8.3 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S

1.Outline the variables that can influence the accuracy of our memory for events.

2.Explain how schemas can distort our memories.

3.Describe the representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic and explain how they may lead to errors in judgment.

As we have seen, our memories are not perfect. They fail in part due to our inadequate encoding and storage, and in part due to our inability to accurately retrieve stored information. But memory is also influenced by the setting in which it occurs, by the events that occur to us after we have experienced an event, and by the cognitive processes that we use to help us remember. Although our cognition allows us to attend to, rehearse, and organize information, cognition may also lead to distortions and errors in our judgments and our behaviors.

In this section we consider some of the cognitive biases that are known to influence

humans. Cognitive biases are errors in memory or judgment that are caused by the inappropriate use of cognitive processes (Table 8.3 "Cognitive Processes That Pose Threats to Accuracy"). The study of cognitive biases is important both because it relates to the important psychological theme of accuracy versus inaccuracy in perception, and because being aware of the types of errors that we may make can help us avoid them and therefore improve our decision-making skills.

Table 8.3 Cognitive Processes That Pose Threats to Accuracy

Cognitive process	Description	Potential threat to accuracy
	The ability to accurately identify the source of a	Uncertainty about the source of a memory may
Source monitoring	memory	lead to mistaken judgments.
	The tendency to verify and confirm our existing
	memories rather than to challenge and	Once beliefs become established, they become
Confirmation bias	disconfirm them	self-perpetuating and difficult to change.
	When schemas prevent us from seeing and using	Creativity may be impaired by the overuse of
Functional fixedness	information in new and nontraditional ways	traditional, expectancy-based thinking.

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