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{{Short description|Error caused by a memory fault}}
'''Memory gaps and errors''' refer to the incorrect [[Recall (memory)|recall]], or complete loss, of information in the [[memory]] system for a
==Overview==
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===Blocking===
The feeling that a person gets when they know the information, but can not remember a specific detail, like an individual's name or the name of a place is described as the ''"tip-of-the-tongue"'' experience. The ''tip-of-the-tongue'' experience is a classic example of '''blocking''', which is a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it.<ref name = Schachter2011>{{cite book|last=Schacter|first=Daniel L.|title=Psychology Second Edition|year=2011|publisher=Worth Publishers|___location=
===Transience===
Transience refers to forgetting what occurs with the passage of time.<ref name = Schacter243>{{cite book|last=Schacter|first=Daniel|title=Psychology 2nd Ed.|year=2011|publisher=Worth Publishers|___location=
===Absentmindedness===
Absentmindedness is a gap in attention which causes memory failure. In this situation the information does not disappear from memory, it can later be recalled. But the lack of attention at a specific moment prevents the information from being recalled at that specific moment. A common cause of absentmindedness is a lack of attention.{{Clarify|date=March 2018}} Attention is vital to encoding information in long-term memory. Without proper attention, material is much less likely to be stored properly and recalled later.<ref name="Schacter, Daniel L. 2011">Schacter, Daniel L., Daniel T. Gilbert, and Daniel M. Wegner. "Chapter 6: Memory." Psychology
===False memories===
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===Problem of bias===
The problem of '''bias''', which is the distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences.<ref name = Schacter253>{{cite book|last=Schacter|first=Daniel L.|title=Psychology Second Edition|year=2011|publisher=Worth Publishers|___location=
===Misinformation effect===
The [[misinformation effect]] refers to the change in memory due to the presentation of information that is relevant to the target memory, such as [[leading questions]] or suggestions.<ref>Loftus, E. F. & Hoffman, H. G. (1989). Misinformation and memory, the creation of new memories. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology, 118''(1), 100–104</ref> Memories are likely to be altered when questions are worded differently or when inaccurate information is presented. For example, in one experiment participants watched a video of an automobile accident and were then asked questions regarding the accident. When asked how fast the automobiles were driving when they ''smashed'' into each other, the speed estimate was higher than when asked how fast the automobiles were driving when they ''hit'', ''bumped'' or ''collided'' into each other. Similarly, participants were more likely to report there being shattered glass present when the word ''smashed'' was used instead of other verbs.<ref>Loftus, E. F. & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction. ''Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
===Source confusion===
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===Intrusion errors===
'''Intrusion errors''' refer to when information that is related to the theme of a certain memory, but was not actually a part of the original episode, become associated with the event.<ref name="Jacobs">Jacobs, D. (1990). Intrusion errors in the figural memory of patients with Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. ''Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 5'', 49–57.</ref> This makes it difficult to distinguish which elements are in fact part of the original memory. One idea regarding how intrusion errors work is due to a lack of recall inhibition, which allows irrelevant information to be brought to awareness while attempting to remember.<ref name="Stip">Stip, E., Corbière, M., Boulay, L. J., Lesage, A., Lecomte, T., Leclerc, C., Richard, N., Cyr, M., & Guillem, F. (2007). Intrusion errors in explicit memory: Their differential relationship with clinical and social outcome in chronic schizophrenia. ''Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 12''(2), 112–127</ref> Another possible explanation is that intrusion errors result from a lack of new context integration into a viable memory trace, or into an already existing memory trace that is related to the appropriate memory.<ref name="Stip"/> More explanations involve the temporal aspect of recall, meaning that as the time difference between the study periods of different lists approaches zero, the amount of intrusions between the lists tends to increase,<ref name="Kahana">Kahana et al. (2006). Temporal Associations and Prior list intrusions in Free Recall.</ref> the semantic aspect, meaning that the list of target words may have induced a false recall of non-target words that happen to have a similar or same meaning as the targets,<ref>Smith, Troy, A., Kimball, Daniel, R. Kahana, Michael, J. (2007). The fSAM Model of False Recall.</ref> and the similarity aspect, for example subjects who were given list of letters to recall were likely to replace target vowels with non-target vowels.<ref name=Wickelgren>Wickelgren, Wayne, A., (1965. Similarity and Intrusions in Short Term Memory for Consonant-Vowel Digrams.</ref>
Intrusion errors can be divided into two categories. The first are known as '''extra-list errors''', which occur when incorrect and non-related items are recalled, and were not part of the word study list.<ref name="Stip"/> These types of intrusion errors often follow the DRM Paradigm effects, in which the incorrectly recalled items are often thematically related to the study list one is attempting to recall from. Another pattern for extra-list intrusions would be an acoustic similarity pattern, this pattern states that targets that have a similar sound to non-targets may be replaced with those non-targets in recall.<ref name="Wayne">Wickelgren, Wayne, A., (1965). Acoustic Similarity and Intrusion Errors in Short Term Memory.</ref> One major type of extra-list intrusions is called the "Prior-List Intrusion" (PLI), a PLI occurs when targets from previously studied lists are recalled instead of the targets in the current list. PLIs often follow under the temporal aspect of intrusions in that since they were recalled recently they have a high chance of being recalled now.<ref name="Kahana"/> The second type of intrusion error is known as '''intra-list errors''', which is similar to extra-list errors, except it refers to irrelevant recall for items that were on the word study list.<ref name="Stip"/> Although these two categories of intrusion errors are based on word list studies in laboratories, the concepts can be extrapolated to real-life situations. Also, the same three factors that play a critical role in correct recall (recency, temporal association and semantic relatedness) play a role in intrusions as well
===Time-slice errors===
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===Personal life effects===
'''Personal life effects''' refer to the recall and belief in events as declared by family members or friends for having actually happened.<ref name="Laney">Laney, C., & Loftus, E.F. (2010). Truth in emotional memories. In B.H. Bornstein (Ed.), Emotion and the Law (pp. 157–183). Leicester: Springer Science + Business Media</ref> Personal life effects are largely based on suggestive influences from external sources, such as family members or a therapist.<ref name="Loftus"/> Other influential sources may include media or literature stories which involve details that are believed to have been experienced or witnessed, such as a natural disaster close to where one resides, or a situation that is common and could have occurred, such as getting lost as a child. Personal life effects are most powerful when claimed to be true by a family member, and even more powerful when a secondary source confirms the event having happened.<ref name="Loftus"/>
Personal life effects are believed to be a form of source confusion, in which the individual cannot recall where the memory is coming from.<ref name="Wade">Wade, K.A., & Garry, M. (2005). Strategies for verifying false autobiographical memories. ''American Journal of Psychology, 118''(4), 587–602</ref> Therefore, without being able to confirm the source of the memory, the individual may accept the false memory as true. Three factors may be responsible for the implantation of false [[Autobiographical memory|autobiographical memories]]. The first factor is time. As time passes, memories fade. Therefore, source confusion may result due to time delay.<ref name="Loftus"/> The second factor is the imagination inflation effect. As the amount of imagination increases, so does
==Memory error relating to food==
In a study done by J. Mojet and E.P. Köster, participants were asked to have a drink, yoghurt, and some biscuits for breakfast. A few hours later, they were asked to identify and the items they had during breakfast out of five variations of the drinks, yoghurts, and biscuits. The results showed that participants remember the texture of the foods much better than for fatty content, although they could discern the difference of both among the different items. Participants were also most certain about foods that they did not have during breakfast, but were the least certain about foods that they said were in their breakfast and about foods that were in their breakfast but were not recognized. This suggests that incidental and implicit memory for foods are more focused on discerning new and potentially unsafe food rather than remembering the details of familiar foods.<ref>Mojet J, Ko¨ster EP. Sensory memory and food texture. ''Food Qual Prefer'' 2005; 16: 251–266. {{doi
==Causes==
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====Spreading activation====
One theory on how memory works is through a concept called spreading activation. [[Spreading activation]] refers to the firing of connected nodes in associated memory links.<ref name="Dell">Dell, G.S. (1986). A spreading-activation theory of retrieval in sentence production. ''Psychological Review, 93''(3), 283–321</ref> The theory states that memory is organized in a theoretical web of associated ideas and related features. Each feature, or node, is connected to related features or ideas, which in turn are themselves connected to other related nodes.<ref name="Anderson">Anderson, J.R. (1983). A spreading activation theory of memory. ''Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
Spreading activation can also demonstrate how memory errors may occur. As the network of memory associations increases in the number of connections–the connection density–the likelihood of memory gaps and errors occurring also increases. Put simply, the amount of activation a secondary connection receives depends on how many connections the initial node has associated with it. This is because the initial node must divide the amount of activation it spreads to related nodes by the number of connecting nodes it is associated with. If node 1 has three connecting nodes, and node 2 has 15 connecting nodes, the three connecting nodes from node 1 will receive greater activation levels (the activation level is divided less) than for the 15 connecting nodes from node 2, and the components of these nodes will be more easily brought to mind. What this means is that, with more connections a node has, the more difficulty there is bringing to mind one of its connecting features.<ref name="Kapatsinski">Kapatsinski, V. (2004). Frequency, age-of-acquisition, lexicon size, neighborhood density, and speed of processing: towards a ___domain-general, single mechanism account. ''High Desert Linguistic Society Conference, 6'', 131–150.</ref> This can lead to memory errors, in that if the connection density is so great that there is not enough activation reaching the secondary nodes, then the person may not recall a target memory that is actually present, and a memory error occurs.
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====Encoding specificity====
[[Encoding specificity principle|Encoding specificity]] is when retrieval is successful to the extent that the retrieval cues used to help recall, match the cues the individual used during learning or encoding.<ref name="Tulving">Tulving, E., & Thomson, D.M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. ''Psychological Review, 80''(5), 352–373</ref> Memory errors due to encoding specificity means that the memory is likely not forgotten, however, the specific cues used during encoding the primary event are now unavailable to help remember the event. The cues used during encoding are dependent on the environment of the individual at the time the memory occurred. In context-dependent memory, recall is based on the difference between the encoding and recall environments.<ref>Smith, S.M. (1984). A comparison of two techniques for reducing context-dependent forgetting. ''Memory and Cognition, 12''(5), 477–482.</ref> Recall for items learned in a particular context is better when recall occurs in the same place as when the initial memory occurred. This is why it is sometimes useful to
====Transfer-appropriate processing====
Memory errors can also depend on the method of encoding used when initially experiencing or learning information, known as [[transfer-appropriate processing]].<ref name="Thomson">Thomson, D.M., & Tulving, E. (1970). Associative encoding and retrieval: Weak and strong cues. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86''(2), 255–262.</ref> Encoding processes can occur at three levels: visual form (the letters that make up a word), phonology (the sound of a word), and semantics (the meaning of the word or sentence). With relation to memory errors, the level of processing at the time of encoding and at the time of recall should be the same.<ref name="Moscovitc">Moscovitc, M., & Craik, F.I.M. (1976). Depth of processing, retrieval cues, and uniqueness of encoding as factors in recall. ''Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
====Interference====
[[Interference theory|Interference]] occurs when specific information inhibits learning and /or recall for a specific memory.<ref>Baddeley, A.D., & Dale, H.C.A. (1966). The effect of semantic similarity on retro-active interference in long- and short-term memory. ''Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
===Physiological factors===
====Brain damage====
{{Cerebrum labelled map|Human Cerebrum|caption=<small>Damage in the temporal lobe (green) and frontal lobe (blue) are associated with resulting memory errors.</small>}}
[[Neuroimaging]] studies have provided evidence for links between brain damage and memory errors. Brain areas implicated include the [[frontal lobe]] and [[Temporal lobe|medial-temporal]] regions of the brain. Such damage may result in significant [[confabulation]]s and source confusion.<ref name="Johnson"/>
The [[prefrontal cortex]] is in charge of making [[heuristic]] judgments and systematic judgments, which involve analyzing the qualities of memories and the retrieval and evaluation of supporting or disconfirming information.<ref name="Johnson"/> Thus, if the frontal region is damaged, these abilities will be impaired and memories may not be retrieved or evaluated correctly. For example, one patient who suffered frontal lobe damage after an automobile accident reported memories of the support his family provided for him after the accident, which in reality, was false.<ref>Conway, M. A., & Tacchi, P. C. (1996). Motivated confabulation. ''Neurocase, 2'', 325–338</ref>
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====Age====
Studies have shown that the likelihood of memory errors occurring increases as age increases. Possible reasons for this are increased [[Source of activation confusion model|source confusion]] for the event and findings that older persons have decreased [[levels of processing]] when first presented with new information.<ref name="kensinger1">Kensinger, E.A., & Corkin, S. (2004). The effects of emotional content and aging on false memories. ''Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural Neuroscience, 4''(1), 1–9.</ref><ref name="schacter">Schacter, D.L., Koutstaal, W., & Norman, K.A. (1997). False memories and aging. ''Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1''(6).</ref> Source confusion refers to the inability to distinguish how one came upon different information. Older individuals can become confused with where they learnt information (e.g. TV, radio, newspaper, word of mouth, etc.), who presented them with the information (e.g. which of two experimenters presented them with facts and which presented them with irrelevant information), and whether the information came from an imagined source, and is thus not factual, or a real world source.<ref name="schacter"/> This in itself is a form of memory error but can also create larger memory errors. When an older individual is confused whether the information is factual or was imagined they can begin to accept imagined memories as real and thus begin to rely on new false information.<ref name="schacter"/>
Levels of processing refers to the manner in which someone encodes information into their memory and how deeply it is encoded.<ref name="schacter"/> There are three different levels of processing ranging from shallow to deep, deep being stored in long-term memory for a longer period and thus better remembered. The three levels are; [[Visual|visual form]], being the shallowest form, [[phonology]], being a medium level of processing, and [[semantics]] (meaning), which is the deepest form of processing.<ref name="schacter"/> The visual form of processing relies on the ability to see information and break it down into its components (e.g. see the word "dog", composed D, O, and G). Phonology relies on creating links to information through sound such as cues and tricks for memory (e.g. Dog rhymes with Fog).<ref name="schacter"/> Finally, semantics refer to the creation of meaning behind information such as adding detail to allow the information to create links throughout our memory with other memories and thus be held in long-term memory for a longer period (e.g. A dog is a four-legged pet that often chases cats and chews on bones).<ref name="schacter"/> Older individuals often begin to lose the quick ability to add meaning to new information, which leads to shallower processing and easier forgetting of the information gained.<ref name="schacter"/> Both of these possible factors can decrease the validity of the memory due to retrieval for details of the event being more difficult to perform. This leads to details of memories being confused with others or lost completely, which lead to many errors in recall of a memory.
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* [[Mood congruence effect#The mood congruence effect|Mood-congruency]] - Items/events are better recalled when the mood of the individual at the time of the event and the time of recall are the same. Thus, if the mood at the time of recall does not match the mood experienced at the time the event occurred, there is an increased chance that complete recall will be affected/interrupted.<ref name="Ruci">Ruci, L., Tomes, J.L., & Zelenski, J.M. (2009). Mood-congruent false memories in the DRM paradigm. ''Cognition and Emotion, 23''(6), 1153–1165</ref>
==Memory errors in
[[Abnormal psychology]] is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be understood as a [[mental disorder]]. Memory errors can commonly be found in types of abnormal psychology such as [[Alzheimer's disease
===Alzheimer's
[[Priming (psychology)|priming]] tasks.<ref name="Mimura">Mimura, M., & Komatsu, S.I. (2010). Factors of error and effort in memory intervention for patients with Alzheimer's disease and amnesic syndrome. ''Psychogeriatrics, 10'', 179–186.</ref> Patients also demonstrate errors known as misattribution errors, otherwise known as source confusion. However, studies show that these misattribution errors are dependent on whether the task is a familiarity or recollection task.<ref name="Mitchell">Mitchell, J.P., Sullivan, A.L., Schacter, D.L., & Budson, A.E. (2006). Misattribution errors in Alzheimer’s disease: The [[illusory truth effect]]. ''Neuropsychology, 20''(2), 185–192.</ref>
Although patients tend to exhibit a higher level of false recognitions than control groups,<ref name="Hildebrandt">Hildebrandt, H., Haldenwanger, A., & Eling, P. (2009). False recognition helps to distinguish patients with Alzheimer’s disease and amnesic mci from patients with other kinds of dementia. ''Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 28''(2).</ref> researchers have shown that they may exhibit less false-recognition early in the test due to familiarity being slower to develop. However, the observation of increasing instances of misattribution errors can be seen once familiarity does occur.<ref name="Mitchell"/> This may be related to the retrieval cue speculation, in that familiar memories often contain cues we know, and thus may be the reason why familiarity can contribute to memory errors. Lastly, many studies have shown that
===Depression===
Memory errors can occur in patients with depression or with depressive symptoms. Patients with depressive symptoms have a tendency to experience what is known as the [[Cognitive therapy|negative triad]], which is the perspective use of negative schemas and self-concepts to relate to the external world. Due to this negative triad, depressive patients have a tendency to have a much greater focus on, and recall for, negative details and events over positive ones. This may lead to memory errors related to the positive details of memories, impairing the accuracy or even complete recall of such memories. Depressed patients also experience deficits in psychomotor speed and in free recall of material both immediate and delayed. This suggests that material has been encoded but that patients are particularly impaired with regard to search and retrieval processes.<ref name= "Ilsley">Ilsley, J.E., Moffoot, A.P.R., & O'Carroll, R.E. (1995). An analysis of memory dysfunction in major depression. ''Journal of Affective Disorders, 35'', 1–9.</ref> Diverse aspects of memory such as [[short-term memory]], [[Long term memory|long-term memory]], [[Semantics|semantic memory]] and [[implicit memory]], have been studied and linked to depression. Short-term memory, a temporary store for newly acquired information, seems to show no major impairments in the case of depressive patients who do seem to complain about poor concentration, which by itself can cause simple memory errors.<ref name= "Ilsley"/>
Long-term memory, large capacity able to retain information over long periods of time, does however show impairment in the case of depressed individuals. They tend to have difficulties in recall and recognition for both verbal and visuo-spatial material with intervals of a few minutes or even hours creating complex memory errors in relation to speech and surrounding details.<ref name= "Ilsley"/> Individuals suffering with depression also showed a specific deficit in retrieving information meaningfully organized in their semantic memory, conceptual knowledge about the real world.<ref name= "Ilsley"/> Therefore, depressive patients can show memory errors for the most meaningful events in their lives, unable to recall these specific moments vividly like someone not suffering from depression might. In the case of implicit memory, when previous information influences ongoing responses, there has been little to no proof of a deficit in relations to depressed individuals.<ref name= "Ilsley"/>
===Schizophrenia===
Memory errors, specifically intrusion errors and imagination inflation effects, have been found to occur in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Intrusion errors can commonly be found in the recall portion of a memory test when a participant includes items that were not on the original list that was presented.<ref name="fridberg">Fridberg, D.J., Brenner, A., & Lysaker, P.H. (2010). Verbal memory intrusions in schizophrenia: Associations with self-reflectivity, symptomatology, and neurocognition. ''Psychiatry Research, 179'', 6–11.</ref> These types of errors are linked to problems with self-monitoring, increased positive and disorganized symptoms (confusion within the brain), and poor executive functioning.<ref name="fridberg"/> Intrusion errors are found to be more likely in patients with positive [[Diagnosis of schizophrenia|schizophrenic symptoms]], which involve an excess of normal bodily functions (e.g. delusions), versus negative [[Diagnosis of schizophrenia|schizophrenic symptoms]], which involve a decrease in normal bodily functions (e.g. refusal to speak).<ref name= "brebion">Brébion, G., Amador, X., Smith, M.J., Malaspina, D., Sharif, Z. & Gorman, J.M. (1999). Opposite links of positive and negative symptomatology with memory errors in schizophrenia. ''Psychiatry Research, 88'', 15–24.</ref> Possible reasons for this are reduced function in the central executive of the working memory, as well as defects in self-reflectivity, organization and reasoning. Self-reflectivity is the ability to recognize and reason about
Imagination inflation effects were also common memory errors in patients with schizophrenia. This effect refers to events that individuals have imagined so vividly in their minds that this adds belief to the fact that the event truly occurred, although it did not. Possible reasons for this are increased source confusion and/or decreased source recollection of an event, which shows poor use of [[Source-monitoring error|source-monitoring processes]].<ref name="mammarella">Mammarella, N., Altamura M., Padalino F.A., Petito A., Fairfield B. & Bellomo A. (2010). False memories in schizophrenia? An imagination inflation study. ''Psychiatry Research, 179'', 267–273.</ref> Source-monitoring processes allow one to distinguish between a memory that we may believe has happened because it seems familiar and one that has truly occurred. In the case of schizophrenics, whose abilities to reason through their thoughts is impaired, something that they have imagined and thus, seems familiar can easily be mistaken for an actual event, especially in the case of quick [[Heuristic|heuristic processes]] and snap judgments.<ref name="mammarella"/> Continuously imagining an action or event makes this action more and more familiar thus making it harder for a patient with schizophrenia to distinguish its source, questioning whether it is familiar because they have imagined it or if it is familiar because it happened. This leads to many memory errors for these individuals who are led to believe by their imagination of the event that it is real, has occurred and thus is stored in their memory for that reason.<ref name="mammarella"/>
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;[[Leading questions]]
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===Child abuse===
Memory errors regarding the recovery of repressed childhood abuse can occur due to post-event suggestions from a trusted source, such as a family member, or more commonly, a mental health professional. Due to possible relationships between childhood abuse and [[mental illness]] later in life, some mental health professionals believe in the [[Freudian theory]] of repressed memories as a defense mechanism for the anxiety that recall of the abuse would cause. Freud said that repression operates unconsciously in individuals who are not able to recall a threatening situation or may even forget that the abusive individual was ever part of their lives. Therefore, mental health professionals will sometimes seek to uncover possible instances of childhood abuse in patients, which may lead to [[suggestibility]] and cause a [[false memory]] of childhood abuse to arise, in an attempt to seek a cause to a mental illness.<ref name="lindsay">Lindsay, D.S., & Read, J.D. (1994). Psychotherapy and memories of childhood sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective. ''Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8'', 281–338.</ref> No matter the confidence in the memory, this does not necessarily equate to the memory being true. This is an example of the [[misinformation effect]] and false memory effect. The fact that memories are not retrieved as whole entities but rather are reconstructed from information remaining in memory and other related knowledge make them easily susceptible to memory errors.<ref name="hyman">Hyman Jr., I.E., & Pentland, J. (1996). The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories. ''Journal of Memory and Language, 35'', 101–117.</ref> This explains why working with mental health professionals and [[Suggestibility|leading questions]] can sometimes manifest false memories by creating knowledge of possible events and asking individuals to focus on if these events actually took place.<ref name="lindsay2">Lindsay, D.S., & Read, J.D. (1995). Memory work and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Scientific evidence and public, professional, and personal issues. ''Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 1''(4), 846–908</ref> Individuals begin to overthink these situations visualizing them in their mind and overanalyzing them. This in turn leads to the belief of situations and vivid memories. Patients are left with memories they believe are real and new events from their childhood which can lead to stress and trauma in their adult life and loss of relationships with those who are believed to be the abuser.
== See also ==
* [[Amnesia]]
* [[
* [[Memory
* [[Memory
* [[Memory
* [[Memory bias]]
* [[Memory conformity]]
* [[Memory disorder]]
==References==
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