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**Memory ** **Cognitive Psychology - PSY 333**  __**Introduction**__ By: Jessica Sehnert

Try to remember what you had for supper this last night. Can you picture the plate of food sitting in front of you? Your memory is made up of a group of systems that each plays a different role in creating, storing, and recalling memories. All of theses systems work together to provide cohesive thought. Another thing to consider have you ever been a witness to something? There is something that you may have forgetten to share with the officer, because you didn't think it was important enough so it didn't get encoded into your long term memory, but maybe you can visualize a mental image of the picture when you try to recall what happened. Each of the categoreis will be explained more in detail:
 * Forgetting and Remembering


 * Long Term Memory


 * Mental Imagery

 __**Forgetting and Remembering **__ By: Melissa Klockman
 * Eyewitness Testimony



In terms of remembering and forgetting information that has been previously processed or is just being processed at that time, there are several things to consider. First, how recent was the information being remembered or forgot processed? Second, what type of information is being processed and are there any motivational cues that can be used to recall the information? Finally, can memory be forgot intentionally or unintentially?

The first issue to address is how recent remembered or forgotten information was processed. The main way to remember information is through rehearsal. In rehearsing certain information though, we tend to forget other information. This indicates that immediate rehearsal and association are critical in memory.

The second issue is the type of information being recalled and the cues that can be used to help recall that information. When dealing with this, it is important to realize that increasing reinforcement of a specific cue will help to increase the accuracy of the information recalled. It can also be said that increasing the degree of the reinforced cue can produce a decrease in response time. In recalling certain types of information, certain people may remember and forget differently. According to Jones and Atchley both familiarity and recollection contribute to the recognition of single words (items) but word pairs (associations) are recognized primarily through recollection. Thus, the different forgetting rates for items and associations are consistent with a faster forgetting rate for familiarity than recollection over relatively short retention intervals. I found an experiment conducted by Joormann, Hertel, Brozovich, and Gotlib in which people with depression were given a test consisting of thirty-six negative, thirty-six neutral, and thirty-six positive nouns and were asked to learn a positive or negative response words as chosen cue words and still learn both a negative and positive response overall. The participants were then asked to fill out a questionairre which consisted of a learning phase, a suppression phase, and a final recall test to determine the depressed level of the participants. The participants were asked to recall all response words from the previous phases. The study concluded that 84% of the participants suppressed positive responses and instead responded negatively versus 83% who suppressed negative and responded positively.

The next issue to address is if memory suppression is intentional or unintentional. when someone wishes to forget a bad experience, there is a such thing as intentional forgetting. This suggests that forgetting is sometimes controlled by the person. Just as rehearsal plays a role in remembering information, it also plays a role in forgetting information. Lehman and Malmberg stated that there are three issues critical for developing a coherent account of remembering and forgetting from multiple lists:
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the relation between retention interval and episodic memory
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the effect of the instruction to forget as a function of serial position at study
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">the relation between recognition and free-recall performance

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Memory involves more than just forgetting and remembering. It involves the reinforcement cues, duration of the exposed memory, and familiarity and possible association to the person trying to remember or forget.

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">__<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Long Term Memory __ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; font-weight: normal;">By: Jessica Sehnert **

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;">There are two types of long term memory: Explicit (declarative) Memory and Implicit (non-declarative) Memory. First we will explore explicit memory and the breakdown of it. Explicit memory consists of Episodic (biographical events) and semantic (which includes words, ideas, and concepts.)

· Episodic- memories that you experience at a specific time and place · Semantic- the system in which you use to store your knowledge of the world

Implicit (non declarative) memory is expressed by means other than words. This is broken down into four categories which include procedural (skills), emotional conditioning, priming effect and conditioned reflex.

· Procedural memory- enables people to acquire motor skills and gradually improve them · Emotional conditioning- related to our emotions · Priming effect- we do this on a regular basis in which we relate things to something we already know from a previous experience · Conditioned reflex- a classic example of this is the study conducted by Pavlov when he showed a dog a piece of meat and the dog started to salivate, the next time when he showed the dog meat he included the sound of an alarm in which it caused the dog to salivate so then when the dog heard the alarm he began to salivate because he thought there would be meat.

Delaying of interference improves long term memory consolidation. Dewar, Garcia, Cowan, and Sala experiment which included 12 amnesia patients, suggested that this is also true for a least some patients with amnesia.

· Retention of new verbal material was significantly higher in a sample of patients with amnesia when interference occurred at the end of the nine minute delay interval than when it occurred in the middle or at the beginning of an interval.

· They concluded that the data indicated that it was long term memory that was substantially in the present patients with amnesia via a period of minimal interference. It is unlikely that the memory improvement demonstrated in the patients was produced of uninterrupted long term memory retrieval.

· A high similarity between<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> two be retained and interference stimuli is required for an interference effect to occur at long term memory retrieval in neurological intact individuals. So therefore the observed response pattern is not in line with the predicted retrieval as they predicted.

Here is a link to the full study conducted by Dewar, Garcia, Cowan, and Sala. []

Below is a video of an actual situation in which a gentalmen has a severe case of amensia. Please listen to his story. media type="youtube" key="YrI8ibsiiZ4" width="425" height="350" align="center"

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**__Mental Imagery__** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">By Malea Nelson

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Mental imagery is picture-like representations in an individual’s mind, which encodes his or her experiences. A person can develop mental images of anything he or she has witnessed. For example, electronics, media, people, instructions, or any other observation or experience can become a mental image that can become a part of a person’s unconscious thoughts or dreams. <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidifontsize: 12.0ptmsobidifontsize; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'mso-bidi-font-family; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; text-align: left;"> Researchers conducted an experiment, which used an increased number of electronics in an attempt to determine whether or not they were linked with the occurrence of more lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are where an individual is conscious of the fact that he or she is dreaming, while the dream is occurring. media type="youtube" key="ASf55cov5F8" height="344" width="425" align="center" <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; msobidifontsize: 12.0ptmso-bidi-font-size; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; msobidifontsize: 12.0ptmso-bidi-font-size;"> Media plays a major role in a person’s mental imagery due to the fact that it is all around us. Things a person experiences or observes can become encoded in his or her memory and recalled by the presence of visual cues or triggers.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; msobidifontsize: 12.0ptmso-bidi-font-sizemsoBidiFontSize;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Researchers conducted an experiment to determine the effects of video games on a person’s dream from the angle of the threat stimulation theory. Researchers found that g <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; msobidifontsize: 12.0ptmso-bidi-font-size;">amers who play violent video games tend to have fewer dreams with threatening stimulation and have a lower occurrence of nightmares. This is because these gamers take on more active forms of threat resolution due to the fact that they have become quite familiar with virtual settings; thus, they have a greater self-awareness when dreaming.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">An experiment where participants both read and watched a set of instructions then performed was done in the hopes that the participants would encode the visual and kinesthetic movements, as well as learn to control their mental imagery. While the results of this particular experiment were not conclusive, the researchers drew attention to the importance of learning to control mental imagery. If an individual can gain control over his or her mental imagery, then he or she can control how certain experiences, observations, media related information, etc., affects them. Also, if a person can control his or her mental imagery, then he or she may be able to control their dream experiences. media type="youtube" key="Lyn0UNKgvZA" height="344" width="425" align="center" <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;">Mental imagery is used when an individual is given a specific set of instructions and would be best understood if the researchers had performed manipulation checks.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mental images are representations in a person’s mind, which symbolize his or her past experiences. There are numerous things that play a role in mental images. Some are the media, video games, movies, television shows, electronic devises, people we encounter, things we witness, or just everyday experiences. Mental images are often times incorporated into a person’s dream or unconscious thought. Researchers are studying mental images in hopes of learning what influences them so that someday, people may be able to control them. <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**__ Eyewitness Testimony __** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">By Nick Cappuccilli <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The issue of any eyewitness testimony has been said to be rather unreliable in a given situation. An eyewitness testimony is a verbal recollection of a specific event or situation in which a person physically sees the event occur in live action, and then retells what happened at any time after the event. Some will say that this is the most reliable way to recall a specific event and to recall one’s memory because they had a first-hand experience with the event. However, many will disagree and say that there are many underlying factors that may play in to any given eyewitness testimony that may alter one’s memory or recollection of an event. Some believe that there are many biases in which people subconsciously bring to fruition without direct knowledge of doing so. Therefore, if there is an instance where someone has a tendency to be racially or sexually biased, this may be apparent, for whatever reason, in an eyewitness testimony. In other cases, when the intensity of a given situation is high, adrenaline takes over and thinking about what is occurring is not the first thing on one’s mind. Therefore, they remember the situation how they feel they are supposed to remember it, rather then actually having a direct recollection of the situation. This is where people may get into trouble. People will recall an event as they feel necessary, but it may not be the correct instance of events. This is much of the reasoning behind why people are not as comfortable with eyewitness recollection as opposed to a memory bank in which people feel is much more reliable. Many say that when someone delves into their long term memory to pull out bits of information, they are digging into a memory bank in order to bring to surface a memory of an event which has stuck with them for a long period of time, which would be much more reliable because they will remember it exactly how it happened, based on its importance. There have been many studies in which researchers dive into the effectiveness of eyewitness account when dealing with memory and recollection of an event. These researchers have used various techniques in order to truly find out how effective eyewitness testimonies are. By doing so, they are able to, in essence, “pave the way,” for future researchers when dealing with similar topics.


 * Many** **fallacies** **in** **eyewitness** **testominoes**:
 * Biases**-racial, sexual
 * Physical** alteration-day or night, weather, poor eye sight, simply not being able to get a clear view of the event (this leads to potential false recollection)
 * Mental** **fallacies**- trauma or the event, cruelty, intensity, adrenaline

The following link is a great example of the positive and negative effects of an eyewitness testimony <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] [] <span style="color: #000066; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;"> They are told to engage in conversation for either 15 or 30 seconds. Thirty seconds after the conversation ends, the experimenter asks the police officer to recall details of the person they’ve just been speaking to using a 10-item checklist. The checklist contains items relating to the persons appearance such as hair color, facial hair etc. The results of the study showed that in the longer 30 second condition, police were significantly more accurate in their recall.**Stage 2: Waiting Period Before Giving Evidence**This stage is concerned with the period of retention between perception i.e., seeing an incident and the subsequent recollection of that incident. Unsurprisingly, research has consistently found that the longer the gap between witnessing an incident and recalling the incident, the less accurate the recollection of that incident becomes. There have been numerous experiments, usually related to a staged event, that support this contention. Malpass and Devine (1981), for instance, compared the accuracy of witness identifications after 3 days (short retention period) and 5 months (long retention period). The study found no false identifications after 3 days but after 5 months, 35% of identifications were false. The final stage in the eyewitness memory process relates to the ability of the witness to access and retrieve information from memory. In a legal context, the retrieval of information is usually elicited through a process of questioning and it is for this reason that a great deal of research has investigated the impact of types of questioning on eyewitness memory. The most substantial body of research has concerned leading questions, which has consistently shown that even very subtle changes in the wording of a question can influence subsequent testimony. One of the most notable researchers in this field is Elizabeth Loftus who has been investigating eyewitness testimony for over thirty years. In one of her classic studies, participants witnessed a film of a car accident and were asked to estimate the speed of the cars involved. One group of witnesses were asked to estimate the speed of the cars when they ‘contacted’ each other. A second group of witnesses were asked to estimate the speed of the cars when they ‘smashed’ each other**.** On average the first ‘contacted’ group gave an estimate of 31.8 miles per hour. Whereas, the average speed in the second ‘smashed’ group was 40.8 miles per hour. <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; text-align: left;">**__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Conclusion __** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'mso-bidi-font-family; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">Long term memory can be very complex; however once you break it down, you can realize how we recall memories from childhood and also memories form what you did last week. Researchers continue to complete research on amensia patients as well as patients with brain damage to see exactly what part of the brain is responsible for what. Mental imagery is picture-like representations in an individual’s mind, which encode his or her experiences and often appear in the form of dreams. Media, such as video games, plays a major role in mental imagery. Researchers are conducting experiments in hopes of learning what influences a person’s mental images so that some day people will be able to control them. Next, eyewitness testimony deals with people who have experienced events first hand and usually have accurate recollection of the occurrences. Unfortunately, sometimes the event is too traumatic for the eyewitness, which causes them to repress significant details or information. On the other hand, there are other factors that may interfere with eyewitness testimony such as weather, poor eyesight, day/night, or just not having a clear view of the event. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 144%;"> <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Interview <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-weight: normal;"> __ ** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Jennifer Nurnberg is part of the Activities Department at Avera Brady Health and Rehab. She works with Alzheimer/Dementia patients on a daily basis and Nick Cappuccilli had a chance to talk with her about her experiences. media type="file" key="CogPsych Web Final.wmv" align="center" width="300" height="300" <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Questions/Interview Set Up: Malea Nelson Interview: Nick Cappuccilli
 * __<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Stages of Eyewitness Memory __** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; text-align: left;">**<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">Stage 1: Witnessing The Incident ** <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; text-align: left;">When witnessing an incident, information about the event is entered into memory, however, research has shown that the accuracy of this initial information acquisition can be influenced by a number of factors.Take the duration of the event being witnessed for instance. In a very simple experiment conducted by Clifford and Richards (1977), an individual is instructed to approach a number of police officers.
 * Stage 3: Giving Evidence**