posted 2/15/06
Reading Assignment: Loftus article

Memory research discussed so far:

• Use _____________ stimuli (nonsense syllables) or word lists or word pairs unlikely to be encountered ________ the laboratory
• Study the _____________ of memory and processes that move information from one structure to another
• _______________ of the information largely irrelevant
• Memory/forgetting a result of type of processing, serial order, etc.; not a function of information content.

Alternative view

• Real life knowledge affects memory
• Bartlett (1932) 'War of Ghosts' story
• British and Native American subjects read the story
• Asked to recall it days or years later
• Subjects (especially British) ____________ the story
• Rationalized it, made it less ________________
• Distorted style, making it sound more British
• Didn't remember ___________, changed other details
• Instead of primacy & recency effects, parts of the story most likely to be remembered were the ___________ parts, such as the _____________________

• Schema = _______________- of typical situation, common event or object.
• Socially shared
• How schemas influence memory:
• 1. Influlence ___________________ of information
• "Washing Clothes" paragraph (Bransford & Johnson, 1972)
• _______________ / _______________ (Anderson et al., 1977)
• Whether and how you understand the passage depends on what __________ is activated
• Memory for the passage is __________ if an appropriate schema is activated.
• 2. Information congruent with the schema is more likely to be ___________ than incongruent information
• Leads to _________ recognition of congruent statements that weren't actually in the story
• For example, Bartlett's subjects sometimes added a __________ to the end of the story, even though the original story doesn't have one.

• Anderson & Pichert (1978). Subject read a narrative of a house description
• Ss in the role of ____________ or prospective home-buyer
• Perspective influenced recall, even if perspective was adopted (or switched) __________ reading the story.
• Shows the schemas influence ____________, not just encoding

• Script is like a schema, but
• Knowledge about the ______________ of events that usually occur in a stereotyped situation.
• e.g., going to a restaurant, or the dentist
• Evidence for Scripts
• When Ss are asked to list components of a script, there is high agreement across subjects.
• Ss can _________ stories reliably according to scripts
• After reading stories exemplifying one script, Ss can write a new story that follows the same script, showing that they can abstract out the __________________

• Bower et al. (1979) (p. 221 of text)
• False recall
• Ss read 18 passages, each with 6 actions.
• When recalling the passages, Ss recalled about 3 actions correctly and 1 action that  . . .
• Ordering
• Ss read lists of actions
• Actions were in or out of order for the script
• Ss asked to recall actions in order presented
• Recall was better when actions were in _________________

What is memory like?

• Verbatim memory
• Like a tape replaying
• perhaps with some gaps or loss of fidelity, or problems finding the right section of the tape
• but an accurate representation of what really happened
• ___________________ memory
• People put together clues and come up with a good hypothesis about what probably happened
• Clues come from the actual target event, but also from other sources

• Ss shown slides of a car accident (Loftus et al., 1978)
• In one slide the red Datsun was stopped by a stop (yield) sign.
• Later asked "Did another car _______ the red Datsun while it was stopped at the __________ sign?"
• Question was consistent or inconsistent with slide for half the Ss
• Ss later shown both signs (stop & yield) and asked which one the had seen.
• Ss reported correct sign (from slide)
• ____% if no misleading information
• ____% if misleading information

• ______________
• Original memory is gone
• ________________
• Two competing memories
• Misremember the source of each
• Misinformation ________________
• Assume the misleading information is _________
• If original memory is unclear, use the misinformation

• Ask Ss if they were given inconsistent information. Only 10% say they were.
• ___________ Ss that they may have been given misinformation does not improve accuracy
• Providing financial incentives for correct answer does not improve accuracy
• Second guess procedure

• Ss see stop or yield sign slide
• Asked misleading question about a no parking sign
• Then see  ________ signs; asked to pick the one they saw.
• Ss also give a second guess, in case first guess is wrong
• If original memory still exists, it should  _________________________
• Instead, second guess has ________ accuracy

• McCloskey & Zaragoza (1985)
• In original test, control group more likely to pick ___________ than misled group
• In modified test, however, both groups equally likely to pick hammer
• Indicates that misled group still has the memory of seeing the ___________
• Suggests that original memory was not ______________

• Lindsay (1990)
• View slide sequence
• Read narrative with misleading information
• Wait 48 hours
• Cued recall test
• Ss informed that __________________________
• Result: Ss still showed the misinformation effect
• Apparently don't remember the _________ of the information

• Overwriting
• __________ evidence supports this
• Source confusion
• ____________evidence supports this
• Misinformation acceptance
• Lindsay evidence rules ______________

• Overwriting old memories
• Implanting ______________ memories
• Possible explanation for ______________ memories

• Subjects asked to recall memories about 4 childhood events supplied by a relative.
• 3 events had actually happened; the 4th event was false (about getting lost in a ________________)
• Follow-up interviews about these events
• Subjects remembered something about 68% of the true events and _______% of the false event
• Subject often provide detailed accounts of the false event

• Maybe subjects are recalling a ___________ incident and confusing it with the false incident.
• This account is less likely if subjects "remembered" an ____________ event (one not easily confused with a similar real event).

• Spanos experiments on infant _____________ memories
• Subject performance on an experimental task suggests that they were exposed to particular mobiles during the first few days of life
• Ss asked to remember their first __________________ (using hypnotism or guided mnemonic restructuring)
• Interviewed again a week later
• 70 - 95% of Ss reported some infant memories
• Control subjects (who got no memory retrieval procedure) had no "real" memories
• Of guided or hypnotized subjects,________% said the memories were real; 16% said they were fantasies

• Ss asked for earliest memory; then probed for even earlier ones (mean age 3.7 years)
• Ss prompted that most adults can remember events before _______ birthday if they visualize
• ______% of Ss reported memories of events before age 2.
• Ss denied making up stories and gave high ____________ ratings
• Unlikely that these memories are actually true

• Maybe subjects are just making up reports to ______________________
• Ss deny doing so
• High confidence ratings
• Give elaborate ____________
• Talk to people outside the experiment about their "memories"
• Financial incentives for accuracy don't help
• Trick to getting a false memory is a strong _____________
• _____________ question
• Press for earlier memories

• Are these memories special?
• Are they more accurate than other memories?
• Niesser & Harsch (1992) study on memories for the 1986 ______________ explosion
• Next day recall of time and place of hearing the news
• Delayed recall 2.5 years later