10/6/2012
Cognitive Psychology
Day #6 of 8
Mark Rafter
http://www.canyons.edu/faculty/rafterm
Roster:
Please put a checkmark
next to your name
or add your name.
Next Week: Illusions
&
Counterfactual Thinking
Handouts:
Please pick up a copy of today’s
handouts for:
October 5, 2012
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10/6/2012
A bit more on Forgetting and The 7 Sins of Memory
The Contents of Memory
and the case of H.M. A.
B.
Compare & contrast
three types of information in LTM:
(a) semantic, (b) episodic, and (c) procedural
The Case Study of H.M.
The relative likelihood of forming a false memory for each type of information:
semantic, episodic, and procedural C.
D.
E.
 The “just noticeable difference” is the amount
What features
help to distinguish
one type of coin
from another?
This is a reminder for me to ask for money and one volunteer
to test for the memory of coins using touch recognition .
Ask for two of each:
penny, nickel, dime, quarter
a stimulus must change before we can detect a
difference.
difference
 If the original amount is small, then a small
amount of change is easier to detect.
 If the original amount is large, then a small
amount of change is difficult to detect.
 The amount of change necessary to detect a
difference is proportional to the amount of the
original stimulus.
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5¢
on top of
25¢
5¢ & 25¢
5¢ on
25¢
25¢ on
$1.00
25¢ on
50¢
JND?
Yes!
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25¢ on
$1.00
JND?
No!
50¢
¢
A good increase in
proportional
i l size,
i
not just a flat increase in
absolute size.
Not a good increase in
proportional size.
A rather flat increase
in absolute size.
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Susan B. Anthony &
Sacagawea
2nd
1st
“How do these two coins differ?”
“Whyy did I look at myy watch?”
What information is being processed
when I “look at my watch”?
The numbered list of 16 items
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(Move the
whiteboard
into place.)
1. night 2. hat 3. train 4. coat 5. flood 6. truck 7. tornado d
8. noon 9. car 10. earthquake 11. glove 12. day 13. fire 14. dawn 15. boat b
16. shoe 6
10/6/2012
Primacy
Effect
(LTM)
Proactive
Inference
OLD
interferes with
NEW
Recency
Effect
(STM)
Retroactive
Inference
NEW
interferes with
OLD
Telephone Message
 Linton (1982) wrote down two personal events every day for six years and systematically tested her memory for these events. She found that the first time you do almost f
y
anything is memorable, compared to later occasions. She retained a clear memory of submitting the "final draft" of a statistics textbook to her publishing company. But they asked for revisions. She was less successful in remembering the second time she submitted a "final draft." She had only a vague memory of the third and final submission of the book, which was then published.
 Flashbulb memories may be caused by unique, distinctive, first time events, because such novel events probably ,
p
y
provoke adrenaline release. But encoding effects are important. A first‐time event is distinctive and thus easier to remember.
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The number of “intervening and related
g
events” that occur between the original
event and the current moment affects our
perception of the amount of time that has
lapsed since the original event.
A BIRTH
A DEATH
A WEDDING
9/11
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Transience
Absent‐mindedness
Blocking
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence
1
Transience: weakening of memory over time
2
Absent‐mindedness: distracted attention
3
Blocking: thwarted search for LTM memory
4
Misattribution: loss of source memory
5
Suggestibility: implanted memory
6
Bias: revised on feeling rather than fact
7
Persistence: repeated recall of information we’d (M.R.)
(E. Loftus & our needle)
(Attachment Type)
prefer to forget ‐ PTSD (Donnie Moore – p. 161)
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In the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan
repeatedly told a story of a World War II bomber pilot
who ordered his crew to bail out after his plane had
been damaged
g by
y an enemy
y hit. His belly
yg
gunner
was so wounded that he was unable to evacuate the
bomber. Reagan could barely hold back his tears as
he uttered the pilot's heroic response: "Never mind.
We'll ride it down together."
...this story was an almost exact duplicate of a scene
in the 1944 film "A Wing and a Prayer." Reagan had
apparently retained the facts but forgotten their
source. (Searching for memory: The brain, the mind, and the past. Schacter 1996, 287)
An even more dramatic case of source amnesia
(also called memory misattribution) is that of the
woman who accused memory expert Dr. Donald
Thompson of having raped her
her.
Dr. Thompson was doing a live interview for a
television program just before the rape
occurred. The woman had seen the program
and "apparently
pp
y confused her memory
y of him
from the television screen with her memory of
the rapist" (Searching for memory: The brain,
the mind, and the past. Schacter 1996,
114)(Schacter 1996, 114).
Studies by Marcia Johnson et al.
have shown that the ability to
disting ish
distinguish
memory from imagination
depends on the recall of
source information.
information
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Normal
Alzheimer’s
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Source of the “Central Executive” in STM
Memory for source of information
((Ronald Reagan)
g )
Memory for series of action sequences in a
routine
(B-L-T sandwich)
Ability to inhibit action and plan alternative
actions
ti
even in
i spite
it off emotional
ti l responses
(children & adolescents vs. adults)
Ability to screen information for immediate
relevance
(ADD vs. OCD)
Alcohol
and
the
Brain
Confabulation is a memory disturbance that is characterized by verbal
statements or actions that inaccurately describe history, background, and present
situations. Confabulation is considered “honest lying,” but is distinct from lying
because there is typically no intent to deceive and the individual is unaware that
their information is false. Although the person can present blatantly false
information (“fantastic confabulation”), confabulatory information can also be
coherent,
h
t internally
i t
ll consistent,
i t t andd relatively
l ti l normal.
l Individuals
I di id l who
h confabulate
f b l t
are generally very confident about their recollections, despite evidence
contradicting its truthfulness. The most known causes of confabulation are
traumatic and acquired brain damage, and psychiatric or psychological disorders.
Provoked confabulation represents a normal response to a faulty memory and is
common in both amnesia and dementia. Provoked confabulations can become
apparent during memory tests. Another distinction found in confabulations is that
between verbal and behavioral.
behavioral Verbal confabulations are spoken false memories
and are more common, while behavioral confabulations occur when an individual
acts on their false memories. Confabulated memories of all types most often occur
in autobiographical memory, and are indicative of a complicated and intricate
process that can be led astray at any point during encoding, storage, or recall of a
memory. This type of confabulation is commonly seen in Korsakoff's syndrome.
Alcohol
and
the
Brain
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10/6/2012
Alcohol
and
the
Brain
Control
63 years
Alcoholic
59 years
Korsakoff
63 years
The End.
End.
…of forgetting
14