2.1 Cognition: Thinking & Remembering
Problem 2 – Autobiographical memory
Literature: Robinson-Riegler
INFLUENCES ON ENCODING & STORAGE (during event)
- Difficulty to identify faces (not only after short exposure)
- Conditions of event (day, time, location etc.)
- Stress/trauma
o Disrupt or enhance memory (depends on circumstance)
o Memory narrowing/tunnel memory = focus on central detail; lack of peripheral detail
E.g. weapon focus
Study: Army survival school; Result: ↑stress→↓memory and encoding
o Attentional mode
Arousal mode: observer is physiologically relaxed; simple perceptual intake; new/surprising
informative events receive most attention → encoding
Activation mode: ↑ cognitive anxiety (worry) and physiological activation (palpitations, sweating); ↑
physiological activation → ↓performance (encoding)
Some physiological activation is good; certain point (weapon focus) then bad
- Other-race effect = better at recognizing faces of own race; different race → misidentification
INFLUENCES ON ENCODING & STORAGE (after event)
- Misinformation = misleading info between encoding and recall influences memory
o Suggestibility (prodding/expectations of others)
o Confusion: attribution of misinformation to event
- Unconscious transference
= witness can´t distinguish between target person (criminal) and another person (encountered at different
time)
o Familiar faces→ sense of remembering
o Based on change blindness
Illusion of continuity = two scenes are wrongly seen as connected (e.g. supermarket study)
- Photo bias
= recognition of someone due to exposure to a photo
o Study: See 10 people (“criminals”); see mugshots (not only “criminals”); later identified non-criminals as
criminals (→vague familiarity)
RETRIEVAL FACTORS
- Hypnosis
o No conclusive evidence
o Increase of amount of info (correct and fabricated) = confabulation
o Prone to suggestions (likely to label something as a memory)
o Cons: suggestions get incorporated into memory; compliance (“imagine….”)
- Cognitive interview
o Open-ended questions
o Comfort of witness
o Use different retrieval paths (implementing mnemonic instruction; link to encoding specificty)
o Allows witness to choose how to report (sketch, talking…)
ILLUSORY MEMORIES
= remembering something that did not happen; false memories, memory illusions)
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm
- List of words (e.g. doze, snore, rest…) related to theme (e.g. sleep)
- Theme word was never presented but often “remembered”/ “recognized”
Problem 2 – Autobiographical memory
Literature: Robinson-Riegler
INFLUENCES ON ENCODING & STORAGE (during event)
- Difficulty to identify faces (not only after short exposure)
- Conditions of event (day, time, location etc.)
- Stress/trauma
o Disrupt or enhance memory (depends on circumstance)
o Memory narrowing/tunnel memory = focus on central detail; lack of peripheral detail
E.g. weapon focus
Study: Army survival school; Result: ↑stress→↓memory and encoding
o Attentional mode
Arousal mode: observer is physiologically relaxed; simple perceptual intake; new/surprising
informative events receive most attention → encoding
Activation mode: ↑ cognitive anxiety (worry) and physiological activation (palpitations, sweating); ↑
physiological activation → ↓performance (encoding)
Some physiological activation is good; certain point (weapon focus) then bad
- Other-race effect = better at recognizing faces of own race; different race → misidentification
INFLUENCES ON ENCODING & STORAGE (after event)
- Misinformation = misleading info between encoding and recall influences memory
o Suggestibility (prodding/expectations of others)
o Confusion: attribution of misinformation to event
- Unconscious transference
= witness can´t distinguish between target person (criminal) and another person (encountered at different
time)
o Familiar faces→ sense of remembering
o Based on change blindness
Illusion of continuity = two scenes are wrongly seen as connected (e.g. supermarket study)
- Photo bias
= recognition of someone due to exposure to a photo
o Study: See 10 people (“criminals”); see mugshots (not only “criminals”); later identified non-criminals as
criminals (→vague familiarity)
RETRIEVAL FACTORS
- Hypnosis
o No conclusive evidence
o Increase of amount of info (correct and fabricated) = confabulation
o Prone to suggestions (likely to label something as a memory)
o Cons: suggestions get incorporated into memory; compliance (“imagine….”)
- Cognitive interview
o Open-ended questions
o Comfort of witness
o Use different retrieval paths (implementing mnemonic instruction; link to encoding specificty)
o Allows witness to choose how to report (sketch, talking…)
ILLUSORY MEMORIES
= remembering something that did not happen; false memories, memory illusions)
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm
- List of words (e.g. doze, snore, rest…) related to theme (e.g. sleep)
- Theme word was never presented but often “remembered”/ “recognized”
