CHAPTER 8

Remembering Complex Events

Remembering Complex Events: 1
Lecture Outline
• Memory Errors, Memory Gaps
• Memory Errors: A Hypothesis
• The Cost of Memory Errors
• Avoiding Memory Errors
• Forgetting
• Memory: An Overall Assessment
• Autobiographical Memory
• How General Are the Principles of Memory?

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Remembering Complex Events: 2
A small number of people have hyperthymesia.
• They can recall the details of every single day of their lives.
• But that ability has not made them incredible geniuses or
scholars.
• They only have superior autobiographical recall.

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Remembering Complex Events: 3
In this chapter we will consider how knowledge people bring
with them to a situation can promote accurate retrieval but also
promote errors.
We also consider some of the factors that are directly pertinent
to memory as it functions in day-to-day life.

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Memory Errors: Memory Gaps
An example of a memory error:
• An airplane lost power to two engines
• It crashed into the side of a building in Amsterdam
• 193 people were interviewed 10 months later
• More than half the participants reported seeing the crash on
TV
• However, no footage of the crash exists

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Memory Errors: Memory Gaps (cont.)
Participants in one study remembered seeing books in an
academic office when there were none.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 1

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 2
Connections serve as retrieval paths.
Connections can also lead to memory errors.
• Shared connections make similar memories less
distinguishable.
• Elements might be connected because they are associated or
because they were actually part of the memory.
• One type of error is called an intrusion error.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 3

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 5
Nancy woke up feeling sick again, and she wondered if she
really were pregnant. How would she tell the professor she had
been seeing? And the money was another problem.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 6

Theme condition: Neutral condition:

Better memory, more intrusions Worse memory, fewer intrusions

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 7
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure
• For example, read the list “bed, rest, awake, tired, dream,
wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, nap, peace,
yawn, drowsy.”
• In that case, participants tend to recall “sleep” as well, even
though it was not on the list.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 8

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 9
• Other intrusions are due to schematic knowledge.
• A schema (plural, schemata) refers to knowledge that
describes what is typical of a given situation.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 10
Schemata can help us when remembering an event.
• What was the first thing that happened:
• the last time you went to a restaurant?
• the last time you went to your favorite restaurant?
• the last time you went to a restaurant while on vacation?

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 11
However, schemata can also cause us to make errors when
remembering an event.
• For example, you might remember seeing magazines in a
dentist’s office even if there were none.
• Memories tend to be regularized.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 12
A classic demonstration of the effects of schemata on memory
was provided by Frederick Bartlett (1932).
• Native American stories were presented to British
participants.

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 14
Indians were out fishing for seals in the Bay of Manpapan, when along came five other Indians in
a war-canoe. They were going fighting. “Come with us,” said the five to the two, “and fight.” “I
cannot come,” was the answer of the one, “for I have an old mother at home who is dependent
upon me.” The other also said he could not come, because he had no arms. “That is no difficulty,”
the others replied, “for we have plenty in the canoe with us”; so he got into the canoe and went
with them. In a fight soon afterwards this Indian received a mortal wound. Finding that his hour
was come, he cried out that he was about to die. “Nonsense,” said one of the others, “you will not
die.” But he did.

Details altered

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Memory Errors, A Hypothesis: 15
Regularization via schemata
• Books are remembered in an academic office.
• Video footage of a plane crash is remembered.

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 1
Another line of research has investigated the misinformation effect.

Tim Misleading information

Event Misleading information e becomes part of the
remembered event.

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 2
Loftus and Palmer, 1974
• Viewing a series of pictures depicting a car accident

How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 3
Loftus and Palmer, 1974
• Viewing a series of pictures depicting a car accident

How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 4
Entire events can be implanted into memory.
• Easier to plant plausible memories than implausible.
• Easier to add false memories than to replace true with false.
• Imagery can increase one’s confidence in a false memory.
• Visual imagery (e.g., “picture each event”)
• Relevant and tangible photos or videos

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 5

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 6

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The Cost of Memory Errors: 7
False memories can occur for emotional and consequential
events.
• Shaw and Porter (2015): Participants were persuaded that
they had committed a crime that in fact had never happened.
• Participants remembered this imaginary event a few years
later.
• False memories can be planted through repetition and social
pressures.
• This effect can lead people to confess to crimes they did not
commit.

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Cognition Outside the Lab: “It’s Common Sense”
Widespread beliefs about how memory works can be incorrect.
• Examples of inaccurate beliefs:
• Some types of memories will never be forgotten.
• Memory errors occur more rarely than they do.
• Confidence indicates accuracy.
• Memory functions like a video recorder.
• Hypnosis can reveal long-lost memories.

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Avoiding Memory Errors
Memory confidence
• Confidence is an indicator of memory accuracy only in a narrow
set of circumstances.
• No widespread, reliable indicators of memory accuracy have
been found.
• Confidence is influenced by factors beyond the memory itself.
• Example: Repetition can increase confidence without
changing recall accuracy.

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Avoiding Memory Errors (cont.)
Participants witnessed a simulated crime and were asked to identify the culprit.

Feedback affected
confidence but not accuracy.

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Forgetting: 1
Retention interval—the amount of time that elapsed between
initial learning and subsequent retrieval

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Forgetting: 2

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Forgetting: 3
Why memories may weaken
• Decay theory of forgetting—memories may fade or erode over time.
• Interference—newer learning may disrupt older memories.
• Confusable connections in memory network
• Retrieval failure—memory is intact but cannot be accessed.
• Can be partial (e.g., the tip-of-the-tongue [TOT] effect)

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Forgetting: 4
Number of games

Lower recall

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Forgetting: 5
• Hypnosis makes people more open to misinformation.
• At least some recovered memories may actually be false
memories (false either entirely or partially).
• Mix of recollection, guesses, and inferences

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Forgetting: 6
Rather than regressing, the adult draws what he or she thinks a 6-year-old would draw.

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Forgetting: 7
The cognitive interview procedure can diminish forgetting.
• Includes context reinstatement
• Diverse retrieval cues to trigger memories

Repeated retrieval and testing can prevent forgetting.

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Memory: An Overall Assessment
Summary of memory errors
• People can confidently remember things that never
happened.
• Memories are interconnected, creating retrieval paths but
also intrusions.
• Forgetting may be a consequence of how general knowledge
is formed.
• Specific episodes merge in memory to form schemata.
• Schemata guide attention during encoding and
inferences during recall.
• Despite errors, our memory system is efficient and aids in
knowledge acquisition.
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Autobiographical Memory: 1
Autobiographical memory: memory of episodes and events in
one’s own life

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Autobiographical Memory: 2
The self-reference effect—better memory for information
relevant to oneself
The self-schema is a set of beliefs and memories about oneself.

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Autobiographical Memory: 3
As with general memories, memories about oneself are subject
to errors.
• Memories about ourselves are a mix of genuine recall and
schema-based reconstruction.
• Our autobiographical memories are also biased to emphasize
consistency and positive traits.

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Autobiographical Memory: 4

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 Autobiographical Memory: 5
Memory and emotion

Increased Increased Better

Emotional events activity in the activity in the consolidation
amygdala hippocampus

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Autobiographical Memory: 6
Causes of better memory for emotional events
• Increased activity in the amygdala and hippocampus
• Narrowing of attention
• Shift to emotion-relevant goals
• More rehearsal

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Autobiographical Memory: 7

Flashbulb memories
Are they accurate?
Autobiographical Memory: 8
Flashbulb memories can include substantial errors.
• After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, 3,000
people were interviewed.
• One year later, they were reinterviewed.
• 37% gave a substantially different account yet had high confidence.
• Three years later, 43% gave a substantially different account.

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Autobiographical Memory: 9
Other flashbulb memories are well remembered.
• Discussion with other people can act as rehearsal.
• People will alter their accounts to improve conversation
and/or pick up new information from others’ accounts.
• This can alter the actual memory for the event.
• Co-witness contamination

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Autobiographical Memory: 10
Traumatic memories
• Physiological arousal and stress at the time of event
increase consolidation.
• These memories can also be lost.
• Causes include head injuries, sleep deprivation, drugs or alcohol,
and—controversially—“repression.”
• Stress during retrieval can also interfere.

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Autobiographical Memory: 11
Repression
• Some authors think that traumatic memories can be “lost”
and then “recovered.”
o Lost memories may be due to ordinary retrieval failure.
• Some of the memories reported as “recovered” may be
actually be false memories.
o Leading questions and expectations in therapy can
promote this process.

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Autobiographical Memory: 12

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Autobiographical Memory: 13
Memory for cognitive psychology class (Conway, Cohen, & Stanhope, 1991)

Then fairly stable memory

Considerable
loss for three
years

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How General Are the Principles of Memory?

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How General Are the Principles of Memory? (cont.)
Certain principles of autobiographical memory reflect more general
memory principles.
• All memories depend on connections
• Formation of schemata from individual memory episodes
• Potential for intrusion errors and susceptibility to misinformation
• Importance of rehearsal
Other principles of autobiographical memory may be distinct.
• The role of emotion in shaping autobiographical memory may be less
applicable to other kinds of memory.

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Chapter 8 Questions

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Question 1
1. Which of the following is NOT true of flashbulb memories?

a) They are very detailed memories.

b) They are usually of emotional events.
c) They are always inaccurate yet highly confident memories.
d) People retain these memories for long periods of time.

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Question 1: Answer
1. Which of the following is NOT true of flashbulb memories?

a) They are very detailed memories.

b) They are usually of emotional events.
c) They are always inaccurate yet highly confident memories.
(correct answer)
d) People retain these memories for long periods of time.

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Question 2
2. Intrusion errors are typically caused by

a) words or ideas not associated with the material being learned.

b) background knowledge brought to a situation.
c) maintenance rehearsal.
d) deliberate exaggeration.

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Question 2: Answer
2. Intrusion errors are typically caused by

a) words or ideas not associated with the material being learned.

b) background knowledge brought to a situation. (correct
answer)
c) maintenance rehearsal.
d) deliberate exaggeration.

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Question 3
3. Which of the following is likely to increase the intrusion of schema-
consistent knowledge in later recall?

a) making an effort to fill in the gaps in one’s memories

b) thinking about exactly how the event unfolded, rather than what it
meant
c) decreasing the retention interval
d) thinking about what was distinctive, rather than typical, about the
episode

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Question 3: Answer
3. Which of the following is likely to increase the intrusion of schema-
consistent knowledge in later recall?

a) making an effort to fill in the gaps in one’s memories (correct

answer)
b) thinking about exactly how the event unfolded, rather than what it
meant
c) decreasing the retention interval
d) thinking about what was distinctive, rather than typical, about the
episode

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Question 4
4. According to interference theory, most forgetting is
attributable to the fact that

a) you lose paths to the information owing to a change in

perspective.
b) emotion causes the disruption of memories acquired earlier.
c) memories and memory connections fade with time.
d) new learning disrupts or overwrites old learning.

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Question 4: Answer
4. According to interference theory, most forgetting is
attributable to the fact that

a) you lose paths to the information owing to a change in

perspective.
b) emotion causes the disruption of memories acquired earlier.
c) memories and memory connections fade with time.
d) new learning disrupts or overwrites old learning.
(correct answer)

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Question 5
5. While under hypnosis, people

a) are quite accurate at distinguishing true from false memories.

b) tend to remember more about the event they are being
questioned about.
c) tend to talk less about the event they are being questioned about.
d) are more susceptible to misinformation.

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Question 5: Answer
5. While under hypnosis, people

a) are quite accurate at distinguishing true from false memories.

b) tend to remember more about the event they are being
questioned about.
c) tend to talk less about the event they are being questioned about.
d) are more susceptible to misinformation. (correct answer)

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Question 6
6. Which of the following is true about autobiographical
memories?

a) People will bias the recollection of past events away from

current characteristics.
b) Recollection is worse for memories that seem more directly
relevant to oneself.
c) When an event is forgotten, reconstruction tends to favor
seeing oneself in a negative light.
d) Reconstruction of past events will often be consistent with
current views of oneself.

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Question 6: Answer
6. Which of the following is true about autobiographical
memories?

a) People will bias the recollection of past events away from

current characteristics.
b) Recollection is worse for memories that seem more directly
relevant to oneself.
c) When an event is forgotten, reconstruction tends to favor
seeing oneself in a negative light.
d) Reconstruction of past events will often be consistent
with current views of oneself. (correct answer)

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