PSY 201 Ch. 6

1) Reconstructive Remembering: We tend to "fill in" parts of our memories based on past experiences, expectations

2) Reconstructed Memories: Loftus' research shows that false memories can easily be implanted in individuals (reconstruction leads to fabrication of memories)

• Leading Question Effect
• - Memory is not perfect reflection of reality
• - Any even you remember is a combo of the original event plus related info
• - This distorts our memories and influences later eyewitness testimony

Forgetting can occur at any memory stage

1) Enoding Failure: We cannot remember what we do not encode into LTM (Nickerson and Adams: Most people unable to select correct penny; our memory is selective)

2) Storage Decay: Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay; Ebbhinghaus' "forgetting curve": after five days you remember about 22%

3) Retrieval Failure: Although the info is stored in LTM, it cannot be accessed. TWO TYPES: (1) Proactive interference- old info interferes w/retrieval of new info. (2) Retroactive interference- New info interferes w/old info.

People know that they know something, even when they are unable to recall it

When we try to recall a specific item that seems familiar yet eludes us

1) Hippocampus: involves in the formation and storage of memories

2) Cerebellum: Involves in the procedural memory and verbal working memory

• Memory loss caused by physical problems in the brain
• - Trauma: head injuries, brain surgery, stroke, infection
• - Neural degeneration (e.g. Alzheimer's)

Retrograde: Difficulty retrieving memories from before the trauma (temporary)

Anterograde: Difficulty forming new memories after trauma (New events not transferred to LTM, like 50 First Dates)

-Involves forming connections between to-be-remembered input and other info in memory

-Semantic coding: the deeper the level of processing, the higher participant's accuracy

-Mnemonics: to-be-remembered items are combined into sentences or new words (e.g. Names of the Great Lakes "HOMES")

- The ability to remember an item depends on the match in context between encoding and retrieval; similar-> improves memory; different-> impairs memory

- Retrieval cues should be maximally similar to encoding cues

- Mood-dependent memory: people recall better when their mood at the time of recall matches their mood at the time of learning

- State-dependent memory: Material is easier to retrieve when people are in the same chemically intoxicated state as they were in at encoding