Answers: Chapter 8 (Everyday Memory and Memory Errors)

Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 1

This is a set of questions to help you check your understanding of the material. It is recommended that you do them right after doing the lecture and the readings for that section, and then check your answers. 1. The observation that older adults often become nostalgic for the “good old days” reflects the self-image hypothesis, which states that

a. Life in a society gets more complicated and difficult as generations pass

b. Memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life identities

c. People tend to remember more of the positive events in their lives than the negative ones

d. Our memories change as we live longer and have more “lifetime periods” to draw events from

The correct answer is B. You should know the different hypotheses about what causes the “reminisence bump”. The self-image hypothesis is one of these, and it is accurately described by option B. Answer C was tempting because it offers an explanation for why they’re the “good” old days an not the “bad” old days. However this was not discussed in your text and has nothing to do with the self-image hypothesis.

2. Flashbulb memory is best represented by which of the following statements:

a. It is vivid memory for emotional events b. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event

c. It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not necessarily accurate over time Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 2

d. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for emotional events

The correct answer is C. There are two parts to this: 1) flashbulb memories are memories for the event of hearing about an emotional event (not the event itself) and 2) that it is vivid, but NOT accurate. You should remember both. This is tough because people are very confident about the flashbulb memories because of their vividness, but this confidence is not the same as accuracy.

3. Experiments that argue against a special flashbulb memory mechanism find that as time increases since the occurrence of the flashbulb event, participants

a. Remember more details about the event b. Make more errors in their memories for the event

c. Report having less confidence about their memories for the event d. Report having less vivid memories for the event

The correct answer is B. This continues on the theme of question 2. The memory remains vivid and people continue to be confident in it (so C and D are incorrect). However, it becomes LESS accurate, even though they feel like they’re simply remembering more details. That’s why B is right. A was tempting because it fits with what most people think is happening, but it’s actually wrong.

4. The “telephone game” is often played by children. One child creates a story and whispers it to a second child, who does the same to a third child, and so on. When the last child recites the story to the group, his or her reproduction of the story is generally shorter than the original and contains many omissions and inaccuracies. This game shows how memory is a ______process.

a. Life-narrative

b. Narrative-rehearsal Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 3

c. Consequentiality based

d. Constructive

The correct answer is D. Construction involves using schemas / scripts to “fill in” the details of something that is complicated, like a story. When different children use their own schemas / scripts, the story gets changed on each re- telling. You should know what it means for memory to be constructive. Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 4

5. Wei has allergy symptoms. He has gone to his regular doctor and an allergy specialist, but he wasn’t given a prescription by either doctor. Instead, he was advised to buy over-the-counter medicine. While he was in the specialist’s waiting room, he read a magazine where he saw three ads for an allergy medicine called SneezeLess. A week later, in a drug store, Wei says to his brother, “My doctor says SneezeLess works great. I’ll buy that one.” Wei and his doctor never discussed SneezeLess. Wei has fallen victim to which of the following errors:

a. Source monitoring b. MPI

c. The propaganda effect d. Schema confusion

The best answer is A but B is a very close second and C might have been involved as well (this question is actually too “tricky” for a real exam, but it makes you think….). Source monitoring is the best answer because we know for sure from the question that Wei remembered the statement that “SneezeLess works great” but mistakenly attributed it to his doctor. In reality the information must have come from the ads in the specialist’s waiting area. B is a close second because the doctor did actually discuss “over the counter medicine” of which SneezeLess might be one. If he visited the specialist after the doctor it could have been MPI, but we don’t know for sure that that’s the order so it’s not as good of a choice as A. C might have been involved too if the ads actually didn’t say “SneezeLess works great” but they actually said “Joe’s doctor says ‘sneezeless works great’“ or something like that.

6. The experiment for which people were asked to make fame judgements for both famous and non-famous names (and for which Sebastian Weissdorf was one of the names to be remembered) illustrated the effect of ______on memory.

a. repeated rehearsal of distinctive names

b. source misattributions c. encoding specificity Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 5

d. schemas

The correct answer is B. This is the becoming famous overnight study. People know that the name is familiar, but they don’t know why, so they just rate it as famous. It actually seems familiar because they read it during the study on a previous day. Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 6

7. Your text’s discussion of false memories leads to the conclusion that false memories

a. Are a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system b. Occur for detail but not for entire events

c. Occur in laboratory settings but do not occur in real-world circumstances

d. Do not occur for all people but rather are experienced by suggestible or inattentive people.

The correct answer is A. You can find specific counter examples in the text that rule out all of the answers except A. This is a good thing to try as you prepare for the exam. You should also go over reasons why it’s actually “adaptive” or “good” for the memory to be the way it is, even though it leads to false memories [hint: these are related to the constructive nature of memory]

8. The misinformation effect occurs when a person’s memory for an event is modified by misleading information presented

a. Before the event b. During the event

c. After the event d. All of the above

The correct answer is C. This is called MPI for misleading POSTevent information. Post means after. This is what happens with leading questions in eyewitness testimony. You should know about this – experiments and real- world examples. Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 7

9. Your text’s discussion of instances when people report a memory of being abused or witness to abuse after years of having no memory for these events highlights the importance of considering:

a. How visualization exercises during therapy may lead to false memories b. That there is no test that can accurately discriminate between true and false memories c. The specific situation under which a person recalls the past

d. All of the above

The correct answer is D. This is too awkward for a real test question but all of them are important to consider when thinking about these “recovered” memories. Cognitive psychologists believe that recovered memories are usually false (though some social workers and clinical psychologists disagree).

10. Explain how familiarity can lead to memory errors. Describe experimental evidence to show how familiarity can lead to memory errors. Also, describe an eyewitness testimony example of this. Finally, explain how familiarity can lead students to commit errors on a multiple choice exam.

When you are familiar with something you might connect it up with a different source when you recall it. This causes a memory error (source misattribution).

There was one woman who thought a certain man raped her. Really someone else raped her but the man she thought raped her was on the TV at the time (which she was watching). Her eyewitness testimony was an error.

Sometimes familiarity can mess you up on multiple choice exams. When there’s an answer you are familiar with because it has been mentioned a lot in class you might pick it just because it’s familiar, thinking that it’s right because you don’t remember when you heard it or what it was connected to. Memory and Cognition Chapter 7 8