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

What purpose might motivated forgetting serve? 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) Piaget and his nursemaid

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 Eyewitnesses reconstruct memories when questioned Depiction of actual accident Leading question: “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Memory construction Eyewitnesses reconstruct memories when questioned

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 and McDermott Brain Study 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 well-meaning therapists

How Can Chapter 9 Concepts Help You Study Study repeatedly Rehearse Make it meaningful Use mnemonics Use retrieval Codes Recall before interference takes place Minimize interference Test Yourself