Reference no: EM133599838

DISCUSSION

A relational memory error: You are at work and need to call a co-worker on a different building level to ask a question, but you can not find their extinction number. You go into the workroom to look the extinction number up. You see the 4-digit extinction number and start repeating it to yourself as you walk back to your office; on the way, you bump into a coworker and start talking. You finish the conversation, return to your office, pick up the phone, and can't remember the 4-digit extinction number. Reisberg (2022) shared that if you think about something mindlessly and mechanically, the thought is accepted in a weak form into the long-term memory.

A memory error in ethics: Two women are in a hospital, and both have boys within an hour of each other. It was a hectic afternoon on the labor and delivery floor. The two newborn boys were taken into the nursery for the doctor to examine them; both babies' ID bracelets came off during the examination. The nurse helping the doctor went to print new ID bracelets. According to Reisberg (2022), there are settings where various factors can make the likelihood of memory error relatively high. When she returned, the doctor was gone, and she couldn't fully remember which baby was which. To the best of her memory, she put the bracelets on each baby and then wheeled them back into their hospital rooms. One mom swore her baby had blue eyes, but this baby had brown eyes. The nurse used the misinformation effect to convince the mother that the baby she brought into the room was, in fact, her baby. Misinformation effects refer to memory errors resulting from misinformation received after an event was experienced (Reisberg, 2022). The nurse returned to the nursery to take the other baby back and noticed the baby had blue eyes.

It is Monday morning, and I am running around to get the kids ready for school, making breakfast, packing lunches, fixing kids' hair, and getting ready for work. I run to my room to grab something, but along the way, my youngest daughter asks me to sign her planner; I sign it, then walk into my room and think, "What did I need to grab?" I will use my schematic knowledge to supplement the reason for going into my room to grab my phone because that is what I do most mornings (Reisberg, 2022). We all walk out the door and get in the car; as I drive away, I remember heading to my room to grab a sweatshirt because I was cold. One factor that causes this memory error is we don't know things we don't pay attention to (Reisberg, 2022). Another factor is I didn't make a connection between the things I needed to grab in my room.

False memories arise in different situations based on the events leading up to the memory. In my second example of memory error in ethics, the nurse used the misinformation effect when she returned the baby and the mother questioned the eye color. When the nurse misinformed the mother of the eye color, this created a false memory in both the mother and the nurse. In my example, I made a false memory by convincing myself that I went into my bedroom to grab my phone and nothing else because I usually have to go back to my bedroom to grab my phone before we leave in the morning.

Memory errors arise because our memories are interconnected with other memories (Reisberg, 2022). One way to decrease memory error would be to limit the connections between the memory and the retrieval pathways (Reisberg, 2022). Memory errors occur because various episodes in our memory are heavily interconnected with one another (Reisberg, 2022). Another way to reduce memory error is after the event, using memory rehearsal to go over the event several times (Reisberg, 2022). Doing this will strengthen your memory of the event, and you will have fewer memory errors.

Reference

Reisberg, D. (2022). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind (8th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Respond to at least one colleague's original post in both of the ways listed below.

Expand on your colleague's posting by suggesting at least one additional negative consequence, ethical consideration, or strategy to decrease memory error.

Conclude your response to your colleague by suggesting at least one related implication for positive social change.