Delay Versus Instant Recall and Visual Versus Aural Effect on the False Memory - Literature review Example

Psychology Topic:  M2 FALSE MEMORY Overview As the implies, false memory is a kind of memory that is not accurate but distorted and based on source of true memory. What false memories actually depict are not the weaknesses and in capabilities of persons involved to think straight or get their memories right but then it is a natural phenomenon that is sparked by a person’s attempt to get his or her memories right by basing them on previous experiences or what is normally known as clues (Jolene, 2007). For one reason or the other therefore, it is right to argue that we each suffer from false memory depending on prevailing circumstances and situations. Throwing more light on what possible make people have false memories, the Skeptic’s Dictionary (2012) note that “many false memories involve confusing or mixing fragments of memory events, some of which may have happened at different times but which are remembered as occurring together.” This means that almost all acts of false memories happen because of the presence of a stimulus, which has to do with the memories of events that have happened and had some correlation with the immediate factors and phenomenon we try to have memories of. Generally, the false memory that is produced often has a very close relation with the stimulus that is presented. For instance a person who is trying to have memories of a monkey is likely to think of a chimpanzee as the element in question because among the clues there is a monkey and a monkey is generally more related to chimpanzee than say a cock is. When this happens, the monkey that caused the person to have a wrong memory of a chimpanzee is said to be the stimulus. Research Question How does delay versus instant recall and visual versus aural affect the false memory effect? Previous Findings from Deese (1959), Read (1996) and Tulving (1985) Studies on false memory have existed for very long time since its discovery. These studies have basically been undertaken to authenticate the basic philosophies underling the concept. Among these popular researches is that which was done by Deese (1995), Read (1996) and Tulving (1985) respectively. Deese actually proposed a paradigm together with Roediger and McDermott that came to be known as the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. The core aim of the research put forth by Deese (1959) was to reiterate a phenomenon that would “reliably lead people to insist they have experienced an event” (Human Memory, 2007). In the research, a strategy that involved the use of oral presentation was used. The idea was to make people memorize a number of oral words. Then after, these subjects were made to recall the various words they memorized. This means that the memorized words were fundamentally to become the stimuli that were to inform their false memories as most of the subjects called out words out of their memories that were closely related to the words earlier called out to them. Essentially, this research indicates a limitation on oral memory as against written memory. On his part, Read (1996), dedicated his studies on how false memory can best be used to utilize perfection in recall. The essence and underlining idea in that particular research therefore has to do with the fact that false memory may have its own positive repercussions and merits. This is because the research actually created the awareness that the fact that a person has false memory means that the person has a high degree of capability to recall an exact fact or assertion out of which the false memory was produced (Read and Lindsay, 2000). For instance a person who keeps mentioning a hawk instead of an eagle has a shown signs of easily remembering the name of the eagle if given some time to do more recall. This is because the person has at least given an indication that what he wants to recall is a bird and a carnivorous bird for that matter. The research therefore concluded with the need to create more room for people, particularly students who are learning new concepts to do a lot of recall that would eventually land them to getting their memories right. Tulving (1985) had also come in with some studies on false memory. His studies was actually dubbed the, remember/ know paradigm. This studies is much related to that which was out forth by Read (1996) as they both hold a fundamental ideology that false memory is actually a breeding grounds for gaining accuracy in recall (Tulving, 1985). A very glaring difference that the two studies harbour however has to do with the fact that Tulving built his research on the measurement of the strength of a person’s memory by the amount of accuracy he or she can have in portraying false memories. For instance when the word to be remembered or recalled is a mammal and subject ‘A’ starts off by calling names of birds and subject ‘B’ start of by mentioning names of mammals, it is clear that subject ‘B’ has a stronger memory signal than subject ‘A’. This is generally what gave grounds for the start of signal-detection interpretation though Wixted (2009) laments that “the signal-detection interpretation is rarely given serious (or even any) consideration.” Designed Experiment based on Previous Findings expanded on the study by RAJARAM (1993). Based on a review done from the works of the three researchers and with an expanded study on Rajaram (1993) a very brief experiment is designed to cater for the role of false memories in cognitive studies. This brief experiment may best be referred to as the dissociation-false memory experiment. In the experiment, the basis of Deese (1995), Read (1996) and Tulving (1985) will be further enlightened as the researcher shall make use of visual administration of stimuli instead of the oral presentation used by Read (1995). The idea will be to measure that Dissociation Experiences Scale of subjects and so they will be given a number of pictorial figures. After moments of mingling with these pictures, subjects will be asked to write out the names of objects on the pictures. Options will be given to subjects to either indicate ‘remember’ or ‘know; against the recall that they will make. After this, judgment will be made on the success rate of the subjects. It is hypothesized that subject that have higher dissociative levels will perform better in terms of scores because they will create more false memories and as propounded by Rajaram and Tulving, build on their false memories to create correct answers. The variables in this experiment shall therefore be the visual displays used and the dissociation rate of subjects. SECOND PART One special phenomenon about academic studies of this nature is the fact that they always come with the need to adhere to basic ethical and methodological considerations. This means that even if suggested experiment would yield fruitful results, it takes only experiments that have passed the ethical and methodological considerations to be accepted as appropriate. In the present instance, the British Psychological Society is the main agency whose regulations on ethical and methodological considerations need to be adhered to in the proposed study. Having stated this, it would be said that the proposed study that makes use of visual effects and the, remember and know theories perfectly fall within the confines of the ethical and methodological considerations. For instance, for the proposed study, all subjects to be included in the experiment must be persons who would heed to an agreement to join the research through personal convection. This is because the British Psychological Society provides that for all academic and social science research, respondents must have their full consent before they are included in research (Schacter, 2001). For this reason, either a formal written or spoken permission shall be put across to seek for the consent of the members. What is more, because data to be collected has to do with the academic and psychological abilities of respondents, there is going to be an ethical consideration of the need to keep all data, including results highly confidential. The results are also going to be kept anonymous. This means that for the scores and success rate of recalling the names of the visual pictures that are given to the respondents, the scores of the respondents are not going to be identified by their names. It is only the final results that are going to be of importance to the researcher. In order to arrive at realistic results that can be backed by empirical conclusions, the researcher is going to ensure that a traceable sample size is going to be used. For this reason, ten (10) respondents from a residential school are going to be used. There is going to be maximum control on the various independent variables to ensure that their flexibility does not affect the results to be obtained in the long run. For instance the researcher shall ensure that all respondents are made to use the same set of visual identification materials. This is because if different pictures are used, the tendency some of the pictures may be easy to recall than others shall be a factor that can affect the validity of the results. Moreover, respondents shall be selected from the same grade or level in school. Even though the researcher is not in a position to select respondents who have the same academic development level, the fact that they are all in the same grade would be presumed that they have all received the same level of tuition and education and so their abilities to undertake specific academic exercises should be the same. This will help in generalizing the findings especially in terms of Rajaram’s study where the memory signal of participants was closely related to the amount of tuition they have received. REFERENCE LIST Deese, J. 1959, On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusion in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 17-22. Human Memory, 2007, DRM Paradigm [Online] June 10, 2012 available at http://humanmemory2007.wikispaces.com/DRM+Paradigm Jolene K, 2007, DRM Effect: False Memories or False Responses. Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal. Volume 1 Number 2 Roediger, H. and McDermott, K. 1995, Creating false memories: remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803-814. Schacter, D. L. 2001, The Sevens Sins of Memory. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Skeptic’s Dictionary 2012, False Memory. [Online] June 10, 2012 available at http://www.skepdic.com/falsememory.html Wixted J. T. 2009. Remember/Know judgments in cognitive neuroscience: An illustration of the underrepresented point of view. Learning and Memory. 16: 406-412 Read More