Psy 200 1st Edition Lecture 12 Current Lecture Remembering Complex Events False Memory Can occur because of overlap of related concepts in memory network Can occur because of situational expectations schema Can occur because of information added after the event misinformation Loftus Misinformation Effect The way questions are worded can impact the answer given It can lead to a specific answer Loftus conclusion misinformation creates false memory fast reaction time is not a good predictor of accuracy Common but not universal result Misleading info doesn t hurt performance here Conclusions False memory doesn t supplement original memory False memory is stronger than original memory Why Because it is more recent Memory ImplantationCreating a memory for someone that never actually occurred In one study 58 of preschoolers produced false narratives to one or more of the fictitious events with 25 of the children doing so to the majority Children Suggestibility Ceci and Huffman 1997 3 4 year olds are more vulnerable than 5 6 years olds Some children resist debriefing argue that the events actually occurred Experts unable to distinguish accurate from inaccurate reports Hippocampus shows some level of activity for both true and false memories Imagination Inflation Imagining an event that never happened can result in memory implantation Imagining an event results in more false memories than simply reading about it More likely when imagined event share perceptual or conceptual features with a real event These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Recovered Memories Therapists repeatedly question a child about abuse at a day care center Eventually the child remembers the abuse Therapists repeatedly ask a woman to search memory for recollections of childhood abuse Finally she recovers repressed memories which seem real to her Individual Differences in False Memory Those with false memories may be more susceptible to any kind of false memories Others may be more prone to remembering things only in a certain context they might be less likely to have false memories Those who never forgot about abuse had normal rates of false memory and context effects Those who forgot abuse and recovered it in therapy had higher false memory rates Those who forgot abuse and recovered it on their own had higher effects of context Why is our memory so bad The same systems that distort memory also make memory flexible which is good Memories can be updated with new information Whether it is good or bad depends on whether the information is true or false Making associations can provide structure to strengthen memory at the cost of false memory for items that are closely related Imagining events helps us stimulate what might happen at the cost of false memory for that event