Memory Biases
How interesting to learn that there are quite a few
predominant memory biases (also called memory errors) that affect all of us! A memory bias is a
cognitive process that alters the way, the time or how we recall memories. Memory
biases are subtle to pick up on and, looking at the list our Psychology professor gave us,
there are a lot of them. As per this assignment, I intend to write about three memory
biases I believe to be both easier to spot and common in occurrence.
Hindsight Bias: Most of us
have excellent hindsight, I mean, who looks back on a mistake and says: “I
would’ve done that the same way or worse”? We tend to look back and reflect at
how we could have done better. Hindsight bias is where we tend to look over
past events as being predictable, particularly if we are looking over what
someone other than ourselves has done. It is very easy to say how you would
have done something differently following someone else’s failure. But think
about it; how do you know that you would have done it differently, and what
makes your methods better?
An example of this memory bias in full effect can be seen during medical malpractice trials. The plaintiffs in such trials are often favored due to hindsight bias. There’s a 1976 Californian case were a man disclosed threats made against a woman named Tatiana Tarasoff to his therapist. The therapist notified the police, but not Ms. Tarasoff, who was subsequently murdered. A case study found that those who, 20 years later, knew about the murder after the man spoke to his therapist were likely to put some degree of blame on said therapist for the outcome despite the notification she gave police.
An example of this memory bias in full effect can be seen during medical malpractice trials. The plaintiffs in such trials are often favored due to hindsight bias. There’s a 1976 Californian case were a man disclosed threats made against a woman named Tatiana Tarasoff to his therapist. The therapist notified the police, but not Ms. Tarasoff, who was subsequently murdered. A case study found that those who, 20 years later, knew about the murder after the man spoke to his therapist were likely to put some degree of blame on said therapist for the outcome despite the notification she gave police.
The Bizarreness Effect: Once you have read and understood what the bizarreness effect is, I am sure you, just like me, will say: “Ah, I do that!” The bizarreness effect is the tendency to recollect strange and uncommon information as opposed to more common or ordinary material. This is just like when someone reads odd facts about the human body, for example. Such as that our bodies are made up of mostly empty space and would fit into a cube less than 1/500th of a centimeter per side (click HERE). I bet most of us will remember this and go tell our friends, that’s "normal". The problem with this particular memory bias occurs when it interferes with our logical reasoning due to placing higher stock in the strange things we read or see.
Illusion of Truth Effect: In
general, people tend to identify statements they have heard previously as being
more truthful, irrespective of the validity of the statement. This is termed the illusion of truth effect. A lot of
nonsense gets spread around and handed down over the ages, and the internet
makes the spread of misinformation so much easier. This can range from the
relatively harmless such as the old wives tale that eating carrots improves
your vision (it doesn’t, but the Vitamin A can help maintain healthy eyes, click HERE) to
pseudoscience (the teaching of Creationism as a science, click HERE) to all the way
to the extremely dangerous.
An example of something many people hear frequently
that has led to the spread of dangerous misinformation is that vaccines contain
deadly mercury (click HERE). Due to the
illusion of truth effect causing a public outcry in this particular case, thiomerosol (the type of
molecular mercury compound found in some vaccines to prevent microbe growth)
has been removed from many vaccines despite the lack of evidence that it is
harmful. In fact, removing it may be a worse option and at great cost to the
companies who have to reformulate their products. See how dangerous this memory bias/error can be!
Thus, it is our responsibility to keep these and the other memory biases in mind. Like when we are reading over critical literature/reports or talking to colleagues who, just like us and everyone else, could be mistaken due to a memory bias. Let's strive to live - through consciousness, honesty and alertness - ...
Ivonne
