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Chapter Memory Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) Kathleen Henry Memory is a single term that reflects a number of different abilities holding information briefly while working with it ( working memory ) remembering episodes of one life ( episodic memory ) and our general knowledge of facts of the world ( semantic memory ) among other types . Remembering episodes involves three processes encoding information ( learning it , by perceiving it and relating it to past knowledge ) storing it ( maintaining it over time ) and then retrieving it ( accessing the information when needed ) Failures can occur at any stage , leading to forgetting or to having false memories . The key to improving one memory is to improve processes to use techniques effective retrieval . Good encoding techniques include relating new information to what one already knows , forming mental images , and creating associations among information that needs to be remembered . The key to good retrieval is developing effective cues thatwill lead the rememberer backto the encoded information . Classic mnemonic systems , known since the time ofthe ancient Greeks and still used by some today , can greatly improve one memory abilities . Learning Objectives Define and note differences between the following forms of memory working memory , episodic memory , semantic memory , collective memory . Describe the three stages in the process of learning and remembering . Describe strategies that can be used to enhance the original learning or encoding of information . Describe strategies that can improve the process of retrieval . Describe why the classic mnemonic device , the method of loci , works so well .
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 154 Introduction In 2013 , Simon sat in front of 60 people in a room at Washington University , where he memorized an increasingly long series . On the first round , a computer generated 10 random a screen for I seconds . After the series disappeared , Simon typed them into his computer . His recollection was perfect . In the next phase , 20 digits appeared on the screen for 20 seconds . Again , Simon got them all correct . No one in the audience ( mostly professors , graduate students , and undergraduate students ) could recall the 20 digits perfectly . Then came 30 digits , studied for 30 seconds once again , Simon misplace even a single digit . For a final trial , 50 digits appeared on the screen for 50 seconds , and again , Simon got them all right . In fact , Simon would have been happy to keep going . His record in this forward digit span 240 digits ! When most of us witness a performance like that of Simon , we think one of two things First , maybe he cheating somehow . No , he is not . Second , Simon must have abilities more advanced than the rest of humankind . After all , psychologists established many years ago that the normal memory span for adults is about digits , with some of us able to recall a few more and others a few less In some ways memory is like file drawers where you store mental That IS Why the first information . is also a series of processes how does that phone numbers were to information get filed to begin with and how does it get retrieved when determined that needed ?
many errors occurred ( costing the phone company money ) when the number was increased to even digits . But in normal testing , no one gets 50 digits correct in a row , much less , does Simon simply have a photographic memory ?
He does not . Instead , Simon has taught himself simple strategies for remembering that have greatly increased his capacity for remembering virtually any type of , words , faces and names , poetry , historical dates , and so on . Twelve years earlier , before he started training his memory abilities , he had a digit span of , just like most of us . Simon has been training his abilities for about 10 years as ofthis writing , and has risen to be in the top two of memory athletes . In 2012 , he came in second place in the World Memory Championships ( composed of 11 tasks ) held in London . He currently ranks second in the world , behind another German
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 155 competitor , Johannes Mallow . In this module , we reveal what psychologists and others have learned about memory , and we also explain the general principles by which you can improve your own memory for factual material . Varieties of Memory For most of us , remembering digits relies on memory , or working ability to hold information in our minds for a brief time and work with it ( multiplying 24 17 without using paper would rely on working memory ) Another type of memory is episodic ability to remember the episodes of our lives . If you were given the task did days ago , that would be a test of episodic memory you would be To be a good chess player you have to learn to increase working required to mentally travel through the memory so you can plan ahead for several offensive moves while day in your mind and note the main events Semantic memory is our player could counter each ofyour planned moves . storehouse of permanent knowledge , such as the meanings of words in a language ( the meaning of ) and the huge collection about the world ( there are 196 countries in the world , and 206 bones in your body ) Collective memory refers to the kind of memory that people in a group share ( whether family , community , schoolmates , or citizens of a state or a country ) For example , residents of small towns often strongly identify with those towns , remembering the local customs and historical events in a unique way . That is , the community collective memory passes stories and recollections between neighbors and to future generations , forming a memory system unto itself . Psychologists continue to debate the classification of memory , as well as which types rely on others ( but for this module we will focus on episodic memory . Episodic memory is usually what people think of when they hear the word memory . For example , when people say that an older relative is ' losing her memory due to disease , the type of they are referring to is the inability to recall events , or episodic memory . Semantic memory is actually preserved in disease . Although remembering specific events that have happened over the course of one entire life (
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 156 your experiences in sixth grade ) can be referred to as autobiographical memory , we will focus primarily on the episodic memories of more recent events . Three Stages of the Process Psychologists distinguish between three necessary stages in the learning and memory process encoding , storage , and retrieval ( Encoding is defined as the initial learning of information storage refers to maintaining information over time retrieval is the ability to access information when you need it . If you meet someone for the first time at a party , you need to encode her name ( Lyn Goff ) while you associate her name with her face . Then you need to maintain the information over time . Ifyou see her a week later , you need to recognize her face and have it serve as a cue to retrieve her name . Any successful act of remembering requires that all three stages be intact . However , two types of errors can also occur . Forgetting is one type you see the person you met at the party and you can not recall her name . The other error is ( false recall or false recognition ) you see someone who looks like Lyn Goff and call the person by that name ( false recognition of the face ) Or , you might see the real Lyn Goff , recognize her face , but then call her by the name of another woman you met at the party ( of her name ) Whenever forgetting or occurs , we can ask , at which stage in the memory process was there a it is often difficult to answer this question with precision . One reason for this inaccuracy is that the three stages are not as discrete as our description implies . Rather , all three stages depend on one another . How we encode information determines how it will be stored and what cues will be effective when we try to retrieve it . And too , the act of retrieval changes the way information is subsequently remembered , usually aiding later recall ofthe retrieved information . The central point for now is that the three , storage , and one another , and are inextricably bound together . Encoding Encoding refers to the initial experience of perceiving and learning information . Psychologists often study recall by having participants study a list of pictures or words . Encoding in these situations is fairly straightforward . However , life encoding is much more challenging . When you walk across campus , for example , you encounter countless sights and friends passing by , people playing Frisbee , music in the air . The physical and mental environments are much too rich for you to encode all the happenings around you or the internal thoughts you have in response to them . So , an important first principle of encoding
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 157 is that it is selective we attend to some events in our environment and we ignore others . A second point about encoding is that it is prolific we are always encoding the events of our to the world , trying to understand it . Normally this presents no problem , as our days are filled with routine occurrences , so we do need to pay attention to everything . But if something does happen that seems your daily walk across campus , you see a we pay close attention and try to understand why we are seeing what we are seeing . Right after your typical walk across campus ( one without the appearance of a giraffe ) you would be able to remember the events reasonably well if you were asked . You could say whom you bumped into , what song was playing from a radio , and so on . However , walk a month later . You would stand a would likely be able to recount the basics ofa typical walk across campus , but not the precise details of that particular walk . Yet , if you had seen a giraffe during that walk , the event would have been fixed in your mind for a long time , probably for the rest of your life . You would tell your friends about it , and , on later occasions when you saw a giraffe , you might be reminded of the day you saw one on campus . Psychologists have long pinpointed an event stand out as quite different from a background of similar ( Hunt , nothing more than ordinary , another A giraffe in the context of a zoo or its natural habitat may , setting in the middle of a campus or a busy city and its level of distinctiveness increases dramatically . Distinctiveness addition , when Vivid memories are tinged is a key attribute to remembering events . David with strong emotional content , they often seem to leave a permanent mark on us . Public tragedies , such as terrorist attacks , often create vivid memories in those who witnessed them . But even those of us not directly involved in such events may have vivid memories of them , including memories of first hearing about them . For example , many people are able to recall their exact physical location when they first learned about the assassination or accidental death of a national figure . The term flashbulb memory was originally coined by Brown and
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 158 ( to describe this sort of vivid memory of finding out an important piece of news . The name refers to how some memories seem to be captured in the mind like a flash photograph because of the distinctiveness and emotionality of the news , they seem to become permanently etched in the mind with exceptional clarity compared to other memories . Take a moment and think back on your own life . Is there a particular memory that seems sharper than others ?
A memory where you can recall unusual details , like the colors of mundane things around you , or the exact positions objects ?
Although people have great confidence in flashbulb memories like these , the truth is , our objective accuracy with them is far from perfect ( That is , even though people may have great confidence in what they recall , their memories are not as accurate ( what the actual colors were where objects were truly placed ) as they tend to imagine . Nonetheless , all other things being equal , distinctive and emotional events are . Details do not leap perfectly from the world into a person mind . We might say that we went to a party and remember it , but what we remember is ( at best ) what we encoded . As noted above , the process of encoding is selective , and in complex situations , relatively few of many possible details are noticed and encoded . The process of encoding always involves is , taking the information from the form it is delivered to us and then converting it in a way that we can make sense of it . For example , you might try to remember the colors of a rainbow by using the acronym ROY ( red , orange , yellow , green , blue , indigo , violet ) The process of the colors into a name can help us to remember . However , can also introduce we accidentally add information during encoding , then remember that new material as if it had been part of the actual experience ( as discussed below ) Psychologists have studied many strategies that can be used during improve retention . First , research advises that , as we study , we should think ofthe meaning ofthe events ( events to information we already know . This helps us form associations that we can use to retrieve information later . Second , imagining events also Although it requires more effort , using images and makes them more memorable Creating Vivid associations can improve the process of . images out Of information ( even verbal Leo Reynolds information ) can later recall ( Bower
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 159 ?
Creating imagery is part Simon uses to remember huge numbers of digits , but we can all use images to encode information more effectively . The basic concept behind good encoding strategies is to form distinctive memories ( ones that stand out ) and to form links or associations among memories to help later retrieval ( Hunt the effort is well worth the benefits of enhanced learning and retention . We emphasized earlier that encoding is selective people can not encode all information they are exposed to . However , can add information that was not even seen or heard during the initial encoding phase . Several ofthe processes , like forming associations between memories , can happen without our awareness . This is one reason people can sometimes remember events that did not actually during the process of , details got added . One common way of inducing false memories in the laboratory employs a technique ( Participants hear lists of 15 words , like door , glass , pane , shade , ledge , sill , house , open , curtain , frame , breeze , sash , screen , and shutter . Later , participants are given a test in which they are shown a list of words and asked to pick out the ones they heard earlier . This second list contains some words from the first list ( door , pane , frame ) and some words not from the list ( arm , phone , battle ) In this example , one ofthe words on the test is window , does not appear in the first list , but which is related to other words in that list . When subjects were tested , they were reasonably accurate with the studied words ( door , etc . recognizing them 72 of the time . However , when window was on the test , they falsely recognized it as having been on the list 84 of the time ( The same thing happened with many other lists the authors used . This phenomenon is referred to as the ( for ) effect . One explanation for such results is that , while students listened to items in the list , the words triggered the students to think about window , even though window was never presented . In this way , people seem to encode events that are not actually part of their experience . Because humans are creative , we are always going beyond the information we are given we automatically make associations and infer from them what is happening . But , as with the word association above , sometimes we make false memories from our remembering the inferences themselves as if they were actual experiences . To illustrate this , Brewer ( gave people sentences to remember that were designed to elicit pragmatic inferences . inferences , in general , refer to instances when something is not explicitly stated , but we are still able to guess the undisclosed intention . For example , if your friend told you that she did want to go out to eat , you may infer that she does have the money to go out , or that she too tired . With pragmatic inferences , there is usually one particular inference you likely to make . Consider the statement Brewer ( 977 ) gave her participants The karate
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 160 champion hit the cinder block . After hearing or seeing this sentence , participants who were given a to rememberthe statement as having been , The karate champion broke the cinder This remembered statement is not necessarily a logical inference ( it is perfectly reasonable that a karate champion could hit a cinder block without breaking it ) Nevertheless , the pragmatic conclusion from hearing such a sentence is that the block was likely broken . The participants remembered this inference they made while hearing the sentence in place ofthe actual words that were in the sentence ( see also Chan , initial registration of essential in the learning and memory process . Unless an event is encoded in some fashion , it will not be successfully remembered later . However , just because an event is encoded ( even if it is encoded well ) there no guarantee that it will be remembered later . Storage Every experience we have changes our brains . That may seem like a bold , even strange , claim at first , but . We encode each of the nervous system , making new impressions in the each of those impressions involves changes in the brain . Psychologists ( and ) say that experiences leave memory traces , or engrams ( the two terms are synonyms ) Memories have to be stored somewhere in the brain , so in order to do so , the brain biochemically alters itself and its neural tissue . Just like you might write yourself a traces , or engrams , are NOT perfectly preserved combined with current knowledge to reconstruct whatwe think happened in note to remind you of something , the brain the past . INDEED writes a memory trace , changing its own physical composition to do so . The basic idea is that events ( occurrences in our environment ) create engrams through a process of consolidation the neural changes that occur after create the ofan experience . Although are concerned with exactly what neural processes change when memories are created , for psychologists , the term memory trace simply refers to the physical change in the nervous system ( whatever that may be , exactly ) that represents our experience .
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 161 Although the concept of engram or memory trace is extremely useful , we should take the term too literally . It is important to understand that memory traces are not perfect little packets of information that lie dormant in the brain , waiting to be called forward to give an accurate report of past experience . Memory traces are not like video or audio recordings , capturing experience with great accuracy as discussed earlier , we often have errors in our memory , which would not exist if memory traces were perfect packets of information . Thus , it is wrong to think that remembering involves simply reading out a faithful record of past experience . Rather , when we remember past events , we reconstruct them with the aid of our memory also with our current belief of what happened . For example , if you were trying to recall for the police who started a fight at a bar , you may not have a memory trace of who pushed whom first . However , let say you remember that one of the guys held the door open for you . When thinking back to the start of the fight , this knowledge ( of how one guy was friendly to you ) may unconsciously influence your memory of what happened in favor ofthe nice guy . Thus , memory is a construction of what you actually recall and what you believe happened . In a phrase , remembering is reconstructive ( we reconstruct our past with the aid of memory traces ) not reproductive ( a perfect reproduction or recreation ofthe past ) Psychologists refer to the time between learning and testing as the retention interval . Memories can consolidate during that time , aiding retention . However , experiences can also occur that undermine the memory . For example , think of what you had for lunch yesterday pretty easy task . However , if you had to recall what you had for lunch 17 days ago , you may well fail ( assuming you do eat the same thing every day ) The 16 lunches you had since that one have created retroactive interference . Retroactive interference refers to new activities ( the subsequent lunches ) during the retention interval ( the time between the lunch 17 days ago and now ) that interfere with retrieving the specific , older memory ( the lunch details from 17 days ago ) Butjust as newer things can interfere with remembering older things , so can the opposite happen . Proactive interference is when past memories interfere with the encoding of new ones . For example , if you have ever studied a second language , often times the grammar and vocabulary ofyour native language will pop into your head , impairing your fluency in the foreign language . Learning Testing
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 162 Retroactive interference is one ofthe main causes ( In the module Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases ( Elizabeth describes her fascinating work on eyewitness memory , in which she shows how memory for an event can be changed via misinformation supplied during the retention interval . For example , ifyou witnessed a car crash but subsequently heard people describing it from their own perspective , this new information may interfere with or disrupt your own personal recollection ofthe crash . In fact , you may even come to rememberthe event happening exactly as the others described it ! This misinformation effect in eyewitness memory represents a type of retroactive interference that can occur during the retention interval ( see ( for a review ) Of course , if correct information is given during the retention interval , the witness memory will usually be improved . Although interference may arise between the occurrence ofan event and the attempt to recall it , the itself is always expressed when we retrieve memories , the topic to which we turn next . Retrieval argued that the key process in memory is retrieval ( 91 ) Why should retrieval be given more prominence than encoding or storage ?
For one thing , if information were encoded and stored but could not be retrieved , it would be useless . As discussed previously in this module , we encode and store thousands of , sights and day , creating memory traces . However , we later access only a tiny portion ve taken in . Most ofour memories will never be the sense ofbeing brought back to mind , consciously . This fact seems so obvious that we rarely reflect on it . All those events that happened to you in the fourth grade that seemed so important then ?
Now , many years later , you would struggle to remember even a few . You may wonder if the traces of those memories still exist in some latent form . Unfortunately , with currently available methods , it is impossible to know . Psychologists distinguish information that is available in that which is accessible ( information is the information that is stored in memory precisely how much and what types are stored can not be known . That is , all we can know is what information we can information . The assumption is that accessible information represents only a tiny slice ofthe information available in our brains . Most of us have had the experience to remember some fact or event , giving up , and of a comes to us at a later time , even after we stopped trying to remember it . Similarly , we all know the experience of failing to recall a fact , but then , if we are given several choices ( as in a test ) we are easily able to recognize it .
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 163 What factors determine what information can be retrieved from memory ?
One critical factor is the type of hints , or cues , in the environment . You may song on the radio that suddenly evokes memories ofan earlier time in your life , even ifyou were not trying to remember it when the song came on . Nevertheless , the song is closely associated with that time , so it brings the experience to mind . We ca know the entirety of what is in our memory , but only that portion we can actually retrieve . Something that can not be retrieved The general principle that underlies the effectiveness of retrieval cues is the encoding specificity principle ( 913 ) when people encode information , they do so in specific ways . For example , take the song on the radio perhaps you heard it while you were at a terrific party , having a great , philosophical conversation with a friend . Thus , the song became part of that whole complex experience . Years later , even though you have thought about that party in ages , when you hear the song on the radio , the whole experience rushes back to you . In now and which is seemingly gone from memory may , with different cues applied , reemerge . Photo sean general , the encoding specificity principle states that , to the extent a retrieval cue ( the song ) matches or overlaps the memory trace of an experience ( the party , the conversation ) it will be effective in evoking the memory . experiment on the encoding specificity principle had participants memorize a set of words in a unique setting . Later , the participants were tested on the word sets , either in the same location they learned the words or a different one . As a result of encoding specificity , the students who took the test in the same place they learned the words were actually able to recall more words ( than the students who took the test in a new setting . In this instance , the physical context itself provided cues for retrieval . This is why it good to study for midterms and finals in the same room you be taking them in . One caution with this principle , though , is that , for the cue to work , it ca match too many other experiences ( Consider a lab experiment . Suppose you study 00 items 99 are words , and one is a penguin , item 50 in the list . Afterwards , the cue recall the picture would evoke penguin perfectly . No one would miss it . However , ifthe word penguin were placed in the same the other 99 words , its memorability would be exceptionally worse . This outcome shows the power of distinctiveness that we discussed in the section on encoding one picture is perfectly recalled from among 99 words because it stands out . Now consider what would happen if the experiment were repeated ,
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 164 but there were 25 pictures distributed within the list . Although the picture of the penguin would still be there , the probability that the cue recall the picture ( at item 50 ) would be useful forthe penguin would drop correspondingly . Watkins ( referred to this outcome as demonstrating the cue overload principle . That is , to be effective , a retrieval cue can not be overloaded with too many memories . For the cue recall the picture to be effective , it should only match one item in the target set ( as in the , case ) To sum up how memory cues function for a retrieval cue to be effective , a match must exist between the cue and the desired target memory furthermore , to produce the best retrieval , the relationship should be distinctive . Next , we will see how the encoding specificity principle can work in practice . Psychologists measure memory performance by using production tests ( involving recall ) or recognition tests ( selection from incorrect information , a choice test ) For example , with our list of 100 words , one group of people might be asked to recall the list in any order ( a free recall test ) while a different group might be asked to circle the 100 studied words out ofa mix with another 100 , unstudied words ( a recognition test ) In this situation , the recognition test would likely produce better performance from participants than the recall test . We usually think of recognition tests as being quite easy , because the cue for retrieval is a copy of the actual event that was presented for study . After all , what could be a better cue than the exact target ( memory ) the person is trying to access ?
In most cases , this line of reasoning is true nevertheless , recognition tests do not provide perfect indexes of what is stored in memory . That is , you can fail to recognize a target staring you right in the face , yet be able to recall it later with a different set of cues ( For example , suppose you had the task of recognizing the surnames authors . At first , you might think that being given the actual last name would always be the best cue . However , research has shown this not necessarily to be true ( When given names such as Tolstoy , Shaw , Shakespeare , and Lee , subjects might well say that Tolstoy and Shakespeare are famous authors , whereas Shaw and Lee are not . But , when given a cued recall test using first names , people often recall items ( produce them ) thatthey had failed to recognize before . For example , in this instance , a cue like George Bernard often leads to a recall of Shaw , even though people initially failed to recognize Show as a famous author name . Yet , when given the cue William , people may not come up with Shakespeare , because William is a common name that matches many people ( the cue overload principle at work ) This strange recall can sometimes lead to better performance than be explained by the encoding specificity principle . As a cue , George Bernard matches the way the famous writer is stored in memory better than does his surname , Shaw , does ( even though it is the
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 165 target ) Further , the match is quite distinctive with George Bernard , but the cue William is much more overloaded ( Prince William , William Yeats , William , The phenomenon we have been describing is called the words , which highlights the point that a cue will be most effective depending on howthe information has been encoded ( I , The point is , the cues that work best to evoke retrieval are those that recreate the event or name to be remembered , whereas sometimes even the target itself , such as Show in the above example , is not the best cue . Which cue will be most effective depends on how the information has been encoded . Whenever we think about our past , we engage in the act of retrieval . We usually think that retrieval is an objective act because we tend to imagine that retrieving a memory is like pulling a book from a shelf , and after we are done with it , we return the book to the as it was . However , research shows this assumption to be false far from being a static repository of data , the memory is constantly changing . In fact , every time we retrieve a memory , it is altered . For example , the act of retrieval itself ( ofa fact , concept , or event ) makes the retrieved memory much more likely to be retrieved again , a phenomenon called the testing effect or the retrieve eff eer ( EYE . a retrieving some information can actually cause us to forget other information related to it , a phenomenon called ( Thus the act of retrieval can be a the retrieved ( usually bya large amount ) but harming related information ( though this effect is often ) As discussed earlier , retrieval memories is reconstructive . We weave the concrete bits and pieces of events in with assumptions and preferences to form a coherent story ( For example , if during your birthday , your dog got to your cake before you did , you would likely tell that story for years afterward . Say , then , in later years you misremember where the dog actually found the cake , but repeat that error over and over during subsequent of the story . Over time , that inaccuracy would become a basic fact of the event in your mind . Just as retrieval practice ( repetition ) enhances accurate memories , so will it strengthen errors or false memories ( Sometimes memories can even be manufactured just from hearing a vivid story . Consider the following episode , recounted by Jean , the famous developmental psychologist , from his childhood One of my first memories would date , if it were true , from my second year . I can still see , most clearly , the following scene , in which I believed until I was about 15 . I was sitting in my pram . when a man tried to kidnap me . I was held in by the strap fastened round
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 166 me while my nurse bravely tried to stand between me and the thief . She received various scratches , and I can still vaguely see those on herface . I was about , my parents received a letterfrom nurse sayingthat she had been converted to the Salvation Army . She wanted to confess her past faults , and in particular to return the watch she had been given as a reward on this occasion . She had made up the whole story , faking the scratches . must have heard , as a child , this story , which my parents believed , and projected it into the past in the form ofa visual memory . Many real memories are doubtless of the same order . Norman , 1997 , vivid account represents a case ofa pure reconstructive memory . He heard the tale told repeatedly , and doubtless told it ( and thought about it ) himself . The repeated telling cemented the events as though they had really happened , just as we are all open to the possibility of having many real memories of the same The fact that one can remember precise details ( the location , the scratches ) does not necessarily indicate that the memory is true , a point that has been confirmed in laboratory studies , too ( Norman , 1997 ) Putting It All Together Improving Your Memory A central theme of this module has been the importance of the encoding and retrieval processes , and their interaction . To recap to improve learning and memory , we need to encode information in conjunction with bring back the remembered events when we need them . But ?
mind the two critical principles we have discussed to maximize excellent cues that will retrieval , we should construct meaningful cues that remind us of the original experience , and those cues should be distinctive and not associated with other memories . These two conditions are critical in maximizing cue effectiveness ( 2002 ) Some people employ tricks to help them improve their memories . Flood So , how can these principles be adapted for use in many situations ?
Let go back to how we started the module , with Simon ability to memorize huge numbers of digits . Although itwas not obvious , he applied these same general memory principles , but in a more Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 167 deliberate way . In fact , all mnemonic devices , or memory , rely on these fundamental principles . In a typical case , the person learns a set of cues and then applies these cues to learn and remember information . Consider the set of 20 items below that are easy to learn and remember ( Bower , 1972 ) is a gun . 11 is , hot dog bun . is a shoe . 12 is , airplane glue . is a tree . 13 is , bumble bee . is a door . 14 is , grocery store . is knives . 15 is , big beehive . is sticks . 16 is , magic tricks . is oven . 17 is , go to heaven . is plate . 18 is , golden gate . is wine . 19 is , ball of twine . is hen . 20 is , ballpoint pen . Itwould less than 10 minutes to learn this list and practice recalling it several times ( remember to use retrieval ) Ifyou were to do so , you would have a set of peg words on which you could hang memories . In fact , this mnemonic device is called the peg word technique . lfyou then needed to remember some discrete a grocery list , or points you wanted to make in a method would let you do so in a very precise yet flexible way . Suppose you had to remember bread , peanut butter , bananas , lettuce , and so on . The way to use the method is to form a vivid image of what you want to remember and imagine it interacting with your peg words ( as many as you need ) For example , for these items , you might imagine a large gun ( the first peg word ) shooting a loaf of bread , then a jar of peanut butter inside a shoe , then large bunches of bananas hanging from a tree , then a door slamming on a head of lettuce with leaves flying everywhere . The idea is to provide good , distinctive cues ( the weirder the better ! for the information you need to remember while you are learning it . If you do this , then retrieving it later is relatively easy . You know your cues perfectly ( one is gun , etc . so you simply go through your cue word list and look in your mind eye at the image stored there ( bread , in this case ) This peg word method may sound strange at first , but it works quite well , even with little training ( One word of warning , though , is that the items to be remembered need to be presented relatively slowly at first , until you have practice associating each with its cue word . People get faster with time . Another interesting aspect ofthis technique is that
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 168 it just as easy to recall the items in backwards order as forwards . This is because the peg words provide direct access to the memorized items , regardless of order . How did Simon remember those digits ?
Essentially he has a much more complex system based on these same principles . In his case , he uses memory palaces ( elaborate scenes with discrete places ) combined with huge sets of images for digits . For example , imagine mentally walking through the home where you grew up and identifying as many distinct areas and objects as possible . Simon has hundreds of such memory palaces that he uses . Next , for remembering digits , he has memorized a set of images . Every number for him immediately brings forth a mental image . So , for example , 6187 might recall Michael Jackson . When Simon hears all the numbers coming at him , he places an image for every four digits into locations in his memory palace . He can do this at an incredibly rapid rate , faster than digits per seconds when they are flashed visually , as in the demonstration at the beginning of the module . As noted , his record is 240 digits , recalled in exact order . Simon also holds the world record in an event called speed cards , which involves memorizing the precise order of a shuffled deck of cards . Simon was able to do this in seconds ! Again , he uses his memory palaces , and he encodes groups of cards as single images . Many books exist on how to improve memory using mnemonic devices , but all involve forming distinctive encoding operations and then having an infallible set of memory cues . We should add that to develop and use these memory systems beyond the basic peg system outlined above takes a great amount of time and concentration . The World Memory Championships are held every year and the records keep improving . However , for most common purposes , just keep in mind that to remember well you need to encode information in a distinctive way and to have good cues for retrieval . You can adapt a system that will meet most any purpose .
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 169 Outside Resources Book Brown , A . 2014 ) Smarter , sooner , longer Effective strategies for learning and remembering . Cambridge , MA Harvard University Press . Student Video Eureka The Misinformation Effect . This is a video illustrating this phenomenon of altered memory . It was one of the winning entries in the 2014 Student Video Award . Student Video Kara Flashbulb Memories . This is a video illustrating this phenomenon of autobiographical memory . It was one of the winning entries in the 2014 Student Video Award . Ang Xia Hao Misinformation Effect . Another made video exploring the misinformation effect . Also an award winner from ?
Video Simon breaking the world record in . Discussion Questions . like Simon develop mental which enable them to use the method of loci . Develop your own journey , which contains 20 places , in order , that you know well . One example might be the front walkway to your parents apartment their doorbell the couch in their living room etc . Be sure to use a set of places that you know well and that have a natural order to them ( the walkway comes before the doorbell ) Nowyou are more than being able to memorize a set nouns , in order , rather quickly . As an optional second step , have a friend make a list of 20 such nouns and read them to you , slowly ( one every seconds ) Use the method to attempt to remember the 20 items . Recall a recent argument or misunderstanding you have had about memory ( a debate over whether your had agreed to something ) In light ofwhat you have just learned about memory , how do you think about it ?
Is it possible that the disagreement Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 170 can be understood by one of you making a pragmatic inference ?
Think about what you just learned in this module and about how you study for tests . On the basis of what you have just learned , is there something that you want to try that might help your study habits ?
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 171 Vocabulary Autobiographical memory Memory for the events of ones life . Consolidation The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces . Cue overload principle The principle stating that the more memories that are associated to a particular retrieval cue , the less effective the cue will be in prompting retrieval of any one memory . Distinctiveness The principle that unusual events ( in a context events ) be recalled and recognized better than uniform ( nondistinctive ) events . Encoding The initial experience of perceiving and learning events . Encoding specificity principle The hypothesis that a retrieval cue will be effective to the extent that information encoded from the cue overlaps or matches information in the engram or memory trace . Engrams indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event also , memory trace . Episodic memory Memory for events in a particular time and place . Flashbulb memory Vivid personal memories of receiving the news of some momentous ( and usually emotional ) event . Memory traces A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event . Misinformation effect When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 172 the original event . Mnemonic devices A strategy for remembering large amounts of information , usually involving imaging events occurring on a journey or with some other set of memorized cues . The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form , usually one more easily remembered . Retrieval The process of accessing stored information . Retroactive interference The phenomenon occur after some usually cause forgetting ofthe original event . Semantic memory The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have . Storage The stage in the process that bridges encoding and retrieval the persistence of memory over time .
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 173 References Anderson , 1994 ) Remembering can cause forgetting Retrieval dynamics in memory . journal of Experimental Memory and Cognition , 20 , 1932 ) Remembering A study in experimental and social psychology . Cambridge Cambridge University Press . Bower , 1972 ) Mnemonic elaboration in of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , 11 , Brewer , 977 ) Memory forthe pragmatic implications of sentences . Memory Cognition , Brown , 1977 ) Flashbulb memories . Cognition , Chan , 2006 ) Remembering pragmatic inferences . Applied Cognitive Psychology , 20 , Lockhart , 1972 ) Levels of processing A framework for memory research . journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , 11 , 671 . 1959 ) On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall . journal of Experimental Psychology , 58 , 17 . 1975 ) memory in two natural environments On land and underwater . Hunt , 2003 ) Two contributions of distinctive processing to accurate memory . journal of Memory and Language , 48 , 81 . Hunt , A . 1993 ) The enigma of organization and of Memory and Language , 32 , 421 . 2005 ) Planting misinformation in the human mind investigation ofthe malleability of memory . Learning Memory , 12 , 2006 ) Paradoxical effects of testing Repeated retrieval attempts enhance the likelihood of later accurate and false recall . Memory Cognition , 34 , A . 1932 ) Forgetting and the law of disuse . Psychological , 39 ( 352 . Melton , 1963 ) Implications of memory for a general theory of memory . journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , Miller , A . 956 ) The magical number seven , plus or minus two Some limits on our capacity for processing information . Psychological Review , 63 ,
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 174 , 984 ) Recognition and recall with a single Psychology Learning , Memory , and Cognition , 10 , 2002 ) The myth of the match . Memory , 10 , Norman , 997 ) False recognition in younger and older adults Exploring the characteristics of illusory memories . Memory Cognition , 25 , A . 2009 ) Testing the retrieval effort hypothesis Does greater difficulty correctly recalling information lead to higher levels of memory ?
journal of Memory and Language , 60 , 1980 ) The effectiveness of four mnemonics in ordering recall . journal of Experimental Psychology Human Learning and Memory , 558 . 2006 ) learning Taking memory tests improves retention . Psychological Science , 17 , 995 ) Creating false memories Remembering words not presented in lists . journal of Experimental Memory and Cognition , 21 , 999 ) Norms for word lists that create false memories . Memory Cognition , 27 , Ta , Rubin , 2003 ) Confidence , not consistency , characterizes flashbulb memories . Psychological Science , 14 , Tu ving , 2007 ) Are there 256 different kinds of memory ?
Ed . of remembering Essays in honor of Henry , Ill ( New York Psychology Press . Tu ving , 1991 ) of Cognitive Neuroscience , Tu ving , Bower , 1975 ) The logic of memory representations . The psychology of learning and motivation , Tu ving , Pearlstone , 1966 ) Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words . journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , Tu ving , 1973 ) Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory . Psychological Review , 80 , Tu ving , 1973 ) Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory . Psychological Review , 80 , Watkins , 1975 ) Inhibition in recall with cues . journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , 14 ,
Memory ( Encoding , Storage , Retrieval ) 175 Watkins , 1975 ) Episodic memory When recognition fails . journal of Experimental Psychology General , 104 , Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases Cara Laney Elizabeth Eyewitnesses can provide very compelling legal testimony , but rather than recording experiences flawlessly , their memories are susceptible to a variety and biases . They ( like the rest of us ) can make errors in remembering specific details and can even remember whole events that did not actually happen . In this module , we discuss several ofthe common types of errors , and what they can tell us about human memory and its interactions with the legal system . Learning Objectives Describe the kinds of mistakes that eyewitnesses commonly make and some of the ways that this can impede justice . Explain some of the errors that are common in human memory . Describe some of the important research that has demonstrated human memory errors and their consequences . What Is Eyewitness Testimony ?
Eyewitness testimony is what happens when a person witnesses a crime ( or accident , or other legally important event ) and later gets up on the stand and recalls for the court all the details of the witnessed event . It involves a more complicated process than might initially be
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 177 presumed . It includes what happens during the actual crime to facilitate or hamper witnessing , as well as everything that happens from the time the event is over to the later courtroom appearance . The eyewitness may be interviewed by the police and numerous lawyers , describe the perpetrator to several different people , and make an identification of the perpetrator , among other things . If two people witness the same event will they both report seeing the same things ?
Photo Why Is Eyewitness Testimony an Important Area of Psychological Research ?
When an eyewitness stands up in front of the court and describes what happened from her own perspective , this testimony can be extremely is hard for those hearing this testimony to take it with a grain of salt , or otherwise adjust its power . But to what extent is this necessary ?
There is now a wealth , from research conducted over several decades , suggesting that eyewitness testimony is probably the most persuasive form of evidence presented in court , but in many cases , its accuracy is dubious . There is also evidence that mistaken eyewitness evidence can lead to wrongful people to prison for years or decades , even to death row , for crimes they did not commit . Faulty eyewitness testimony has been implicated in at least 75 of DNA exoneration than any other cause ( In a particularly famous case , a man named Ronald Cotton was identified by a rape victim , jennifer Thompson , as her rapist , and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison . After more than 10 years , he was exonerated ( and the real rapist identified ) based on DNA evidence . For details on this case and other ( relatively ) lucky individuals whose false convictions were subsequently overturned with DNA evidence , see the Innocence Project website ( There is also hope , though , that many of the errors may be avoidable if proper precautions are taken during the investigative and judicial processes . Psychological science has taught us what some of those precautions might involve , and we discuss some of that science now . Misinformation
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 178 In an early study of eyewitness memory , undergraduate subjects first watched a slideshow depicting a small red car then pedestrian ( Miller , Burns , about what had happened in the slides . For example , subjects were asked , How fast was the car traveling when it passed the yield sign ?
But this question was actually designed to be misleading , because the original slide included a stop sign rather than a yield sign . Later , subjects were shown pairs of slides . One of the pair was the original slide containing the stop sign the other was a replacement slide containing a yield sign . Subjects were asked which of the pair they had previously seen . Subjects who had been asked about the yield sign were likely to pick the slide showing the yield sign , even though they had originally seen the slide with the stop sign . In other Misinformation can be introduced into words , the misinformation in the leading question led to the memory of a witness between the inaccurate memory . time of seeing an event and reporting it later . Something as straightforward as which sort of traffic Sign was in Place at This phenomenon is called the misinformation effect , a Ca be if because the misinformation that subjects were exposed to after the event ( here in the form of a misleading question ) apparently contaminates subjects memories of what they witnessed . Hundreds of subsequent studies have demonstrated that memory can be contaminated by erroneous information that people are exposed to after they witness an event ( see , The misinformation in these studies has led people to incorrectly remember everything from small but crucial details of a perpetrator appearance to objects as large as a barn that was there at all . subjects are exposed to erroneous information after the initial incident . These studies have demonstrated that young adults ( the typical research subjects in psychology ) are often susceptible to misinformation , but that children and older adults can be even more susceptible ( 2007 Ceci , 1995 ) In addition , Subjects in one study were more likely to say yes when asked Did you see the broken headlight ?
than when asked Did you see a broken headlight ?
1975 ) Other studies have shown that misinformation can corrupt memory even more easily when Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 179 it is encountered in social situations ( This is a problem particularly in cases where more than one person witnesses a crime . In these cases , witnesses tend to talk to one another in the immediate aftermath of the crime , including as they wait for police to arrive . But because different witnesses are different people with different perspectives , they are likely to see or notice different things , and thus remember different things , even when they witness the same event . So when they communicate about the crime later , they not only reinforce common memories for the event , they also contaminate each other memories for the event ( Allan , 2003 Kemp , 2006 The misinformation effect has been modeled in the laboratory . Researchers had subjects watch a video in pairs . Both subjects sat in front of the same screen , but because they wore differently polarized glasses , they saw two different versions of a video , projected onto a screen . So , although theywere both same screen , and believed ( quite reasonably ) that they were watching the same video , they were actually watching two different versions Of the Video ( In the video , Eric the electrician is seen wandering through an unoccupied house and helping the contents thereof . A total details were different between the two videos . After watching the videos , the worked together on 12 memory test questions . Four of these questions dealt with details that were different in the two versions of the video , so subjects had the chance to influence one another . Then subjects worked individually on 20 additional memory test questions . Eight ofthese were for details that were different in the two videos . Subjects accuracy was highly dependent on whether they had discussed the details previously . Their accuracy for items they had not previously discussed with their witness was 79 . But for items that they had discussed , their accuracy dropped markedly , to 34 . That is , subjects allowed their to corrupt their memories for what they had seen . Identifying Perpetrators In addition to correctly remembering many details of the crimes they witness , eyewitnesses often need to remember the faces and other identifying features ofthe perpetrators ofthose crimes . Eyewitnesses are often asked to describe that perpetrator to law enforcement and later to make identifications from books of mug shots or lineups . Here , too , there is a substantial body of research demonstrating that eyewitnesses can make serious , but often understandable and even predictable , errors ( Dunning , 2007 Cutler )
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 180 In in the United States , lineups are typically conducted with pictures , called photo spreads , ratherthan with actual people standing behind ( Wells , individuals who are dressed similarly and photographed in similar circumstances . One of these individuals is the police suspect , and the remainder are foils or fillers ( people known to be innocent of the particular crime under investigation ) If the eyewitness identifies the suspect , then the investigation ofthat suspect is likely to progress . Ifa witness identifies a foil or no one , then the police may choose to move their investigation in another direction . This process is modeled in laboratory studies of eyewitness identifications . In these studies , research subjects witness a mock crime ( often as a short video ) and then are asked to make an identification from a photo or a live lineup . Sometimes the lineups are target present , meaning that the perpetrator from the mock crime is actually in the lineup , and sometimes they are target absent , meaning that the lineup is made up entirely of foils . The Mistakes in identifying perpetrators can be influenced by a , Or , are giVen number of factors including poor viewing conditions , too little some instructions and asked to pick the time to view the perpetrator , or too much delay from time of perpetrator out of the lineup The witnessing to identification . Photo Tim Snell particular details of the witnessing experience , the instructions , and the lineup members can all influence the extent to which the mock witness is likely to pick the perpetrator out of the lineup , or indeed to make any selection at all . Mock witnesses ( and indeed real witnesses ) can make errors in two different ways . They can fail to pick the ( by ) or they can pick a foil in a target absent lineup ( wherein the only correct choice is to not make a selection ) Some factors have been shown to make eyewitness identification errors particularly likely . These include poor vision or viewing conditions during the crime , particularly stressful witnessing experiences , too little time to perpetrator or perpetrators , too much delay between witnessing and identifying , and being asked to identify a perpetrator from a race other than ones own ( 2012 , Bennett ,
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 181 It is hard for the legal system to do much about most of these problems . But there are some things that the justice system can do to help lineup identifications go For example , investigators can , fair lineups . lineup is one in which the suspect and each of the foils is equally likely to be chosen by someone who has read an eyewitness description ofthe perpetrator but who did not actually witness the crime ( Ready , match the description given by the eyewitness . Other important recommendations that have come out of this research include better ways to conduct lineups , double blind lineups , unbiased instructions for witnesses , and conducting lineups in a sequential fashion ( see Technical Working Group for Eyewitness Evidence , 1999 Wells et , 1998 Wells , Kinds of Memory Biases Memory is also susceptible to a wide variety of other biases and errors . People can forget events that happened to them and people they once knew . They can mix up details across time and place . They can even remember whole complex events that never happened at all . importantly , these errors , once made , can be very hard to unmake . A memory is no less just because it is wrong . Some small memory errors are commonplace , and you have no doubt experienced many of them . You set down your keys without paying attention , and then can not find them later when you go to look for them . You try to come up with a person name but can not find it , even though you have the sense that it is right at the tip ofyour tongue ( psychologists actually call this the effect , or TOT ) Other sorts of memory biases are more complicated and longer lasting . For example , it turns out that our expectations and beliefs about how the world works can have huge influences on our memories . Because many aspects of our everyday lives are full of redundancies , our memory systems take advantage of the recurring patterns by forming and using schemata , or memory templates A ! a , Thus . We expect that a library will have shelves and tables and librarians , and so we do have to spend energy noticing these at the time . The result of this lack of attention , however , is that one is likely to remember information ( such as tables ) and to in a rather generic way , whether or not they were actually present . False Memory
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 182 . Am . I . II . For most ofour experiences are a benefit and help with information overload . However , they may make it difficult or impossible to recall certain details of a situation later . Do you recall the as it actually was or the as approximated by your library schemata ?
Photo Some memory errors are so large ' that they almost belong in a class of their own false memories . Back in the early a pattern emerged whereby people would go into therapy for depression and other everyday problems , but over the course of the therapy develop memories for violent and horrible victimhood ( These patients therapists claimed that the patients were recovering genuine memories of real childhood abuse , buried deep in their minds for years or even decades . But some experimental psychologists believed that the memories were instead likely to be in therapy . These researchers then set out to see whether it would indeed be possible for wholly false memories to be created by procedures similar to those used in these patients therapy . In early false memory studies , undergraduate subjects family members were recruited to provide events from the students lives . The student subjects were told that the researchers had talked to their family members and learned about four different events from their childhoods . The researchers asked if the now undergraduate students remembered each of these four via short hints . The subjects were asked to write about each of the four events in a booklet and then were interviewed two separate times . The trick was that one of the events came from the researchers rather than the family ( and the family had actually assured the researchers that this event had not happened to the subject ) In the first such study , this event was a story about being lost in a shopping mall and rescued by an older adult . In this study , being asked whether they remembered
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 183 these events occurring on three separate occasions , a quarter of subjects came to believe that they had indeed been lost in the mall ( In subsequent studies , similar procedures were used to get subjects to believe that they nearly drowned and had been rescued by a lifeguard , or that they had spilled punch on the bride parents at a family wedding , or that they had been attacked by a vicious animal as a child , among other events ( Heaps Nash , 1999 , Husband , Billings , 1995 Porter , 1999 ) More recent false memory studies have used a variety of different manipulations to produce false memories in substantial minorities and even occasional majorities of manipulated subjects ( Braun , Ellis , 2002 Lindsay , Hagen , Read , Wade , Garry , 2004 , were asked to review ( fake ) advertisements for Disney vacations , to convince subjects that they had once met the character Bugs Bunny at impossible false memory because Bugs is a Warner Brothers character ( group photoshopped childhood photographs oftheir subjects into a hot air balloon picture and then asked the subjects to try to remember and describe their hot air balloon experience ( Wade childhoods along with a fake story about a class prank , and thus enhanced the likelihood that subjects would falsely remember the prank ( Using a false feedback manipulation , we have been able to persuade subjects to falsely remember having a variety of childhood experiences . In these studies , subjects are told ( falsely ) that a powerful computer system has analyzed questionnaires that they completed previously and has concluded that they had a particular experience years earlier . Subjects apparently believe what the computer says about them and adjust their memories to match this new information . A variety of different false memories have been implanted in this way . In some studies , subjects are told they once got sick on a particular food ( Laney , unpleasant character Pluto at Disneyland and witnessing between ' Parents ( a , Laney , importantly , once these false memories are through complex methods or simple is extremely difficult to tell them apart from true memories ( Laney , 2008 ) Conclusion
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 184 To conclude , eyewitness testimony is very powerful and convincing to jurors , even though it is not particularly reliable . Identification errors occur , and these errors can lead to people being falsely accused and even convicted . Likewise , eyewitness memory can be corrupted by leading questions , of events , conversations with , and their own expectations for what should have happened . People can even come to remember whole events that never occurred . The problems with memory in the legal system are real . But what can we do to start to fix them ?
A number of specific recommendations have already been made , and many of these are in the process of being implemented ( 201 Technical Working Group at specific legal procedures , including when and how witnesses should be interviewed , and how lineups should be constructed and conducted . Other recommendations call for appropriate education ( often in the form of expert witness testimony ) to be provided to jury members and others tasked with assessing eyewitness memory . Eyewitness testimony can be value to the legal system , but decades of research now argues that this testimony is often given far more weight than its .
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 185 Outside Resources Video Eureka The Misinformation Effect . This is a video illustrating this phenomenon of altered memory . It was one of the winning entries in the 2014 Student Video Award . Video Ang Xia Hao The Misinformation Effect . Another video exploring the misinformation effect . Also an award winner from ?
Discussion Questions . Imagine that you are a juror in a murder case where an eyewitness testifies . In what ways might your knowledge of memory errors affect your use of this testimony ?
How true to life do you think television shows such as CSI or Law Order are in their portrayals of eyewitnesses ?
in the United States use , where an eyewitness is brought to a suspect ( who may be standing on the street or in handcuffs in the back of a police car ) and asked , Is this the perpetrator ?
Is this a good or bad idea , from a psychological perspective ?
Why ?
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 186 Vocabulary False memories Memory for an event that never actually occurred , implanted by experimental manipulation or other means . Foils Any member of a lineup ( whether live or photograph ) other than the suspect . Misinformation effect A memory error caused by exposure to incorrect information between the original event ( a crime ) and later memory test ( an interview , lineup , or day in court ) Mock witnesses A research subject who plays the part ofa witness in a study . Photo spreads A selection of normally small photographs of faces given to a witness for the purpose of identifying a perpetrator . Schema ( plural schemata ) A memory template , created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events .
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 187 References Alba , Hasher , 1983 ) Is memory schematic ?
Psychological Bulletin , 93 , Allan , 2008 ) I still think it was a banana Memorable lies and forgettable truths . Acta , 127 , A . 2007 ) Eyewitness memory in young and older adults . In . Read , Ross , Lindsay ( The handbook psychology Volume II Memory for people ( Berkowitz , Laney , Morris , Garry , 2008 ) Pluto behaving badly False beliefs and their consequences . of Psychology , 121 , The consequences of false memories for food preferences and choices . Perspectives on Psychological Science , How to tell if a particular memory is true or false . Perspectives on Psychological Science , Laney , Morris , 2005 ) False memories about food can lead to food avoidance . Social Cognition , 23 , 2012 ) Effects of re time and cognitive operations on facial identification accuracy A of two variables associated with initial memory strength . Psychology , Crime , Law , 18 , Braun , Ellis , 2002 ) Make my memory How advertising can change our memories of the past . Psychology and Marketing , 19 , Brewer , 1981 ) Role of schemata in memory for places . Cognitive Psychology , 13 , Bennett , Mitchell , 2007 ) The influence of race on eyewitness memory . In Lindsay , Ross , Read , Handbook psychology , Vol . Memory for people ( Lawrence . Ready , Spier , A . 1990 ) Standards for evaluating the fairness of photographic lineups . Basic and Applied Social Psychology , 11 , Burton , Wilson , Bruce , 999 ) Face recognition in video Evidence from security surveillance . Psychological Science , 10 , Dunning , 2007 ) Distinguishing accurate erroneous ones indicators of eyewitness accuracy . In Lindsay , Ross , Read , Handbook psychology , Vol . people (
Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases 188 449 ) Lawrence . Ceci , 1995 ) Jeopardy in the courtroom A scientific analysis of testimony . Washington , American Psychological Association . Heaps , Nash , 1999 ) Individual differences in imagination inflation . Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , I . Husband , Billings , 1995 ) False memories experiences . Applied Cognitive Psychology , Laney , 2008 ) Emotional content of true and false memories . Memory , 16 , Lindsay , Hagen , Read , Wade , Garry , 2004 ) True photographs and false memories . Psychological Science , 15 , 1995 ) The formation of false memories . Psychiatric Annals , 25 , Lynn , 1999 ) Changing beliefs and memories through dream interpretation . Applied Cognitive Psychology , 13 , Porter , 1999 ) The nature of real , implanted , and fabricated memories for emotional childhood events Implications for the recovered memory debate . Law and Human Behavior , 23 , Harrison , 2006 ) Do you remember proposing marriage to the Pepsi machine ?
False recollections from a campus walk . Psychonomic Bulletin Review , 13 , 2012 ) Eyewitness memory and the legal system . In ( Ed . The behavioural foundations of public policy ( Princeton , Princeton University Press . Technical Working Group for Eyewitness Evidence . 1999 ) Eyewitness evidence A guide for law enforcement . Research Report . Washington , Department . Wade , Garry , Read , Lindsay , A . 2002 ) A picture is worth a thousand lies . Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , Wells , Small , 1998 ) Eyewitness identification procedures Recommendations for lineups and . Law and Human Behavior , 22 ,
10 Failures of Awareness The Case of Blindness Daniel Simons We think important objects and events in our world will automatically grab our attention , but they often do , particularly when our attention is focused on something else . The failure to notice unexpected objects or events when attention is focused elsewhere is now known as blindness . The study of such failures of awareness has a long history , but their practical importance has received increasing attention over the past decade . This module describes the history and status of research on blindness , discusses the reasons why we find these results to be counterintuitive , and the implications for how we see and act in our world . Learning Objectives Learn about blindness and why it occurs . Identify ways in which failures of awareness are counterintuitive . Better understand the link between focused attention and failures of awareness . Do you regularly spot editing errors in movies ?
Can you multitask effectively , texting while talking with your friends or watching television ?
Are you fully aware ofyour surroundings ?
If you answered yes to any of those questions , you not alone . And , you most likely wrong . More than 50 years ago , experimental psychologists began documenting the many ways that our perception ofthe world is limited , not by our eyes and ears , but by our minds . We appear
Failures Awareness The Case Blindness 190 able to process only one stream at a time , effectively filtering other information from awareness . To a large extent , we perceive only that which receives the focus of our cognitive efforts our attention . Imagine the following task , known as dichotic listening ( Cherry , 1953 on a set of headphones that play two completely different speech streams , one to your left ear and one to your right ear . Your task is to repeat each syllable spoken into your left ear as quickly and accurately as possible , mimicking each sound as you hear it . When performing this , notice ifthe speaker in your right ear switches to a different language or is replaced by a different speaker with a similar voice . You wo notice ifthe content of their speech becomes nonsensical . In effect , you are deaf to the substance of the Some researchers contend that there really is no such thing as tasking . Instead , people are just rapidly switching their attention between tasks , rather than holding those tasks in their attention at But that ' not the because of the limits of your auditory senses . It is a form of cognitive deafness , due to the nature of focused , selective attention . Even if the speaker on your right headphone name , you will notice ( Conway , this task , you will tend to notice only large physical changes ( a switch from a male to a female speaker ) but not substantive ones , except in rare cases . This selective listening task highlights the power of attention to filter extraneous information from awareness while letting in elements that we hear . Focused attention is crucial to our powers of observation , making it possible for us to zero in on what we want to see or hear while filtering out irrelevant distractions . But , it has consequences as well We can miss what would otherwise be obvious and important signals . The same pattern holds for vision . In a groundbreaking series of studies in the and
Failures The Case Blindness 191 early , and his colleagues devised a visual analogue ofthe dichotic listening task ( Their subjects viewed a video of two distinct , but partially overlapping , events . For example , one event might involve two people playing a game and the other might show people passing a ball . Because the two events were partially transparent and overlapping , both produced sensory signals on the retina regardless of which event received the participant attention . When participants were asked to monitor one ofthe events by counting the number oftimes the actors performed an action ( hand clapping or completed passes ) they often failed to notice unexpected events in the ignored video stream ( the players stopping their game and shaking hands ) As for dichotic listening , the participants were unaware of events happening outside the focus of their attention , even when looking right at them . They could tell that other stuff was happening on the screen , but many were unaware of the meaning or substance of that stuff . To test the power of selective attention to induce failures of awareness , and colleagues ( designed a variant of this task in which participants watched a video of two teams of players , one wearing white shirts and one wearing black shirts . Subjects were asked to press a key whenever the players in white successfully passed a ball , but to ignore the players in black . As for the , separately and then superimposed so that they literally occupied the same space ( they were partially transparent ) Partway through the video , a person wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella strolled through the scene . People were so intently focused on spotting passes that they often missed the umbrella woman . Pro tip If you look closely at the video , see that plays on both the black and white teams . Have you ever been paying attention to something so closely you missed another event in the background ?
Or These Surprising were We known in have you ever been so used to seeing something a certain the field but for decades researchers way that when it changed , you did even notice it had ?
dismissed their implications because the Image Lafayette College displays had such an odd , ghostly appearance .
Failures Awareness The Case Blindness 192 Of course , we would notice if the displays were fully opaque and vivid rather than partly transparent and grainy . Surprisingly , no studies were built on method for nearly 20 years . Inspired by these counterintuitive findings and after discussing them with himself , Christopher and I revisited them in the late ( We replicated work , again finding that many people missed the umbrella woman when all ofthe actors in the video were partially transparent and occupying the same space . But , we added another wrinkle a version ofthe video in which all ofthe actions of both teams of players were choreographed and filmed with a single camera . The players moved in and around each other and were fully visible . In the most dramatic version , we had a woman in a gorilla suit walk into the scene , stop to face the camera , thump her chest , and then walk off the other side after nine seconds on screen . Fully half the observers missed the gorilla when counting passes by the team in white . This phenomenon is now known as blindness , the surprising failure to notice an unexpected object or event when attention is focused on something else ( Mack Rock , now have a better handle on the factors that cause people to miss unexpected events as well as the range of situations in which blindness occurs . People are much more likely to notice unexpected objects that share features with the attended items in a display ( For example , if you count passes by the players wearing black , you are more notice the gorilla than ifyou count passes bythe players wearing white because the color of the gorilla more closely matches that of the players ( Simons detect the bright red cross traversing the display , even though it was the only colored item and was visible for five seconds . Another crucial influence on noticing is the effort you put into the demanding task . If you have to keep separate more attuned to movement because it likely indicated food or a threat was near . counts of bounce passes Phil Typically , even when we intently focused on a object , a moving object will catch our attention . Why is this ?
Some researchers claim , speaking , we are Failures The Case Blindness 193 and aerial passes , you are less likely to notice the gorilla ( Simons , 1999 ) and ifyou can even miss unexpected visual objects when you devote your limited cognitive resources to a memory task ( so the limits are not purely visual . Instead , they appear to reflect limits on the capacity of attention . Without attention to the unexpected event , you are unlikely to become aware of it ( blindness is notjust a laboratory also occurs in the real world and under more natural conditions . In a recent study ( Simons , police officer was convicted of lying because he claimed not to have seen a brutal beating ( At the time , he had been chasing a murder suspect and ran right past the scene of a brutal assault . In ' simulation , behind an experimenter who ran right past a simulated fight scene . At night , 65 percent missed the fight scene . Even during broad daylight , 44 percent right passed it without noticing , lending some plausibility to the Boston cop story that he was telling the truth and never saw the beating . Perhaps more importantly , auditory distractions can induce failures to see . Although people believe they can multitask , few can . And , talking on a phone while driving or walking decreases situation awareness and increases the chances that people will miss something important ( In a dramatic illustration of cell induced blindness , Ira Hymen observed that people talking on a cell phone as they walked across a college campus were less likely than other pedestrians to notice a Who Ode the Path ( Recently , the study of this sort of awareness failure has returned to its roots in studies of listening , with localized conversations over headphones , people often fail to notice the voice of a person walking through the scene repeatedly stating I am a gorilla ( Under conditions attention , we see and hear far less ofthe unattended information than We might expect ( We now have a good understanding of the ways in which focused attention affects the detection of unexpected objects falling outside that focus . The greater the demands on attention , the less likely people are to notice objects falling outside their attention ( Macdonald elements ofa scene , the less likely people are to notice . And , the more distracted we are , the less likely we are to be aware of our surroundings . Under conditions of distraction , we
Failures of Awareness The Case of Blindness 194 effectively develop tunnel vision . of the limits of attention and the factors that lead to more or less noticing , we have relatively less understanding of individual differences in ( Do some people consistently notice the unexpected while others are obliviously unaware ?
Or , are we all subject to Now you see me , now you do ! Although the research on attention has blindness dUe to only developed over the last few decades , magicians have been taking structural limits on the nature of advantages misguided . attention ?
The question remains Les mack controversial . A few studies suggest that those people who have a greater working memory capacity are more likely to notice unexpected objects ( resources available when focusing attention are more likely to spot other aspects of their world . However , other studies find no such relationship Those with greater working memory capacity are not any more likely to spot an unexpected object or event ( Watson , able to maintain their focus on their prescribed task , meaning that they should be less likely to notice . At least one study suggests that the ability to perform a task does not predict the likelihood of noticing ( Simons Jensen , 2009 for a replication , see Simons , moving objects around a display , gradually increasing the speed until people reached a level of 75 accuracy . Tracking ability varied greatly Some people could track objects at more than twice the speed others could . Yet , the ability to track objects more easily was unrelated to the odds unexpected event . Apparently , as long as people try to perform the tracking task , they are relatively unlikely to notice unexpected events . What makes these findings interesting and important is that they run counter to our intuitions . Most people are confident they would notice the gorilla . In fact , nearly 90 believe they would spot the gorilla ( Levin , 2008 ) and in a national survey , 78 agreed with the statement , People generally notice when something unexpected enters their
Failures The Case Blindness 195 field , even when they paying attention to something else ( Similarly , people are convinced that they would spot errors in movies or changes to a conversation partner ( Levin , 2008 ) We think we see and remember far more of our surroundings than we actually do . But why do we have such mistaken intuitions ?
One explanation for this mistaken intuition is that our experiences themselves mislead us ( We rarely experience a study situation such as the gorilla experiment in which we are forced to confront something obvious that wejust missed . That partly explains why demonstrations such as that one are so powerful We expect that we would notice the gorilla , and we can not readily explain away our failure to notice it . Most of the time , we are happily unaware ofwhat we have missed , but we are fully aware ofthose elements ofa scene that we have noticed . Consequently , if we assume our experiences are representative ofthe state of the world , we will conclude that we notice unexpected events . We do easily think about what we missing . Given the limits on attention coupled with our mistaken impression that important events will capture our attention , how has our species survived ?
Why were our ancestors eaten by unexpected predators ?
One reason is that our ability to focus attention intently might have been more useful than the ability to notice unexpected events . After all , for an event to be unexpected , it must occur relatively infrequently . Moreover , most events require our immediate attention , so if blindness delays our ability to notice the events , the consequences could well be minimal . In a social context , others might notice that event and call attention to it . Although blindness might have had minimal consequences over the course of our evolutionary history , it does have consequences now . At pedestrian speeds and with minimal distraction , blindness might not matter for survival . But in modern society , we face greater distractions and move at greater speeds , and even a minor delay in noticing something unexpected can mean the difference between a and a lethal collision . If talking on a phone increases your odds of missing a clown , it likely also increases your odds of missing the child who runs into the street or the car that runs a red light . Why , then , do people continue to talk on the phone when driving ?
The reason might well be the same mistaken intuition that makes blindness surprising Drivers simply do not notice how distracted they are when they are talking on a phone , so they believe they can as well when talking on a phone even though the ) Ca ( tI ?
35 , 99 , So , what can you do about blindness ?
The short answer appears to be , not much . There is no magical elixir that will overcome the limits on attention , allowing you to notice everything ( and that would not be a good outcome anyway ) But , there is something Failures of Awareness The Case of Blindness 196 you can do to mitigate the consequences limits . know about blindness , you can take steps to limit its impact by recognizing how your intuitions will lead you astray . Lil Even though you may think you can drive , text , listen to music , and make a smoothie at the same time , really , should be only on the road , for everything else can easily distract you from what most important driving safely ! Image Michael First , maximize the attention you do have available by avoiding distractions , especially under conditions for which an unexpected event might be catastrophic . The ring of a new call or the ding ofa new text are hard to resist , so make it impossible to succumb to the temptation by turning your phone off or putting it somewhere out of reach when you are driving . Ifyou know that you will be tempted and you know that using your phone will increase blindness , you must be proactive . Second , pay attention to what others might not notice . If you are a bicyclist , assume that the driver sees you , even if they appear to make eye contact . Looking is not the same as seeing . Only by understanding the limits and by recognizing our mistaken beliefs about what we know to be true can we avoid the consequences ofthose limits .
Failures The Case Blindness 197 Outside Resources Article article on blindness Video The original gorilla video ?
Video The sequel to the gorilla video ?
Web Website for Simons book , The Invisible Gorilla . Includes links to videos and descriptions of the research on blindness Discussion Questions . Many people , upon learning about blindness , try to think to eliminate it , allowing themselves complete situation awareness . Why might we be far worse off if we were not subject to blindness ?
If blindness can not be eliminated , what steps might you take to avoid its consequences ?
Can you think in which blindness is highly likely to be a problem ?
Can you think in which blindness would not have much ofan impact ?
Failures The Case Blindness 198 Vocabulary Dichotic listening in which different audio streams are presented to each ear . Typically , people are asked to monitor one stream while ignoring the other . blindness The failure to notice a fully visible , but unexpected , object or event when attention is devoted to something else . deafness The auditory analog of blindness . People fail to notice an unexpected sound or voice when attention is devoted to other aspects of a scene . Selective listening A method for studying selective attention in which people focus attention on one auditory stream of information while deliberately ignoring other auditory information .
Failures The Case Blindness 199 References , Simons , 2012 ) Working memory and blindness . Psychonomic Bulletin Review , 19 , Simons , 201 ) You do not talk about fight club if you do not notice fight club blindness for a simulated assault . Cherry , 1953 ) Experiments on the recognition with one and two of the Acoustical Society of America , 25 , Conway , Bunting , 2001 ) The cocktail party phenomenon revisited The importance memory capacity . Psychonomic Bulletin Review , 331 . Dalton , 2012 ) Gorillas we have missed Sustained deafness for dynamic events . Cognition , 124 , Levin , 2008 ) The visual questionnaire A measure of intuitions about vision . The American journal of Psychology , 121 , 451 . 2011 ) Visual perceptual load induces deafness . Attention , Perception , Psychophysics , 73 , Rock I . 1998 ) blindness . Cambridge , MA MIT Press . 959 ) in dichotic listening Affective cues and the influence . of Experimental Psychology , 11 , Clifford , Simons , 2005 ) What you see is what you set Sustained blindness and the capture . Psychological Review , 12 , Simons , Jimenez , Clifford , 2001 ) How not to be seen The contribution and selective ignoring to sustained blindness . Psychological Science , 12 , 1975 ) Selective looking Attending to visually specified events . Cognitive Psychology , 1979 ) The control of information pickup in selective looking . In Pick ( Ed . Perception and its development to Eleanor . Gibson ( Lawrence Associates . Richards , 2010 ) Predicting and manipulating the incidence of blindness . Psychological Research , 74 , Watson , Strayer , 2011 ) Individual differences in susceptibility
Failures The Case Blindness 200 to blindness . journal of Experimental Psychology Learning , Memory , and Cognition , 37 , Simons , 2010 ) The invisible gorilla , and other ways our intuitions deceive us . New York , NY Crown . Simons , 1999 ) Gorillas in our midst Sustained blindness for dynamic events . Perception , 28 , Simons , Jensen , 2009 ) The effects of individual differences and task difficulty on blindness . Psychonomic Bulletin Review , 16 ( Strayer , A . 2001 ) Driven to distraction studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular telephone . Psychological Science , 12 , A . 1960 ) Contextual cues in selective listening . of Experimental Psychology , 12 , Levin , A . 2005 ) blindness for a noxious multimodal stimulus . The of Psychology , 118 ,