Chapter 9 Memory pt. 3:
Motivated Forgetting and
Memory Reconstruction
Eyewitness memory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6fRH5MLBIU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XORIWLgEVwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtDt-THaH_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSzPn9rsPcY
Memory Training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL3BOSbCLPM
Motivated Forgetting
Motivated
Forgetting is the idea
that people unknowingly revise
their history.
What purpose might motivated
forgetting serve?
Motivated Forgetting
 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.
Memory Construction Affected
By:
 Misinformation Effect: incorporating
misleading information into one's
memory of an event
Coke
Vs. Peanuts
Challenger
Imagined events are more familiar,
and familiar things are more real
Memory Construction
Affected By:
 Source Amnesia: attributing to
the wrong source an event that
we experienced, heard about,
read about, or imagined
(misattribution)
 Reagan
and the movie, A Wing and
a Prayer
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.
Memory Construction
Depiction of actual accident
 Eyewitnesses
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?”
reconstruct
memories
when
questioned
Memory
construction
Memory Construction Overview
People fill in memory gaps with plausible
guesses and assumptions
 Imagining events can create false memories
 Persistence and confidence does not mean
accuracy
 Children's eyewitness recall
 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some innocent people suffer false
accusations
 Some guilty cast doubt on true testimony

 Children
are fairly accurate when their
memories are not tampered with
Memory Construction
 Roediger
Study
and McDermott Brain
False
and true memories registered in
the hippocampus
True memories only registered in the
left Temporal Lobe
 Processes
speech sounds
Memory Construction and Abuse
 Memories
of Abuse
 Repressed or Constructed?
Child sexual abuse does occur
Some adults do actually forget
such episodes
Recovered
memories are
common
Memories before age 3 are
unreliable
Infantile amnesia
Memory Construction and
Abuse
 False
Memory Syndrome
 condition in which a person’s
identity and relationships center
around a false but strongly believed
memory of traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by wellmeaning therapists
How Can Chapter 9 Concepts
Help You Study
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Study repeatedly
Rehearse
Make it meaningful
Use mnemonics
Use retrieval Codes
Recall before interference takes place
Minimize interference
Test Yourself