What is memory?

THINK(30 sec)

PAIRHow do you think our memory works? Design – 2 minutes

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My idea of memory…

MemoryA cognitive function that enables information to be

stored and retrieved at a later date

• Write down all the activities which require memory in the period of getting up in the morning and arriving at school.

• Now write down all the things during this time that you don’t require your memory

What if we had no memory?

How would we …… Make a cup of tea? Find our way home? Know who are friends or enemies are?

Is there anything that we don’t need our memories for?

Clive Wearing YouTube BBC documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y

MEMORY

• Your memory is your mind’s storehouse, the reservoir of your accumulated learning

• The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

MEMORY – INFORMATION PROCESSING

• Encoding – the processing of information into the memory system

• Storage – the retention of encoded information over time

• Retrieval – the process of getting information out of memory storage

PRO-ACTIVE INTERFERENCE

• It occurs when something you learned earlier (the old memory) interferes with your ability to create a new memory

• Example: You have been using a certain cell phone for a considerable time period. You are quite habituated with its functions and keys. And now you purchase new one and you initially find difficulty.

RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE

• It occurs when new learning or new information interferes with the recall of something you learned earlier (the old memory)

• Example: You change your cell number and after some time you have memorized your new number, if you are asked to recall your previous number, you may not be able to recall it easily.

LOFTUS AND PICKRILL (1995)

“THE FORMATION OF FALSE MEMORIES”

Psychiatric Annals 25:12/ December: 720-725

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQr_IJvYzbA

BACKGROUNDIn 1986 Nadean Cool, a nurse's aide in Wisconsin, sought therapy from a

psychiatrist to help her cope with her reaction to a traumatic event experienced by her daughter. During therapy, the psychiatrist used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to dig out buried memories of abuse that Cool herself had allegedly experienced. In the process, Cool became convinced that she had repressed memories of having been in a satanic cult, of eating babies, of being raped, of having sex with animals and of being forced to watch the murder of her eight-year-old friend. She came to believe that she had more than 120 personalities-children, adults, angels and even a duck-all because, Cool was told, she had experienced severe childhood sexual and physical abuse. The psychiatrist also performed exorcisms on her, one of which lasted for five hours and included the sprinkling of holy water and screams for Satan to leave Cool's body.

When Cool finally realized that false memories had been planted, she sued the psychiatrist for malpractice. In March 1997, after five weeks of trial, her case was settled out of court for $2.4 million. Nadean Cool is not the only patient to develop false memories as a result of questionable therapy.

BACKGROUND

In Missouri in 1992 a church counselor helped Beth Rutherford to remember during therapy that her father, a clergyman, had regularly raped her between the ages of seven and 14 and that her mother sometimes helped him by holding her down. Under her therapist's guidance, Rutherford developed memories of her father twice impregnating her and forcing her to abort the fetus herself with a coat hanger.The father had to resign from his post as a clergyman when the allegations were made public. Later medical examination of the daughter revealed, however, that she was still a virgin at age 22 and had never been pregnant. The daughter sued the therapist and received a $1-million settlement in 1996.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il0u2s_WGXA&feature=related

METHODOLOGY• SAMPLE:

– 3 males and 21 females– Age range: 18 to 53 years– Recruited by University of Washington students– A pair of individuals – a subject and the subject’s

relative– Primarily parent-child pair or sibling pair– The relative member of the pair had to be the one

who had knowledge about childhood experiences of the subject

Is this representative?

METHODOLOGY• MATERIAL:

– A five-page booklet containing a cover letter with instructions for completing the booklet and schedule of interviews

– The booklet contained four short stories about childhood events of the subject provided by the relative

– Three of the stories were true– One was false about child getting lost– The order of events was always same in all booklets– The false event was presented in the third position– Each event was presented in a single paragraph– Remaining page was left blank for the subject to reproduce

his memory

METHODOLOGY• EXAMPLE OF A FALSE EVENT: (for a 20-year old

Vietnamese American woman who grew up in Washington)

“You, your mom, Tien and Tuan all went to the Bremerton K-Mart. You must have been five years old at the time. Your mom gave each of you some money to get a blueberry Icee. You ran ahead to

get into the line first, and somehow lost your way in the store. Tien find you crying to an elderly

Chinese woman. You three then went together to get an Icee.”

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– Interviews with the relative – to obtain three events that happened to the subjects between

4 to 6 years of age– The stories were not to be family folklore or traumatic events– Also information about a plausible shopping trip to a mall or

large departmental store was obtained• Where the family would have shopped when the subject was five

years old.• Which members of the family usually went along on a shopping trip• What kinds of stores might have attracted the subject’s interests• Verification that the subject had not been lost in a mall around age

of five

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– Using the information false event was created that had following features:• Lost for an extended period• Crying• Lost in a mall or large department store at about

age of 5• Found and aided by an elderly woman• Reunited with the family.

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– Ss were told that the study is about childhood memories and how and why people some things and not others. (DECEPTION)

– They were told to read the events in booklets– And write what they remembered about each

event.– If event not remembered, they write “I do not

remember this”.– After completing the booklet, mailed back to the

researchers

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– Ss were called and scheduled for two interviews

– If convenient, interview would take place at university, otherwise over telephone

– First interview - one or two weeks after receipt of booklet

– Second interview – one or two weeks after first interview

– Interviewers were 2 females

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– In 1st interview, Ss were reminded of each event and asked to recall as much as they could.

– Later, Ss rated their memory for the event on a scale of 1 to 10.

– 1=not clear at all , and 10=extremely clear– Ss then rated the confidence on 5-point scale

that if given more time to think, they would be able to recall more details

– 1=not confident, and 5=extremely confident

METHODOLOGY• PROCEDURE:

– After 1st interview, Ss were not to discuss events with relatives

– Ss were told to try to remember more details for the next interview

– 2nd interview was as same as 1st interview, Ss recalled events, and rated on clarity and confidence scales.

– Ss were debriefed in the end and were asked to choose which of the four events was false

– Apologies for the deception and explanation why it was necessary

RESULTS

• Memory for true events:– In total, there were 72 true events– 49 out of 72 (68%) were remembered in booklet– This percentage held constant in 1st and 2nd

interview

RESULTS

• Memory for false events:– Total 24 false events– 7 out of 24 (29%) were remembered, either fully or

partially in booklet– Partial memories mean remembering parts of event +

speculations about how and when it happened– During 1st interview, one subject claimed she did not

remember this, dropping the number from 7 to 6 (25%) of the events were remembered fully or partially.

– In 2nd interview, the percentage held constant

RESULTS

• Number of words used to describe memories:– The mean word length of descriptions of true

memories was 138.0– The mean word length of descriptions of false

memories was 49.9– these findings are based on the descriptions of

7(29%) of the subjects who produced partial or full memories of false events in their booklets

RESULTS

• Clarity ratings for events:– The clarity ratings for the false events were tended

to be lower– The mean clarity rating for the true events was 6.3

in both 1st and 2nd interview– The mean clarity rating for the false events was

2.8 in 1st interview and 3.6 in 2nd interview

RESULTS

• Confidence ratings:– Confidence ratings were lower for false events.– For true events, rating in 1st interview was 2.7 and

in 2nd interview it was 2.2– For false events, it was 1.8 in 1st interview and 1.4

in 2nd interview.

RESULTS

• When asked to choose false event after debriefing:– 19 subjects correctly identified the false event as

getting-lost memory.

CONCLUSION

• These findings reveal that people can be led to believe that entire events happen to them after suggestions to that effect. These findings provide an “existence proof” for the phenomenon of false memory information.

• Memory can be altered via suggestion.• People can be led to remember their past in

different ways and they can even be led to remember entire events that actually did not happen to them

More Planted Memories

•20% recall for overnight hospitalization for a high fever with a possible ear infection(Hyman)•25% recall for attending a wedding reception and accidently spilling a punch bowl on the parents of the bride (Hyman)•26% complete recall and 30% partial recall for serious animal attack (UBC)•37% recall for rescued by lifeguard (Tenn: Heaps & Nash)