Editing Episodic Memory following the Identification of Error

The editing of an episodic memory record in order to remove incorrect information embedded within naturalistic communications is an important though underinvestigated phenomenon. Experiment 1 deals with the recall and comprehension of a sequence of messages following the delayed identification of one of the messages as being incorrect. Two styles of correction were employed, and it was found that in neither case was the memory record edited effectively. Inferences based upon the old information continued to be drawn although subjects had clearly recalled that it had been subsequently corrected. Experiment 2 showed that editing could be effective if the old information did not play a central role in the message sequence. It is concluded that the observed difficulties in editing arise when old information has to be excised from the episodic record; the uncontested insertion of new information retrospectively did not present the same difficulty. Reading span was used to monitor subjects’ editing strategies, and from its association with performance measures it is concluded that contradictions in the memory record are not dealt with immediately but are resolved locally when comprehension is questioned. At this time inferences are drawn based upon the most recent version of the contradictory messages. This recency strategy breaks down when the old information provides a better fit to the question posed. Some implications of these findings for models of memory storage are discussed.

[1]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Strategies of discourse comprehension , 1983 .

[2]  M. McCloskey,et al.  Misleading postevent information and memory for events: arguments and evidence against memory impairment hypotheses. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[3]  J. Mandler Stories, Scripts, and Scenes: Aspects of Schema Theory , 1984 .

[4]  D. Dooling,et al.  Locus of thematic effects in retention of prose. , 1973 .

[5]  R. Wyer,et al.  Effects of instructions to disregard information on its subsequent recall and use in making judgments. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  Richard Jackson Harris,et al.  Psychology of Pragmatic Implication: Information Processing Between the Lines. , 1978 .

[7]  C SchankRoger,et al.  Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Reminding and Learning in Computers and People , 1983 .

[8]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[9]  S. Larsen,et al.  Knowledge Updating in Text Processing , 1982 .

[10]  Reading Strategies and the Integration of Information as Indicated by Recall and Reading Times , 1983 .

[11]  Elizabeth F Loftus,et al.  Leading questions and the eyewitness report , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  R. Spiro Accommodative reconstruction in prose recall. , 1980 .

[13]  S. Asch Forming impressions of personality. , 1946, Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

[14]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Dynamic memory - a theory of reminding and learning in computers and people , 1983 .

[15]  Robert A. Bjork,et al.  The Updating of Human Memory , 1978 .

[16]  W. Kintsch,et al.  The representation of meaning in memory , 1974 .

[17]  P. Devine,et al.  Cognitive mediation of inconsistency discounting , 1985 .