Unit 3- False Memories On Trial

      
   The classic definition of "False Memory" is the psychological phenomenon where in a person recalls something that did not occur.

One of the most common occurrences where False Memories become important is sexual abuse cases when they come to court. An example will show how testimony can be affected by false memories. A famous case "The McMartin pre school trial, hinged on nine young victims memories of molestation and ritual abuse, memories that they had supposedly forgotten and then after being interviewed, recovered. The case fell apart, in 1990, because the prosecution could produce no persuasive evidence of the victims claim." (Starr, D. Remembering A Crime That You Didn't Commit, New Yorker, March 5, 1915, pg.2) obviously in the above example the children interviewed were  coached, or were asked leading questions "To imagine that you were sexually abused. What time of day was it? Where were you? What kind of things are happening? Is there one or more persons with you? Who would have been the likely perpetrator? (Maltz, W. Therapist Quoted In Creating False Memories by Elizabeth F. Loftus, Pg.5) Reviews of this case showed that the children's interviewers guided the children into thinking what did not occur had actually occurred. There was no real evidence found to support their testimony. 

Both the text and other published articles basically agree that false memories can occur normally or by being instilled into your brain by a professional during therapy sessions. 

Methods Studies Include:

-Integration- inappropriately combining info from different sources or events. 

-Leading Questions- The text quotes Loftus on memory impairment where the memory of an event changes as a function of a later event.
  
-Misinformation Acceptance- Accepting additional info not part of the original event.

-Source Misattribution- Cannot distinguish differences between real event and a later event.

Implanted Memory- Implanting memories of things that never happened
(Radvansky. G.A, cognition 6th edition-updated, copy right 2010 pg.155-160)

It is not a surprise that there things do also occur during police interrogations when investigating a suspect in a crime. Many convictions have been overturned where it was later discovered that false memories were involved and there was no other evidence presented except the prep's testimony. Many more studies must be done to "determine what types of individuals are particularly susceptible to those forms of suggestion and who is resistant". (Loftus, E.F, Creating False Memories, Sept 1997, pg.7)

http://ww.newyorker.com/tech/elements/false-memory-crimehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memoryhttp://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/false-memory-crimehttp://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm
By: Daniel King
5/1/2017

Unit Four: The Verbal Transformation Effect

If you are a super horror movie fan like me, then you probably know some of the most iconic music in horror movies. You can hear the uneasy violins in the Saw franchise, the eerie high keys in Halloween, or the stalking sound of "Ki ki ki ma ma ma" in Friday the 13th. Yes, you read that last sentence right, in Friday the 13th the actual sound is "Ki ki ki ma ma ma" not "ch ch ch ah ah ah" or any other variation. So then, why are so many beloved horror fans whispering the wrong sounds? Take a listen below and see what you hear.

This confusion is an example of the Verbal Transformation Effect. The VTE is when an illusory change occurs when an acoustically presented word is repeated for prolonged periods. In this case, the "ki ki ki ma ma ma" are the sounds that are said over and over, making what we hear sound like "ch ch ch ah ah ah". And since we are all probably primed to hear the "ch ch ch ah ah ah" because of the media telling us that was the sound, it's probably another reason why we hear the wrong sounds.

So what if you STILL can't hear the "ki ki ki ma ma ma" in the video? Well take a look at the movie and watch Pamela Voorhees say her infamous line "kill her mommy". The "Ki" sound comes from when Pamela says "Kill" and the "Ma" sound comes from when she says "Mommy". With the help of some technology, reverb to the sound to be exact, this is how the creators of the movie made the "ki ki ki ma ma ma" sound. If we were to take the footage of Pamela saying the "ki" and the "ma" sound and put the audio over it, we could probably hear the sounds more accurately. But if we took video of Pamela mouthing the sounds "ch" and "ah" we would hear her say "ch ch ch ah ah ah" instead. This is an example of the McGurk Effect. The McGurk Effect happens when perception of an intermediate phoneme when auditory and visual speech cues conflict. So we could probably use this effect to our advantage to help people hear the correct sound.

Lastly because the sounds in the movie aren't actual words and there is no context to tell us what it is saying, this may be another reason as to why we hear the wrong sound. This is the same reason why we hear words from our native language in songs sung in a foreign language, we try to listen for what we know and understand in order to make sense of what we hear.

 

(Example of media priming the wrong sound)

-Chelsea Monheim

References:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115457120
http://www.craveonline.com/mandatory/1038167-10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-friday-the-13th#/slide/1
Class Notes from Dr. Margolin's Cognitive Processes class

Memory Lost In Movies

The idea of using memory lost in movies has been used for decades now. From 50 First Dates to the popular hit Finding Dory. Memory lost for characters in movies and T.V shows are often misconstrued. But in one particular depiction of memory lost the producers might actually have gotten it right.

In the popular TV show named Vampire Dairies on CW the main character Stefan Salvatore gets his brain fried by a witch and loses all his memories. Although this show is completely fictional and a person can't actually have their brain fried by a witch, what Stefan experienced is a real concept studied in psychology. Throughout the following episodes after Stefan loses his memories the characters on the show are baffled and cannot explain what is happening to Stefan. Well if the characters had taken a psychology class they might have known that Stefan was experiencing retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is the loss of long-term memories. So the inability to remember yourself or any past experiences that have happened in your life. In the show we see how Stefan cannot recognize his own brother, his best friend, people that he had strong connections with. He does not even remember his own name. H.M, who was studied in psychology, is a case similar to Stefan's. H.M suffers from retrograde amnesia and lost long term memories from age 16 through 27. All of H.M's other functions were fine and working, like Stefan. He is able to use his STM, he still had his intelligence, he could carry out a conversation, and etc. Moving on to the cause of Stefan's loss of old memories, one can only speculate. From H.M we can draw make some accusations as to why Stefan lost his memories. H.M underwent a serious surgery where large potions his hippocampus was removed. We know that the hippocampus plays a big part in the storage and forming of memories. From this we can conclude that when the witch did her dark magic on Stefan she somehow "fried" his hippocampus causing him to lose his memory.

But every show has to have a happy ending, Stefan does get his memories back and there are probably studies on that too but that's for another day!

Youtube

References

 http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/03/02/amnesia-in-the-movies/

Aaliyah Stroman-Surita 

Unit One: Tricky Towers and Mental Rotation

    If you have ever played the game Tricky Towers, then you have experienced pure frustration at its finest. Tricky Towers is a game that combines physics and tetris in this fun(?) puzzle game. If you know anything about video games you know that some video games have "trophies". In the game you are given a list of things to do, and for each thing you complete in the game you get a trophy that corresponds with what was on the list. If you end up getting all the trophies you are awarded the platinum trophy. In the playstation 4 version of the game you are able to see how many other players who play that game have the trophy you are looking at. So why does a game that seems relatively simple have only 714 (1.27%) of the 56,153 total players have platinum?(Not every player tries to get a platinum, but typically a higher percentage of people have platinum for a given game). Well the answer may just be because our ability to mentally rotate an object isn't fast enough.

    The game is set like a tetris game, you are given a base while groups of 4 units "blocks" fall from the sky and you direct the block where you want it to go while you have the ability to rotate the block at anytime before it hits the base. In single player mode you can complete trials that will ask you to complete one of three objectives: stack the blocks as fast as you can within a time limit, stack the blocks without going over a line, or stack the blocks without any falling off. But, the player has to take into account the physics and make sure the tower doesn't tumble over because one side is too heavy, the blocks are hanging off the side, or the structure is unstable. But why is it so hard?

    Well the answer might be that we are unable to rotate the blocks in our minds fast enough. When we have a picture of something in our mind, say for example a cube, we have a mental picture in our mind of what that looks like. So for example you probably just pictured an object that has 6 sides, each of sides is in the shape of a square, and has 8 corners. You can see the specifics of the image in your mind and your mental image clearly resembles the real physical object. This is an example of analog code, a way we store information in our mind. What does this have to do with Tricky Towers?Take a look at the following experiment below.

    Shepard & Metzler (1971) conducted an experiment and asked participants if two pictures of abstract objects were the same object or different. Shepard and Metzler wanted to look at how long it took for the participants to determine if the objects were the same or different. Shepard and Metzler found that the greater the degree of rotation, the longer it took for the participants to determine if the objects were the same. But why? The participants had to mentally rotate the object in their minds to see if it was a match, the greater the object was rotated, the greater amount of time it took for them to rotate the block in their minds.

    So now that you understand analog code and Shepard and Metzler's experiment, what does this all have to do with a video game? In the game you have to mentally rotate the image to see where it can go on your tower before you put it there, although you do have the option to rotate the object, it is beneficial if you to think ahead about the next block you are about to get to help you work faster. Not only do you have to rotate the block, but you have to figure out where the block will go. This image rotation is the key to the game, the faster you can rotate the blocks in your mind, the faster you can play the game. But again, since physics is involved in the game, you have to mentally look at the object and determine where the weight of the object is located (Is it in the middle, towards the left/right) and if that will destroy your tower or not. So basically two steps are involved in the video game! If one side of the tower is too heavy, then the pieces will fall over. So although this game on the outside may look like an easy game, almost childish in appearance, is actually one of the hardest platinum trophies to get.

References:

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/5092-tricky-towers

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/mental-rotation.html

Author: Chelsea Monheim