 Memory 0% Chapter 8

 Memory Forgetting If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. - William James Credit: Monika Suteski

 Memory Forgetting Whenever I see a date flash on the television…I automatically go back to that day and remember where I was, what I was doing, what day it fell on, and on and on and on and on. It is non- stop, uncontrollable, and totally exhausting. - Jill Price Credit: Robert Hanashiro/USA Today

 Memory Forgetting Encoding Failure

Test your memory: Which one of these pennies is the real thing? Encoding Failure

The answer is A. Most people get this question wrong, indicating that much of what we sense, we fail to encode, and what we fail to encode, we will never remember.

Encoding Failure

 Memory Forgetting Storage Decay

Even after encoding something well, we sometimes later forget it. Hermann Ebbinghaus, who you learned about earlier, learned lists of non-sense syllables and then attempted to re-learn them.

This same forgetting curve is found for other types of material: The course of forgetting is initially rapid and levels off with time. This could be because of decay of the physical memory trace. Credit: Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis

 Memory Forgetting Retrieval Failure

Interference Proactive interference occurs when something you learned earlier disrupts your recall of something you experience later. Retroactive interference occurs when new information makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier. Credit: heartbeaz Credit: LWA-Dann Tardiff/Corbis

Interference

Sleep may provide some protection against retroactive interference.

The bottom-line is that forgetting can occur at any memory stage. As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it.

 Memory Memory Construction Misinformation and Imagination Effects A trial at the Old Bailey in London, as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermann's Microcosm of London ( ).

In over two thirds of the first 138 postconviction DNA exonerations, mistaken eyewitness identification played a major part in the wrongful conviction. Modern technology is proving what scientists, psychologists, and legal scholars have noted for years: eyewitness identification is often faulty and is the major cause of wrongful convictions. Identifications are even more problematic when they are based on observations made under stress or in less than ideal conditions(e.g. darkness, from a distance). Source: The Innocence Project

Marvin Anderson Year of incident—1982 (Virginia) Charges—Rape, Abduction, Sodomy, Robbery Year of Conviction—1982 Year of Exoneration—2001 Sentence—210 years Sentence Served—15 years Real Perpetrator Found? Yes Because Anderson had no criminal record, the officer went to Anderson's employer and obtained a color employment photo identification card. The victim was shown the color identification card and a half dozen black-and-white mug shots and then asked to pick the perpetrator. The victim identified Anderson as her assailant. Within an hour of the photo spread, she was asked to identify her assailant from a lineup…She identified him in the lineup as well. Source: InnocenceProject.org

Ronald Cotton Year of incident—1984 (North Carolina) Charges—Rape Year of Conviction—1987 Year of Exoneration—1995 Sentence: Life, plus 54 years Sentence Served—10.5 years Real Perpetrator Found? Yes Arising from this case is the incredible story of Jennifer Thompson, the victim who had identified Cotton. An aspiring college student at the time of the crime, she made it her purpose to study the assailant's face so that he would be brought to justice. She identified the wrong man. Today, Ms. Thompson speaks out about her experiences and the dangers of relying solely upon single eyewitness testimony to convict. Source: InnocenceProject.org

How fast were the cars going when they ___ each other? [smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted]

0% 40.8 mph31.8 mph

Participants who were asked a leading question (with “smashed”) were much more likely to remember broken glass two weeks later than were other participants.

Misinformation effect—after exposure to misinformation, many people misremember.

Source of Figure: InnocenceProject.org

The innovation: the sequential police lineup procedure, in which a witness is shown suspects one at a time instead of all at once (simultaneously).

The rationale: psychologist Gary Wells’ discovery that when shown sequential lineups, people make absolute judgments, which lead to much lower rates of misidentification.

The result: sequential lineups cut eyewitness misidentification in half compared to simultaneous lineups. Fewer innocent people go to jail.

 Memory Broader Implications

 Memory Memory Construction Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?

Sigmund Freud proposed that we repress painful memories to protect our self-concept and minimize anxiety. Sigmund Freud, by Max Halberstadt, 1921

More recently, people have been accused, and sometimes convicted, of sexual abuse based on repressed memories.

I find myself at the center of an increasingly bitter and fractious controversy. On one side are the “True Believers” who insist that the mind is capable of repressing memories and who accept without reservation or question the authenticity of recovered memories. On the other side are the “Skeptics” who argue that the notion of repression is purely hypothetical and essentially untestable, based as it is on unsubstantiated speculation and anecdotes that are impossible to confirm or deny. - Elizabeth Loftus Credit: Don Shrubshell

In one study by Loftus and colleagues, participants were asked questions about three events that had actually happened to them as children, and questions about one event that had not happened: getting lost in a shopping mall. Credit: Jongleur100

By the third interview, approximately 25% of participants remembered the false event as a real event. Thus, it seems to be possible to “implant” false memories. Credit: Jongleur100

 Chapter Review What is memory, and how is it understood from an information processing perspective? What are encoding, storage, and retrieval processes, and what are some factors that influence them? What are some explanations for forgetting?

 Chapter Review What does it mean to say that memory is “reconstructive” and what are some consequences of this in the real- world?