Memory Flaws
Do we have memory errors? If so, what was an in-class example of this?
1. YES, the failure of memory happens at a chemical and cellular level
2. There have been reports that parents left their children in the back seat.
What is Absentminded?
Has everything to do with ATTENTION. If you do not attend to something, you're not encoding it. Attention is a prerequisite for encoding.
OMISSION
We are activated to retrieve certain information, based on _______________, (the categories and biases we have that lead us to retrieve something when in fact it wasn't there. We are subjectively influenced by that schema, biases etc) and ______________, (things that are similar in terms of physical characteristics)
1. TOP-DOWN PROCESSING
2. BOTTOM UP PROCESSING
What are Flashbulb memories? What's the Connectionist Network Model Mccllend & Rogers?
1. Detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events – enhanced retention of memories due to emotional arousal
2. Instead of nodes, think of units.
- EX: Canary - Bird - Animal, Canary- Bird - Can Fly, rather than to look at the distance between the nodes, we all have units (think of as a neuron), we have a representation or schema or what a canary is
Excitation or Inhibition of networks of units of knowledge or concepts
What is Low Prototypicality vs High Prototypicality?
1. LOW - low family resemblance, slower reaction time, less affected by priming
2. HIGH - high family resemblance, quicker reaction time, affected by priming (resembles the prototype more closely)
- Can be influenced by what you are familiar with and top down processing
What are the seven sins of memory?
Transcience, Absentminded, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, Persistance
What is Blocking? What is an example?
The failure to retrieve information that is available even though you are trying to produce it.
EX: A domestic abuse victim goes straight to the hospital after an incident, the nurse asks what happened but the victim cannot remember what happened (they genuinely cannot remember they just know something happened)
OMISSION
What is Bias?
Present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings, distorts the retrieval of previous experiences
What is a Guardian, Inventor, and Librarian?
Librarian-
resorting, recategorizing, updating
Inventor-
forget the function of certain things, opens up the path for creativity
Allows us to consider new ways of functioning
Guardian-
Biases and misattribution are somewhat protection
Need biases to maintain psychologically
Why is something of low prototypicality less affected by priming?
It’s not the norm or what you expect to see, and because of that since its LP, it is less influenced by priming because it is not very typical
What is Omission? Which are errors of Omission?
1. Failure to bring to mind desired information, When you are unable to retrieve information, due to the retrieval process or because something wasn't encoded. YOU CANT RETRIEVE AT ALL.
2. Transcience, Absentminded, Blocking
A situation in which some form of memory is present but is misattributed to an incorrect time, place, or person.
EX: DMR Procedure- A list of words, Often times you would swear there was a word on the list but it wasn’t actually on the list aka “sweet” because the words on the list (candy, pie, chocolate, cake, etc) but the word sweet was not on the list. They misattributed the list. (False information/memory)
What is Consistency bias vs Change bias?
1. Consistency Bias- Reconstructing the past to fit what we presently believe
2. Change Bias- Overestimating differences between past and present events when we have no reason to believe that we have changed over time
What is a Concept? What do we categorize concepts by?
1. A mental representation of categories
2. Family resemblance, not by strict definition
What is Rosch's Hierarchal Organization? Do you lose less or more information when you go from Basic to Superordinate?
Superordinate- The larger BROAD category
Basic- Something that resembles the prototype, the average, what we expect to see
Subordinate- More SPECIFIC, a certain type of prototype
The way we categorize things are based on this hierarchy
2.
You lose a lot of information.
EX: If a basic object is a guitar or piano or drum (if you go from this basic category to a superordinate category (they’re all musical instruments) and you lose a lot of information)
What is Commission? Which are the errors of Commission?
1. When you retrieve something, but you retrieve the wrong thing. Memory is present but incorrect or unwanted
2. Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, Persistance
What is Suggestibility? In-Class Example?
The tendency to incorporate information overtly provided by others into one's recollection. (You are swayed by someone else, thus you'll retrieve the information wrong) Your memory is distorted by misleading post-event information
EX: How fast do you think the cars were going when they smashed into one another?
What is Persistence?
Remembering a fact or event that one would rather forget
- Intrusive and repeated recollections of traumatic events, ruminations over negative symptoms (chronic fears)
-Persistent emotional memories (especially fear) depend to a large extent on the limbic system (amygdala)
What is a Prototype? What are Prototypes & Exemplars based on?
1. A typical member of a category (average representation of a category)
- You base the family resemblance on the prototype
2. top-down processing (what we are familiar with and what we are used to)
What is Tanaka and Taylor Study on Categorization? What is a study similar to this?
They did a series of studies that said how you identify categories and how you categorize concepts are based on whether or not you’re a novice or an expert
One group was expert bird watchers (they could identify the species, type, family of birds they saw, chirping sounds, etc)
One group were the nonexperts aka novice a bird is a bird (basic)
For someone who is an expert they tend to identify birds based on very specific (subordinate levels)
Subordinate vs Basic changes due to expertise, which means it is susceptible to learning and experience (top-down processing, not static)
2. Lynch Tall Is Typical
Depending on whether or not we’re an expert or novices at something, we are going to categorize something as the prototype differently
- Prototypicality of a concept deals with how familiar we are, whether or not we’re an expert or novice in something
What is Transcience? What is an example?
Always associated with TIME. Over the course of time if you do not use the information. A failure in encoding, shallow encoding.
EX: Ebbinghause Forgetfulness Curve (The beginning of the curve), we lose information if we do not use it.
OMISSION.
What is the Activation/Monitoring Framework for False Memory? (Gallo)
Activation- Any process that mentally activates schemas/scripts that contribute to the retrieval of potentially false information
Monitoring- Memory editing or division process that helps to determine the origins of this activated information (this is conscious, you're aware of it)
What is the Spreading Activation Theory of Semantic Processing? Collins & Quillan
The strength of the relationships between the concepts and nodes, is more determined by one’s experience. The shorter the lines the more closely related the concepts. This differs based on individual experiences.
- The distances can change over time, they’re always in flux, the diagram is not set in stone it’s always influenced or affected by our experiences
Who was the first person to put terms for how we categorize things? What is Priming?
1. Rosch
2. You have something you can retrieve, but you can’t retrieve it unless someone gives you a little push (But it has to be on the verge of retrieval)
What is the Taxonomic Hierarchy Model? What's its biggest criticism?
1. An object (canary) is represented by a node, the lines represent the relationship between the nodes or concepts.
- The farther the distance between the nodes, suggests that it would take longer to respond because when we think about a canary we think of it as a bird. A canary is an animal but it is not an association that we readily draw.
2. The biggest criticism of the Taxonomy model can be very different based on experience
The model is not necessarily strictly based on the rigged association between concepts and nodes, but is mostly dictated by experience