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Psychology
Introduction to Lab Class 1
False Memory
Week 6
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Memory failure
An event occurs and you witness it but later you have
no (poor or distorted) memory for it
If asked at the time you would describe the event
clearly
An event did NOT occur but later you thought that it
had occurred
If asked at the time you would say the event did
not occur
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Remembering an event
A description of the event is stored when the event
occurs (memory trace)
When you remember the event you retrieve or
access the memory trace
Details of the event become available
Some details may be lost or confused with other
traces
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
False memory
How can you remember an event that did not occur?
Create a memory trace as if the event occurred
Lead the participant to believe that the event
occurred
Get participant to think about the event
Participant may confuse what was thought with what
was witnessed
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Applications
False memory has important legal implications:
Bias of witnesses (memory distortion) by interrogation
False memories arising during extensive
psychotherapy
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Word associations
to find the associates of a word
give the word as a cue
ask the participant for a response
the general idea is that when the cue word is read
other associated words are activated
If I say cat you might think dog
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Example
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Recognition test
Words were shown singly, participants made old-new
judgments (is the word old or new).
If they thought the word was old, they should also
make a remember-know judgment.
A remember judgment is given when the participant
can mentally relive the experience of seeing the
word.
A know judgment is defined as a high confidence
that the item occurred in the list, but the participant is
unable to re-experience their exposure to the word.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Results
Seven times more study words were classified as
old than new words (memory).
The proportion of critical lures classified as old was
equal to the proportion of study words.
Furthermore, the proportions of critical lures
classified as remembered or known were equal to
those for study words.
Participants were unable to distinguish items actually
presented from the critical lures.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Lab Experiment
A variation on Roediger and McDermott
Some aspects will be the same
Same stimuli: we will use words from their lists, both
during the study phase and during the recognition
phase.
Same structure: study list; filled retention interval;
recognition test
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Lab Experiment
A variation on Roediger and McDermott
Other aspects will be different
Task: participants will be asked to rate their
confidence that they recognize or do not recognize
the word
The total list of 96 words will be randomly presented,
rather than in their individual groups.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Variables
Independent variable: (manipulated by experimenter)
Type of word
Three levels: old words, new words, and critical
lures
Dependent variable: (measure of performance)
Recognition confidence rating
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Procedure
Study phase:
96 words: 12 words each from 8 of R&Ms lists
Recognition phase:
40 old words: five of the words previously seen, taken
from each of the 8 study-phase lists
8 critical lures: the 8 themes of the above lists
48 new words: 6 words each from 8 of R&Ms lists,
NOT previously presented
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Predictions
If lures are falsely recognized due to their association with
the study words, then
Participants will be confident they recognize the old
words, and also confident they do not recognize the new
words.
Critical lures will be recognized the same as old words.
The above two findings would allow us to replicate and
support the results of Roediger and McDermott (1995).
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Predictions
But, if lures are falsely recognized due to participants being
encouraged to think of themes for the free recall task
used by R&M, then randomizing the study list should
eliminate the effect and
Participants will be confident they recognize the old
words, and also confident they do not recognize the new
words.
Critical lures will be recognized the same as new words.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Predictions
Or something in between
It may be the case that randomizing the study list
weakens but does not eliminate the false memory effect.
What pattern of result do you think might happen in that
case?
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
On Thursday
Compulsory
Data Collection 2.708
See your personal timetable for your start time
(2pm, 3pm or 4pm)
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Next week
Generalization and sample size
Howitt & Cramer, Ch. 4
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Thursday, October 27, 2011