Memory and Thoughts About the Past
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Memory
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From a cognitive
perspective
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Flashbulb memories and
the paleontologist metaphor
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Effects of the present on
recall of the past
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Source memory
Thoughts about the past
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Hindsight bias
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Counterfactuals
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Regret
• From the cognitive perspective...
• ..let us hear a list of words
Memory
Performance
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Recognition (e.g., “Did you hear ‘thread’ on the list?)
is easier than recall (e.g., write down all the words you
can remember)
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People remember more information when it is more
easily organized into categories or structure is easily
created (e.g., when words related to each other are
grouped together in a list), at least when their explicit
memory is tested...
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory
• Explicit Memory: involves awareness of
previous exposure, e.g. “I know that the
word thread was on the list.”
• Implicit Memory: influence of previous
exposure of experience, without conscious
recollection; “priming”
• e.g., Word stem completion task
• TH_ _ _
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory:
Evidence
• Amnesiacs:
Recall and Recognition: Amnesiacs <
Controls
Word stem completion, i.e., “TH _ _ _” :
Amnesiacs = Controls
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory:
Evidence
• Becoming famous overnight (Jacoby et al., 1989)...
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Part 1: pronounce 40 non-famous names (e.g., Sebastian
Weisdorf)
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Part 2: test either immediately or 24 hours later
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moderately famous names and non-famous names
(some old--e.g., Sebastian Weisdorf--and some new-e.g., Frank Chandler)
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“Is this person famous?”
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory:
Evidence
• Becoming famous overnight (Jacoby et al., 1989)...
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Results:
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Immediate test: Mistakes LESS common for old
non-famous names (e.g., Sebastian Weisdorf) than
new ones (e.g., Frank Chandler)
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24 hours later: Mistakes MORE common for old
non-famous names (e.g., Sebastian Weisdorf) than
new ones (Frank Chandler)
Semantic vs. Episodic Memory
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Semantic Memory: Knowledge (e.g., water freezes at 0
degrees, the order of the planets, what “dissonance
reduction” means, that your roommate is irresponsible)
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Episodic Memory: Memory of a particular episode in
your life; e.g., memory of the specific occasion on which
you acquired a piece of knowledge
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“I remember the day when I learned that water
freezes at 0. I was sitting in at my desk in my thirdgrade classroom and Mrs. Hopkins was standing in
front of the class, and she said...”
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“I remember my first day at university. I arrived on
campus at about 11 am. We were in my mom’s old
car and all of my stuff was piled in the back...”
“Flashbulb Memories”
(Brown & Kulik, 1977)
Vivid and detailed memory of
hearing about an important
news event
• "You remember exactly where you were… …when you heard
the news…. You can probably tell us where you were, with
whom, and very likely whether you were sitting, standing, or
walking--almost which foot was forward when your
awareness became manifest" (Livingston, 1967, p. 576)
“Flashbulb Memories”
U.S. President Lincoln’s Assassination (Colgrove, 1899)
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“My father and I were on the road to
Augusta in the State of Maine to purchase
the ’fixings’ needed for my graduation.
When we were driving down a steep hill
into the city we felt that something was
wrong. Everybody looked so sad, and there
was such terrible excitement that my father
stopped his horse, and learning from the
carriage called: ‘What is it my friends?
What has happened?’ ‘Haven’t you heard?’
was their reply--’Lincoln has been
assassinated.’ The lines fell from my
father’s limp hands, and with tears
streaming from his eyes he sat as one
bereft of motion. We were far from home,
and much must be done, so he rallied after
a time, and we finished our work as well as
our heavy hearts would allow.”
“Flashbulb Memories”
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1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Neisser, 1982,
1986; Thompson & Cowan, 1986)
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1963: Assassination of US President John Kennedy
(Winograd & Killinger, 1983; Yarmey & Bull, 1978)
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1986: Assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf
Palme (Christiansson, 1989; Larsen, 1992)
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1989: Hillsborough Soccer Riot (Wright, 1993)
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1990: Resignation of British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher (Cohen, Conway & Maylor, 1994)
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2001: September 11 attacks (Talarico & Rubin, 2003)
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2002: April 11 ?
“Flashbulb Memories”
The 1986 Challenger Explosion
(Neisser & Harsch, 1992)
"I was in religion class and some
people walked in and started
talking about [it]. I didn't know any
details except that it had
exploded and the schoolteacher's
students had all been watching
which I thought was so sad. Then
after class I went to my room and
watched the TV program talking
about it and I got all the details
from that."
"When I first heard about the
explosion I was sitting in my
freshman dorm room with my
roommate and we were
watching TV. It came on a
news flash and we were both
totally shocked. I was really
upset and I went upstairs to
talk to a friend of mine and
then I called my parents."
Flashbulb?
“Flashbulb Memories”
The 1986 Challenger Explosion
(Neisser & Harsch, 1992)
Confidence...
Mean = 4.17 on a
scale of 1 - 5
“Phantom Flashbulbs”
The 1986 Challenger Explosion
(Neisser & Harsch, 1992)
Accuracy....
M = 2.95 out of 7
25% were wrong about
everything
50% were wrong about
2/3 of what they recalled
only 7% received perfect
scores
no significant
correlation between
confidence and
accuracy
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The Paleontologist
Metaphor
The process of remembering is like a paleontologist trying to
(Neisser, 1967)
construct a dinosaur from a a few fossilized bones (i.e.,
“memory traces”) and theories of paleontology (i.e., general
knowledge structures and other factors...).
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In other words.....Memory is reconstructive.
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So, what you recall can be influenced by factors in the
present.
Schema
•A concept or framework, built up
from experience, about any object,
event, person or group. Schemata
influence the way we interpret,
organize, communicate, and
remember information.
“T.V. Priority”:
Schemata in the Challenger
Study
• Only 21% of subjects had actually first
heard about the news on TV
• BUT, two years later, 45% believed they
had first heard about the news on TV
Schemata and Memory
(Anderson & Pichert, 1978)
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Subjects asked to adopt a particular identity:
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Home-buyer
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Burglar
Then read a passage about two boys playing hooky
from school...
Schemata and Memory
(Anderson & Pichert, 1978)
[Coding: Burglar items (18); Homebuyer items (18)]
There are three color TV sets in the house. One is in the large master
bedroom (which has a three piece bathroom en suite), one is in the
main floor family room, and one is in Tom's bedroom. The house
contains four bedrooms in all, plus an office, family room, and three
washrooms. In addition to the TV, the family room contains a new
stereo outfit , a microcomputer, a VCR, and a rare coin collection.
The boys enter the master bedroom. Beside the jewelry case in
the closet they find Tom's father's collection of pornographic video
tapes. They select their favorite (an encounter between a guy and 12
women in a park in downtown Kitchener) and go to the family room to
watch it.
Schemata and Memory
(Anderson & Pichert, 1978)
Proportion Recalled
Recall #1
Identity
Items
Schemata and Memory
(Anderson & Prichert, 1978)
Change in proportion recalled
Distracter task....then....switch perspectives and try
to recall again
First identity/second identity
Items
Other influences of the Present on
reconstruction of the past
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Mood
• Mood-congruent memory
Goals/Motivation
• Information that fits with desired conclusion is more
likely to be recalled (e.g., Sanitioso, Kunda, &
Fong, 1990; if told that extraversion leads to
success recall more examples of your own
extraverted behavior; opposite if told that
introversion leads to success)
Cognitive biases
• positive-test strategy
• It’s not just what you recall that
matters, but also how you think
you encountered that information
in the first place...
Eyewitness
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Loftus and Palmer (1974)
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Film of car accident
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How fast were the two cars going when they hit* each
other?
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*smashed, collided, bumped, contacted
Eyewitness
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Hit: 34
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Smashed: 41
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Collided: 39
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Bumped: 38
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Contacted: 32
Follow up
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One hundred and fifty
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Smashed:
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Hit:
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Not asked:
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1 week later: Did you see broken glass?
Follow up
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1 week later: Did you see broken glass?
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Smashed: 32%
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Hit: 14%
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Not asked: 12%
One more
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Loftus and Zanni (1975)
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Did you see a broken headlight?
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Did you see the broken headlight?
One more
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Loftus and Zanni (1975)
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Did you see a broken headlight?
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Did you see the broken headlight? YES
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But there was no broken headlight…
Yearkes-Dawdson
Law
Other factors
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Age: young children and older males more likely misled
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Stress
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Expectations
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Exposure time (lofus (1987): 30 second bank robbery)
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Detail salience (loftus 1987): gun or none; gun tended to
focus on the weapon and not other details…
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Loftus and Burns (1982): violent; shock will mess up recall
Problems with
Loftus
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Misinformation effect (McCloskey and Zaragoza, 1985)
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Loftus 1975-video in which 8 demonstrators interuppted a
lecture. Half were asked was the leader of the 12
demonstrators male? Others: was the leader of the 4
demonstrators male?
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A week later:
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12 demos: Average 8.9 demonstrators
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4 demos: Averaged 6.4
Implications
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Geiselman (1984): Basic cognitive interview
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May be a number of retrieval paths; therefore different cues
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Memory trace has several features
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Improved by fisher in 1987
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1990-45 % more correct responses
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Miami 93% more data collected
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Wilkinson (1988) EWT of kids could be raised to adults.
Face recognition
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Standing 1973
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10,000 faces over 5 days
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Paired pictures-one they had seen, one they had not
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Right 98% of the time.
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Bahrick (1975): Yearbook
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15 year later: one in five the had graduated with
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Right 90 % of time
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Even 40 years, they were right 75%
Source Monitoring
Framework
(Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993)
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Some source monitoring dilemmas...
• Did Susan tell me that, or did George? (distinguishing
between two external sources)
• Did I say that, or only think it? (”reality monitoring”:
distinguishing between something that actually occurred
vs. something you only imagined)
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According to the Source Monitoring Framework:
Memories are NOT tagged with labels indicating their source
Source is judged “online” in the present, based on....
Source Monitoring
Framework
(Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993)
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Source is judged “online” in the present, based on....
Memory Characteristics
• amount of perceptual, temporal, and spatial detail
(generally more for real than for imagined events)
• type of perceptual details (e.g., auditory memory of voice)
• information about cognitive operations (generally more for
imagined than for real events)
General knowledge
• “money doesn’t grow on trees”
• stereotypes
Influence of memory characteristics on
source monitoring
(Johnson, Raye, Wang, & Taylor, 1979)
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Procedure:
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Subjects viewed 36 pictures 2, 5, or 8 times each and
also imagined those pictures 2, 5, or 8 times each
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Later they were asked to estimate how many times
they had seen each picture.
Influence of memory characteristics on
source monitoring
(Johnson, Raye, Wang, & Taylor, 1979)
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The more times they
had imagined the
picture, the more
frequently they thought
they had actually seen it
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Effect was stronger for
good imagers than poor
imagers
Influence of “general knowledge” on
source monitoring
(Johnson, Raye, Wang, & Taylor, 1979)
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Stereotypes (Sherman & Bessenoff, 1999)
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Attribute information in stereotype consistent
manner, especially when under cognitive load
Beliefs about choice: “I chose the better option”
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“Misremembrance of options past”: Blind dates and
Job candidates (Mather, Shafir, & Johnson, 2000)
Source Errors in
“Real Life”?
• Marge: Hurry up, Homer. It’s
time to go to the reunion
• Homer: Yeah, it will be great to
see the old gang again--Potsy,
Ralph Malph, The Fonze...
• Marge: Homer, that wasn’t
high school, that was Happy
Days!
• Homer: No, they weren’t all
happy days--like that time
Pinky Tuscadero crashed her
motor bike and that time I lost
all that money to those
cardsharps and my dad, Tom
Bosley had to bail me out...
Evaluate your memory:
Did you recall these words?
Thread
Web
Knitting
Spider
Needle
Crawl
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Thread
Pin
Eye
Sewing
Sharp
Point
Prick
Thimble
Haystack
Thorn
Hurt
Injection
Syringe
Cloth
Knitting
Web
Insect
Bug
Fright
Fly
Arachnid
Crawl
Tarantula
Poison
Bite
Creepy
Animal
Ugly
Feelers
Small
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Creating your own
false memory
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Study for exam in Psych:
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You focus on"positive reinforcement" and "schedules of
reinforcement,"
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you may well falsely recognize the term "negative
reinforcement"
Implanting memories of
whole events?
• It happens in the movies....
Memory Implantation: Total Recall (1990)
Truman show
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
How researchers implant
memories...
(Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995)
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Contact parents to get 2 - 4 real childhood events, verify that 1
target false event did not occur
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Interview subjects 3 times each, with one day between each
interview
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At each interview, ask for information regarding 3 - 5 childhood
events; 1 event is the target false event (e.g., knocked over the
punch bowl at a wedding)
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Subjects told that parents reported all events to have happened
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How likely are subjects to report to actually remember the false
event?
How researchers implant
memories...
(Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995)
How researchers implant
memories...
(Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995)
“Imagination Inflation”
(Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996)
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Session 1:
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Fill out “Life Events Inventory” (LEI) where rate how certain
that 40 events happened in own childhood
Session 2: Two weeks later, participate in “experiment on
imagination”
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Guided through imagining 4 events from LEI (e.g., broke a
window with your hand, found a $10 bill in parking lot, got in
trouble for calling 911)
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At the end experimenter says that original LEI ratings were lost
and could they please fill out the form again
Question: Among subjects who initially rated target events as
unlikely, how does imagining events affect certainty ratings?
“Imagination Inflation”
(Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996)
Relevance: Recovered
Memories of Child Abuse
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Incidences of people “recovering” memories of childhood abuse
that they claim had not been aware of before, “repressed
memories”
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Childhood abuse is not infrequent (estimates range from 10% to
50% of children; Loftus, 1993)
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There are documented cases of “recovered memories” being true
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HOWEVER, when recovered in the context of therapy, recovered
memories of abuse may be suspect...
Therapy: Imagining What Might
Have Happened
•"Using all the details you do know, create your own story.
Ground the experience or event in as much knowledge as
you have and then let yourself imagine what actually might
have happened."
•~Bass & Davis, Courage to Heal
"Whether what is remembered is made up or real is of no
concern at the beginning of the process; that can be decided
at a later date."
~Renee Fredrickson, Repressed memories: A journey to
recovery from sexual abuse
Therapy: Influencing Beliefs and
“General Knowledge”
•SYMPTOM CHECKLISTS
Do you have trouble knowing what you want?
Are you afraid to try new experiences?
If someone gives you a suggestion, do you feel you ought to follow it?
Do you follow other people's suggestions as if they were orders to be
observed?
Do you feel different from other people?
Do you have trouble feeling motivated?
Do you feel you have to be perfect?
Do you use work or achievements to compensate for inadequate feelings
in other parts of your life?
"We have found that the Aftereffects Checklist can serve as a diagnostic
device for suggesting sexual victimization when none is remembered."
~E. S. Blume, Secret survivors:
•Uncovering incest and its after-effects in women
Hindsight Bias
•A projection of new knowledge into the past accompanied by
a denial that the outcome information has influenced
judgment.
(Hawkins & Hastie, 1990)
•“The US government should have known the September 11
attacks were coming”
•“Wasn’t it obvious that Arnie would become the next
governor of California?”
•“That woman should have known that if she walked home
by that route she was bound to get assaulted.”
Hindsight Bias and Causal Thinking
•Outcome seems obvious after the fact because we can
reinterpret prior events in light of the outcome and create a
causal chain; overlook the fact that these particular
elements did not stand out before you knew the outcome...
•“What we don’t hear about is all the other people whom American
intelligence had under surveillance, how many other warnings they
received, and how many other tips came in that seemed promising at
the time but led nowhere. The central challenge of intelligence
gathering has always been the problem of “noise”: the fact that useless
information is vastly more plentiful than useful information.... the F.B.I.’s
counterterrorism division has sixty-eight thousand outstanding and
unassigned leads dating back to 1995. And, of those, probably no more
than a few hundred are useful.”
•~Malcom Gladwell, on 1998 Kenyan Embassy bombing,
•in The New Yorker (2003)
Hindsight Bias and Causal Thinking
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Thinking about alternate outcomes,
“counterfactuals,” can reduce hindsight bias, but
not always...
Counterfactual Thinking:
What might have been
•Counterfactuals: Mental representations of alternatives to
the past
•Upward counterfactuals: alternative pasts that are better
than reality, e.g. , “It could have been a brilliant career”
•Downward counterfactuals: alternative pasts that are
worse than reality, e.g., “At least I didn’t fail.”
•Three aspects of counterfactual thinking:
•Emotional impact
•Clues to causality
•Functionality
Counterfactual Thinking:
Emotional impact
(Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich, 1995)
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Silver and Bronze medal winners: Who is happier?
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Silver is objectively better of, but counterfactuals
predict the opposite:
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Silver: upward counterfactual, “I almost won.”
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Bronze: downward counterfactual, “At least I
didn’t lose!”
Reactions of 1992 Olympic athletes show that
Bronze medal winners are happier