Myers PSYCHOLOGY 8th Edition in Modules

1
Myers PSYCHOLOGY (8th Edition in Modules)

• Module 28
• Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Improving
  Memory

2
Forgetting

• Forgetting as encoding failure
• Information never enters long-term memory

3
Forgetting

• Ebbinghaus forgetting curve over 30 days--
  initially rapid, then levels off with time

4
Forgetting

• The forgetting curve for Spanish learned in school

5
Retrieval

• Forgetting can result from failure to retrieve
  information from long-term memory

6
Forgetting as Interference

• Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of
  other information
• Proactive (forward acting) Interference
• disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of
  new information
• Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference
• disruptive effect of new learning on recall of
  old information

7
Forgetting as Interference
8
Forgetting

• Retroactive Interference

9
Forgetting

• Forgetting can occur at any memory stage
• As we process information, we filter, alter, or
  lose much of it

10
Forgetting Interference

• Motivated Forgetting
• people unknowingly revise memories
• Repression
• defense mechanism that banishes from
  consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts,
  feelings, and memories

11
Memory Construction

• We filter information and fill in missing pieces
• Misinformation Effect
• incorporating misleading information into one's
  memory of an event
• Source Amnesia
• attributing to the wrong source an event that we
  experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined
  (misattribution)

12
Memory Construction

• Eyewitnesses reconstruct memories when questioned

13
Memory Construction

• Most people can agree on the following
• Injustice happens
• Incest happens
• Forgetting happens
• Recovered memories are commonplace
• Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs are
  especially unreliable
• Memories of things happening before age 3 are
  unreliable
• Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting

14
Memory Construction

• People may find it difficult to tell the
  difference between real and suggested events.
• 3 years after the Challengers explosion, many
  people were surprised by their own handwritten
  accounts of what they were doing when they heard
  about it.
• Repeatedly imagining events can create false
  memories.
• May contribute to memories of alien abduction.

15
Improve Your Memory

• Study repeatedly to boost recall
• Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking
  about the material
• Make material personally meaningful
• Use mnemonic devices
• associate with peg words--something already
  stored
• make up story
• chunk--acronyms

16
Childrens Eyewitness Recall

• In 90 of studies, preschoolers are more
  suggestible than adults in terms of false
  memories.
• Note that 55 3 year olds pointed to the genital
  or anal areas of an anatomically correct doll
  when asked where a pediatrician had touched them,
  even though none of them actually had that type
  of exam (Ceci and Bruck, 1993, 1995).
• Also note Ceci and Bruck who simply asked kids if
  they had gone to the hospital to have a mousetrap
  removed weekly interviews - 58 reported that
  they had, and professional psychologists who
  specialize in identifying false memories were
  fooled.

17
Improve Your Memory

• Activate retrieval cues--mentally recreate
  situation and mood
• Recall events while they are fresh-- before you
  encounter misinformation
• Minimize interference
• Test your own knowledge
• rehearse
• determine what you do not yet know