Recently, I read an article on false memories, and immediately thought about this class. In the class module, we learned that simply telling a person that a memory happened and providing details of the memory could implant false memories. For example, in the module, Chris never got lost in the mall at age 5. Therefore, he had no recollection of this memory. However, after his brother Jim told him that it did happen, providing some details of the incident, Chris was able to create a false memory of him being lost in the mall. This article that I read, however, did not dwell on how others can impact our false memories, but how our own body can cause us to have false memories.

As college students, I am sure that we can all attest to pulling an all-nighter before a huge exam. However, The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Sleep Deprivation in Producing False Memories, by Chatburn, highlights the importance of sleep on the ability to have effective memories. Sleep plays a pivotal role in learning, higher cognitive functioning, and memory (Chatburn, 2017). In regards to memory, sufficient amount of sleep, allows us to properly encode and consolidate our memoires. When we are asleep, information that we learned while awake, are constantly rehearsed. False memories occur because of error in the recollection of tracing our memories, as a result of improper encoding (Chatburn, 2017). Therefore, sleep loss impacts not only the quality but, also the quantity of our ability to encode material (Chatburn, 2017). Chatburn supported the effects of sleep deprivation using a randomized trial. In one trial, the results suggested that participants that were sleep deprived, performed significantly lower on the verbal false memory task, when compared to participants that were deemed well rested. This task should be familiar to us because we also completed it during Cog-Lab 3. We were presented with a list of words, and then had to recall as many words as we can remember. The participants in his trial that were sleep deprived, recalled more words that were not presented (false words), than those who were not deprived. Similar to the participants completing the trial, when taking an exam after pulling an all-nighter, we are more inclined to create false memories of the material that we studied. Because sleep is loss, our brains are unable to make the full connections between what we studied, increasing the likelihood of a falsified memory.

I thought that this was a good article to introduce because I feel like as college students, we undermine the importance of sleep. Also, I thought it was helpful to learn more about the biology that influences false memories.

Sources

Chatburn, Alex, et al. “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Sleep Deprivation in Producing False Memories.” Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, vol. 137, 2017, pp. 107–113., doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2016.11.017.

Recently after class, I decided to go to the gym on campus. Because I still had all of my books, I decided to rent a locker. The locker required a 4 -digit code that I will be able to remember when I needed to open it again. Automatically, I decided to use the 4-digits of my birthday. Although using my birthdate is relatively easy to hack, no one knew that the locker belonged to me. This decision to use things relative to us for stronger memory is referred to as the self-reference effect.

According to Rogers. When we relate things to ourselves, we have stronger memories (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977). Self-referencing, visual imagery, generation effect, and the testing effect, are approaches in which short term memories are encoded into long term memories. When we self-reference information that we want to remember, it is more effective because we know ourselves. We do not have to necessarily recall or “retrieve” our birthdays, just like we do not have to recall our names; it’s second nature. For this reason, when we have to remember information self-referencing things will allow the information to be second nature.

How many people do you think use their birthday as their phone password? My guess is a few because as mentioned earlier it’s “too easy.” Instead, people might use their relatives’ birthday, or a good friend’s birthday, I know I do. This also illustrates the self-reference effect. Although my phone’s password is not my birthday, it is still relative to me because it’s my nephews’ birthday. Memories are recalled through retrieval cues (Goldstein, 2017). In terms of my phone password, if I forgot it but then afterwards see a picture of my nephew, I will recall my password. My nephew acts as my retrieval cue to my phone password.

Essentially, self-referencing allows for longer lasting memories. As a student, I think that this can be an effective approach to learning new school material.

Sources

• Rogers, T. B., Kuiper, N. A., & Kirker, W. S. (1977). Self-reference and the encoding of personal information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(9), 677
• Goldstein, E. B. (2017). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience.

Lesson 1, History and Methods, provided an evolutionary framework of the development of the brain and the mind. One topic that was introduced was “methods in cognition,” which underlined four methodologies that are used during research studies (Bice). These four methods included, the experiment, naturalistic observations, controlled observations, and the investigations of neural underpinnings (Bice). For this blog posting, I am going to focus on naturalistic observations.

According to the notes provided, naturalistic observations occur in real-life settings (Bice). The observers or researchers, analyze their subjects’ behavior in their natural environments, without introducing any other influences. For example, when conducting a controlled experiment, researchers have authority to select their participants that they think will be important to the study. During naturalistic observations, this influence is not allowed. Using naturalistic observations decreases the chances of experiencing participant biases and also, increases the chances of containing results that are synonymous to the population. Disadvantages also arise in naturalistic observations. Naturalistic observations can be time-consuming, depending on what study is being conducted, and also the results can sometimes be difficult to attain because the participants are unaware of what they should, or should not be doing.

For my final project in statistics class, I had to conduct an experiment that allowed me to implement the tools that I have learned over the course of the semester in the class. I decided to administer a naturalistic observation of students who ate their meal in the dining hall, compared to those students who did not. At the time, I attended a branch campus, which only had one dining hall for all students who lived on campus. Therefore, it was easier for me to execute an experiment that was inclusive to majority of the on-campus living students. I observed the students for about a week, keeping in mind to alternate between lunch hours and dinner hours. I chose to observe the students on multiple days and at different hours because it is normal for people in their natural environment to switch their routines. At the completion of the observations, statistics were ran to identify the differences in the number of students who ate in the dining hall, compared those who did not.

With the use of a naturalistic observation, I was able to accurately observe which students preferred to eat in the dining halls and which students did not. Naturalistic observations are a great way to study cognitive processes because it eliminates chances of error in data because the subjects are unaware that the study is being conducted. However, it is also important for the researcher to be patient because the results of naturalistic observations may not be produced as quickly as the other three methodologies.

Reference:

Bice, Kinsey. “Lesson 1: History and Research Methods.” Methods in Cognition. 27 Jan. 2018.