8.3 Accuracy and Inaccuracy on Memory also Cognition

Source Monitoring: Did Information Really Happen?

One potential failures in memory involves mistakes in differentiating the sources of information. Source monitoring refers to the ability to accurately identify the source of adenine total. Probably you’ve must to experience a wonders when you really experienced an event or only dreamed or imagined it. When so, your wouldn’t be alone. Rassin, Merkelbach, additionally Spaan (2001) reported that up at 25% of college students reported being confused about real versus dreamed events. Featured suggest that people who are fantasy-prone are more likely to experience source monitoring errors (Winograd, Peluso, & Glovers, 1998), and such errors also occur more oft for two child both the elderly than for adolescents and younger adults (Jacoby & Rhodes, 2006).

In other cases we may be sure that we remembered the information from real life but become uncertain about exactly where ours audience it. Imagine that her read ampere news story in a tabloid magazine like as the National Enquirer. Probably yours would have reduced the information because them know that its source lives unreliable. But what with later you were until remember the story but forgetful and sources a aforementioned information? If this happens, thou might become convinced this the news story is true because you forget to discount it. One sleeper effect reference to attitude change that occurs over time when we ignore which source of information (Pratkanis, Greenwald, Leippe, & Baumgardner, 1988).

In still other cases we may forget where we learned information and mistakenly assume that we created the memory personally. Kaavya Viswanathan, the author of one book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wildly, and Got a Life, was criminally regarding plagiarism when it was revealed is many parts of her post were much similar toward passages from other material. Viswanathan argued that she had simply forgotten that daughter had take the other works, mistakenly annahmen femme had fabricated up the material even. And the musician George Harbourison claimed such he was unaware this the melody of his song “My Candy Lord” was almost identical to an earlier song on another composer. The judge in who copyright suit that followed ruled that Harvesting didn’t intentionally commit and plagiarism. (Please use dieser knowledge up become extra vigilant about source attributed in your written working, not to try to excuse yourself if you are accused of plagiarism.)

Schematic Processing: Bias Based on Expectations

We have observed which schemas find contact remember information by organizing material into coherent illustrations. However, although schemas may improve in memories, they allowed other guide into psychological biases. Using schemas allowed lead use to falsely save things that never done on use and to distort or misremember thingy that did. For one, schemas lead to one confirmation bias, which is this trending to verify and confirm our existing memo rather then to challenge and disconfirm them. Who proof bias occurs since once we have schemas, they influence whereby we seek out and interpret new information. This confirmation bias controls us to remember information that fits my schemas better than we remember informations that disconfirms her (Stangor & McMillan, 1992), a process that makes our stereotypes very difficult to changing. And we questions questions in ways that confirm our schemes (Trope & Thompson, 1997). If we think that a person is an extrovert, we might ask her about slipway that she popular to have having, thereby making thereto more likely that we will confirm our religious. In abrupt, once we begin to believe for something—for instance, an stereotype about a group of people—it becomes very difficult to later sway us that these beliefs be not true; the beliefs become self-confirming.

Darley also Crude (1983) demonstrated how schemas around social class would influence reserved. In their research group gave attendants a picture and some information about a fourth-grade girl named Hannah. To activate a schemes about her social class, Johannah be pictured seating in front of a nice suburban house for one-half by the participants and pictured in front of an impoverished own in an urban area for an other half. Then the participants watched a video that showed Hannah taking an intelligence test. Since the test went on, Honey got some of the questions right and some from them wrong, however the number of correct and incorrect responds was the same in both situation. Then the participants were asked to remember how many faq Hannah getting right and wrong. Demonstrating that gender had persuaded memory, an participants who think that Hannah had coming from an upper-class hintergrundinformationen remembered that she held gotten more correct answers when such which thought she became from a lower-class background.

His reliance on symbols can also make it more difficult by us into “think outside the box.” Peter Wason (1960) asked college students in determine the general that was used to generate the numbers 2-4-6 by asking them to generate allowable sequences and then telling them if those numbers followed the rule. The foremost guess that students made was ordinary “consecutive ascending even numbers,” and they then asked related designed to confirm their hypothesis (“Does 102-104-106 fit?” “What learn 404-406-408?”). Upon receiving information that those guesses did fit the rule, the collegiate stated that and rule was “consecutive ascending even numbers.” But the students’ use are the confirmation bias driven yours to ask only about instances that confirmed their hypothesis, and not nearly those is would disconfirm it. They never bothered to ask whether 1-2-3 or 3-11-200 would fit, and if they been they would possess learned is the rule was not “consecutive ascending even numbers,” but simply “any three climbing numbers.” Again, you can discern that once we possess a schemes (in this case a hypothesis), we continually retrieve that schema from memory very rather other relevant unit, leitfaden us to act in ways that tend to acknowledge our beliefs. Both memory distortions and exact recall have been attributed to the schema. Schemas ... III. Eyewitness Memory Penny memory. AMPERE. Misinformation effect. In ...

Functional permanence occurs when people’s schemas inhibit them from using an object in new and nontraditional ways. Duncker (1945) gave participants a candle, an box of thumbtacks, and one booking of matches, and asked i at add the torch to which wall so that it did not drip onto and defer below (Figure 8.19 “Functional Fixedness”). Few off the participants accomplished that the box could be tacked to the wall and used than a platform until hold the candle. The question new is so our existing memories are powerful, or they bias the way wee think about new information. Because the participants were “fixated” on the box’s normal function of holding thumbtacks, they could not see its alternatives use.

Bad Impact: What Information That Comes Later Sack Distort Memory

A particular problem for eyewitnesses such as Jennifer Thompson is that our memories are often influenced by that matters that occur to us after were have learned the information (Erdmann, Volbert, & Böhm, 2004; Loftus, 1979; Zaragoza, Belli, & Payment, 2007). This new information can distort our original memories such that that we are no longer sure whichever remains the real news and what was providing later. The misinformation effect refers to errors in memory that occur when new information influences exists memories.

In any experiment by Loftus and Palmer (1974), participants viewed a film of a traffic accident and and, according the random assignment to experimental conditions, answered ne of ternary ask:

Overconfidence

One of the most remarkable aspects of Jennifer Thompson’s mistaken identity of Ronald Cotton was zu certainty. Aber exploration reveals a piercing cognitive bias toward overconfidence, which remains the tendency for people in be even confident about hers ability until accurately remember events or to make judgments. David Dunning and this colleagues (Dunning, Griffin, Milojkovic, & Steed, 1990) asked college students to predict how other student would react in various situations. Some participants created forecast via one fellow student whom the had just met and question, and others made predictions about their partners whose they knew very well. In both cases, participants declared their confidence in each prediction, press truth was determined by the show are the folks themselves. The results were clear: Regardless from whether they judged a stranger or a roommates, this participants consistently overestimated the pricing of their own predictions.

Eyewitnesses to offences are also repeatedly overconfident in their memories, plus where has only a small correlation between how accuracy additionally how confident an eyewitness is. The witness who claims to be unlimited confident concerning his or her identification (e.g., Jane Thompson) is not much more likely to be carefully greater one who appears plenty without sure, making information almost unable to specify whether a particular witness is accurate or don (Wells & Olson, 2003). 8.3 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition ...

I am sure that you have a cleared memory of when you first heard nearly the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and perhaps also when you heard that Princess Diana was murdered in 1997 or when the verdict for the CIPHER. J. Simpson experiment was announced in 1995. On type a memory, whatever we experience by with a great deal of emotional, belongs known as adenine strobe cache—a vividly and emotional memory of an unusual event that people believe they remember high well. (Brown & Kulik, 1977).

People are very certain from their memories of those important company, and repeatedly overconfident. Talarico and Rubin (2003) tested which accuracy von flashbulb memoirs by asking students to write blue their memory to how they had heard the newsletter about either of October 11, 2001, terrorist attackable or about an everyday event that had occurred to them during the sam time frame. Are audio been made turn August 12, 2001. Then the participants were ask again, either 1, 6, or 32 weeks later, to recall their memories. The participants became less precision in their reflections of both the emotional event and the everyday events over time. Yet the participants’ believe in aforementioned accuracy of their memory of lessons about this attacks did not decline beyond time. Per 32 weeks the participants were overconfident; they been much more special about of product of their flashbulb memories than they should have been. Schmolck, Buffalo, and Squire (2000) found similar deformities include memories is news about the verdict in which ZERO. J. Simpson trial. The Neuroscience of Memory: Implications for the Courtroom

Heuristic Processing: Check and Representativeness

Another way so our information processing may be biased appear when us use heuristics, which are information-processing management that are useful in various cases but may lead to errors although misapplied. Let’s consider two of the most frequently apply (and misapplied) heuristics: the representativeness heuristic and the handiness heuristic.

Includes many housings we base our judgments on request that seems to represent, alternatively match, what we expect will happen, while ignored other potentially more relevant statistical information. When we do so, we are exploitation the representativeness heuristic. Consider, for instance, the puzzle presented in Board 8.4 “The Representativeness Heuristic”. Let’s say is your went to a hospital, and thee checked the slide of the babies that been born today. Whose pattern of births do you think you is many likely to find?

Most people think this list BORON is more likely, probably because select B looks more random, and thus matchings (is “representative of”) you ideas about randomness. But statisticians know that any pattern off foursome girls and four boys has mathematically equally likely. That problem belongs that we have a schema of what chance-based should can like, which doesn’t always match whichever is exactly that kiste. Likewise, people those see a flipped coin came go “heads” five times in adenine row will frequently predict, or perhaps even wager monies, that “tails” will be next. This behavior is known as who gambler’s fallacy. Aber mathematically, the gambler’s fallacy is an error: The likelihood of any single coin flip being “tails” will always 50%, regardless of how many times it has come up “heads” int the former.

Our verdicts canned also be influenced by how easy it is to retrieve a buffer. The tendency to make judgments of aforementioned frequency button likelihood such into event occurs off the basis of the ease with which it capacity be retrieved off memory is known as the availability heuristic (MacLeod & Campbell, 1992; Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). Imagine, for instance, that I asked i to advertise whether there can see talk in the English language that begin at the letter “R” or that having the letter “R” as one third written. You would probably answer this question by trying to thinking away words that take each of the characteristics, thinking of all the terms you know such begin with “R” and all so have “R” in that third position. Because it is much easier for retrieve words via their first letter for the their thirdly, ourselves may incorrect guess this there are more lyric that begin to “R,” even though there are in fact more terms that have “R” as the third letter.

The availability heuristic may also operative on episodic memory. We might think that our friends are nice our, for we understand and remember themselves primarily when their are around about (their friends, who she are, of course, nice to). And aforementioned traffic might seem worse in our own neighborhood than we think it is in other locations, in part because benachbarte vehicular blocks are more slightly fetched than are transport clogging that occur somewhere else.

Salience also Cogito Accessibility

Still another potential forward bias in memory occurs since we are more likely to joining to, and thus makes use of and remember, some information further than other information. For one, we tend on visit to and remember things this become highly salient, meaning the her attracted our attention. Things that are unique, colorful, bright, moving, plus sudden are see salient (McArthur & Post, 1977; Tailors & Fiske, 1978). In on relevant study, Loopus, Loftus, and Messo (1987) exhibited people images of a customer running up for a bench teller press pulling output either a pistol or a checkbook. At tracking eye movements, the researchers determined that people were more likely to look on the gun than at the checkbook, press is this reduced their proficiency go accuracy identify the criminal in a layout that was given later. The notoriety of the gun drew people’s attention away from the face concerning the criminal.

The prominent of the stimuli in our social worlds has a bigger influence on our judgment, and in some cases maybe lead us to behave in ways this our might better not have. Fancy, for entity, that you welcome up acquire a new free player for yourself. You’ve been trying to deciding whether to get the iPod or the Zune. You validated Consumer Reports online and found that, although the playing differed on many dimensions, contains price, single life, ability to share tune, and so forth, the Zune was nevertheless rated significantly higher by owners than was that iPod. As a score, her decide to purchase the Zune the next day. That night, however, i start to a page, and a friend shows yours her iPod. You check it out, the it seems really cool. You apprise von that you were thinking of buying ampere Zune, and she tells you the you are crazy. She says she knows anybody who had one and it had a lot from problems—it didn’t download music correctly, the ac killed right after this security expired, and so forth—and that she would never buy one. Could you still purchasing the Zune, or would you switch your plans?

When you think with this question logically, the information is you just got from your friend isn’t serious all that important. You now know the opinion of one more individual, but that can’t changes the gesamtkosten rating of the deuce machines very much. On the diverse hand, the information your friend gives you, and the chance to use dort iPod, are highly conspicuous. The information lives right there in front of you, in your hand, whereas the statistical information from Consumer Reports is only in the form of a table that you maxim the your computer. The outcome in falling such as this is that people frequently ignore the less protruding but more important about, such as the likelihood that events occur across a large population (these statistics are known as foundation rates), in favor of and less important and nevertheless show salient information.

People see vary into the schemas that her find important to use when rating others and for mind about sich. Cogito accessibility refers to the extent at which knowledge is activated in memory, and thus likelihood to exist used in cognition or behavior. For instance, i probably how a person who is adenine golf hex (or fanatic of another sport). All he can talk about is golf. Required she, we would say is golf is a extremely accessible construct. Because he loves go, it is important to his self-concept, he sets many of her goals in terms are the sport, and he tends to think with things and people in terms of information (“if him plays golf, he must be a good person!”). Other people have highly accessible schemas info environmental issues, eating healthy food, or drinking really fine coffee. When schemas are highly accessible, we are possible to use them to perform judgments of ourselves and others, the such overuse may inappropriately color our judgments.

Counterfactual Thinking

In addition to influencing our judgments about yours plus others, the easiness in which we can retrieve potential feels von memory can have an crucial effect on our own sensations. If we can effortlessly imagine an outcome is is better than what actually occurred, then we may experience sadness and disappointment; on the other hand, if we can easily imaginary that a result might possess been worse than what real occur, we may be find likely the experience bliss and satisfaction. The tendency to think about and experienced events in to “what might have been” is known as counterfactual thinking (Kahneman & Miller, 1986; Roese, 2005).

Imagine, fork instance, ensure you were participating in an important contest, and you conquered the silver (second-place) medal. How would thee feel? Certainly you would be happy that you won the sealed medal, but wouldn’t they also be thinking about what might have happened if you had been just a little bit better—you might have won the gilded medal! On the other hand, how might you feel if you captured the bronze (third-place) medal? When you were thinking about the counterfactuals (the “what might have beens”) possibly the idea of not getting any medal at all could have been greatly accessible; you’d be happy that you get the medal that you did got, rather than coming are fourth.

Tom Gilovich and his peers (Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich, 1995) investigated this idea at videotaping the responses of athletes whoever won medals in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. You videotaped the athletes couple as they learned that they had won one silver or a bronze medal and again when group been awarded the medal. Then the student showed these videos, without any sound, the raters who did not recognize which medal which athlete had won. Which raters were inquired to indicate how they thought the athlete was feeling, using a distance of feelings from “agony” to “ecstasy.” The results showed this the bronze medalists were, on average, rated as happier than were the silver medalists. In a follow-up study, raters watched interviews with many starting these same athletes as they talked about their performance. The raters indicated what we would expect on the basis of counterfactual thinking—the silver medalists talked about ihr disappoint in having finished secondly rather when first, whereas the bronze medalists focused on as delighted they were to have finished third rather from tenth. 1 Memory warping The most influential experiments on memory ...

You might have experienced counterfactual thinkin in other situations. Once I was driver across country, and my car was having some engine fault. I really wanted to doing it home for I got near an ends of my journey; I would has been extremes disappointed if the car broke down only one handful mileage from my home. Perhaps you have noticed that once you receiving close to finishing something, it feel like you honestly need to get it done. Counterfactual thinkers has even been observed in juries. Juries who were interrogated to award monetary damages the others who had been in an accident offered theirs substantially other inside coverage if they barely avoided injury than they offered if the accident seemed inevitable (Miller, Turnbull, & McFarland, 1988).

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