Health Care of Mind

1. Accuracy and
Inaccuracy in
memory and
cognition

2. 1. As we have seen our memories
are not perfect. They fail in part
due to our inadequate encoding
and storage, and in part due to
our inability to accurately regain
stored information.
2. In this section, we consider
some of the cognitive by ways
that are known to influence
humans,
Cognitive biases are errors in memory or
judgement that are caused by
inappropriate use of cognitive processes

3. Source Monitoring: Did it really
happen?
1. One potential error in memory involves mistakes in
differentiating the source of information.
2. Source monitoring refers to "the ability to
accurately identify the source of a memory.
3. Study shows that people who are fantasy prone are
more likely to experience source monitoring errors.
Kavya Viswanathan, a book author, faced
plagiarism accusations when similarities were
found between her book and other works. She
claimed she forgot she read the material,
mistakenly assuming she created it herself.

4. Schematic processing: Distortions
based on expectations
1. We have seen that schemas help us remember
information by organizing material in logical
representations.
2. However, Schemas can improve our memories,
they may also lead to cognitive biases.
3. For one schema leads us to confirmation bias,
"which is the tendency to verify and confirm our
existing memory rather than to challenge and
disconfirm them". The confirmation bias occurs
once we have schemas they influence how we
seek out and interpret new information.

5. Miss information Effects: How information that comes
later can distort memory
1. A particular problem is that our memories are often influenced by
the things that occurred to us after we have learned the
information.
2. This new information can distort our original memories that we
are no longer sure what is the real information and what was
provided later.
3. This information effect refers to "errors in memory that occur
when new information influences existing memories".
4. In an experiment, participants viewed a film of a traffic accident
and then according to random assignment to experimental
conditions answered one of the three questions.

6. 1) About how fast were the
cars going when they "hit"
each other?
2) About how fast were the
cars going when they
"smashed" each other?
3) About how fast were the
cars going when they
"contacted" each other?
Although all participants saw
the same accident, by their
estimates of speed varied by
condition. Those asked
about "smashing" estimated
highest average speed and
those who had been as the
"contacted" question
estimated the lowest
average speed.

7. Overconfidence
1. Research reveals a pervasive cognitive bias towards
over confidence, which is "The tendency for people to
be too certain about their ability to accurately remember
events and to make judgments“
2. In an experiment college students were asked to predict
how other students would react in various situations.
Some participants made predictions about a fellow
student whom they just met while others made about
their roommates whom they knew very well. In both
cases participants reported their confidence and
accuracy was determined by the responses of people
themselves. The results were clear regardless of
whether the judged a stranger or a roommate, the
participants consistently over estimated the accuracy of

8. deal of emotion, is known as
flashbulb memory "A vivid and
emotional memory of an
unusual event that people
believe they remember very
well“
4. The attacks of 9/11 in 2001 is
one of the example of flashbulb
memory. In an experiment,
participants were asked to recall
their memories when they first
heard 9/11 attacks on September
12, 2001 then they were asked
again either 1, 3 or 6 week later to
recall their memories. The
Participants became less
accurate and more confident then.

9. Psychology in Everyday life: Cognitive Biases in the real world.
1. Perhaps you are thinking that the kind of errors we have been talking about don't
seem that important.
2. But it turns out that what seems to be relatively small cognitive biases on the
surface can have profound consequences for people.
3. People may also take care to prepare for unlikely events rather than for more
likely ones, because unlikely ones are more prominent.
4. For instance, people may think that they are more likely to die from a terrorist
attack than they are from diabetes, stroke etc. But the odds are much greater of
dying from the latter than the former.

10. .