Introduction
The Conditions of Confabulation
Hypnosis and Memory
The Fading Flashbulb
The Eyewitness on Trail
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Introduction (p.228)
INTRODUCTION
Memory includes the capacity to retain and retrieve information as well as the structures that account for this capacity. Memory is a reconstructive process
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- We can store an amazing amount of information in memory.
- Memory confers to individuals a sense of:
- Competence.
- Personal identity.
- Coherence and meaning.
- Competence.
- WRONG!!
We would be paralyzed with too much information to contend with.
- Memory is selective.
- Memory is reconstructive.
..Memory is RECONSTRUCTIVE (Memory as confabulation)
- We do not pull information off a video tape, rather we take bits and pieces from
many related sources and then put them together in a way that makes sense to us.
- We store the essentials of our experience, then use our knowledge of the world
to figure out the specifics.
- As a result of this process, much of our memory is not necessarily a direct recollection
of the event.
- Source Amnesia/Source Misattribution
The inability to separate the original experience from what we added after the fact (e.g. from family stories)
The case of HM: To cope with his inability to form lasting memories of new information , HM uses confabulation to try to make sense of why something happened.
[rewind to a brief description of HM's problem in Chapter 4]
GLOSSARY
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memory | |
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source amnesia |
LINKS about Source amnesia: Stealing Songs or Cryptonesia
Stealing songs or Source Amnesia? You be the judge.
The Conditions of Confabulation (p.229)
INTRODUCTION
How a false memory can become as stable and "real" as true memories.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- One thinks about the imagined event many times.
- The image contains many details.
- The event is easy to imagine.
- You focus on your emotional reaction to the event rather than what occurred.
INTRODUCTION
Can hypnosis retrieve perforce recollection of emotional events that are stored somewhere in the brain?
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
..The case for the recovery of lost memories:
The Chowchilla school bus kidnapping Case:
Under hypnosis, the bus driver retrieved enough of a license plate number to provide
a breakthrough in the case.
- Increases errors in memory.
- Major mental health organizations oppose the use of "hypnotically refreshed" testimony in courts of law.
- Many therapists have mistaken beliefs about memory and the limitations of hypnosis
in memory recovery.
- No evidence for "age regression" - people are unintentionally playing a role in constructing a fantasy of another self.
The Fading Flashbulb [p.232]
INTRODUCTION
A flashbulb memory is a vivid and detailed recollection of a significant event.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
These events were so surprising and intense, that people have frozen these events in time. They report remembering almost photographic details of the events and where they were when they learned about the event.
- Unfortunately, flashbulb memories are not completely accurate. Facts get
mixed up with fiction.
- Conclusion: Remembering is an active process that not only dredges up stored information, but one that reconstructs the past.
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The Eyewitness on Trial [p.232]
INTRODUCTION
Because memory is reconstructive, eyewitness testimony is not always reliable.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
..Factors that influence eyewitness testimony:
- Errors are more likely to occur when the suspect's ethnicity differs from the
witness.
- How the eyewitness is asked a question influences what they recall.
..The Famous
Loftus Studies in Memory
Eyewitness testimony of an automobile accident:
- People watch a film of an automobile accident and then are asked questions about
the accident.
- The estimated speed of the cars involved in the accident depended on whether
the word "hit," "smashed," "collided," "contacted,"
or "bumped" were in used in "How fast were the cars going when they
_______ each other?"
- The film did not show any headlights broken, but more people reported seeing broken headlights when "Did you see the broken head light" than when they were asked "Did you see a broken headlight."
Recalling personal events that didn't happen.
- 7 of 24 college students were induced to falsely remember complicated personal events like being lost in a shopping mall when they were young.
- Are children's memories of traumatic events accurate, or do children consistently
lie and misrepresent those events?
- Both of the positions are wrong:
- Children do recollect accurately but they will also report something that did
not happen.
- They can be influenced by the frequency of suggestion of the false memory and by the insistence of the person making the suggestion.
- Conditions that influence suggestibility in children:
- Age
- Preschoolers are more vulnerable.
- Boundaries between reality and fantasy are blurred by the very young.
- Desire to please the interviewer can lead to conforming responses to leading questions by the interviewer.
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