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)

The Seven Sins of Memory How the Mind Forgets and RemembersSchacter (2001)

Memory FailuresLong history of trying to understand how memory works

based on when it fails

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)

(1)Transience• memory loss over time - normal forgetting

What were you doing 2 hours ago? What about 2 weeks ago at 12:30 PM?

Sins of Omission

• 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

Forgetting Curve

“Transience involves a gradual switch from reproductive and specific recollections to reconstructive and more general descriptions.”

Schacter (2001, pg 16)

(2) Absent-mindedness• lack of encoding due to distraction or automaticity

Sins of Omission

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

Dr. Cutting: “Where are my glasses?” Son: “Dad, they’re on top of your head”

Two ways of remembering experiences:

1)Recollection: calling to mind specific details of events

1)Familiarity: more primitive sense of knowing that something happened previously

Requires Attention

AutomaticAttention “free”

Inattentional Blindness video Inattentional Blindness video with extended explanation

(3) Blocking• failure to retrieve information that is in memory

Sins of Omission

Tip-of-the-tongue

Tip-of-the-tongue videoWhat is the name of the sacred Egyptian beetle?

Baker/baker paradox

Paired with Names“Baker”

Paired with Occupations“baker”

Learn to associate pictures with a word

Later presented pictures and asked to recall the associated word

Recalled higher proportion of occupations than names (even if they were identical sounding words)

(4) Misattribution• mistaking the source of a memory

Sins of Commission

Oklahoma City bombing in 1995: The search for John Doe 2

Interviews: 1 suspect tall and fair with short blond hair1 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

(5) Suggestibility• memories implanted by others’ suggestions

Sins of Commission

Alan Alda and Dan Schacter video

Eyewitness testimony, leading questions can lead to false memories of things that never happened

(6) Bias• changing of a memory based on our experiences

Sins of Commission

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

(7) Persistence• repeated recall of unwanted information

Sins of Commission

Can range for major emotional events to relatively minor events.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder – can’t stop recalling the event over and over again

Probably related to factors like: Impact of emotion, highly focused attention, and high levels of elaboration and rehearsal

“Sweat Caroline..bop bop baa… This song is stuck in my head!”

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