Chapter 7 Memory Lectures

Modified: 2024-07-07 3:39 PM CDST

• Traveling (Mentally) to a Better Time (p. 213)
  • COVID luanched people into nostalgia.
    • Music was a special source of dealing with COVID with millions of old songs downloaded.
    • Nostalgia is a part of memory that can provide solace.
• THE NATURE OF MEMORY (p. 214)
• MEMORY ENCODING (p. 214)
  • Attention
    • Human attention is limited because of our brain cannot attend to everything at the same time
    • Consequently, we have selective attention
  • Levels of processing
    • Memory is better with deep processing (e.g., focus on meaning)
      • You are learning a list and are told to decide if each word is "good" or "bad"
    • Other levels include shallow (focus on elements)
      • You are asked to count the letter "e" on all of the words on the same list as above
    • In the intermediate level, you are just asked to learn the list
    • Results:
      • Deep processors learn the same list and retain it longer than the other two groups
  • Elaboration
    • Elaboration is a form of encoding. Imagine I cannot recall Dr. Hick's name, but I know much about him: he's president, lives in that big house across from Overstreet, he's balding, he's about my height, he has a farm in Maine.
      • BINGO! his name now comes to me because of elaboration
  • Imagery is another form of encoding.
  • Paivio, in his dual code hypothesis, proposed that there are two encoding systems: verbal and imaginal.
  • So, items to be remembered may be encoded as words or images.
• CRITICAL CONTROVERSY: Why Do We Remember Fake News (but Forget It Is Fake?)
  • At first, we treat all incoming information as true.
    • Tagging items as fake occurs later.
    • Being constantly exposed to the same fake news makes that news seem true.
    • Correcting fake news may be a solution to the problem.
• The Process of Memory
  • Memory is a construct, meaning that it is abstract not concrete. It cannot be purchased, weighed, or real even.
  • Instead, it must be described as a process. Psychologists use three steps to describe that process:
    encoding, storage, and retrieval.
  • Those steps comprise the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory.
    • The model contains the three steps above plus three more stages:
      • sensory memory (lasts a few seconds)
      • short term memory (lasts a few minutes)
      • long term memory (lasts from hours to a lifetime)
  • Memory consists of retrieving items from storage via three methods:
    • recall (Who was the first psychologist?)
      • Should remind you of an essay test
    • recognition (Was the first psychologist: Wundt, James, Titchener, Hall?
      • Should reming you of a multiple choice test
    • relearning (Time how long it takes you to learn that Wundt was the first, now forget that and learn it again. The time it takes to learn it the second time should be less.)
      • Should remind you of the greater ease of learning the same thing again.
    • BTW, each method yields its own type of results, so any statement about memory should state the method used. (i.e., you might not RECALL that Wundt was the first psychologist, but you might RECOGNIZE his name from a list.
  • Process (graphic)
    • The graphic shows ordinary words the public might use for the process of memory:
      • Learning
      • Retention
      • Remembering
    • It then shows the words psychologists use:
      • Encoding
      • Storage
      • Retrieval
    • It also defines the place where psychologists measure memory: in between storage and retrieval. NOTE: if an item is not encoded, it cannot be stored, and, thus, cannot be retrieved. Most popular memory courses improve encoding techniques (see Mnemonics below)
• The History of Memory Research
• Hermann Ebbinghaus
  • In my history of psychology text, I write about Ebbinghaus:

No one before him had attempted to experiment on memory. Before Ebbinghaus began his experiments on memory that topic was firmly within the grasp of philosophy. His research on memory required him to create, almost out of thin air, new techniques for experimentally manipulating items to remember and new ways of measuring memory. The nonsense syllable was the new technique. It was a consonant-vowel-consonant combination that was not a word. He realized early on that he needed items to place into memory with which he had little or no previous experience. Examples he used (in German, naturally) were: ZAT, BOK, and SID (Boring, 1950, p. 388), nonsense syllables that would work in English as well. Ebbinghaus wished to study memory in its purest form, that is, without linking it to items already stored in the mind due to experience. He proceeded to memorize thousands of lists randomly made up from the 2,300 nonsense syllables he had created. To measure his own memory (he was the only participant), he measured the time it took him to learn a particular list for the first time and later, after a predetermined interval, measure the time it took him to relearn it. In each instance, the criterion of learning was reciting the list without any errors. He discovered that it always took him less time to learn the list on the second trial. He called that method a savings score because he was saving time when he learned the list the second time. From his data, he constructed a graph showing that the interval between the first trial and the second trial was the most important feature. That graph, now known as Ebbinghaus’ curve of forgetting, has stood the test of time. It has been replicated time and again since he first published it.

• The nonsense syllable or CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant)
  • CVCs are not words (e.g., CAT is a word, but BEP is a CVC)
  • Ebbinghaus memorized list of nonsense syllables and then, after forgetting them, relearned them
  • He discovered:
    • it took less time to memorize the second time
    • memory declined rapidly shortly after memorization and much more slowly thereafter
    • he called that his curve of forgetting
• The Curve of Forgetting the graphic shows the typical shape of memory decline over time
  • I consider these data among the most powerful in all of psychology because they have been replicated over and over since Ebbinghaus first discovered them
  • BUT, there's more...
    • There are ways to circumvent the curve of forgetting, mostly via practice and automaticity
      • Practice might not make perfect, but it preserves memory (which neurosurgeon would you prefer to operate on you? One fresh out of med school and who has only done 10 brain surgeries or one with a lot of experience who routinely performs 75 or more brain surgeries per year.
      • Automaticiy consists of actions so well practiced that they are performed without conscious thought (think of driving a car)
• MEMORY STORAGE (p. 219)
• Stages of Memory
  • The three classic stages are: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). A newer stage is working memory, a revision of STM. All are further explained below.
  • Think of the stages of memory as filters. Everything goes into sensory memory, but it does not last long (seconds), most is lost, and some goes into STM which might last a minute or so, then even less gets transferred to LTM where it might last for hours to a lifetime.
    • Sensory memory
      • Iconic or visual, might last two seconds or less
      • Bahrick's partial recall tasks
        • Bahrick showed participants 3 X 3 grids of letters such as:

A	P	B
Q	O	E
R	N	J

• for less than a second
• hardly anyone could remember all 9 letters
• no one could remember them if he waited more than 2 seconds for their response
• that's how he knew the iconic or visual sensory register had a very short duration
• But, when he only asked for one letter or a row of letters to be remembered nearly all the participants could remember that letter or that row
• What should they answer when presented this stimulus immediately after: "O"
• Can you see why?
• Echoic or auditory, lasts longer than iconic
• Think of language, for example suppose I said to you, "A funny thing happened to me on the way to work today, but before I tell you about that, let me remind you that you should study hard for the next test, also we don't know when SAU will open again. Now, about that funny thing..."
• Notice how the words above are like the cars on a train, all hooked together. So, unlike visual input, which hits you all at once, auditory input is serial, one word after another and you have to keep what was already said in mind so that you can understand the whole string of words.
• STM
• The next stage is STM
• STM without rehearsal (see below) might last 20 seconds
• Rehearsal is when participants mentally remind themselves what the item to be remembered was. Here's an example:
  • Suppose you wanted to call a new phone number that someone just told you and when you call you get a busy signal. Then, when you go to call again, that number is gone from your STM. But, if you had repeated the number to yourself over and over between the two calls it would still be in STM.
• Often in memory research investigators wish to eliminate rehearsal. One common way to do that is to have the participant count backwards by threes from 100: 100, 97, 94,91,89,86...Persons made to do that show short STMs.
• STM is limited in size too. It can hold about 5 to 9 items. See George Miller's famous 1956 article
• Chunking game
  • hard to do online: I would ask you to guess what word I was thinking, then write the correct letters:
    • argumenta___
  • I'd also cheat:
    • xykpro... (no such word in English
  • Also works for sentences:
    • You can lead...
    • That dog won't...
    • A stitch...
    • All of these are aphorisms or common sayings
    • See HERE for more such aphorisms
• Working memory
  • Baddeley's working memory is a reworking of STM. It adds an number of features:
    • a rehearsal loop (makes STM last longer),
    • a visuospatial sketchpad (a way of triggering memories via internal visual stimuli or memories of locations),
    • and an executive control system to manage it all.
• LTM
• LTM lasts from minutes to years
  • Consolidation is the name of the process by which STM items become fixed in LTM
  • LTM has virtually unlimited storage
• Types of LTM
  • Procedural
    • think of riding a bicycle. It's a procedure. If I brought you a bicycle and asked you to ride it, could you? Yes, most likely, if you had ever ridden on before, even years before.
    • Usually, any skill learning is procedural
  • Semantic
    • Knowledge is one type of semantic memory. What is the Israeli parliament called? (Look it up.)
    • Semantic memories are not tine-tagged. Your probably do not remember when you learned that 3 x 7 = 21
    • Episodic memories are time-tagged. Thinks of your HS graduation, your birthdays, when you got engaged, when your children were born.
    • So, episodic memories are personal. But, all of your semantic memories were first episodic memories.
• INTERSECTION: Sleep, Memory, and Developmental Psychology: How Do Naps Allow Babies to Separate Episodic and Semantic Memories?
  • By using the EEG records as the dependent variable, researchers found that human infants aged 14 to 17 months showed that babies who napped processed new word pairs as episodic memory, not as semantic memory.
• MEMORY RETRIEVAL (p. 230)
  • This is the active part of the process
    • Serial Position effect

    

• Serial Position Effect
  • We often learn things that are ordered such as lists or song lyrics
  • The serial position effect describes the phenomenon where the beginning (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect) are more easily learned than items in the middle
    • Note that in the 12-item list shown above, participants made more errors on the items just past the middle of the list.
      • Notice that the most errors take place just past the middle of the list
      • Think of the stanzas of a song:
        • it's easiest to learn beginning (primacy effect)
        • and the end (recency effect)
• psychological inquiry: The Serial Position Effect: Lost in Midstream (p. 232).
  • Note the relationships between the Serial Position Effect, Primacy, and Recency.
    • What is the probability that the 15th item will be remembered?
    • On the list shown, which is strongest: primacy or recency?
    • What information should you brush up on before a final exan?
    • What is the best position to be in a job interview? First, last, or in the middle?
• Retrieval Cues and the Retrieval Task
  • Recall: "Wbo was the first psychologist?" (Do you remember?)
  • Recognition: "Was the first American psychologist: Dewey, Titchener, James, or Cattell? (Did you pick him out?)
• Encoding Specificity
  • Example: you speak to your favorite Walmart cashier all of the time but you fail to recognize her in class. Why?
• Context-dependent Memory
  • Your retrieval is better when you are in the same context that you first encoded the memory.
  • Example: I might remember my golf score on the 13th hole better when I'm actually on the golf course.
• Special Cases of Retrieval
  • False memories (see bottom of this page)
  • Autobiographical Memories
    • What is your oldest memory? How old were you?
    • Infantile amnesia is common. See: LINK (it's slow sometimes, sorry)
      • Text from that site:
      • As a parent, I have informally tested my children from time to time about their memories.
      • Once, I asked my oldest if he remembered visiting the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum a year after his last visit.
      • He was about five years old at the time and he did not remember.
      • I probed, and asked if he remembered what animal was just inside the main doors in the museum's rotunda.
      • He still did not remember. Here is what he did not remember, the giant elephant in the rotunda:

      

  • Three Levels of Autobiographical Memories (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

    Level	Label	Description
    1	Life time periods	Long segments of time (years)
    2	General events	Extended Composite Episodes (days to months)
    3	Event specific knowledge	Individual episodes (seconds to hours)

• Examples:

• Level 1: I lived in Latin America for 13 years (Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, and Chile)
• Level 2: Since 2015, SAU has sent me to Cuba 6 times to establish and maintain an exchange program
• Level 3: I broke the top joint of my middle finger in football practice one day in 1966 (and it's still bent!)

• Emotional Memories
  • Flashbulb Memories
    • Recall of important public or private events
    • Called "flashbulb" because it's as if you took a picture of it in your mind
    • Public event examples: Pearl Harbor (1941), Kennedy assasination (1963), World Trade Center (2011)
    • Can be personal too, like when you get the fat envelope from Harvard grad school (that means you're in!)
• Traumatic Events
  • Tend to be retrieved easier
  • May be disturbing (e.g., PTSD)
• Repressed Memories and Eyewitness Testimony (see bottom of this page)
• FORGETTING (p. 239)
• Theories of Forgetting
  • Decay
    • This is the oldest theory of memory and forgetting. It assumed that memories rotted away over time. (Kind of like a banana: first it's green, then yellow, then black spotted, then black, then mush). BUT, the data do not support decay theory because some old memories never fade away.
  • Encoding Failure
    • Item was never entered into LTM
      • Example: US Penny
      • Nickerson and Adams showed that most people have never encoded what a US penny looks like in detail
      • Try it yourself HERE
  • Retrieval Failure
    • Retrieval failure theories see forgetting as the inability to find and recover a memory in storage.
      • Hence the title of retrieval failure.
      • Opposed to this are theories of true forgetting. Meaning a particular memory might be, in fact, completely lost and no amount of searching could recover it.
      • (For example, imagine you are looking at my garage and you want to borrow my weed whacker, but you can't find it.)
      • Only if you take every last item out of the garage you will not know if it was really there or not.
      • Under retrieval failure you might say, "I could not find it."
      • But under true forgetting (if the weed whacker was no longer in my garage) you might say "I don't know if he ever had a weed whacker."
  • Interference
    • For many years, interference theory was the most popular theory of memory and forgetting. Today, most psychologists agree that it exists as described, but that it works better in laboratory situations than in the real world.
    • Proactive interference (graphic)
      • Look at the graphic above. E stands for experimental group, C stands for control group
      • The experimental group was given a memory task (A-B) followed by a related task (A-C) and then asked to remember A-C the second task. The control group on learned the A-C task and both were tested on the A-C task. The results were that the experimental group did mor e poorly on the memory task than the control group. The interference interpretation is that the A-B taskt interfered proactively (meaning that the A-B task prior to the A-C task made it harder for the experimental group to learn the A-C task (proactive interference is past affects future)
    • Retroactive interference (graphic)
      • Look at the graphic above. The terminology is the same. But this time both groups are made to learn the A-B task first. The experimental group then is made to learn a second task, A-C, but the control group is not. This time the test is over the A-B task and once again the control group does better on the memory task than the experimental group. This type of interference is called retroactive because the A-C task caused the experimental group to forget more of the A-B task. (retroactive interference is future affects the past)
    • ToT (Tip of the Tongue
      • This phenomenon occurs when someone knows they should be able to retrieve an item from memory but cannot. (It's on the tip of their tongue.)
      • Words with similar sounds help people remember the word they are looking for.
    • Prospective Memory
      • Memory for things you need to do in the future.
        • Items can be:
        • Timed
          • Example: Meeting with your boss Monday at 9 am.
        • Event related
          • Example: Relaying a phone message to someone.
        • Absentmindedness
          • Another failure of prospective memory
          • Distractions and time pressure make it more likely
    • Scripts
      • We learn scripts all of the time
      • Think of what you do at a restaurant
        • Decide which one to go to, Enter, Be Seated, Get Menu, Order, Wait, Eat, Pay, Leave. That script is learned and applies to nearly any restaurant
        • Here's another example: CLASSROOM
          • What do you think of here? Desks, Teachers, Students, Lights, Windows, Tests, etc.
          • Do you think of elephants? No, not likely. Elephants do not fit the CLASSROOM script
    • Amnesias
      • Amnesias range from being serious problems requiring hospitalization to simple absentmindedness
        • Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist, made a career out of studying amnesias. One of his most famous patients (see Amnesias link above) suffered severely from anterograde and retrograde amnesias. Jimmy had to be hospitalized because his anterograde amnesia made him a danger to others.
          • Anterograde (graphic)
            • The inability to store new information in long term memory
            • The graphic (above) indicates how these patients live completely in the present
            • Note: someone suffering from anterograde amnesia may read the same newspaper over and over and not realize it. Or, like Jimmy (see Amnesias) might greet you every time you encounter that person. (Wouldn't you be suspicious of someone who said "Good morning" to you more than once on the same day?)
          • Retrograde (graphic)
            • The inability to recall past information
            • The graphic (above) indicates how people might be unable to recall specific past events or, at worst, have no idea of their past.
            • Jimmy (see Amnesias) believed he was 18 years old (he was middle aged) and could only recall a few emotionally-laden events (e.g., the death of his brother) from the years since he was 18.
            • Retrograde amnesias can be induced by physical trauma or drugs (e.g., alcoholic blackouts).
            • In severe retrograde amnesia nearly all past memories might be inaccessible (i.e., someone cannot even recall name in addition to not remembering nearly all else.
• STUDY TIPS FROM THE SCIENCE OF MEMORY (p. 242)
  • Mnemonics
    • As stated above, most memory improvement strategies involve improving encoding. Mnemonic devices are one common way to improve encoding. Most such devices involve chunking.
    • Good examples of chunking include words (e.g., collections or chunks of letters), sentences (On old olympus' towering tops a Finn and German viewed some hops. That sentence serves as a memory aid for the 12 pairs of cranial nerves in order:
      • olfactory,
      • optic,
      • oculomotor,
      • trochlear,
      • trigeminal,
      • abducens,
      • facial,
      • auditory,
      • glossopharyngeal,
      • vagus,
      • sensory (accessory),
      • and hypoglossal.
    • YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW THE CRANIAL NERVES)
    • Types of mnemonics
      • Acrostics: sentences such as "Every good boy does fine." That sentence encodes the notes on the lines of the musical treble clef : EGBDF from bottom to top.
      • Acronyms: words that encode items such as HOMES for the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. (YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW THE NAMES OF THE LAKES) or FACE a word that encodes the spaces on the musical treble clef from bottom to top.
      • Note that imagery is commonly used in these techniques
      • More complicated types
        • Loci: mentally put items to be remembered in a familiar location such as your house. Imagine a grocery list: steak, milk, cookies, eggs, and flour. You might remember them as follows:
          • Living room--cookies--imagine your LR furniture made out of Girl Scout cookie boxes
          • Bathroom--milk--imagine milk coming out of your shower
          • Kitchen--flour--imagine curtains made from old flour sacks
          • Bed room--steak--imagine sleeping on a large ribeye bed
          • Dining room--eggs--imagine having to walk on eggshells
        • Link: mentally put all of the list items into one concept (this technique is more prone to dropping items from memory)
          • I like to imagine a "grocery dog" where:
            • its body is a steak
            • its legs are four milk cartons
            • its head is a bag of flour
            • its ears are two eggs
            • its tail is a cookie
          • Can you picture it?
        • Peg Words
          • This is a more complicated system that involves memorizing a list of paired words:
            1. one-bun
            2. two-shoe
            3. three-tree
            4. four-door
            5. five-hive
            6. six-sticks
            7. seven-heaven
            8. eight-gate
            • etc
          • Then associations are made with each pair, for example say you want to remember your grocery list above:
            • steak in a bun
            • milk in a shoe
            • cookies hanging from a tree
            • eggs splattered on a door
            • flour covering a bee hive
          • When mastered this technique is highly effective
          • One study trained the elderly to use these techniques effectively

• Lucy Anschutz, Cameron J. Camp, Robert P. Markley & Jack J. Kramer (1985) Maintenance and generalization of mnemonics for grocery shopping by older adults, Experimental Aging Research, 11, 157-160, DOI: 10.1080/03610738508259180

• Avoiding encoding
• Another strategy is to avoid encoding altogether, in other words:
• Keep a list on paper, on your smartphone
• Be disciplined enough to do so (meaning record on your phone or write down in a notebook, plus have those handy.)
• FYI, I always carry a pen and a notebook, not to mention a phone. My shopping list is on my phone.
• MEMORY AND HEALTH AND WELLNESS (p. 244)
  • Physiology of Memory
    • Relatively little is known about the physiology of memory but two brain regions are important.
      • The hippocampus changes with experience
      • The amygdala encodes emotional memories

• Summary of Memory Data
• Here I summarize some facts about memory:
  • Meaning: concrete facts are easier to learn than abstract facts. Also, we encode meanings much more correctly. (If you saw Bob hit Tom, you are not likely to believe the opposite.)
  • Chunking: The more you learn something the bigger the unit you master. Think of piano lessons. You might play only note to note at first (not chunked). Later, at your Carnegie Hall performances you read the music not as individual notes but a musical phrases (chunks).
  • Practice: Practice helps but only if you spread it out over time. So, 12 hours all at once (i.e., cramming) is not as good as 2 hours a day over 6 days.
  • Overlearning; Imagine you learned to recite a sonnet by heart one time. (Say it took you 3 hours). Two days later you might not be able to repeat your perfect performance. If we define "learning" as the time to get it perfectly right one time then we can define "overlearning" as a multiple of "learning." So 2X overlearning in this case would be 6 hours and 3X overlearning would be 9 hours. Does overlearning help? Yes, but as you overlearn beyond 3X the benefits become less and less. In other words, some overlearning helps but excess overlearning helps less and less. In the language of economics, overlearning suffers from diminishing returns.
  • Arousal: High arousal makes encoding stronger, while low arousal makes it weaker. In some cases of extremely high arousal, such as combat or surviving a natural disaster like a hurricane or tornado, the memories might be so strong as to be debilitating. But, for lower amounts to arousal the relationship is clear. Arousal helps encode memories.
  • Pictures: Biologically, it appears that humans are predisposed to encode visual information much more easily than textual information. Were I to show you 500 pictures today and tomorrow show you 100 (50 that I showed you yesterday and 50 that I did not) you would likely get more than 90% of your responses correct (yes, the percentage goes down over time).
  • Flashbulb memory: I remember vividly where I was in 9th grade civics class on November 22, 1963, the day president Kennedy was assasinated in Dallas. That is what psychologists call a flashbulb memory because it seems so vivid that it is like someone took a picture of it with a camera and a flashbulb. I don't remember, for example, what I did on November 23, 1963. While earth shaking events such as the Kennedy assasination, 9/11, or the space shuttle blowing up shortly after lift off could be flashbulb memories for large numbers of people. Individual flashbulb memories are also possible: the day you were proposed to, the arrival of the acceptance letter to graduate school, or the shocking news of a family member's untimely death could all be flashbulb memories.
  • Context Dependent Memory: Encoding is improved when learning takes place in the same context. For example, in studying for a final exam context dependent memory would predict that studying in the same classroom that the test will be given would lead to better memory.
  • ToT (Tip of the Tongue: This phenomenon occurs when someone knows they should be able to retrieve an item from memory but cannot. (It's on the tip of their tongue.)
  • Prospective vs Retrospective Memory: Prospective memory is thinking about what needs to be done in the future. Examples include: a doctor's appointment, depositing a check at the bank tomorrow, or buying a birthday card a few days before the date. Retrospective memories are those from the past.
• Eyewitness and Repressed Memories
  • Eyewitness Memory
    • Hugo Münsterberg in the early years of the 20th Century was one of the first psychologists to examine the validity of eyewitness testimony. But little attention was paid to his work and law enforcement agencies continued to believe in the high value of eyewitness testimony in criminal procedings.
    • In the 1970s Elizabeth Loftus (here she discusses her research in a TED talk) was much more successful at conveying to the world the problems in taking eyewitness accounts at face value.
    • Loftus and Palmer's research demonstrated that eyewitnesses changed their testimony and became surer of it under repeated questioning. Her research, unlike that of Münsterberg, has had traction in law enforcement circles. In that study, college students were asked to watch a car accident. Later, the experimental manipulation were the words "smashed" for one group, and "contacted" for the other group. Both groups saw the same picture. But, the group who was asked using the word "smashed" estimated the speed of the cars as being higher than the group asked using the word "contacted." See picture below.

  

  • Many police departments have now changed their interview procedures so as to avoid asking leading questions and thus influencing eyewitnesses by their questions.
  • Repressed and False Memories
    • The cognitive side:
      • Loftus and others have demonstrated that false memories can be implanted in some people. Loftus' first example was her "Lost in the mall" study where one of her students, with assistance from his parents, was able to convince his younger brother that when he was much younger he was lost in a nearby mall and a kindly grey haired man wearing a plaid shirt found him and kept him safe until his parents reclaimed him. Unfortunately, none of that every happened. The younger brother had to be convinced afterwards that the whole story was a fabrication.
    • The clinical side:
      • Freud started the ball rolling with his idea that trauma could lead to repressed memories.
      • In the 1990s many clinicians urged their patients to search their pasts of evidence of traumatic episodes.
      • One problem is how to tell if patients are reporting true memories or making up false ones
      • This has been labelled the period of "Memory Wars" and it is still controversial today.
      • All states in the USA now have laws that enable conviction based on recovered memories.
      • Loftus spends much of her time testifying as an expert witness against false recovered memories.
      • But recent surveys show that majorities of clinical practitioners and laypersons (e.g., people on the street) still believe in the reality of recovered memories.
      • Motivated forgetting is often associated with traumatic episodes in life
      • Most scientific psychologists are extremely skeptical about repressed memories.
      • See this article if you want more information about this current controversy in psychology.