Conditions affecting the revelation effect for autobiographical memory

Bernstein, Daniel M.; Godfrey, Ryan; Davison, Arienne; Loftus, Elizabeth F.

doi:10.3758/bf03195838

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(28 reference statements)

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Section: Accounts Of Experimental Amnesiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But only some of us would be comfortable saying, "I learned something new while thinking about that problem yesterday." Furthermore, it is worth noting that "memories" that arise as a result of introspective processing of previously acquired information are prone to error (i.e., contain factual inaccuracies), leading some to argue that such recollections should best be described as "false memories" (see Bernstein et al 2004;Loftus 2005).Definitions aside, no doubt information processing occurs when a reminder stimulus is presented to an amnestic subject, and the consequence of that information processing is sometimes stored as a new memory. But reorganization of previously encoded information that is reactivated by a reminder stimulus is possible only if there is previously encoded information.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Retrieval failure versus memory loss in experimental amnesia: Definitions and processes

Miller

Matzel²

2006

Learn. Mem.

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For at least 40 years, there has been a recurring argument concerning the nature of experimental amnesia, with one side arguing that amnesic treatments interfere with the formation of enduring memories and the other side arguing that these treatments interfere with the expression of memories that were effectively encoded. The argument appears to stem from a combination of (1) unclear definitions and (2) real differences in the theoretical vantages that underlie the interpretation of relevant data. Here we speak to how the field might avoid arguments that are definitional in nature and how various hypotheses fare in light of published data. Existing but often overlooked data favor very rapid (milliseconds) synaptic consolidation, with experimental amnesia reflecting, at least in part, deficits in retrieval rather than in the initial storage of information.As most commonly conceived, "memory consolidation" refers uniquely to the processes by which newly acquired information, which is initially represented in ongoing synaptic transmission, comes over time to be encoded in a format that was independent of ongoing activity (and thus sensory stimulation) (Müller and Pilzecker 1900;McGaugh 1966). Fundamental to consolidation theory as it was originally formulated is that there were dual representational systems, one dependent upon ongoing neural transmission and the other dependent on enduring (i.e., structural/molecular) changes in the nervous system (e.g., pathway synthesis, facilitation of transmitter release, potentiation of sensitivity to transmitter binding, enhancement of membrane excitability) (for a review, see Matzel et al. 1998). Presumably there was a sequential dependence of the latter process (consolidation) on the former process (see Hebb 1949). Today it is widely recognized that there are a number of different molecular-structural representations that may be formed during memory storage, and that these representations become stable (i.e., "encoded") at very different rates and are dependent on different neuroanatomical sites (see Gibbs and Ng 1977;McGaugh 2000). This conceptualization of the consolidation process is often referred to as "system consolidation," although it should be noted that these different structural-molecular representations need not be sequentially linked (see Tully et al. 1994). Much recent attention has been devoted to system consolidation, which is relatively slow and measured in hours, days, or even months (see Kim and Fanselow 1992), as opposed to the earlier but still not fully answered questions of initial consolidation, which is generally assumed to occur in seconds or minutes. Although careless use of language has resulted in some confusion between these two related but different types of consolidation, some researchers distinguish them by using the expression "synaptic consolidation" (or "short-term molecular consolidation") for initial consolidation, which they differentiate from system consolidation (Nadel and Moscovitch 1997; Nader et al. 2000b;Dudai 2004). The focus of...

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Section: Accounts Of Experimental Amnesiamentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval failure versus memory loss in experimental amnesia: Definitions and processes

Miller

Matzel²

2006

Learn. Mem.

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“…Bernstein, Godfrey, Devison, and Loftus (2004) found that if a word such as window was unscrambled-say, in the sentence I broke a window when I was young-their participants' confidence ratings for deciding that the event had happened during childhood was higher (see also Bernstein, Rudd, Eldfelder, Godfrey, & Loftus, 2009). Similarly, Kronlund and Bernstein (2006) found that unscrambling brand names led people to believe that they recognized the product from their high school days and to show a preference for them.…”

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confidence: 99%

Revelation effect in metamemory

Young

Peynicioĝlu

Hohman

2009

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

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“…This increase in confidence mirrors that seen in recognition experiments involving the unscrambling of anagrams (Verde & Rotello, 2003Watkins & Peynircioglu, 1990), prompting us to conclude that our results and those of Bernstein et al (2002Bernstein et al ( , 2004 are indeed revelation effects. In addition, the results based on our new SD mixture model closely resemble those found by Rotello (2003, 2004) using standard SDT in showing that solving unrelated anagrams produces familiarity illusions only, whereas solving related anagrams produces both familiarity illusions and a genuine decrease in memory accuracy.…”

Section: None Of the Other Differences Between Standard Deviations Ismentioning

confidence: 55%

“…We call this the revelation effect for autobiographical memory (Bernstein et al, 2004). We have also shown that this effect is short-lived: in Experiment 2, where participants unscrambled anagrams and then had to wait 20 seconds before evaluating life events, no revelation effect emerged.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%