Unit+7+-+Memory

Psych Sim: Trusting your memory

In this activity you’ll be able to test the reliability of your memory, and then learn what researchers have discovered about the way that memories are stored and modified by new information.

• According to researchers, what are the three memory processes?
 * Measuring Memory **

1. Encoding

2. Storage

3. Retrieval

• How do recall tasks differ from recognition tasks? - Recall tasks require you to recall the information you once learned; retrieving it from your stored memory. Recognition tasks provide different answer choices allowing you to recognize the information you once stored in your memory

• What was your score on the Recall Test? 6/15 _
 * A Look at Your Performance **

• What was your score on the Recognition Test? 10/15

• What was your pattern of performance across the 15 words? Did your performance show a serial position effect? I don't think i remembered more words at the beginning and end, i mostly remembered the words in the middle probably because i really started to focus 2 or 3 words in to the test.
 * Examining Your Performance: Serial Position Effect **

• Did your performance show an advantage for recognition over recall? Yes, i was able to recognize the words much easier than i could recall them. i was also able to do recognition faster, even though the recall one was timed.
 * Examining Your Performance: Recall Versus Recognition **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What is a “false memory?” A false memory is convincing yourself of a memory that didn't actually happen.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Examining Your Performance: False Memory **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• Did you show false recall or false recognition for “sleep”? If so, why do you think this happened? Yes. I think this is because every single word associated with sleep, so i categorized them all under sleep, which made me think sleep was actually there.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If not, why do you think your performance was different from the Roediger & McDermott study? N/A

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• List and briefly explain the two “sins of forgetting” especially relevant to the topic of false memories: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">1. Misattribution - distortions based on confusing the source of information
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Other Ways We Create False Memories **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2. Suggestibility - distortions introduced by misinformation from outside sources

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• How might memory distortions affect eyewitness testimony? When we see something like a car accident, the event in itself is so serious, so we construct the accident in our memory as more serious than it actually was.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Application: Eyewitness Testimony **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">PsychSim 5: ICONIC MEMORY **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This activity simulates Sperling’s classic experiments on the duration of visual sensory memory.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Free Recall Test **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What was your score on the free recall test? _


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Iconic Memory **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What is Sperling’s theory of iconic memory? What is an “icon?”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What is Sperling’s partial report task? How does it test his theory of iconic memory?


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Partial Report Test **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What was your score on the partial report test? _

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• Are your results consistent or inconsistent with typical results? What do typical results suggest?


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Delayed Partial Report Test **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What was your score on the delayed partial report test? _

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">• What does the typical drop in performance tells us about the duration of iconic memory?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">1/5/12 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Misinformation effect >> incorporates misleading information into one's memory of an event so people misremember >> People are susceptible to misinformation when information for trying to recall an event is tampered with >> People who don't pay attention to the details they don't find important enough; anyone >> The original memory seems to dissipate where the false memory becomes more believable >> People do genuinely believe in misinformation because they create a false memory before they construct what actually happened

Bomber: 1

Eye Witness Article:



If i were a juror... Uhm, I just wanted to add that the eye witness may not even be completely 100% accurate on what she remembers. There are these things called false memories where either we want to believe something so much, or we've been so traumatized that an event becomes more serious than it ever really was. We need to take into account the DNA, it needs to count for more than an eye witness testimony. What if we were to send away an innocent person for a crime they never committed, but look like the person who did?? We need to take everything into account before we make a decision.