Schema‐driven source misattribution errors: remembering the expected from a witnessed event

Abstract

When recollection is difficult, people may use schematic processing to enhance memory. Two experiments showed that a delay between witnessing and recalling a visual sequence increases schematic processing, resulting in stereotypic memory errors. Participants watched a slide show of a man and a woman performing stereotype-consistent and stereotype-inconsistent actions, followed by an immediate or delayed memory test. Over a two-day delay, stereotype-inconsistent actions were increasingly misremembered as having been performed by the stereotype-consistent actor (Experiment 1). All the source errors increased, regardless of stereotype consistency, when the wrong actor was suggested. When we merely suggested that 'someone' performed an action (Experiment 2), only stereotype-consistent source errors were increased. Although visual scenes are typically well remembered, these results suggest that when memory fades, reliance on schemata increases, leading to increased stereotypic memory errors.In a classic study, Allport and Postman (1945) conducted a version of the 'telephone game', wherein participants were shown a picture of a White man on a bus, holding a switchblade and talking with a Black man. The first participant studied the picture and then described it to another person, beginning a chain of other participants who described the picture to each other in succession. After the description of the picture had been passed down the chain, the final participants often reported that the Black man was holding the switchblade. At least one falsely stated that he 'brandished it in a threatening manner'. This finding suggested that people use stereotypes when interpreting and later recollecting information. More recently, Plant and Peruche (2005) reported that, in a computer simulation, police officers were more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed Black suspect than an unarmed White suspect. This suggests that, when people make quick decisions, stereotypic knowledge is readily accessed and may guide action. In an effort to understand how this type of judgement error occurs, recent research has focused on identifying the cognitive mechanisms that lead to both racial and gender stereotyping, and how such stereotyping may impact recollection (Devine

The cultural life script as cognitive schema: How the life script shapes memory for fictional life stories

“…Therefore, consistent with prior research on other schemata (e.g., Kleider, Pezdek, et al, 2008;Lampinen et al, 2001;Smith & Graesser, 1981), the life script schema played a more substantial role in shaping memory as the length of the retention interval increased. Second, though our findings in support of Hypothesis #3, regarding remember/know judgements for correctly recognized events, were less strong, we did find a trend for schema-inconsistent events to be given remember judgements more frequently than schema-consistent events.…”

“…Second, false recall or recognition tends to be greater for schema-consistent items, or is otherwise in the direction of rendering material more schema-consistent than was actually the case (e.g., Graesser et al, 1980;Kleider, Pezdek, et al, 2008;Lampinen et al, 2000;Neuschatz et al, 2002;Roediger et al, 2001; Sherman & Bessenhof, 1999;Smith & Studebaker, 1996; but see Nemeth & Belli, 2006). This effect, we should note, is mirrored in a separate but related line of research, which looks at the role of script knowledge in leading to false memories.…”

“…Kleider, Goldinger, & Knuycky, 2008;Kleider, Pezdek, Goldinger, & Kirk, 2008; Sherman & Bessenhof, 1999); and for household scenes (Roediger, Meade, & Bergman, 2001). …”

“…Lastly, inasmuch as the mnemonic effects of schemata tend to increase over time Kleider, Pezdek, et al, 2008;Lampinen et al, 2001;Neuschatz et al, 2002), we expected these effects to generally either be more pronounced in the longer of the two retention intervals (which, again, were 20 minutes and one week, respectively), or to emerge only at the longer retention interval.…”

“…Second, retention interval is an important factor as well. Most prominently, it plays a role in false recognition and recall, with schema-consistent false alarms and intrusions increasing over longer retention intervals Kleider, Pezdek, et al, 2008;Lampinen et al, 2001;Neuschatz et al, 2002). These disparate findings across varying retention intervals reflect the greater reliance on schemata over time.…”