Constructing Fake Memories and Forgetting Real Ones

1. Constructing Fake Memories and Forgetting Real Ones

2. Forgetting and Distortions of Memory • In the 80’s and 90’s “recovered memories” were big headlines. • Individuals of all ages were claiming to suddenly remember events that had been “repressed” and forgotten for years. • Often these memories were of abuse. • Sometimes these recovered memories were corroborated with physical evidence and justice was served. • Other times they were discovered to be fabricated or constructed memories

3. Constructed memory • A memory or recollection of an event that is false or contains false details that never actually occurred • Theory that holds that memory is not a replica of the past but a representation, or reconstruction, of the past • Reconstruction can lead to distorted memories of events and experiences

4. Elizabeth Loftus • Famous Memory researcher • showed that leading questions can easily influence us to recall false details • questioners can create entirely new memory by repeatedly asking leading questions • Especially true in children

5. Why Do We Forget?? It is inevitable we all will forget things…but why and how much? • Retention • The proportion of learned information that is retained or remembered • The flip side of forgetting

6. Three Theories of Why We Forget

7. Forgetting as an Encoding Failure • Forgetting is often a problem with how information was encoded • You sometimes haven’t forgotten information • The information was actually never encoded in your memory or not encoded at a deep enough level • It never has a chance to enter our LTM. • Sometimes called pseudoforgetting

8. Encoding Failure

9. Forgetting as a Storage Failure • Memories, even saved ones, can decay over time • Decay Theory • Memories just go away over time • Without rehearsal, we forget thing over time. • Hermann Ebbinghaus and his Forgetting Curve • Said as time passes by information is forgotten gradually • Actually spent time plotting this on a graph • Example – remembering new vocab. words and forgetting more as time goes by • Example – first day forget very few, but forgetting speeds up over time

10. Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

11. Forgetting as a Retrieval Failure • It’s in there but you can not get it out • Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon • Forgotten information feels like it is just out of reach • Interference • One memory gets in the way of another • Two Kinds of Interference • Proactive Interference • Retroactive Interference

12. Proactive Interference • Earlier memories interfere with new ones • Remembering earlier addresses while having a hard time remembering your new one If you call your new girlfriend your old girlfriend’s name.

13. Retroactive Interference • New memories reduce ability to retrieve older memories • Remembering new sport champs and forgetting older ones – or forgetting your old phone number when you get a new one When you finally remember this years locker combination, you forget last years.

14. Other Reasons We May Forget • Motivated Forgetting • Forgetting can sometimes provide a protection from painful memories • Repression • Psychogenic Amnesia • The process of moving anxiety producing memories to the unconscious – Freud • Physical Injury or Trauma • Anterograde Amnesia • The inability to remember events that occur after an injury or traumatic event • Retrograde Amnesia • The inability to remember events that occurred before an injury or traumatic event

15. Other Reasons We Forget • Distortions of Memory • We sometimes construct memories that did not happen or distort the ones that we do have • Misinformation Effect • Incorporating misleading information of an event into one’s memory • Possible planted memories • Example – sometimes used by lawyers – Law and Order Clip • Children’s Recall • Very open to misinformation effect • Often provide memories they think an adult expects to hear or when asked very leading questions • Can be a problem when testifying against an accused or falsely accused person

16. Other Reasons We May Forget • Source Amnesia • Having to remember at the time of recall where memories came from • “did I read that in the Post or NY Times?” • It is also common for people to mix up fictional information from novels and movies with factual information from news and personal experiences • Cryptomnesia • Inadvertent plagiarism that occurs when people come up with an idea that they think is original when they were actually exposed to it earlier • Confabulation • is the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false memories • Trying to fill in the blanks of something you are trying to remember with false memories

17. Deja Vu • Usually translated as already lived or already felt • the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously • Possible explanations • An anomaly of memory • an overlap between the short-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the present) and the long-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the past) • Neural misfiring • Two neurons firing from different sources, thus coming up with two sensations (of the same stimulus) each seeming like a different event at a different time

18. Don’t Always Trust Your Memory!!!