PSY 368 Human
Memory
Discussing Unknown White Male
& Seven Sins of Memory
Focus Questions for: Unknown White Male
(1) Based on what Doug experiences in his memory loss, what
do you think memory is? Try to write out a definition.
(2) Think about who Doug becomes as he deals with his memory
loss. How much of who we are is based on our memories?
(3) Researchers believe there are several different types of
memory based on the type of information being retrieved
and how we retrieve it. Describe some of the different forms
of memory discussed in the film.
(4) Does memory work like a video camera? Why or why not?
(5) In what way do you think our experiences influence our
memories? Can ones culture affect what they remember?
(6) The different people who try to help Doug test different
hypotheses about what caused his memory loss. From these
hypotheses, identify different perspectives researchers might
have as they study memory.
Lessons on Memory from Unknown White Male
(1) Memory is important in defining our sense of
self
(2) Several different forms of memory - not all
operate the same way
• Episodic memory - for events,
autobiographical
• Semantic memory - for facts
• Implicit/Automatic memory - for skills
(3) Memory involves putting pieces of events back together
- not always correctly
(4) This process is affected by many things (e.g., mood,
past experiences, interactions with others)
Memory Failures
Long history of trying to understand how memory works
based on when it fails
The Seven Sins of Memory
How the Mind Forgets and Remembers
Schacter (2001)
The Seven Sins of Memory
(1) Transience
(2) Absent-mindedness
(3) Blocking
(4) Misattribution
(5) Suggestibility
(6) Bias
(7) Persistence
Sins of ommission/forgetting
Sins of commission (errors)
Sins of Omission
(1)Transience
• memory loss over time - normal forgetting
What were you doing 2 hours ago? What about 2 weeks ago at 12:30 PM?
Forgetting Curve
• Relatively early (minutes, hours,
even days)
– detailed record of the past
• With passing of time
– particulars fade,
opportunities for interference,
greater reliance on gist or what
usually happens
“Transience involves a gradual switch from reproductive and specific
recollections to reconstructive and more general descriptions.”
Schacter (2001, pg 16)
Sins of Omission
(2) Absent-mindedness
• lack of encoding due to distraction or automaticity
Dr. Cutting: “Where are my glasses?” Son: “Dad, they’re on top of your
head”
Tatiana Cooley – 3 time American Memory Champion: uses lots of
elaboration encoding techniques, but also claims to live with To-do
lists and post-it note reminders
Two ways of remembering experiences:
Requires 1)Recollection: calling to mind specific details of
Attention
events
Automatic 1)Familiarity: more primitive sense of knowing that
Attention “free”
something happened previously
Inattentional Blindness video
Inattentional Blindness video with
extended explanation
Sins of Omission
(3) Blocking
• failure to retrieve information that is in memory
Tip-of-the-tongue
What is the name of the sacred Egyptian beetle?
Tip-of-the-tongue video
Baker/baker paradox
Learn to associate
pictures with a word
Later presented pictures and
asked to recall the
associated word
Paired with Names
“Baker”
Paired with Occupations
“baker”
Recalled higher proportion of occupations than names
(even if they were identical sounding words)
Sins of Commission
(4) Misattribution
• mistaking the source of a memory
Oklahoma City bombing in 1995:
The search for John Doe 2
Interviews:
1 suspect tall and fair with short blond hair
1 suspect tall and fair with short blond hair & a 2nd man,
stockier, dark-haired, blue and white cap and tattoo
Turns out: 1 day after McVeigh rented the van, 2 different men came in and
rented a van, 1 was tall and fair with short blond hair & a 2nd man, stockier,
dark-haired, blue and white cap and tattoo
The second interviewee had correctly remembered the features but
misattributed them to the wrong episode
Sins of Commission
(5) Suggestibility
• memories implanted by others’ suggestions
Eyewitness testimony, leading questions can lead to false memories
of things that never happened
Alan Alda and Dan Schacter video
Sins of Commission
(6) Bias
• changing of a memory based on our experiences
Several major types:
• Consistency bias – memories change to be consistent with
things now (“even as a young boy I was fascinated with
memory”)
• Change bias – memories change to be different than now (the
past is often remembered as a “Golden Age”)
• Hindsight bias – “I knew that the Packers weren’t as good as
everybody said”
• Egocentric bias – more credence given to our own memories
than those of others (“Daughter: you never told me to clean my
room. Me “Yes, I did! I remember telling you, you must be
forgetting.”)
• Stereotypic bias – memories fit your schema
Sins of Commission
(7) Persistence
• repeated recall of unwanted information
Can range for major emotional events to relatively minor
events.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder – can’t stop recalling the event over
and over again
“Sweat Caroline..bop bop baa… This song is stuck in my
head!”
Probably related to factors like: Impact of emotion, highly
focused attention, and high levels of elaboration and
rehearsal
Memory errors have adaptive value:
Sometimes “Less is More”
• More useful to remember meaning of
something than the details (like source)
• If we never forgot any experiences, we’d be
overwhelmed with information
• Important to remember events that have
survival
value