2. Memory Construction
• We sometimes alter
our memories as we
encode or retrieve
them.
• Your expectations,
schemas, environment
may alter your
memories.
3. False Memories
Anytime we identify something as previously
experienced, we note details of this
experience. A misidentification of any one of
these details can be considered a false
memory.
9. Schemas
• Organized cluster of knowledge about a
particular object or event from previous
experience
• Useful tool for understanding our world
– Quickly assess
– Fill in gaps
• Can lead to false insertions
10. Bransford & Johnson (1972)
• Recollection of “washing” passage:
Told passage was about washing clothes:
–Recalled 5.8 ideas.
Not told what passage was about:
–Only recalled 2.8 ideas out of 18.
11. Schemas
• Organized cluster of knowledge about a
particular object or event from previous
experience
• Useful tool for understanding our world
– Quickly assess
– Fill in gaps
• Can lead to false insertions
12. Suggestibility
• Elizabeth Loftus (1974)
– Students viewed films
depicting vehicle accidents.
– Asked: “How fast where the
cars going when they ___
each other?”
“hit,” “smashed into,”
“collided with,”
“bumped,” “contacted”
14. Post-Event Information Integration
• “Did another car pass the red Datsun while it was
stopped at the stop [yield] sign?”
– Consistent sentence: falsely recognize photo 25%
– Inconsistent sentence: falsely recognize photo 60%
Loftus (1979)
15. Implanted Memory
• Titles of 2 events w/4 details
each
1 true & 1 false
3 interviews over 2 wks
• Guided imagery for false
event
• Nightly attempts to recall
• 7/19 (36.8%) recalled being
attacked by an animal
• 33% WERE WILLING TO WAGER $$
17. Persistence
• T/F: Recollection of
memories we cherish
& don’t want to
forget.
False!
Intrusive recollection
of memories we wish
we could forget
– Flash-bulb memories
Talarico & Rubin (2004)
21. Demonstration Implications
• Exemplifies how seeing a leading photo or person
in a line-up is enough to cause a misidentification
• A-MT: don’t recollect all of the details and fill in
the gaps
• Also, an example of remembering the
information correctly, but getting the source of
the remembered info wrong
22. Automatic Controlled
Activation Monitoring
• Activation of the information can be relatively
automatic
• Monitoring, or making decisions about that
information, requires controlled processing
31. Summary
• Taking in, or encoding, information can automatically cause
you to think of related information
• Information can be encoded in broader, general
representations
– Can fit with previous knowledge: Schemas
• Mere exposure to misleading information can lead to high
confidence false identification
• Imagining an event can lead you to believe you experienced
the event in the world
• Information is retrieved rather automatically, then monitored
in a controlled fashion
32. Seven Sins of Memory – Schacter
• Transience – loss of
memory over time
• Absent Mindedness –
breakdown of interface
between attention &
memory
• Blocking – thwarted search
for information to retrieve
• Bias – influence of current
knowledge and belief on
how we remember our
past
• Misattribution – assigning a
memory to the wrong
source
• Suggestibility – memories
implanted as a result of
leading questions,
comments or suggestions
when a person is trying to
recall a past experience
• Persistence – repeated recall
of disturbing information or
events that one may want to
forget
