MODULE-4

UNIT-4
RETRIEVAL
JYOTHIKA NAIR
MSC PSYCHOLOGY
KE COLLEGE,MANNANAM
CONTENT
1.RECALL
2.RECOGNITION
3.RECONSTRUCTION
4.CONFABULATION
5.ILLUSORY MEMORY
6.MEMORY AS AN ACTIVE PROCESS
7.RELIABILITY OF EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY
RETRIEVAL

• Retrieval is the locating the stored information and returning it to conscious thought. Retrieval is the label given to
the way in which information held in memory is made available for use. Retrieval involves finding, activating and
sometimes further processing pertinent memory representations.
• Retrieval refers to how you gain access to information stored in memory. Recovering information from LTM
known as Retrieval, involves bringing it back into STM.
• Retrieval is the recollection of held information in the mind in response to external stimuli. The aim of information
retrieval is to provide the user with the ―best possible'' information from a database. Retrieval failure is now
widely recognized as a primary cause of forgetting.
• Retrieval is necessary to demonstrate that information has been effectively encoded and stored in memory.
• Two types of retrieval tasks, called explicit and implicit memory tasks-Explicit memory tasks
instruct participants to recall or recognize information. In contrast, implicit memory tasks
require participants to perform a cognitive task, such as completing a word that has missing
letters.

RECOGNITION

Recognition refers to the explicit feeling or remembrance that something

currently perceived has been previously encountered or learned (as when a researcher asks a
subject to identify a word on a list that was on a different list the previous day). Recognition is
identifying the information of a previously known thing after seeing the thing or experiencing
memory again.
RECALL
Recall is the spontaneous conscious recollection of material from LTM. It’s a type of memory
retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be “pulled” from memory with very few external cues.

There are three main types of memory recall:-

1. FREE RECALL- In free recall, the person recalls a list of items in any order. In free recall tasks, the
experimenter presents subjects with a list of words, one at a time, and then asks them to recall as many as
possible. Also known as serial position effect. Its the tendency of information at the beginning and end of
a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of
information.

2. CUED RECALL -Cued recall refers to recalling a list of items by using cues and guides. In cued recall,
people more often remember the things which they do not remember in free recall. Cues help in retrieval of
those memories which are thought to be lost.
3.SERIAL RECALL-Serial recall refers to the recalling of items or events in the order of their occurrence. In
this way, recalling previous item cues to the recall of the next item in the list. It is especially helpful in
recalling life events in their chronological order.

PRINCIPLES OF RETRIEVAL THAT CAN BE USED TO AID RECALL- The first is the principle of
categorization. This states that material organized into categories or other units is more easily recalled than
information with no apparent organization. This effect happens even when organized material is initially
presented in a random order. A second principle of retrieval, discovered by Thomson and Tulving (1970), is
called encoding specificity. Memory is more likely to be recalled when specific external or internal cues
present during memory retrieval are the same as the cues present during memory encoding
RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY
Memory retrieval is not just reconstructive, involving the use of
various strategies (e.g., searching for cues, drawing inferences) for retrieving the original memory traces of
our experience rebuilding the original experiences as a basis for retrieval. Rather, in real-life situations,
memory is also constructive, in that prior experience affects how we recall things and what we actually
recall from memory. The formulation of new memories is sometimes called construction, and the process
of bringing up old memories is called reconstruction.
Autobiographical memory refers to memory of an individual's history. Autobiographical memory is
constructive. One does not remember exactly what has happened. Rather, one remembers one's
construction or reconstruction of what happened. People's autobiographical memories are generally quite
good. Nevertheless, they are subject to distortions. A schema consists of your general knowledge or
expectation, which is distilled from your past experiences with an event or a person. We use schemas to
guide our recall.
The process of trying to identify the origin of memories and beliefs is called source monitoring.

ILLUSORY MEMORY- A false memory is a recollection that seems real in your mind but is fabricated in part
or in whole. False memory refers to cases in which people remember events differently from the way they
happened or, in the most dramatic case, remember events that never happened at all. False-memory syndrome
refers to the creation of inaccurate or false memories through the suggestion of others, often while the person
is under hypnosis.

CONFABULATION
Confabulation is a neuropsychiatric disorder where in a patient generates a false memory
without the intention of deceit. Confabulations are more commonly associated with Korsakoff syndrome.
Confabulation is a type of memory error in which gaps in a person's memory are unconsciously filled with
fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information. They are not making a conscious or intentional attempt to
deceive.
TYPES OF CONFABULATIONS
1. Provoked confabulation occurs when someone creates an untrue story in response to a specific question.
This type of confabulation is the most common and frequently occurs in people with dementia or amnesia.
2. Spontaneous confabulation occurs when someone tells a fabricated story without any obvious motivation or
provocation.

EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY

Elizabeth Loftus, a cognitive psychologist specializing in the study of eyewitness memory, would argue that the
testimony would have a disproportionate effect on your behavior. She stated (Loftus, 1979) that “eyewitness
testimony is likely to be believed by jurors, especially when it is offered with a high level of confidence,” even
when the confident witness is inaccurate. Indeed, she believed that “all the evidence points rather strikingly to
the conclusion that there is almost nothing more convincing than a live human being who takes the stand, points
a finger at the defendant, and says ‘That’s the one!’” (p. 19). Several studies Loftus reviewed, however, suggest
that confidence in eyewitness testimony may be far too strong.
The Misinformation Effect- Errors in eyewitness testimony can often be traced to the misinformation effect. In the
misinformation effect, people first view an event, and then afterward they are given misleading information about
the event; later on, they mistakenly recall the misleading information, rather than the event they actually saw .

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY

1. Errors are more likely if the witness's attention has been distracted by something arousing at the time of the
event.
2. Errors are more likely if the misinformation is plausible. For instance, in the classic study by Loftus and her
colleagues (1978), a stop sign is just as plausible as a yield sign, so participants in that study often made errors.
People are also likely to say that an event occurred in their own life (when it really did not) if the event seems
consistent with other similar experiences (Hyman & Kleinknecht)
Reliability Of Eye Witness Testimony
It refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed.
The most extensively researched topic within the domain of autobiographical memory. Memory schemas can
alter a witness’s testimony. In eyewitness testimony can be traced to faulty source monitoring. In some cases,
people believe they really witnessed something that had actually been suggested to them in a different
situation. Eyewitness testimony requires people to remember specific details about people and events. In these
cases, mistakes are more likely. When eyewitness testimony is inaccurate, the wrong person may go to jail or
— in the worst cases—be put to death.
MEMORY AS AN ACTIVE PROCESS

•Memory is an active process, it’s more than just storing and recalling information. It involves encoding,
storing, retaining, and subsequently recalling information and past experiences.
•The memory process begins with “encoding” where information is transformed into a form that can be
processed and stored.
•Encoding can be done in three main ways: visually (picture), acoustically (sound) and semantically
(meaning).
•After encoding, information is “stored” in the memory. Storage of information involves maintaining
information over time.
•The memory storage system is divided into three main components: sensory memory, short-term memory and
long-term memory. Each has its own duration, capacity, and way of encoding information.
•The Long-term memory (LTM) is the memory system responsible for storing information for longer periods
of time. It has an unlimited capacity and can store information for a lifetime.
•and retrieved.
•The Short-term memory (STM) is the active memory system that contains Retrieval or “recall” is the process
of bringing stored memories into conscious thought. This could be in the form of recognition, recall, or
relearning.
•Memories are not always accurate, and they can be distorted or forgotten. Several factors can influence
memory accuracy, like the context in which the information is encoded the information currently in use. It has
a limited capacity and can store 7 +/- 2 pieces of information.
•The concept of ‘forgetting’ refers to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an
individual’s long term memory.
•Interference and decay are two main theories to explain forgetting. Interference theory explains forgetting as
the disruption of the memory due to the presence of other information. Decay theory refers to the idea that
memories fade over time if they are not reinforced or recalled.
•Lastly, memory can also be reconstructed. Bartlett proposed that our memory is not an exact replica of past
events, but a reconstruction based on our schema, or prior knowledge and expectations.
REFERENCE

Ciccarelli, S. K. White, J. N. (2012).Psychology.(3rd ed). Pearson.

Galotti, K.(1999). Cognitive Psychology: in and out of Laboratory. Wadsworth.
Matlin, M. W. & Foley, H. J. (1992).Sensation & perception. US&A: Allyn and Bacon.
Memory as an active process. Study rocket. https://studyrocket.co.uk/revision/gcse-psychology-
aqa/cognition-and-behaviour/memory-as-an-active-process
Sternberg, J. S. (2009). Applied Cognitive Psychology: Perceiving, learning and
remembering. Cengage Learning .
THANK YOU