Critical Learning Exercises - Thinking About People and Events

Instructions

Now that you have read the chapter, let's consider the theories and findings more closely. Read each of the questions below and type your response into the corresponding text box. After you submit your response you will be shown model feedback. You will receive full credit on submission, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your response. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.

Question 1.

Tune in to any news outlet these days, and you’re likely to come across allegations of “fake news.” Given what you have learned about how memories are formed—and specifically the misinformation effect—do you think our exposure to fake news could lead to the creation of false memories? Now apply what you’ve learned about the influence of schemas on memory. Do you think fake news might be more likely to lead to the creation of false memories for alleged events that fit our schemas? After you’ve thought through these questions, check out research by Murphy, Loftus, and colleagues (2019) that inspired this critical thinking exercise.

Students’ responses will vary but may discuss how, when we are exposed to and pay attention to fake news, which is essentially providing us with false information about an event (or alleged event), we may encode that information into short-term memory, which can later get stored in long-term memory. Thus, we could remember the information as being real since we created a memory of it. Also, since it is easier to remember information that fits one of our schemas, we are more likely to create false memories for fake news if the information regarding the alleged events fits what we believe could have happened. If we are busy or unmotivated, we are more likely to rely on these schemas to attend to and remember information that fits those schemas.

Question 2.

Imagine that you’re teaching a class (perhaps even a class in social psychology). As you look out at the room, you watch as a student’s eyes start to glaze over, his head nods back, and he begins to snooze. As the instructor, you’re now wondering whether your lecture is really that boring or if perhaps the cause is the student. What questions will you consider to determine if it is your lecture or the student that is the cause of the sleeping? If you determine that the student is the cause, what additional information would you need to inform how you could best help the student to do better?

This scenario will result in different questions that could be considered but may include the following: Are other students falling asleep? How long into the lecture did this behavior happen? Is the room unusually cold or warm? What time of day does the class take place? Did the lecture encourage engagement from the students? Did the lecture include too much detail or factual information? Does this student always fall asleep? If the response assumes the student is the cause, then additional information may be needed regarding the student’s schedule at school, work, and home; overall health issues or sleep problems; motivation to learn the material; major and reason for taking the class; and so on.

Question 3.

Consider the last time you thought about how an event in your life could have turned out differently than it did. Now that you’ve read about counterfactual thinking, try to identify whether you used an upward or downward counterfactual. Did imagining this alternative outcome make you feel better or worse about what happened? Did imagining this alternative outcome provide you with a plan for how you might act differently in the future?

Students’ experiences with counterfactual thinking will differ, but they should correctly identify whether they used upward (imagined a better outcome than what actually happened) or downward (imagined a worse outcome than what actually happened) counterfactuals. Upward counterfactuals tend to result in negative feelings but may have helped students better prepare for the future. However, downward counterfactuals tend to result in more positive feelings but don’t tend to help people better prepare them for the future, only feel better about the past.

Critical Learning Exercises - Thinking About People and Events

Instructions

Question 1.

Question 2.

Question 3.

Question 4.