(1) Explain what each of the following terms means: (a) Consistency bias, (b) retroactive interference, (c) proactive interference.
1a: Consistency bias means that people tend to exaggerate the consistency between our past feelings or beliefs with our current viewpoint.
1b: Retroactive interference means that people have trouble recalling old material because of recently learned material interfering with old memories.
1c: Proactive interference means that people have trouble recalling new material because of old material interfering with new memories.
(4) (a) Explain what the term "flashbulb memory” means. (b) What are the 6 kinds of information typically found for flashbulb memories? (c) How might schemas lead to …show more content…
For example, news reports during the day of September 11th, 2001 could influence a person’s schema, and cause them to remember details that they might not have experienced during the day itself like when the first plane hit or the second.
4d: Misleading post-event information can influence the recall by becoming a part of someone’s flashbulb memory. For example, after the September 11th, 2001 attacks a person might say that they remember when the plane in Pennsylvania crashed or when the Pentagon was hit, despite the fact that they could have been at home and not heard those details until the news reports came out.
4e: Source monitoring errors relate to the distortion in flashbulb memories because people have the ability to plagiarize inadvertently, believing that their memory was self-generated even when it could be a news report. For instance, after seeing the video footage of the World Trade Center collapsing, people could have a distorted flashbulb memory of the September 11th 2001 attacks despite not being present in New York City when it