{"id":270,"date":"2020-05-05T18:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T18:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=270"},"modified":"2022-08-29T16:51:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T16:51:42","slug":"problems-with-memory","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/chapter\/problems-with-memory\/","title":{"raw":"Forgetting and Memory Errors","rendered":"Forgetting and Memory Errors"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"PageContent-ny9bj0-0 iapMdy\">\r\n<div id=\"main-content\" class=\"MainContent__HideOutline-sc-6yy1if-0 bdVAq\">\r\n<div id=\"1a67a5b9-fd8a-45e1-a5e6-c1d5375e8cd6\">\r\n<div id=\"17125\" class=\"ui-has-child-title\"><section>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Learning Objectives<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">By the end of this section, you will be able to:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Compare and contrast different types of amnesia<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss factors that affect the reliability of eyewitness testimony<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss encoding failure<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss the various memory errors<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Compare and contrast the different types of interference<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm170153072\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">\u201cI\u2019ve a grand memory for forgetting,\u201d quipped author Robert Louis Stevenson.\u202f<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">Forgetting\u202f<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">refers to loss of information from long-term memory.\u00a0 <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">In 1885, German psychologist Hermann\u202fEbbinghaus\u202fstudied forgetting by memorizing lists of <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">nonsense <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">syllables and measuring how many words he remembered when he attempted to relearn each list.\u00a0 He compared memory performance over different delay periods, from 20 minutes to 30 days later. The result is his famous <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">forgetting curve <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">(Figure M.8) showing that information fades with the passage of time.\u00a0 An average person will lose 50% of the memorized information after 20 minutes and 70% after 24 hours (Ebbinghaus, 1885\/1964). Memory for new information decays quickly and then eventually levels out.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\"> But why do we forget? To answer this question, we will look at several perspectives on forgetting.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW59431748 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<figure>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"731\"]<img id=\"50668\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/0c237b989aa8d57da376b147c8965832694bc214\" alt=\"A line graph has an x-axis labeled \u201celapsed time since learning\u201d with a scale listing these intervals: 0, 20, and 60 minutes; 9, 24, and 48 hours; and 6 and 31 days. The y-axis is labeled \u201cretention (%)\u201d with a scale of zero to 100. The line reflects these approximate data points: 0 minutes is 100%, 20 minutes is 55%, 60 minutes is 40%, 9 hours is 37%, 24 hours is 30%, 48 hours is 25%, 6 days is 20%, and 31 days is 10%.\" width=\"731\" height=\"326\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.8 The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows how quickly memory for new information decays.<\/span>[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm143356416\">\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Schacter and the Seven Sins of Memory<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">There are<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">many<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> theories<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> explaining<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">different<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> types of memory, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">but<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> there are<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">n\u2019t<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> as many <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">theo<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">ries <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">about<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> types of forgetting. M<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">emory researcher<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">Daniel Schacter <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">attempted to organize memory errors into a unified framework in his book,<\/span> <\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">The Seven Sins of Memory <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">(2001)<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">. Schacter<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">presents these as <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">a<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> list of seven <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">\u201c<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">sins<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">,\u201d falling into one of two categories: <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">errors of omission<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">, involving <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">failures of recall<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">, and <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">errors of commission, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">where recall is <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">distorted<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> or <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">unwanted<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">(<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">Table <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">M<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">.1<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW172858437 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n<table class=\"top-titled\" summary=\"Table 8.1 \">\r\n<thead>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th colspan=\"4\" scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Table M.1 Schacter\u2019s Seven Sins of Memory<\/span><\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Sin<\/span><\/th>\r\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Type<\/span><\/th>\r\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Description<\/span><\/th>\r\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Example<\/span><\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Transience<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessibility of memory decreases over time<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forget events that occurred long ago<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">absentmindedness<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting caused by lapses in attention<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forget where your phone is<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Blocking<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessibility of information is temporarily blocked<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Tip of the tongue<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Misattribution<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Source of memory is confused<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Recalling a dream memory as a waking memory<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Suggestibility<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">False memories<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Result from leading questions<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Bias<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Memories distorted by current belief system<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Align memories to current beliefs<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Persistence<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Intrusion<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Inability to forget undesirable memories<\/span><\/td>\r\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Traumatic events<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-weight: 400;font-family: Lora, serif;font-size: 1em;color: #000000\">Let\u2019s look at the first sin:<strong>\u202ftransience<\/strong>, which means that memories can fade over time, as demonstrated by Ebbinghaus\u2019 forgetting curve for nonsense syllables (Figure M.8). Information that\u2019s stored but not used is vulnerable to this type of forgetting.\u00a0 Consider this real life example: Nathan\u2019s English teacher has assigned his students to read the novel\u202f<em>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>. He tells his mom he has to read this book for class and she says, \u201cOh, I loved that book!\u201d Nathan asks her what the book is about, and after some hesitation she says, \u201cWell, I know I read the book in high school, and I remember that one of the main characters is named Scout, and her father is an lawyer, but I honestly don\u2019t remember anything else.\u201d Nathan wonders if his mother actually read the book, and his mother is surprised she can\u2019t recall the plot. What is going on here is storage decay: unused information tends to fade with the passage of time.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Are you constantly losing your phone? Have you ever returned home to make sure you locked the door? Have you ever walked into a room for something but forgotten what it was? You probably answered yes to at least one, if not all, these examples\u2014but don\u2019t worry, you are not alone. We are all prone to committing the memory error known as\u202f<\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">absentmindedness<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, which describes lapses in memory caused by breaks in attention or our focus being elsewhere. Insufficient attention when we are first learning something can result in <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">encoding<\/strong> <strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">failure<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. We can\u2019t remember something if we never stored it in our memory in the first place. For some types of information, we use effortful encoding in order to remember something, where we pay attention to the details and actively work to process the information. However, many times we don\u2019t do this. Think of how many times in your life you\u2019ve seen a Canadian one-dollar coin. Can you accurately recall what the front of a Loonie looks like? Can you sketch it accurately? Probably not and the most likely reason is due to an encoding failure. Most of us never encode the details of the coin, we only encode enough information to be able to distinguish it from other coins. If we don\u2019t encode the information, then it\u2019s not in our long-term memory, so we will not be able to remember it.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Schachter\u2019s third sin of omission is <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">blocking<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">: an inability to access stored information. \u201cI just streamed this movie called\u202fOblivion, and it had that famous actor in it. Oh, what\u2019s his name? He\u2019s been in all of those movies, like\u202fThe Shawshank Redemption\u202fand\u202fThe Dark Knight\u202ftrilogy. I think he\u2019s even won an Oscar. Oh gosh, I can picture his face in my mind, and hear his distinctive voice, but I just can\u2019t think of his name! This is going to bother me until I can remember it!\u201d This particular error can be so frustrating because you have the information right on the tip of your tongue. (Figure M.9).<\/span><\/span>\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"325\"]<img id=\"34434\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/5e6c829b3696b97900550cb5cbfd75e62d95f720\" alt=\"A photograph shows Morgan Freeman.\" width=\"325\" height=\"541\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.9 Blocking is also known as tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon. The memory is right there, but you can\u2019t seem to recall it, just like not being able to remember the name of that very famous actor, Morgan Freeman. (credit: modification of work by D. Miller)<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Now let\u2019s take a look at the errors of commission:<strong>\u202fmisattribution<\/strong> happens when you confuse the source of your information. Let\u2019s say Alejandra was dating Lucia and they saw the first Hobbit movie together. Then they broke up and Alejandra saw the second Hobbit movie with someone else. Later that year, Alejandra and Lucia get back together. One day, they are discussing how the Hobbit books and movies are different and Alejandra says to Lucia, \u201cI loved watching the second movie with you and seeing you jump out of your seat during that super scary part.\u201d When Lucia responded with a puzzled look, Alejandra realized she\u2019d committed the error of misattribution.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Schachter\u2019s second error of commission is <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">suggestibility<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, when inaccurate information is incorporated into the memory during recall. This is similar to misattribution, since it also involves memory distortion, however with misattribution you create a false memory entirely on your own, while with suggestibility, it comes from outside the individual. From time to time, we\u2019re all vulnerable to the power of suggestion, in fact the way a question is asked can alter the memory of the requested information. For example, imagine you are in elementary school and you just witnessed a fight outside between two of your male classmates. After hearing of the incident, a teacher asks you questions such as: \u201cHow hard did he hit him? Who swung first? Did either of them try to run away?\u201d Notice the use of descriptive language as the teacher is asking the student questions. This is important as descriptive language can influence the way in which memories are recalled.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW113990808 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\">Bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\">is when our current beliefs<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\"> distort memory of past events. There are several types of bias:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW113990808 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW218187252 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\"><strong>Stereotypical<\/strong> <strong>bias<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\"> involves racial and gender biases. For example, when Asian American and European American research participants were presented with a list of names, they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical African American names such as Jamal and Tyrone to be associated with the occupation basketball player, and they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical Caucasian names such as Greg and Howard to be associated with the occupation of politician (Payne, Jacoby, &amp; Lambert, 2004).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW218187252 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW62712721 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\">Egocentric bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\"> involves enhancing our memories of the past (Payne et al., 2004). Imagine <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\">you are playing in the final game of the national championship with your soccer team. The score is tied up with only a minute left on the clock. You have the ball and are running down the wing, taking a shot outside the box and you score the goal, top-corner. After the game you brag about your game-winning shot to your brother who wasn\u2019t at the game, and he says: \u201cHuh? My friend told me it was actually a lucky goal as it deflected off a player and the wind caught it.\u201d This is an example of egocentric bias since the individual who scored enhanced the memory of the goal compared to the reality of the goal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW241658070 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Hindsight bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> happens when we think an outcome was inevitable after the fact. This is the \u201cI knew<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> it all along\u201d phenomenon. The reconstructive nature of memory contributes to hindsight bias (Carli, 1999). We remember untrue events that seem to confirm that we knew the outcome all along. <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">An experiment by <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Fischhoff<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> and <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Beyth<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> (1975) asked participants to estimate the probabilities of outcomes occurring prior to Richard Nixon\u2019s trip to China and the U.S.S.R. in 1972. Later, participants were asked to complete the same questionnaire remembering the probability they had given while also answering whether the outcome in question had occurred or not.\u00a0 They found that following events, participants were rarely surprised by the outcomes which they reported had occurred and that this effect was larger the more time had passed. Studies such as this demonstrate how we tend to overestimate our ability to make predictions about whether given events will occur.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW241658070 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">Have you ever had a song play over and over in your head? How about a memory of a traumatic event, something you really do not want to think about? When you keep remembering something, to the point where you can\u2019t \u201cget it out of your head\u201d and it interferes with your ability to concentrate on other things, it is called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\"><strong>persistence<\/strong>,<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\"> Schacter\u2019s seventh and last memory error. It\u2019s a failure of our memory system because we involuntarily recall unwanted memories, particularly unpleasant ones (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">10<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">). For instance, you witness a horrific car accident on the way to work one morning, and you can\u2019t concentrate on work because you keep remembering the scene.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW145534549 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm57482672\">\r\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_Soldiers\" class=\"os-figure\">\r\n<figure>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"325\"]<img id=\"89442\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/2fd5c86298eafc96e9e7ad1f680a3abdffeeea94\" alt=\"A photograph shows two soldiers physically fighting.\" width=\"325\" height=\"216\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.10 Many veterans of military conflicts involuntarily recall unwanted, unpleasant memories. (credit: Department of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth)<\/span>[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm88048976\">\r\n<h4><\/h4>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm146914528\">\r\n<div id=\"fs-idm88033056\" class=\"psychology link-to-learning ui-has-child-title\"><section>\r\n<div class=\"os-note-body\">\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">LINK TO LEARNING<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">View the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/openstax.org\/l\/bolzan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">video story about Scott Bolzan's amnesia and his attempts to get his life back<\/a>\u00a0to learn more.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/section><section id=\"fs-idm142810704\">\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Memory Construction and Reconstruction<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm37979120\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">The formulation of new memories is sometimes called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">construction<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">, and the process of bringing up old memories is called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">reconstruction<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">. Yet as we retrieve our memories, we also tend to alter and modify them. A memory pulled from long-term storage into short-term memory is flexible. New events can be added, and we can change what we think we remember about past events, resulting in inaccuracies and distortions. People may not intend to distort facts, but it can happen in the process of retrieving old memories and combining them with new memories (<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">Roediger<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">&amp;<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\"> DeSoto, 2015).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW208522290 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">Eyewitness Testimony<\/span><\/h4>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">P<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">olice officers, prosecutors, and the courts often rely on eyewitness identification and testimony in the prosecution of criminals. However, faulty eyewitness identification and testimony can lead to wrongful convictions (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">11<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW231750715 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"731\"]<img id=\"94058\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/9f6687a2915e50e89b2b519acce6da8c184b7011\" alt=\"A bar graph is titled \u201cLeading cause of wrongful conviction in DNA exoneration cases (source: Innocence Project).\u201d The x-axis is labeled \u201cleading cause,\u201d and the y-axis is labeled \u201cpercentage of wrongful convictions (first 239 DNA exonerations).\u201d Four bars show data: \u201ceyewitness misidentification\u201d is the leading cause in about 75% of cases, \u201cforensic science\u201d in about 49% of cases, \u201cfalse confession\u201d in about 23% of cases, and \u201cinformant\u201d in about 18% of cases.\" width=\"731\" height=\"409\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.11 In studying cases where DNA evidence has exonerated people from crimes, the\u00a0Innocence Project\u00a0discovered that eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, 2009).<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm74443824\">\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm138138096\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm146450864\">\r\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_Eyewitness\" class=\"os-figure\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">DIG DEEPER<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm92693840\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Cormorant Garamond', serif;font-size: 1em;font-style: italic;font-weight: bold;color: #000000\">Preserving Eyewitness Memory: The Elizabeth Smart Case<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div id=\"fs-idm143679568\" class=\"psychology dig-deeper ui-has-child-title\"><section>\r\n<div class=\"os-note-body\">\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm758944\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">When Elizabeth Smart was 14 years old and fast asleep in her bed at home, she was abducted at knifepoint. Her nine-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, was sleeping in the same bed and watched, terrified, as her beloved older sister was abducted. Mary Katherine was the sole eyewitness to this crime and was very fearful. In the coming weeks, the Salt Lake City police and the FBI proceeded with caution with Mary Katherine. They did not want to implant any false memories or mislead her in any way. They did not show her police line-ups or push her to do a composite sketch of the abductor. They knew if they corrupted her memory, Elizabeth might never be found. For several months, there was little or no progress on the case. Then, about 4 months after the kidnapping, Mary Katherine first recalled that she had heard the abductor\u2019s voice prior to that night (he had worked exactly one day as a handyman at the family\u2019s home) and then she was able to name the person whose voice it was. The family contacted the press and others recognized him\u2014after a total of nine months, the suspect was caught and Elizabeth Smart was returned to her family.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: 'Cormorant Garamond', serif;font-size: 1em;color: #000000\">The Misinformation Effect<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm87642176\">\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has conducted extensive research on memory. She has studied <strong>false memories<\/strong> and developed the <strong>misinformation<\/strong> effect paradigm, which holds that after exposure to additional and possibly inaccurate information, a person may misremember the original event.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">According to Loftus, an eyewitness\u2019s memory of an event is very flexible due to the misinformation effect. To test this theory, Loftus and John Palmer (1974) asked 45 U.S. college students to estimate the speed of cars using different forms of questions (Figure M.12). The participants were shown films of car accidents and were asked to play the role of the eyewitness and describe what happened. They were asked, \u201cAbout how fast were the cars going when they (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) each other?\u201d The participants estimated the speed of the cars based on the verb used.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm117050544\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">Participants who heard the word \u201csmashed\u201d estimated that the cars were traveling at a much higher speed than participants who heard the word \u201ccontacted.\u201d The implied information about speed, based on the verb they heard, had an effect on the participants\u2019 memory of the accident. In a follow-up one week later, participants were asked if they saw any broken glass (none was shown in the accident pictures). Participants who had been in the \u201csmashed\u201d group were more than twice as likely to indicate that they did remember seeing glass. Loftus and Palmer demonstrated that a leading question encouraged them to not only remember the cars were going faster, but to also falsely remember that they saw broken glass.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">False memories like these can be influenced by question wording without us even realizing it. For instance, <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-CA\" xml:lang=\"EN-CA\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">\"What shade of pink was the dress in the window.\" presupposes that there was a dress in the window AND it was pink<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">. When asked a retrieval question like this, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">one\u2019s memory is biased towards these \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_CarCrash\" class=\"os-figure\">\r\n<figure>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"832\"]<img id=\"52180\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/014ae75d56e48f6a3c06cc87c21e17f7137531fa\" alt=\"Photograph A shows two cars that have crashed into each other. Part B is a bar graph titled \u201cperceived speed based on questioner\u2019s verb (source: Loftus and Palmer, 1974).\u201d The x-axis is labeled \u201cquestioner\u2019s verb, and the y-axis is labeled \u201cperceived speed (mph).\u201d Five bars share data: \u201csmashed\u201d was perceived at about 41 mph, \u201ccollided\u201d at about 39 mph, \u201cbumped\u201d at about 37 mph, \u201chit\u201d at about 34 mph, and \u201ccontacted\u201d at about 32 mph.\" width=\"832\" height=\"372\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.12 When people are asked leading questions about an event, their memory of the event may be altered. (credit a: modification of work by Rob Young)<\/span>[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm58874608\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: #000000\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\">Ever since Loftus published her first studies on the suggestibility of eyewitness testimony in the 1970s, social scientists, police officers, therapists, and legal practitioners have been aware of the flaws in interview practices. Consequently, steps have been taken to decrease suggestibility of witnesses. One way is to modify how witnesses are questioned. When interviewers use neutral and less leading language, children more accurately recall what happened and who was involved (Goodman, 2006; Pipe, 1996; Pipe, Lamb, Orbach, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\">&amp;<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\"> Esplin, 2004). Another change is in how police lineups are conducted. It\u2019s recommended that a blind photo lineup be used. This way the person administering the lineup doesn\u2019t know which photo belongs to the suspect, minimizing the possibility of giving leading cues. Additionally, judges in some American states now inform jurors about the possibility of misidentification. Judges can also suppress eyewitness testimony if they deem it unreliable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Interference<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">Sometimes information is stored in our memory but for some reason it is inaccessible. This is known as interference and there are two types: proactive interference and retroactive interference (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">13<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">). Have you ever gotten a new phone number or moved to a new address but yet continue to give people the old (and wrong) phone number or address? When the new year starts do you find you accidentally write the previous year? These are examples of\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\"><strong>proactive interference<\/strong>:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\"> when old information hinders the recall of newly learned information.\u202f<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">Retroactive interference\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">happens when information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information. For example, this week you are studying about memory and learn about the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. Next week you study lifespan development and learn about Erikson\u2019s theory of psychosocial development but thereafter have trouble remembering Ebbinghaus\u2019s work because you can only remember Erickson\u2019s theory.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"975\"]<img id=\"36585\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/7d6665c6c8ce3383997e75c3cc2ad5460088f1cf\" alt=\"A diagram shows two types of interference. A box with the text \u201clearn combination to high school locker, 17\u201304\u201332\u201d is followed by an arrow pointing right toward a box labeled \u201cmemory of old locker combination interferes with recall of new gym locker combination, ??\u2013??\u2013??\u201d; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text \u201cproactive interference (old information hinders recall of new information.\u201d Beneath that is a second part of the diagram. A box with the text \u201cknowledge of new email address interferes with recall of old email address, nvayala@???\u201d is followed by an arrow pointing left toward the \u201cearly event\u201d box and away from another box labeled \u201clearn sibling\u2019s new college email address, npatel@siblingcollege.edu\u201d; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text \u201cretroactive interference (new information hinders recall of old information.\u201d\" width=\"975\" height=\"398\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.13 Sometimes forgetting is caused by a failure to retrieve information. This can be due to interference, either retroactive or proactive.<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Amnesia<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW233625418 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\"><strong>Amnesia<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\">is the loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, injury, or trauma. Endel Tulving (2002) and his colleagues at the University of Toronto studied patient K.C., who suffered a traumatic head injury in a motorcycle accident. Tulving writes:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW233625418 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW46666392 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW46666392 BCX9\">\u201cThe outstanding fact about K.C.\u2019s mental make-up is his utter inability to remember any events, circumstances, or situations from his own life. His episodic amnesia covers his whole life, from birth to the present. The only exception is the experiences that, at any time, he has had in the last minute or two.\u201d (Tulving, 2002, p. 14)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW46666392 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"649\"]<img id=\"60536\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/11ecb8087aa101ba137394a40f7e5890fedafcd1\" alt=\"A single-line flow diagram compares two types of amnesia. In the center is a box labeled \u201cevent\u201d with arrows extending from both sides. Extending to the left is an arrow pointing left to the word \u201cpast\u201d; the arrow is labeled \u201cretrograde amnesia.\u201d Extending to the right is an arrow pointing right to the word \u201cpresent\u201d; the arrow is labeled \u201canterograde amnesia.\u201d\" width=\"649\" height=\"119\" \/> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.14 This diagram illustrates the timeline of retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Memory problems that extend back in time before the injury and prevent retrieval of information previously stored in long-term memory are known as retrograde amnesia. Conversely, memory problems that extend forward in time from the point of injury and prevent the formation of new memories are called anterograde amnesia.<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">The first type of amnesia is <strong>anterograde<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>amnesia<\/strong> (Figure M.14), which refers to the inability to remember new information, although you can remember information and events that happened prior to your injury. Many people with this form of amnesia are unable to form new episodic or semantic memories but are still able to form new procedural (remember implicit) memories (Bayley &amp; Squire, 2002). This was true of patient H.M. as the brain damage caused by his surgery resulted in anterograde amnesia. H.M. would read the same magazine over and over, having no memory of ever reading it\u2014it was always new to him. He also could not remember people he had met after his surgery. If you were introduced to H.M. and then you left the room for a few minutes, he would not know you upon your return and would introduce himself to you again. However, when presented the same puzzle several days in a row, although he did not remember having seen the puzzle before, his speed at solving it became faster each day (because of relearning) (Corkin, 1965; 1968).<\/span>\r\n\r\n<strong style=\"color: #000000;text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Retrograde amnesia<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">\u202fis loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma. People with retrograde amnesia often have difficulty remembering their past episodic memories. What if you woke up in the hospital one day and there were people surrounding your bed claiming to be your spouse, your children, and your parents but you don\u2019t recognize any of them? You were in a car accident, suffered a head injury, and now have retrograde amnesia and don\u2019t remember anything about your life before waking up in the hospital. Hollywood has been fascinated with the amnesia plot for nearly a century, going all the way back to the film\u202fGarden of Lies\u202ffrom 1915 to more recent movies such as the Jason Bourne spy thrillers. However, for real-life sufferers of retrograde amnesia, like former NFL football player Scott Bolzan, the story is not a Hollywood movie. Bolzan fell, hit his head, and deleted 46 years of his life in an instant. He is now living with one of the most extreme cases of retrograde amnesia on record.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"PageContent-ny9bj0-0 iapMdy\">\n<div id=\"main-content\" class=\"MainContent__HideOutline-sc-6yy1if-0 bdVAq\">\n<div id=\"1a67a5b9-fd8a-45e1-a5e6-c1d5375e8cd6\">\n<div id=\"17125\" class=\"ui-has-child-title\">\n<section>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Learning Objectives<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">By the end of this section, you will be able to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Compare and contrast different types of amnesia<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss factors that affect the reliability of eyewitness testimony<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss encoding failure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Discuss the various memory errors<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Compare and contrast the different types of interference<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm170153072\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">\u201cI\u2019ve a grand memory for forgetting,\u201d quipped author Robert Louis Stevenson.\u202f<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">Forgetting\u202f<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">refers to loss of information from long-term memory.\u00a0 <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">In 1885, German psychologist Hermann\u202fEbbinghaus\u202fstudied forgetting by memorizing lists of <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">nonsense <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">syllables and measuring how many words he remembered when he attempted to relearn each list.\u00a0 He compared memory performance over different delay periods, from 20 minutes to 30 days later. The result is his famous <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">forgetting curve <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\">(Figure M.8) showing that information fades with the passage of time.\u00a0 An average person will lose 50% of the memorized information after 20 minutes and 70% after 24 hours (Ebbinghaus, 1885\/1964). Memory for new information decays quickly and then eventually levels out.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW59431748 BCX9\"> But why do we forget? To answer this question, we will look at several perspectives on forgetting.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW59431748 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 731px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"50668\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/0c237b989aa8d57da376b147c8965832694bc214\" alt=\"A line graph has an x-axis labeled \u201celapsed time since learning\u201d with a scale listing these intervals: 0, 20, and 60 minutes; 9, 24, and 48 hours; and 6 and 31 days. The y-axis is labeled \u201cretention (%)\u201d with a scale of zero to 100. The line reflects these approximate data points: 0 minutes is 100%, 20 minutes is 55%, 60 minutes is 40%, 9 hours is 37%, 24 hours is 30%, 48 hours is 25%, 6 days is 20%, and 31 days is 10%.\" width=\"731\" height=\"326\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.8 The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows how quickly memory for new information decays.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<section id=\"fs-idm143356416\">\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Schacter and the Seven Sins of Memory<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">There are<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">many<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> theories<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> explaining<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">different<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> types of memory, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">but<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> there are<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">n\u2019t<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> as many <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">theo<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">ries <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">about<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> types of forgetting. M<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">emory researcher<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">Daniel Schacter <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">attempted to organize memory errors into a unified framework in his book,<\/span> <\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">The Seven Sins of Memory <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">(2001)<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">. Schacter<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">presents these as <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">a<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> list of seven <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">\u201c<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">sins<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">,\u201d falling into one of two categories: <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">errors of omission<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">, involving <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">failures of recall<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">, and <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">errors of commission, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">where recall is <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">distorted<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\"> or <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">unwanted<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">(<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">Table <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">M<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">.1<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW172858437 BCX9\">).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW172858437 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<table class=\"top-titled\" summary=\"Table 8.1\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"4\" scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Table M.1 Schacter\u2019s Seven Sins of Memory<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Sin<\/span><\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Type<\/span><\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Description<\/span><\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Example<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Transience<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessibility of memory decreases over time<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forget events that occurred long ago<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">absentmindedness<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting caused by lapses in attention<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forget where your phone is<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Blocking<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Forgetting<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessibility of information is temporarily blocked<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Tip of the tongue<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Misattribution<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Source of memory is confused<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Recalling a dream memory as a waking memory<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Suggestibility<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">False memories<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Result from leading questions<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Bias<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Distortion<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Memories distorted by current belief system<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Align memories to current beliefs<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Persistence<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Intrusion<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Inability to forget undesirable memories<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #000000\">Traumatic events<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-weight: 400;font-family: Lora, serif;font-size: 1em;color: #000000\">Let\u2019s look at the first sin:<strong>\u202ftransience<\/strong>, which means that memories can fade over time, as demonstrated by Ebbinghaus\u2019 forgetting curve for nonsense syllables (Figure M.8). Information that\u2019s stored but not used is vulnerable to this type of forgetting.\u00a0 Consider this real life example: Nathan\u2019s English teacher has assigned his students to read the novel\u202f<em>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>. He tells his mom he has to read this book for class and she says, \u201cOh, I loved that book!\u201d Nathan asks her what the book is about, and after some hesitation she says, \u201cWell, I know I read the book in high school, and I remember that one of the main characters is named Scout, and her father is an lawyer, but I honestly don\u2019t remember anything else.\u201d Nathan wonders if his mother actually read the book, and his mother is surprised she can\u2019t recall the plot. What is going on here is storage decay: unused information tends to fade with the passage of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Are you constantly losing your phone? Have you ever returned home to make sure you locked the door? Have you ever walked into a room for something but forgotten what it was? You probably answered yes to at least one, if not all, these examples\u2014but don\u2019t worry, you are not alone. We are all prone to committing the memory error known as\u202f<\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">absentmindedness<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, which describes lapses in memory caused by breaks in attention or our focus being elsewhere. Insufficient attention when we are first learning something can result in <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">encoding<\/strong> <strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">failure<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. We can\u2019t remember something if we never stored it in our memory in the first place. For some types of information, we use effortful encoding in order to remember something, where we pay attention to the details and actively work to process the information. However, many times we don\u2019t do this. Think of how many times in your life you\u2019ve seen a Canadian one-dollar coin. Can you accurately recall what the front of a Loonie looks like? Can you sketch it accurately? Probably not and the most likely reason is due to an encoding failure. Most of us never encode the details of the coin, we only encode enough information to be able to distinguish it from other coins. If we don\u2019t encode the information, then it\u2019s not in our long-term memory, so we will not be able to remember it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Schachter\u2019s third sin of omission is <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">blocking<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">: an inability to access stored information. \u201cI just streamed this movie called\u202fOblivion, and it had that famous actor in it. Oh, what\u2019s his name? He\u2019s been in all of those movies, like\u202fThe Shawshank Redemption\u202fand\u202fThe Dark Knight\u202ftrilogy. I think he\u2019s even won an Oscar. Oh gosh, I can picture his face in my mind, and hear his distinctive voice, but I just can\u2019t think of his name! This is going to bother me until I can remember it!\u201d This particular error can be so frustrating because you have the information right on the tip of your tongue. (Figure M.9).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"34434\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/5e6c829b3696b97900550cb5cbfd75e62d95f720\" alt=\"A photograph shows Morgan Freeman.\" width=\"325\" height=\"541\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.9 Blocking is also known as tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon. The memory is right there, but you can\u2019t seem to recall it, just like not being able to remember the name of that very famous actor, Morgan Freeman. (credit: modification of work by D. Miller)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Now let\u2019s take a look at the errors of commission:<strong>\u202fmisattribution<\/strong> happens when you confuse the source of your information. Let\u2019s say Alejandra was dating Lucia and they saw the first Hobbit movie together. Then they broke up and Alejandra saw the second Hobbit movie with someone else. Later that year, Alejandra and Lucia get back together. One day, they are discussing how the Hobbit books and movies are different and Alejandra says to Lucia, \u201cI loved watching the second movie with you and seeing you jump out of your seat during that super scary part.\u201d When Lucia responded with a puzzled look, Alejandra realized she\u2019d committed the error of misattribution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Schachter\u2019s second error of commission is <\/span><strong style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">suggestibility<\/strong><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, when inaccurate information is incorporated into the memory during recall. This is similar to misattribution, since it also involves memory distortion, however with misattribution you create a false memory entirely on your own, while with suggestibility, it comes from outside the individual. From time to time, we\u2019re all vulnerable to the power of suggestion, in fact the way a question is asked can alter the memory of the requested information. For example, imagine you are in elementary school and you just witnessed a fight outside between two of your male classmates. After hearing of the incident, a teacher asks you questions such as: \u201cHow hard did he hit him? Who swung first? Did either of them try to run away?\u201d Notice the use of descriptive language as the teacher is asking the student questions. This is important as descriptive language can influence the way in which memories are recalled.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW113990808 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\">Bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\">is when our current beliefs<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW113990808 BCX9\"> distort memory of past events. There are several types of bias:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW113990808 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW218187252 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\"><strong>Stereotypical<\/strong> <strong>bias<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW218187252 BCX9\"> involves racial and gender biases. For example, when Asian American and European American research participants were presented with a list of names, they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical African American names such as Jamal and Tyrone to be associated with the occupation basketball player, and they more frequently incorrectly remembered typical Caucasian names such as Greg and Howard to be associated with the occupation of politician (Payne, Jacoby, &amp; Lambert, 2004).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW218187252 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW62712721 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\">Egocentric bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\"> involves enhancing our memories of the past (Payne et al., 2004). Imagine <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW62712721 BCX9\">you are playing in the final game of the national championship with your soccer team. The score is tied up with only a minute left on the clock. You have the ball and are running down the wing, taking a shot outside the box and you score the goal, top-corner. After the game you brag about your game-winning shot to your brother who wasn\u2019t at the game, and he says: \u201cHuh? My friend told me it was actually a lucky goal as it deflected off a player and the wind caught it.\u201d This is an example of egocentric bias since the individual who scored enhanced the memory of the goal compared to the reality of the goal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW241658070 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Hindsight bias<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> happens when we think an outcome was inevitable after the fact. This is the \u201cI knew<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> it all along\u201d phenomenon. The reconstructive nature of memory contributes to hindsight bias (Carli, 1999). We remember untrue events that seem to confirm that we knew the outcome all along. <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">An experiment by <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Fischhoff<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> and <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\">Beyth<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW241658070 BCX9\"> (1975) asked participants to estimate the probabilities of outcomes occurring prior to Richard Nixon\u2019s trip to China and the U.S.S.R. in 1972. Later, participants were asked to complete the same questionnaire remembering the probability they had given while also answering whether the outcome in question had occurred or not.\u00a0 They found that following events, participants were rarely surprised by the outcomes which they reported had occurred and that this effect was larger the more time had passed. Studies such as this demonstrate how we tend to overestimate our ability to make predictions about whether given events will occur.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW241658070 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">Have you ever had a song play over and over in your head? How about a memory of a traumatic event, something you really do not want to think about? When you keep remembering something, to the point where you can\u2019t \u201cget it out of your head\u201d and it interferes with your ability to concentrate on other things, it is called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\"><strong>persistence<\/strong>,<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\"> Schacter\u2019s seventh and last memory error. It\u2019s a failure of our memory system because we involuntarily recall unwanted memories, particularly unpleasant ones (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">10<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW145534549 BCX9\">). For instance, you witness a horrific car accident on the way to work one morning, and you can\u2019t concentrate on work because you keep remembering the scene.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW145534549 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"fs-idm57482672\">\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_Soldiers\" class=\"os-figure\">\n<figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"89442\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/2fd5c86298eafc96e9e7ad1f680a3abdffeeea94\" alt=\"A photograph shows two soldiers physically fighting.\" width=\"325\" height=\"216\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.10 Many veterans of military conflicts involuntarily recall unwanted, unpleasant memories. (credit: Department of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm88048976\">\n<h4><\/h4>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"fs-idm146914528\">\n<div id=\"fs-idm88033056\" class=\"psychology link-to-learning ui-has-child-title\">\n<section>\n<div class=\"os-note-body\">\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">LINK TO LEARNING<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">View the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/openstax.org\/l\/bolzan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">video story about Scott Bolzan&#8217;s amnesia and his attempts to get his life back<\/a>\u00a0to learn more.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm142810704\">\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Memory Construction and Reconstruction<\/span><\/h3>\n<p id=\"fs-idm37979120\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">The formulation of new memories is sometimes called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">construction<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">, and the process of bringing up old memories is called\u00a0<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">reconstruction<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">. Yet as we retrieve our memories, we also tend to alter and modify them. A memory pulled from long-term storage into short-term memory is flexible. New events can be added, and we can change what we think we remember about past events, resulting in inaccuracies and distortions. People may not intend to distort facts, but it can happen in the process of retrieving old memories and combining them with new memories (<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">Roediger<\/span> <span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\">&amp;<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW208522290 BCX9\"> DeSoto, 2015).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW208522290 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">Eyewitness Testimony<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">P<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">olice officers, prosecutors, and the courts often rely on eyewitness identification and testimony in the prosecution of criminals. However, faulty eyewitness identification and testimony can lead to wrongful convictions (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">11<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW231750715 BCX9\">).<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW231750715 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 731px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"94058\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/9f6687a2915e50e89b2b519acce6da8c184b7011\" alt=\"A bar graph is titled \u201cLeading cause of wrongful conviction in DNA exoneration cases (source: Innocence Project).\u201d The x-axis is labeled \u201cleading cause,\u201d and the y-axis is labeled \u201cpercentage of wrongful convictions (first 239 DNA exonerations).\u201d Four bars show data: \u201ceyewitness misidentification\u201d is the leading cause in about 75% of cases, \u201cforensic science\u201d in about 49% of cases, \u201cfalse confession\u201d in about 23% of cases, and \u201cinformant\u201d in about 18% of cases.\" width=\"731\" height=\"409\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.11 In studying cases where DNA evidence has exonerated people from crimes, the\u00a0Innocence Project\u00a0discovered that eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, 2009).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section id=\"fs-idm74443824\">\n<p id=\"fs-idm138138096\">\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm146450864\">\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_Eyewitness\" class=\"os-figure\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">DIG DEEPER<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p id=\"fs-idm92693840\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Cormorant Garamond', serif;font-size: 1em;font-style: italic;font-weight: bold;color: #000000\">Preserving Eyewitness Memory: The Elizabeth Smart Case<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"fs-idm143679568\" class=\"psychology dig-deeper ui-has-child-title\">\n<section>\n<div class=\"os-note-body\">\n<p id=\"fs-idm758944\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">When Elizabeth Smart was 14 years old and fast asleep in her bed at home, she was abducted at knifepoint. Her nine-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, was sleeping in the same bed and watched, terrified, as her beloved older sister was abducted. Mary Katherine was the sole eyewitness to this crime and was very fearful. In the coming weeks, the Salt Lake City police and the FBI proceeded with caution with Mary Katherine. They did not want to implant any false memories or mislead her in any way. They did not show her police line-ups or push her to do a composite sketch of the abductor. They knew if they corrupted her memory, Elizabeth might never be found. For several months, there was little or no progress on the case. Then, about 4 months after the kidnapping, Mary Katherine first recalled that she had heard the abductor\u2019s voice prior to that night (he had worked exactly one day as a handyman at the family\u2019s home) and then she was able to name the person whose voice it was. The family contacted the press and others recognized him\u2014after a total of nine months, the suspect was caught and Elizabeth Smart was returned to her family.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: 'Cormorant Garamond', serif;font-size: 1em;color: #000000\">The Misinformation Effect<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm87642176\">\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has conducted extensive research on memory. She has studied <strong>false memories<\/strong> and developed the <strong>misinformation<\/strong> effect paradigm, which holds that after exposure to additional and possibly inaccurate information, a person may misremember the original event.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">According to Loftus, an eyewitness\u2019s memory of an event is very flexible due to the misinformation effect. To test this theory, Loftus and John Palmer (1974) asked 45 U.S. college students to estimate the speed of cars using different forms of questions (Figure M.12). The participants were shown films of car accidents and were asked to play the role of the eyewitness and describe what happened. They were asked, \u201cAbout how fast were the cars going when they (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) each other?\u201d The participants estimated the speed of the cars based on the verb used.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm117050544\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">Participants who heard the word \u201csmashed\u201d estimated that the cars were traveling at a much higher speed than participants who heard the word \u201ccontacted.\u201d The implied information about speed, based on the verb they heard, had an effect on the participants\u2019 memory of the accident. In a follow-up one week later, participants were asked if they saw any broken glass (none was shown in the accident pictures). Participants who had been in the \u201csmashed\u201d group were more than twice as likely to indicate that they did remember seeing glass. Loftus and Palmer demonstrated that a leading question encouraged them to not only remember the cars were going faster, but to also falsely remember that they saw broken glass.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">False memories like these can be influenced by question wording without us even realizing it. For instance, <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-CA\" xml:lang=\"EN-CA\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">&#8220;What shade of pink was the dress in the window.&#8221; presupposes that there was a dress in the window AND it was pink<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">. When asked a retrieval question like this, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW138282954 BCX9\">one\u2019s memory is biased towards these \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"Figure_08_03_CarCrash\" class=\"os-figure\">\n<figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 832px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"52180\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/014ae75d56e48f6a3c06cc87c21e17f7137531fa\" alt=\"Photograph A shows two cars that have crashed into each other. Part B is a bar graph titled \u201cperceived speed based on questioner\u2019s verb (source: Loftus and Palmer, 1974).\u201d The x-axis is labeled \u201cquestioner\u2019s verb, and the y-axis is labeled \u201cperceived speed (mph).\u201d Five bars share data: \u201csmashed\u201d was perceived at about 41 mph, \u201ccollided\u201d at about 39 mph, \u201cbumped\u201d at about 37 mph, \u201chit\u201d at about 34 mph, and \u201ccontacted\u201d at about 32 mph.\" width=\"832\" height=\"372\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.12 When people are asked leading questions about an event, their memory of the event may be altered. (credit a: modification of work by Rob Young)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p id=\"fs-idm58874608\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"color: #000000\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\">Ever since Loftus published her first studies on the suggestibility of eyewitness testimony in the 1970s, social scientists, police officers, therapists, and legal practitioners have been aware of the flaws in interview practices. Consequently, steps have been taken to decrease suggestibility of witnesses. One way is to modify how witnesses are questioned. When interviewers use neutral and less leading language, children more accurately recall what happened and who was involved (Goodman, 2006; Pipe, 1996; Pipe, Lamb, Orbach, <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\">&amp;<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW23061436 BCX9\"> Esplin, 2004). Another change is in how police lineups are conducted. It\u2019s recommended that a blind photo lineup be used. This way the person administering the lineup doesn\u2019t know which photo belongs to the suspect, minimizing the possibility of giving leading cues. Additionally, judges in some American states now inform jurors about the possibility of misidentification. Judges can also suppress eyewitness testimony if they deem it unreliable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Interference<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">Sometimes information is stored in our memory but for some reason it is inaccessible. This is known as interference and there are two types: proactive interference and retroactive interference (Figure M.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">13<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">). Have you ever gotten a new phone number or moved to a new address but yet continue to give people the old (and wrong) phone number or address? When the new year starts do you find you accidentally write the previous year? These are examples of\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\"><strong>proactive interference<\/strong>:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\"> when old information hinders the recall of newly learned information.\u202f<\/span><\/span><strong><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">Retroactive interference\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"TextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW266236974 BCX9\">happens when information learned more recently hinders the recall of older information. For example, this week you are studying about memory and learn about the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. Next week you study lifespan development and learn about Erikson\u2019s theory of psychosocial development but thereafter have trouble remembering Ebbinghaus\u2019s work because you can only remember Erickson\u2019s theory.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 975px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"36585\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/7d6665c6c8ce3383997e75c3cc2ad5460088f1cf\" alt=\"A diagram shows two types of interference. A box with the text \u201clearn combination to high school locker, 17\u201304\u201332\u201d is followed by an arrow pointing right toward a box labeled \u201cmemory of old locker combination interferes with recall of new gym locker combination, ??\u2013??\u2013??\u201d; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text \u201cproactive interference (old information hinders recall of new information.\u201d Beneath that is a second part of the diagram. A box with the text \u201cknowledge of new email address interferes with recall of old email address, nvayala@???\u201d is followed by an arrow pointing left toward the \u201cearly event\u201d box and away from another box labeled \u201clearn sibling\u2019s new college email address, npatel@siblingcollege.edu\u201d; the arrow connecting the two boxes contains the text \u201cretroactive interference (new information hinders recall of old information.\u201d\" width=\"975\" height=\"398\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.13 Sometimes forgetting is caused by a failure to retrieve information. This can be due to interference, either retroactive or proactive.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Amnesia<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun MacChromeBold SCXW233625418 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\"><strong>Amnesia<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW233625418 BCX9\">is the loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, injury, or trauma. Endel Tulving (2002) and his colleagues at the University of Toronto studied patient K.C., who suffered a traumatic head injury in a motorcycle accident. Tulving writes:<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW233625418 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"TextRun SCXW46666392 BCX9\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW46666392 BCX9\">\u201cThe outstanding fact about K.C.\u2019s mental make-up is his utter inability to remember any events, circumstances, or situations from his own life. His episodic amnesia covers his whole life, from birth to the present. The only exception is the experiences that, at any time, he has had in the last minute or two.\u201d (Tulving, 2002, p. 14)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW46666392 BCX9\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 649px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"60536\" src=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/resources\/11ecb8087aa101ba137394a40f7e5890fedafcd1\" alt=\"A single-line flow diagram compares two types of amnesia. In the center is a box labeled \u201cevent\u201d with arrows extending from both sides. Extending to the left is an arrow pointing left to the word \u201cpast\u201d; the arrow is labeled \u201cretrograde amnesia.\u201d Extending to the right is an arrow pointing right to the word \u201cpresent\u201d; the arrow is labeled \u201canterograde amnesia.\u201d\" width=\"649\" height=\"119\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure M.14 This diagram illustrates the timeline of retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Memory problems that extend back in time before the injury and prevent retrieval of information previously stored in long-term memory are known as retrograde amnesia. Conversely, memory problems that extend forward in time from the point of injury and prevent the formation of new memories are called anterograde amnesia.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The first type of amnesia is <strong>anterograde<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>amnesia<\/strong> (Figure M.14), which refers to the inability to remember new information, although you can remember information and events that happened prior to your injury. Many people with this form of amnesia are unable to form new episodic or semantic memories but are still able to form new procedural (remember implicit) memories (Bayley &amp; Squire, 2002). This was true of patient H.M. as the brain damage caused by his surgery resulted in anterograde amnesia. H.M. would read the same magazine over and over, having no memory of ever reading it\u2014it was always new to him. He also could not remember people he had met after his surgery. If you were introduced to H.M. and then you left the room for a few minutes, he would not know you upon your return and would introduce himself to you again. However, when presented the same puzzle several days in a row, although he did not remember having seen the puzzle before, his speed at solving it became faster each day (because of relearning) (Corkin, 1965; 1968).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"color: #000000;text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Retrograde amnesia<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">\u202fis loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma. People with retrograde amnesia often have difficulty remembering their past episodic memories. What if you woke up in the hospital one day and there were people surrounding your bed claiming to be your spouse, your children, and your parents but you don\u2019t recognize any of them? You were in a car accident, suffered a head injury, and now have retrograde amnesia and don\u2019t remember anything about your life before waking up in the hospital. Hollywood has been fascinated with the amnesia plot for nearly a century, going all the way back to the film\u202fGarden of Lies\u202ffrom 1915 to more recent movies such as the Jason Bourne spy thrillers. However, for real-life sufferers of retrograde amnesia, like former NFL football player Scott Bolzan, the story is not a Hollywood movie. Bolzan fell, hit his head, and deleted 46 years of his life in an instant. He is now living with one of the most extreme cases of retrograde amnesia on record.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":31,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2314,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/270\/revisions\/2314"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/31"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/270\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/intropsychneuro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}