Picking Cotton Activity

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Picking Cotton Activity
Picking Cotton on 60 Minutes (http//www.cbsnews.c
om/stories/2009/03/06/60minutes/main4848039.shtml)
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Forgetting

• Forgetting is a result of either
• Encoding Failure
• Storage Decay OR
• Retrieval Failure

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Forgetting As Encoding Failure

• Information never enters the memory system
• Attention is selective
• we cannot attend to everything in our environment
• William James said that we would be as bad off if
  we remembered everything as we would be if we
  remembered nothing

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Encoding Failure Which Penny is the Real Deal?

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Forgetting As Storage Decay

• Ebbinghauss study concluded that forgetting
  occurs rapidly at first and then levels off over
  time. His famous forgetting curve is below.

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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

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Revisiting Terms Retrieval Failure

• Tip of the Tongue phenomenon when we are
  certain we know something yet we are unable to
  recall it.
• Relates to retrieval failure, usually priming or
  external cues will help you recall the
  information you are looking for.

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Motivated Forgetting

• Motivated Forgetting is the idea that people
  unknowingly revise their history. Ex I broke
  up with her she didnt break up with me.
• What purpose might motivated forgetting serve?

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Motivated Forgetting As A Freudian Concept

• Repression idea put forth by psychoanalytic
  theorists like Freud which states anxiety
  arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories can be
  banished from consciousness.
• Ex child abuse, rape, incest may be repressed
  and not be able to be actively recalled.

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Freud believed Repression was a Defense Mechanism

• Freud argued individuals often forgot traumatic
  incidents to protect their self concepts and to
  minimize external anxiety.
• Freud argued Forgotten incidents are banished
  the unconscious.
• The incidents may cause you to have unexplained
  phobias or problems, that wont be helped until
  you uncover the incident.

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Repression and Controversy of Child Abuse

• In the late 1980s a book came out called The
  Courage to Heal which encouraged people to
  recover memories of abuse.
• Following the book, Recover Memory Therapists
  arose in great numbers and many people began
  reporting incidents of repressed abuse.
• Sometimes repressed memories were used as
  evidence against individuals in court cases.

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Controversy of Repressed Memories

• Although there have been documented cases of
  forgotten trauma, many psychologists argued that
  some repressed memories may have been constructed
  by therapists.
• The False Memory Syndrome Foundation argues it
  is possible for individuals relationships to
  center around a false belief.
• Some psychologists have argued against the very
  existence of repressed memories since most
  memories that take place during stressful events
  are remembered more vividly.

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Defining Memory Construction

• Memory Construction refers to the idea that
  memories are NOT objective recordings of the
  actual events we experience.
• Our memories are often affected by our
  pre-existing schemas and involve information
  filtering and interpretations.
• We can have real memories of events that never
  took place or that are filled with inaccuracy
  because we fill in memory gaps with plausible
  guesses.

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Elizabeth Loftuss Research on Eyewitness
Testimony

• Loftus had individuals watch car accidents and
  then recorded results based on questioning
  procedures.

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Loftuss Research

• Subjects were asked to reveal how fast they
  thought the cars were going.
• Question consisted of How fast were the cars
  going when they _______________ each other.
• Loftus filled in the blanks with different words
  including bumped, collided, contacted, hit, or
  smash.
• Speed was elevated to great degree when smashed
  was used as key verb and subjects were likely to
  remember broken glass when there was none.

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Loftus Videos

• The Bunny Effect (http//www.youtube.com/watch?ve
  ZlPzSeUDDwfeaturerelated)
• Lost in a Mall (http//www.youtube.com/watch?vPQr
  _IJvYzbAfeaturerelated)

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Misinformation Effect and Memory Construction

• Misinformation Effect incorporating misleading
  information into one's memory of an event.
• Children are most susceptible to the
  misinformation effect.

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Memory Construction Continued

• Source Amnesia attributing to the wrong source
  an event that we experienced, heard about, read
  about, or imagined (misattribution)
• Ex Reagans story about WWII gunner was
  actually from a movie he saw.

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Memory Construction Overview

• People fill in memory gaps with plausible guesses
  and assumptions
• Imagining events can create false memories
• Children's eyewitness recall
• Child sexual abuse does occur
• Some innocent people suffer false accusations
• Some guilty cast doubt on true testimony

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Random Memory Info Would You Want Photographic
Memory?

• The technical term for photographic memory is
  eidetic imagery which refers to an especially
  clear and persistent form of memory that is quite
  rare.
• Examples Include
• Being able to re-read a book in your mind after
  having read it once.
• Mental images appear outside and can last up to
  several minutes.

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Random Memory Info

• Levels of Processing Theory the explanation for
  the fact that information that is more thoroughly
  connected to meaningful items in long-term memory
  (more deeply processed) will be remembered
  better.
• Ex Learn new information best when you are able
  relate new terms to what you already know.
  Encoding for meaning also causes the deepest
  processing.

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Review How Can Chapter 9 Concepts Help You
Study?