked about, should that kind of testimony be enough to convict someone?

SO… We often miss what is right in front of us We don’t always notice when things change We can’t pay attention to very many things at a time Our long-term memory doesn’t store things perfectly Our memories can be messed with.