PSY20006 Cog Psyc Mindmap Week 6 Pt2

PSY20006 Cog Psyc Mindmap Week 6 Pt2

1. Everyday memory

   • Autobiographical
     • Subset of episodic memory?
     • Properties – quality or quantity?
       • Events of personal significance • Complex events • Extends over many years • Involves some semantic content • More sensitive to loss in amnesia
     • Burianova et al (2010): controlled studies of multiple recalls show the same networks in semantic, episodic and autobiographical recall
     • Flashbulb memory (Brown & Kulik 1977)
       • Phenomenal (experiential) properties: • Vivid • Long lasting • Often highly detailed • Emotional
       • Actual Properties:
         • Vividness remains high but consistency the same as regular memories - Talarico and Rubin (2003)
     • Some studies show consistency - Kvavishvili et al (2009)
     • Consistency supported for some aspects: • Location (83%) > Informant (70%) > Activity (62%) > Reaction (34%) • Rimmele et al (2012) one week versus 3 years after event
   • Neisser – in everyday memory, remembering: • Is purposeful • Has a personal quality • Is influenced by the situational demands
   • Eye-witness
   • Prospective
     • • Memory of things to do in the future
     • “the cognitive function we use for formulating plans and promises, for retaining them, and for recollecting them, subsequently either at the right time, or on the occurrence of appropriate cues”
     • Prospective vs Retrospective
       • Qualitative and consequential differences
         • Memory lapses • Prospective -> “Flaky” (character flaw) • Retrospective -> “Faulty” (biological flaw)
       • Content and cues • Retrospective -> detailed content, many cues, concerns “what” • Prospective -> concerns “when”, sparse time cues, less detail
       • Time-based versus Event-based • Time based à remembering to act at a given time (33% correct) • Event based à remembering to act when a certain thing happens (52% correct)

2. Role of emotion:

   • Rimmele et al (2012) • Coloured dots on emotionally-negative versus neutral scenes • Better memory for negative scene, but poorer memory for coloured dots • Negative emotion may selectively enhance memory for some features of scenes
   • Sharot et al (2007) • Strong emotion required for flashbulb memories
   • Bernstein (2001) • PTSD: flashbacks related to flashbulb memory • Recall reactivates emotion attached with memory • Reconsolidates traumatic memory?

3. Memory across lifespan

   • • Childhood / Infantile Amnesia (few memories before 3) • Reminiscence bump (high number of memories between 10 – 30, focussed on late teens?) • “Recency” effects (slightly higher density of recent events

4. Infantile Amnesia

   • Cognitive self • Autobiographical memory requires emergence of self
   • Socio-cultural development • Language is used to encode experiences
   • Two stage theory • Absolute amnesia (related to lack of “self”) • Relative amnesia (lack of language)
   • Neurogenic Hypothesis • Memory requires development of hippocampus

5. Eye Witness Testimony

   • • Individual accounts of something experienced produce the most compelling and persuasive evidence • In court, but probably also in general
   • Misinformation Effect • Incorrect or misleading information after an event leads to it being incorporated into the memory
   • • Memory biases • Expectancy • Schema-congruent information
   • False memory • memories implanted of events that did not occur