Psychology Lecture February 24 2015 Some real world implications of memory reconstruction False memories witness crime read about it and gain memory repressed memories bad therapy practices may create these but these also may exist think about memory and eye witness testimony confident of opinion even when wrong not always reliable even with no deceit False memories not deliberate lies memories retrieved into working memory may be encoded in long term memory in a changed form confusion between having seen and imagined siblings may incorporate the memory of a sibling telling of an event as if it was their own even memory Elizabeth Loftus reconstructive nature of memory research remember the earlier diagram of LTM to STM and back again How fast were the cars going when they smashed vs bumped into each other asked a sibling to tell younger sibling about time lost in mall younger sibling came to have genuine memory of this implanted memory could add details to the memory to give credibility shirt feelings etc some memories are easier to implant that others Repressed memories controversial do they exist or not Can be implanted see false memory research Williams 1994 interviewed 129 women 17 years after having been admitted to ER for sexual abuse 38 had no memory of the event 12 claimed that they had never been abused theory that may be due to poor retrieval cues with cues memories can be restored Eye witness testimony Examples of DNA testing eyewitness identification vs DNA evidence of true offender found research on viewing staged crime perception issue memory issue Confabulation honest lying ex 61 year old male frontal lobe damage married 4 months kids 4 age of kids 32 to 22 How 4 kids in 4 months They re adopted Enhancing Memory The Role of Emotion video decomposing dog image ice water activate stress hormone response to facilitate consolidation same way amygdala works w memory enhance memory Participants remembered emotional slides better than control subjectsamygdala is right next to hippocampus learning can occur w o amygdala but it wouldn t be as strong man vs woman watch emotionally arousing events and see how amygdala responded men right amygdala and in women left amygdala while in middle of argument 2 brains not storing information the same men vs woman women remember the details and men remember the gist of it Flashbulb memories vivid memory of a dramatic event Where were you when may be influenced by fight or flight mechanisms and aroused state still may not be accurate How does emotion boost memory Store emotional material in episodic memory better than other material norepinephrine neurotransmitter in hippocampus hippocampus major role in encoding new information into memory amygdala involved in emotion activity in amygdala thought to influence hippocampus Arrive at ER with faster heart rate More likely to develop PTSD accident causing paraplegia vs quadriplegia Higher rates of PTSD if paraplegic quadriplegia severs link between brain and adrenal gland stress hormones PTSD unwanted intrusive memory appear to happen in the here and now with PTSD a shocking combat situation elicits a hard wired fear response the fight or flight reaction with intense emotional arousal and a surge of adrenaline also promotes fear conditioning a form of learning in which previously neutral stimuli become linked with a trauma ex a soldier injured in a bomb blast anything like the sound of an explosion or the odor of burning is now a conditioned stimulus Impact of drugs of soldiers PTSD Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active duty service members increased from 3000 to 32 000 in 5 years by causing the direct release of norepinephrine a close chemical relative of adrenaline in the brain stimulants facilitate memory formation emotionally arousing experiences both positive and negative also cause a surge of norepinephrine which helps create long vivid lasting memories What if you block norepinephrine Block effects of norepinephrine with beta blockers can stop fear conditioning possibly preventing PTSD Controversy Should we block intensity of trauma memories Research in Boston hospital ER patients with serious trauma 1 group adrenaline blocks and 1 group placebo had them ape record memory of trauma Researcher s perspective We give morphine to block pain without concern that erasing an experience for them others What about identity and memory link we are the sum of our experiences Aging and Memory Studying Alzheimer s Disease decrease in explicit memory video woman in early stage of Alzheimer s problem with short term memory first ex phone call first to go is the hippocampus then emotional sections in the brain PET scan red areas brain working well and blue brain not working well early detection good for trying to give treatment amyloidal beta buildup in brain beta blockers works in mice inflames human brain though Nose drops Hoping to begin human trials using beta blockers as nose drops Alzheimer s retain implicit memories tie shoes classically conditioned fears walking decrease in explicit memory failure to recall facts information personal life experiences losses in temporal and parietal lobes storing explicit memories The Mind Second Edition Life Without Memory The Case of Clive Wearing video he can talk and remember music but goes through life completely confused about basically everything else thinks he s never seen his wife in years thinks that it s his first time having coffee started off with a headache he sees what is right in front of him but nothing registers always thinks he s been awake for about 2 minutes crosses off his old diary entries talking about his first awakening b c he doesn t believe he consciously wrote them