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Are You A Good Eyewitness?

Here are some key ways chapter 9 concepts can help with studying: 1. Understanding encoding failure can help focus attention on important details and form stronger memories during initial learning. 2. Knowing about storage decay and interference emphasizes the importance of review and practice to retain memories over time. 3. Appreciating retrieval failure shows the value of cues and context to access memories, like studying in similar environments. 4. Levels of processing theory indicates relating new ideas to existing knowledge through deeper processing aids long-term retention. 5. Realizing memory is reconstructive rather than like a video reminds us that review may be needed to consolidate and solidify accurate recollections.

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Vikas Singh
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78 views53 pages

Are You A Good Eyewitness?

Here are some key ways chapter 9 concepts can help with studying: 1. Understanding encoding failure can help focus attention on important details and form stronger memories during initial learning. 2. Knowing about storage decay and interference emphasizes the importance of review and practice to retain memories over time. 3. Appreciating retrieval failure shows the value of cues and context to access memories, like studying in similar environments. 4. Levels of processing theory indicates relating new ideas to existing knowledge through deeper processing aids long-term retention. 5. Realizing memory is reconstructive rather than like a video reminds us that review may be needed to consolidate and solidify accurate recollections.

Uploaded by

Vikas Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Are You A Good Eyewitness?

Forgetting
 Forgetting is a result of
either:
1. Encoding Failure
2. Storage Decay OR
3. Retrieval Failure
Forgetting As Encoding Failure

 Information never enters the memory


system
 Attention is selective
 we cannot attend to everything
in our environment
 William James said that we would be as
bad off if we remembered everything as
we would be if we remembered nothing
Forgetting As Storage Decay
 Ebbinghaus’s study concluded that forgetting
occurs rapidly at first and then levels off over
time. His famous forgetting curve is below.
Encoding Failure: Which Penny is
the Real Deal?


Forgetting As Interference
 Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of
other information

 Proactive(forward acting)
Interference
disruptive effect of prior learning on recall
of new information
 Retroactive (backwards acting)
Interference
disruptive effect of new learning on recall
of old information
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 Time Warner cable changes the channel
numbers on your TV and you keep clicking
the old channel numbers when trying to
turn the channels instead of new ones.
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 Geta new cell phone number and
your old one keeps getting in the way
of you remembering your new one.
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 Teacher learning names of current
students makes them forget the names
of last years’ students.
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 Keep putting in locker combination
from last year when trying to open this
year’s locker?
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 You were an expert skier but after learning
to snowboard, you have had trouble
getting used to skiing again.
Self Quiz: Retroactive or
Proactive?
 Mom reorganizes kitchen and you look for
a plate in the place it used to be.
Iam going to show you a list of
words.

 Your task is to memorize the list.

 When I am finished I will ask you to


recall the words by writing them down
on a half sheet of paper.
Bed
Clock
Dream
Night
Turn
Doze
Mattress
Snooze
Nod
Tired
Night
Artichoke
Insomnia
Rest
Toss
Night
Yawn
Alarm
Nap
Snore
Pillow
Remember as many words
as you can. Write them
down on your half sheet of
paper.
Recall as many words as you can.
Primacy effect Distinctiveness Semantic Organization
Recency effect Repetition /Rehearsal

1. Bed 8. Snooze 15. Toss


2. Clock 9. Nod 16. Night
3. Dream 10. Tired 17. Yawn
4. Night 11. Night 18. Alarm
5. Turn 12. Artichoke 19. Nap
6. Doze 13. Insomnia 20. Snore
7. Mattress 14. Rest 21. Pillow
Did you remember the word sleep?

FALSE MEMORY!!!!
Revisiting Terms: Retrieval
Failure
 Tip of the Tongue phenomenon:
when we are certain we know something
yet we are unable to recall it.
 Relates to retrieval failure, usually priming
or external cues will help you recall the
information you are looking for.
Motivated Forgetting
 Motivated Forgetting is the idea that
people unknowingly revise their
history. Ex: I broke up with her; she
didn’t break up with me.
 What purpose might motivated
forgetting serve?
Motivated Forgetting As A
Freudian Concept
 Repression: idea put forth by
psychoanalytic theorists like Freud
which states anxiety arousing
thoughts, feelings, and memories
can be banished from
consciousness.

 Ex: child abuse, rape, incest may


be repressed and not be able to
be actively recalled.
Freud believed Repression was a
Defense Mechanism
 Freud argued individuals often “forgot”
traumatic incidents to protect their self concepts
and to minimize external anxiety.

 Freud argued “Forgotten” incidents are


banished the “unconscious.”

 The incidents may cause you to have


unexplained phobias or problems, that wont be
helped until you uncover the incident.
Repression and Controversy of
Child Abuse
 In the late 1980’s a book came out called “The
Courage to Heal” which encouraged people to
recover memories of abuse.

 Following the book, “Recover Memory


Therapists” arose in great numbers and many
people began reporting incidents of “repressed”
abuse.

 Sometimes “repressed memories” were used as


evidence against individuals in court cases.
Controversy of Repressed
Memories
 Although there have been documented cases
of forgotten trauma, many psychologists
argued that some repressed memories may
have been constructed by therapists.

 The False Memory Syndrome Foundation:


argues it is possible for individuals
relationships to center around a false belief.

 Some psychologists have argued against the


very existence of repressed memories since
most memories that take place during stressful
events are remembered more vividly.
Defining Memory Construction
 Memory Construction refers to the idea that
memories are NOT objective recordings of the
actual events we experience.

 Our memories are often affected by our pre-


existing schemas and involve information
filtering and interpretations.

 We can have real memories of events that never


took place or that are filled with inaccuracy
because we fill in memory gaps with plausible
guesses.
Elizabeth Loftus’s Research on
Eyewitness Testimony
 Loftushad
Depiction of actual accident

individuals
watch car
accidents and
then recorded
results based
on questioning
procedures.
Memory
construction
Loftus’s Research
 Subjects were asked to reveal how fast they
thought the cars were going.
 Question consisted of “How fast were the cars
going when they _______________ each other.
 Loftus filled in the blanks with different words
including: bumped, collided, contacted, hit, or
smash.
 Speed was elevated to great degree when
“smashed” was used as key verb and subjects
were likely to remember broken glass when
there was none.
Loftus Videos
 The Bunny Effect
 Lost in a Mall
Misinformation Effect and
Memory Construction
 Misinformation Effect:
incorporating misleading
information into one's
memory of an event.
 Children are most
susceptible to the
misinformation effect.
Memory Construction Continued
 Source Amnesia:
attributing to the wrong
source an event that we
experienced, heard about,
read about, or imagined
(misattribution)
 Ex: Reagan’s story about
WWII gunner was actually
from a movie he saw.
Memory Construction Overview
 People fill in memory gaps with plausible
guesses and assumptions

 Imagining events can create false memories

 Children's eyewitness recall


 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some innocent people suffer false accusations
 Some guilty cast doubt on true testimony
Random Memory Info: Would You Want
Photographic Memory?
 The technical term for photographic memory is
eidetic imagery: which refers to an
especially clear and persistent form of memory
that is quite rare.
 Examples Include:
 Being able to re-read a book in your mind after
having read it once.
 Mental images appear “outside” and can last up to
several minutes.
Random Memory Info
 Levels of Processing Theory: the
explanation for the fact that information that is
more thoroughly connected to meaningful items
in long-term memory (more “deeply processed”)
will be remembered better.
 Ex: Learn new information best when you are
able relate new terms to what you already
know. Encoding for meaning also causes the
“deepest” processing. I.E. “Bear Experiment”
Review: How Can Chapter 9
Concepts Help You Study?

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