Everyday Issues in Memory

Everyday Issues in Memory ________________________________________ 1) Distinguish between ‘applied research’ and ‘basic research’. 2) Describe a variety of classic mnemonic strategies and discuss the memory mechanisms that may account for their effectiveness. 3) Illustrate how memory informs and functions in educational settings. 4) Provide a brief overview of selected issues in memory and eyewitness testimony. Mnemonic Techniques: Informal & Formal ________________________________________ Informal Let's say that I changed your final writing assignment for the semester to be a book titled ‘5 Things I learned in this class that are going to help me remember stuff better’. What would some of the chapters of your book be titled? Formal Pegword EX: One-Bun Two-Shoe Three-Flea Acronyms EX: On Old Olympus Towering Tops… My Very Educated Mother… RICE Method of Loci Memory in Education ________________________________________ Practice – Good better best, never let it rest Early start – • earlier start ====> • Weighing the costs / benefits of early start • Early aptitude? EX: Searching for Bobby Fisher Motivation – • More motivated ====> • Ego-protection EX: World famous artist More on education: Transfer of training ________________________________________ Elementary school: Learning: 3 x 4 = 12 Test: 3 x 4 = ??? High school: Learning: If an 8 pound cannonball is shot from a cannon at 30 mph at an angle of 45°, with the wind is blowing at 6 mph, will it hit a wall 250 feet away? Test: If Barry Bonds hits a ball at 125 mph at 35 degrees from the horizon trajectory with the wind blowing in 5 mph, and the fence is 385' away, did he use steroids? College: Learning: Test: ________________________________________ Analogical transfer: Q: What does this say about your education? Eyewitness Testimony ________________________________________ Eyewitness testimony is a domain in which accuracy is of the utmost importance. People's lives and freedom are at stake. Problems: • Quite persuasive o EX: Discredited eyewitness • Quite inaccurate o EX: DNA acquittals Father Pagano vs. Robert Clouser Factors that Affect Testimony: Schemas ________________________________________ John Dean White House underling In charge of containing the Watergate scandal Testified before the Senate Watergate committee Surprise: Q: How would you characterize Dean's testimony in terms of accuracy? • Details o His actions / others actions o Who said what to him and when • Ebb and flow, mood, and outcomes o Deliberate intent to deceive? • Why does Neisser say that Dean missed the ‘gist’? More on John Dean ________________________________________ Explanation: • Schemas President offered me a seat, asked how I was • Expectations President have been pleased Nixon have praised him • Hindsight bias (re-interpreting events) ‘Remembered’ the cancer metaphor, but ‘remembered’ giving a more dire prognosis Overall interpretation: People are generally incapable of verbatim recall Why did Nixon release the tapes? TV lawyers discrediting witnesses Repisodes – Memory is accurate for general themes / events EX: That girl never had a crush on me Q: Is there a benefit to the reliance on gist over verbatim memory? One point: Objectivity / Generalizability Factors that Affect Testimony: Source Monitoring ________________________________________ Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) Theoretical Question: Can we easily distinguish between real and imagined events? Empirical Question: Why would imagination increase ratings? • Why might imagination fail to increase ratings? Why do we care? • Figure out my friend Kurt • Recovered memories More on Garry, et al. (1996) ________________________________________ Procedure • Rated a long list of events for probability of occurrence. EX: Got in trouble for calling 911 Had to go to the ER late at night Found money • Two weeks later, came back and imagined some of the events • Re-rated probability Results • Most ratings • More went • More went up in than than in Interpretation: Thinking about an event increases Problems: Did imagination remind SS of true event? Regression to the mean Factors that Affect Testimony: Emotion ________________________________________ Central vs. peripheral details • Emotion helps memory for • Emotion hurts memory for details details Interferes with encoding… • draws attention to salient, emotion-producing aspects of environment EX: • Initial memory better for …But enhances retention • Rate of forgetting is more shallow for Why? • Is it because of the way emotional events are encoded? or • Is it because emotional events are rehearsed more often Laboratory/everyday memory problem Retention functions: Neutral vs. Emotional Events ________________________________________ 70 Neutral Emotional 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Factors that Affect Testimony: Suggestibility / Misinformation ________________________________________ Suggestibility – Loftus & Palmer (1974) Speed estimates were positively correlated with the violence implied by the verb in question. Big Question: Did this reflect response bias or were people’s memories for the event really influenced or altered? Answer: Did you see any broken glass? People were more likely to say ‘Yes’ as the verb became more violent. Misinformation – Three stages: Witness an event. Answer some misleading Qs. Recognition memory test Results: People are more likely to pick the yield sign if they received the misleading question than if they did not. Interpretation: Misinformation Effects: Bowers and Bekerian (1984) ________________________________________ Theoretical question: Does PEI overwrite old memories, or compete with old memories? Empirical Question: Will random/sequential presentation order influence the effect of PEI? Method: Classic misinformation paradigm Phase II: Phase III: Results: 1. Inconsistent PEI produced more errors than consistent PEI 2. However, PEI had no effect if Phase III Interpretation: • Accessibility explanation • Serial order is an important aspect of encoding o Importance in real world? • PEI can be overcome o Implications for overwriting? Eyewitness Identification of Faces: Brown, Deffenbacher and Sturgill (1977) ________________________________________ Theoretical Question: Given picture recognition, why aren’t people better at identifying faces? Empirical Question: How do face identification and source memory compare? E1 – Method: Faces shown in different rooms. E1 – Results: Face ID: ☺; Room:  E2 – Method: Meet the targets… mug shots…lineup E2 – Results: 0.5 Mean % ID 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 CMS CNMS MS LO Group Interpretation: • explain face ID • Generalizability to real world? • Mug shot followed by lineup: More on Face identification: Verbal Overshadowing Dodson, Johnson, and Schooler (1997) ________________________________________ Verbal Overshadowing Effect – If people are asked to verbally describe a person, their ability to recognize that person later on is decreased. Why do we care? B/C that is the way the police typically work. Theoretical Question: Is the VOE produced by source confusion or change in processing style? Empirical Question: How will changing the various aspects of the methodology influence the effect? E2 – Method Some described parent, some described the robber; some were given a description. E2 – Results: More on Dodson, et al. (1997) ________________________________________ E3 – Method Saw female and male faces Described one and only one of the faces E3 – Results: Implications: Processing shift. Why? Question: How would you test processing shift hypothesis using fMRI? Problem: • This is how law enforcement typically works. o What is the solution? o Why is that a problem? More on the Verbal Overshadowing Effect: Finger and Pezdek (1999) ________________________________________ Applied Question: Should we change the way police do interviews? Theoretical question: Does the VOE occur because the verbal description overwrites the earlier memory? Empirical Question: How will using the Cognitive Interview affect the VOE? Cognitive Interview: 1. Context reinstatement 2. Manipulating order 3. Taking on perspectives of other folks 4. Report everything you can 5. Open-ended questions E1: The Cognitive Interview would… Decrease the VOE. Why? Increase the VOE. Why? Finger and Pezdek (1999) continued ________________________________________ E1 – Results CI: decreased ID (also decreased false alarms) SS who failed: Reported more details, both accurate and inaccurate E2: Would introducing a delay eliminate the effect of the Cog. Interview? Results: In fact, performance was better in the E3: Three conditions: 1. no description 2. description with delay 3. description w/o delay Results: Implications: Theoretical: Overwriting? Accessibility explanation of VOE Applied: police methods?