Psychology Question
student
Akhtar, S., Justice, L.V., Morrison, C.M., & Conway, M.A. (2018).Fictional first memories.Psychological
Science, 29, 1612 – 1619.doi: 10.1177/0956797618778831
Welcome to your assignment!Attached to this email you should find a .pdf copy of the article listed above.Your assignment is to read that article, and to answer the following questions to the best of your ability.This assignment is graded pass/fail; if you pass, you will receive one credit towards your PSY 101 research participation requirement.Also, if you are completing this assignment because you have been “locked” from signing up for other studies, passing will earn you an “unlock,” so that you can sign up for other studies.There is no penalty if you fail, but you do not get the research participation credit.Here are your instructions.
Read the attached article.
Write your answer to each of the listed questions, by hitting “Reply” in your email, and typing the answers into the body of the email.Your answers may be as long or as short as you need them to be.
Use complete sentences, and write in paragraph form.
Do not copy the work of anyone else, or share the work you do.Each of these assignments is stored electronically, and will be checked for plagiarism.
You have 48 hours from the time this email is sent to return your answers.That 48 hours will be based on the time stamp on your email (the 48 hour requirement will be waived if the IT department reports a disruption in email service during those 48 hours).
It may take up to 48 hours to get your assignment graded, depending on volume.
Here are your questions!
The term autobiographical memory refers to one’s long term memories of one’s own past.According to the article, what is the likely age range in which a developing human can form memories that will last to adulthood?Explain the evidence from Simcock and Hayne’s experiment is offered that supports this age range?Compare that estimate to the estimates from the subsequently reported two different studies of reports from young adults; at what ages do each of those studies suggest autobiographical memories occur?As part of your answer, be sure to compare “fragments” to “full” memories.
The authors suggest that there study is different from prior studies in three ways.What are those differences?
The Method section of a scientific paper is the place where the authors describe how they conducted their study, with enough detail that you could copy their procedure over again exactly, if you wanted to try to replicate their results.The last paragraph describes exactly which types of memories the participants were – and were not – allowed to use in the study.For this question, tell me the things participants were NOT allowed to do / include in the memory they reported.Why do you think the instructions excluded these sorts of situations?
In trying to explain the odd results from their sample, the authors distinguish between fictional memories, false memories, and illusory memories.Explain the distinctions the authors make.
Not explained in the article is the anatomy and physiology that render memories from before the age of 3 more or less biologically impossible.Specifically, the hippocampus of the brain, which we know is critical for creating and accessing long term memories, does not finish developing until about the age of 3.Most memory researchers suggest a lowest possible age of 2, to account for the fact that some people develop more quickly than others.That said, what three explanations do the authors give for memories before the age of 2 – and which do you think the authors believe to be most likely?
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