Lecture 10a False Memory

Question 1

What pattern does memory loss follow over time?

Answer 1

A Power Function: rapid loss initially, then slows down over time.

Question 2

What is the critical question regarding memory loss and change?

Answer 2

Whether memories are simply lost or also change with time.

Question 3

What proportion of people believe memory works like a “video camera”?

Answer 3

About two-thirds of the general public.

Question 4

What do most people believe about how memory fails?

Answer 4

That information fades or becomes hazy but does not change fundamentally.

Question 5

What do researchers agree about the “video camera” model of memory?

Answer 5

It is false; memory is reconstructive and prone to errors and distortions.

Question 6

What theory explains confusion due to shared cues in memory?

Answer 6

Interference Theory.

Question 7

What is the AB-AC paired-associates paradigm?

Answer 7

A task where shared cues between lists cause confusion between similar associations.

Question 8

What kind of memory errors occur in the AB-AC paradigm?

Answer 8

Intrusion errors—recalling the wrong associate from another list.

Question 9

What real-world situation demonstrates interference from shared cues?

Answer 9

Attending different lectures in the same room and confusing details between weeks.

Question 10

What did Drewnowski & Murdock (1980) show about intrusion errors?

Answer 10

Most intrusions come from the immediately preceding list, showing temporal proximity causes confusion.

Question 11

What does temporal proximity mean for memory errors?

Answer 11

Events close in time are more likely to be confused.

Question 12

What are implicit associative responses (Underwood,1965)?

Answer 12

Automatically thinking of related words during study, which later cause false recognition.

Question 13

How do implicit associative responses cause false memories?

Answer 13

Imagined related words become associated with studied material, leading to source monitoring errors.

Question 14

What is a source monitoring error?

Answer 14

Confusing whether a memory came from actual experience or imagination.

Question 15

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm?

Answer 15

Participants study related words that all associate with a non-presented “critical lure.”

Question 16

What is a critical lure?

Answer 16

A word related to studied items but not actually presented.

Question 17

What were the findings of Roediger & McDermott (1995)?

Answer 17

Participants falsely recalled or recognized the critical lure with high confidence.

Question 18

How do semantic and phonological false memories differ?

Answer 18

Semantic errors relate to meaning; phonological errors relate to sound similarity.

Question 19

What did Sommers & Lewis (1999) find about phonological similarity?

Answer 19

Phonologically similar words can also produce false memories (e.g., “fat,” “bat,” “cab” → “cat”).

Question 20

What did Gallo Roberts & Seamon (1997) find about forewarning?

Answer 20

Forewarning reduces but does not eliminate false memories.

Question 21

How does number of associates affect false recognition (Robinson & Roediger,1997)?

Answer 21

False recognition increases as the number of studied associates increases.,

Question 22

What does the Source Monitoring Error theory propose?

Answer 22

False memory occurs when people confuse generated (imagined) and studied information.

Question 23

Why can’t source monitoring error alone explain DRM false memories?

Answer 23

False memories still occur even when critical lures are not imagined or rehearsed.

Question 24

What are the two memory traces in Fuzzy Trace Theory?

Answer 24

Verbatim traces (exact details) and gist traces (general meaning).

Question 25

How does Fuzzy Trace Theory explain false memory?

Answer 25

People rely on gist traces, which can lead to recalling related but unstudied items.

Question 26

Why does increasing associates strengthen false memory in Fuzzy Trace Theory?

Answer 26

More associates reinforce the gist, even if verbatim traces are missing.

Question 27

What does Activation Monitoring Theory propose?

Answer 27

Studying a word activates related concepts through semantic networks, creating false memory.

Question 28

Why can’t forewarning prevent false memories in Activation Monitoring Theory?

Answer 28

Because activation spreads automatically and involuntarily.

Question 29

What does the Global Similarity Account suggest?

Answer 29

Recognition is based on total similarity between the test item and all stored memories.

Question 30

What did Bartlett’s (1932) “War of the Ghosts” study show?

Answer 30

Memory becomes distorted to fit cultural schemas; gist remains more stable than details.

Question 31

What was Bartlett’s main conclusion about memory?

Answer 31

Memory is reconstructive, not reproductive.

Question 32

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 32

Post-event information distorts memory for the original event.

Question 33

What did Loftus & Palmer (1974) find about question wording?

Answer 33

Stronger verbs like “smashed” increased speed estimates and false recall of broken glass.

Question 34

When is misinformation less effective (Lindsay1990)?

Answer 34

When it comes from a different source or long after the original event.

Question 35

What did Loftus & Pickrell (1995) show in the “Lost in the Mall” study?

Answer 35

People can form detailed false childhood memories of events that never happened.

Question 36

What did Wade et al. (2002) demonstrate with the balloon study?

Answer 36

Doctored photos and repeated interviews can create false autobiographical memories.

Question 37

What did Wells & Bradfield (1998) find about eyewitness confidence?

Answer 37

Positive feedback after identification increases witness confidence even if incorrect.

Question 38

What are flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik,1977)?

Answer 38

Highly vivid and confident memories of emotionally charged events.

Question 39

Are flashbulb memories more accurate than ordinary memories?

Answer 39

No, they feel vivid and confident but are not more accurate.

Question 40

What did Neisser & Harsch (1992) find about Challenger explosion memories?

Answer 40

Large inconsistencies developed over time; participants were highly confident but wrong.

Question 41

What explanation did Neisser & Harsch propose for flashbulb distortions?

Answer 41

Later TV and social retellings replaced original personal memories.

Question 42

What did Talarico & Rubin (2003) find about flashbulb vs. ordinary memories?

Answer 42

Both declined in accuracy equally, but flashbulb memories stayed more vivid and confident.

Question 43

Why are flashbulb memories often inaccurate?

Answer 43

* Because of embellishment, * repeated retelling, * integration of others’ accounts.

Question 44

How do flashbulb memory errors relate to interference theory?

Answer 44

Similar cues from repeated retellings cause interference, like AB-AC learning.

Question 45

What did Freud propose about repression?

Answer 45

That traumatic memories are pushed into the unconscious and later recovered by therapists.

Question 46

Why were recovered memories controversial?

Answer 46

Some court cases relied on therapist-assisted recovered memories of abuse.

Question 47

Why was Loftus skeptical of repression?

Answer 47

Traumatic events are usually well remembered, and therapist suggestion can create false memories.

Question 48

What did Schooler (2001) report about recovered memories?

Answer 48

Some people recovered verified abuse memories spontaneously, not through therapy.

Question 49

What might explain some genuine recovered memories?

Answer 49

Proper retrieval cues or reinterpreting past events, not unconscious repression.

Question 50

Is there evidence for unconscious repression?

Answer 50

No empirical evidence supports repression as a defense mechanism.

Question 51

What does inhibition theory suggest about forgetting?

Answer 51

Retrieval of some items can inhibit access to others (retrieval-induced forgetting).

Question 52

Why can’t inhibition theory explain repression?

Answer 52

It does not require trauma and cannot be reversed by therapy.

Question 53

What did Mickes et al. (2011) find about memory confidence and accuracy?

Answer 53

High-confidence identifications in lab tasks are nearly perfectly accurate.

Question 54

What did Wixted & Wells (2017) find in eyewitness memory?

Answer 54

High-confidence identifications are extremely accurate.

Question 55

What did Diamond, Armson & Levine (2020) show about long-term recall?

Answer 55

Accuracy of recalled details remained extremely high even after two years.

Question 56

Why are flashbulb memories prone to contamination?

Answer 56

Because they are frequently shared and retold, allowing intrusion from others’ accounts.

Question 57

When are false memories most likely?

Answer 57

When misleading questions, similar events, or shared cues are present.

Question 58

When is memory most accurate?

Answer 58

When situations are distinct and share few cues with other events.

Question 59

What analogy illustrates high vs. low contamination in memory?

Answer 59

AB-AC learning (shared cues) leads to contamination; AB-CD learning (distinct cues) leads to accuracy.