2:00 PM
via video conference
The Scientific Nature of False and Repressed Memories
Henry Otgaar Maastricht University
The issue on how traumatic experiences affect memory has led to one of the most contentious debates in psychological science. A widely held belief is that traumatic experiences can result in repressed memories referring to an unconscious blockage of memories. The idea of repressed memories, however, does not rest on sound scientific assumptions and can lead therapists to suggestively seek for hidden buried memories resulting in the creation of false memories of sexual abuse. Numerous legal cases have shown that such false memories can lead to false accusations and even wrongful convictions. In this talk, I will show that this debate is far from over. Many academics, legal professionals, and members from the general public continue to believe in unconscious repressed memories. I will show what the likely causes are of this belief and stress that this belief will continue to damage the legal system potentially leading to more false accusations.
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/99840180341?pwd=anNRSk9WakRLd01tR1ZuMnBiaUlwQT09
Meeting ID: 998 4018 0341
Passcode: Fb852v
On 22.01.21 at 2:00 PMVenue: via video conference
2:00 PM
via video conference
Simulated Action in Object Recognition
Diane Pecher Erasmus University Rotterdam
A central idea in the grounded cognition framework is that memory consists of simulated action and perception. Results of empirical studies indicate that pictures of manipulable objects such as coffee cups and hammers activate the motor actions that are compatible with the grasping actions that would be performed on a real object. Researchers have concluded from these results that motor simulations are central to object recognition. The best examples are studies showing alignment and grasp compatibility effects. These studies have shown that responses to irrelevant stimulus properties, such as color or upright/inverted orientation, are faster if the response hand is on the same side as the object’s graspable part than if it is on the other side (i.e., the alignment effect). Likewise, responses are faster when the required response grip (e.g., precision grip) matches the grip that would be used on the object than when it does not match (i.e., the grasp compatibility effect). These findings have traditionally been interpreted as providing evidence for the view that object perception results in the automatic activation of specific actions associated with the object. An alternative view, however, proposes that these effects are best explained by abstract spatial coding. In this view, alignment and grasp compatibility effects are variations of the standard Simon effect. In this talk I will review evidence from our lab that is consistent with this latter interpretation.
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/99840180341?pwd=anNRSk9WakRLd01tR1ZuMnBiaUlwQT09
Meeting ID: 998 4018 0341
Passcode: Fb852v
On 5.02.21 at 2:00 PMVenue: via video conference
1:00 PM
Ruhr University Bochum
GEM 2021 - Generative Episodic Memory: Interdisciplinary perspectives from psychology, neuroscience and philosophy
Episodic memories are widely regarded as memories of personally experienced events. Early concepts about episodic memory were based on the storage model, according to which experiential content is preserved in memory and later retrieved. However, overwhelming empirical evidence suggests that the content of episodic memory is – at least to a certain degree – constructed in the act of remembering. Even though very few contemporary researchers would oppose this view of episodic memory as a generative process, it has not become the standard paradigm of empirical memory research. This is particularly true for studies of the neural correlates of episodic memory. Further hindering progress are large conceptual differences regarding episodic memory across different fields, such as neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. This interdisciplinary workshop therefore aims to bring together researchers from all relevant fields to advance the state of the art in the research on generative episodic memory.
For more information about the workshop including: call for papers, registration, program, etc. please visit https://for2812.rub.de/gem2021
From 1:00 PM on 16.02.21 to 12:30 PM on 18.02.21Venue: Ruhr University Bochum
Hosted by Prof. Dr. Sen Cheng
2:00 PM
Venue: TBA
‘Alternative facts’ – How prone are episodic memories to sequential and semantic modification, and how protective are self-perspective and self-performance?
Together with Benjamin Jainta
When we remember personally experienced episodes, we mentally travel back in time and create a scenario of the past. The novel framework of our research group suggests that during scenario construction, the episodic memory trace, entailing information about an episodes sequential structure, is enriched with relevant semantic information. However, episodic memories are not like exact video-recordings of our past that we can simply watch over and over again. On the contrary: episodic memories are flexible and prone to change. It is believed that internal models derived from memories are regularly updated based on new information which allows us to maintain valuable predictions in an ever-changing environment. What still remains to be understood is (1) how the two components in scenario construction (sequential and semantic information) are involved in memory updating on a neural level and (2) which conditions render episodic memories more or less prone to change. To address these questions, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment in which we violated expectations based on before encoded episodes on a sequential and semantic level and additionally applied two experimental factors, self-performance and self-perspective, which manipulated the experiential quality of episodes. In our talk, we will focus on presenting the methods of our study which will also serve as a basis for our follow-up experiments and discuss preliminary results.
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/99840180341?pwd=anNRSk9WakRLd01tR1ZuMnBiaUlwQT09
Meeting ID: 998 4018 0341
Passcode: Fb852v
On 18.12.20 at 2:00 PM2:00 PM
per Zoom
Reducing the complexity of memory systems
Memory research has accumulated a wealth of data over the last decades. However, it seems that the more we learn, the less we know about what memory is and how it works. I propose that the way forward is to acknowledge that memory is always studied indirectly and that observed behavior is always the result of a complex interaction of several cognitive processes, which in isolation can be fairly simple. By contrast, the conventional interpretation is that any observed behavioral effect in a memory study is the result of memory processing, which makes memory seem highly complex. Taking a computational model of recognition memory as an example, I will show that many factors that previously were interpreted as attributes of the recognition memory system can be modeled as the result of other factors such as the stimulus statistics or a decision making process. Even the need for two distinct memory processes, called recollection and familiarity, vanishes in our model. This view of a simple generic memory that is used in a much more complex process has enabled us to account for other phenomena such as ABA renewal and the dependence of visual discrimination on the hippocampus. We believe that this approach has even wider applicability and work towards extending it.
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/99840180341?pwd=anNRSk9WakRLd01tR1ZuMnBiaUlwQT09
Meeting ID: 998 4018 0341
Passcode: Fb852v
On 4.12.20 at 2:00 PMVenue: per Zoom
2:00 PM
via video conference
Perspective-taking in time
Christoph Hörl University of Warwick
Episodic memory can be thought of as involving a form of temporal perspective-taking. The remember imaginatively occupies a point in time in the past. This is also sometimes referred to as mental time travel. I will offer some reflections on what this human ability to engage in temporal perspective-taking consists in, including how it differs from spatial perspective-taking and how it might be related to counterfactual reasoning abilities.
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/93607143813?pwd=d1A1QVhydTFkNnpHK2xrWHh2MEg1dz09
Meeting ID: 936 0714 3813
Passcode: 374170
On 13.11.20 at 2:00 PMVenue: via video conference
2:00 PM
Closed Event
2:00 PM
Closed Event
2:00 PM
via video conference
Immunity to error through misidentification in observer memories: a moderate separatist account
Denis Perrin Université Grenoble Alpes
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/97457942133?pwd=SGVEdTZmY0UxZGEvVlkzZlYyZnpxUT09
Meeting ID: 974 5794 2133
Passcode: 374170
Judgments based on episodic memory are often thought to be immune to errors of misidentification (IEM). Yet there is a certain category of episodic memories that seems to threaten this supposed immunity of our memory-based judgments. Are observer memories a threat to the (potential) IEM feature of memory-based judgments? In recent years the phenomenon of observer memories has raised a growing amount of interest amongst philosophers, in particular due to its potential implication for the issue of IEM. In the resulting ongoing debate, some say that observer memories are a threat to the IEM enjoyed by episodic memory (Michaelian, 2020); others say that such memories pose no such threat (Fernández, 2018; Lin, 2020). In this paper, we argue for a middle way. First, we frame the debate, claiming that the existing literature lacks a satisfying definition both of observer memories and of the precise issue of errors of identification in such memories. Then, we contribute to the debate by challenging an anti-separatist assumption about the relation between phenomenal and intentional features of observer memories that looms behind this debate. On this assumption, if the rememberer’s self is built into the phenomenal content, by implication it is also built into the intentional content. We reject this assumption and offer a moderate separatist account of the relation between phenomenal and intentional content. Then, distinguishing between different species of observer memories by drawing upon the empirical literature, we say that for one species the rememberer’s self is part of the phenomenal content but not built into the intentional content: such observer memories are not a threat to IEM. In contrast, for another species of observer memories, the rememberer’s self is both part of the phenomenal content and intentional content. This species of observer memory poses a threat to IEM in a qualified way. In particular, whether this species of observer memory is a threat to IEM or not depends on the type of information that is used to construct the representation of the self in such images.
On 9.10.20 at 2:00 PMVenue: via video conference
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: via Zoom
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: per Zoom
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: per Zoom
2:00 PM
per Zoom
Autobiographical memory, narrative selfhood and artifacts
Richard Heersmink La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Zoom meeting room details:
Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/97204546502?pwd=RmxsYUdRSzNzVVhiY3o3L0xpSnd3UT09
Meeting ID: 972 0454 6502
Password: 671485
In this article, I outline various ways in which artifacts are interwoven with autobiographical memory systems and conceptualize what this implies for the self. I first sketch the narrative approach to the self, arguing that who we are as persons is essentially our (unfolding) life story, which, in turn, determines our present beliefs and desires, but also directs our future goals and actions. I then argue that our autobiographical memory is partly anchored in our embodied interactions with an ecology of artifacts in our environment. Lifelogs, photos, videos, journals, diaries, souvenirs, jewelry, books, works of art, and many other meaningful objects trigger and sometimes constitute emotionally laden autobiographical memories. Autobiographical memory is thus distributed across embodied agents and various environmental structures. To defend this claim, I draw on and integrate distributed cognition theory and empirical research in human-technology interaction. Based on this, I conclude that the self is neither defined by psychological states realized by the brain nor by biological states realized by the organism, but should be seen as a distributed and relational construct.
On 19.06.20 at 2:00 PMVenue: per Zoom
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: Per Zoom
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
Time and space in the mind and brain
Prof. Dr Marc Howard Boston University
Venue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
Expecting actions: fMRI evidence
Venue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
Where were you when you learned about 9/11: Flashbulb memories, collective memories, and bearing witness
Prof. Dr William Hirst New School for Social Research - New York
People have vivid, confidently held memories of the circumstance in which they learned of a public, emotionally charged event, as well as memories about the event itself. The dynamics though which these memories are formed and retained are investigated in the context of the attack of September 11, 2001 in the United States. The results of a 10-year longitudinal study, a study on intergenerational transmission of memories, and a study on ageing will be discussed. The role flashbulb memories play in allowing people to give witness to public tragedies will be explored.
On 6.12.19 at 2:00 PMVenue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
Closed Event
Venue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
Memory retrieval as a dynamic and reconstructive process
Prof. Dr Maria Wimber University of Birmingham
Our memories are not static. Each attempt to retrieve a past event can adaptively change the underlying memory space. Here I discuss my work on the neurocognitive mechanisms that enable the selective retrieval of episodic memories. I present behavioural and electrophysiological (M/EEG) work that provides insight into how a memory trace unfolds in time during retrieval, on a sub-trial scale. Further, I show evidence from a series of fMRI studies in which we track the representational changes that occur in a memory trace over time and across repeated retrievals. The latter findings demonstrate that retrieval adaptively modifies memories by strengthening behaviourally relevant and weakening behaviourally irrelevant, interfering components. Together, this work sheds light onto the neural dynamics of the retrieval process, and informs theories of adaptive memory.
On 8.11.19 at 2:00 PMVenue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
2:00 PM
GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
Investigating the interaction of semantic and episodic memory with multivariate pattern analysis
In recent years, analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in humans has expanded to include approaches focusing on the relational content in patterns of fMRI data rather than single-voxel activation profiles. Among these so-called multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) techniques, representational similarity analysis (RSA) is the one that has most often been used to explore how semantic structure is represented in similarity patterns in the brain. Interestingly, RSA has also been used to show that when previously unrelated elements become linked through episodic memory, brain regions such as the hippocampus respond with changed pattern similarity for these elements. Thus, this analysis approach is well suited to investigate the interaction between semantic and episodic memory. In my talk, I will first give a general overview over what RSA is and how it has been applied in previous studies. Then, I will present ideas for the experiments in our project P4, and show some preliminary results from piloting studies.
On 11.10.19 at 2:00 PMVenue: GA 04/187, Ruhr University Bochum
12:30 PM
Hotel Weissenburg, Billerbeck
1st Retreat of the research unit FOR2812
The first retreat of the research unit FOR2812 will take place on Sept. 27th and 28th 2019. We will discuss preliminary results and plan the workshop that is to take place in 2020, as well as install the collaborations between the subprojects.
From 10:00 AM on 27.09.19 to 4:00 PM on 28.09.19Venue: Hotel Weissenburg, Billerbeck
Hosted by Prof. Dr. Sen Cheng
4:00 PM
NB 3/57, Ruhr University Bochum
A new perspective on visual perspective in memory
Prof. Dr Peggy St. Jacques University of Alberta
Memories for events, including autobiographical experiences, can be retrieved from an own eyes perspective, how events are typically formed, or from an observer-like perspective in which one see’s oneself in the memory. Adopting an observer-like perspective has long been thought to reflect the transformation of memories overtime. Consistent with that idea, remote memories are associated with a greater frequency of observer perspectives in memories, whereas recent memories are associated with more frequent own eyes perspectives. Additionally, visual perspective is related to the phenomenology and content of memory retrieval. However, visual perspective is not merely epiphenomenon of these changes in memories overtime, but can also exert mnemonic changes when people actively shift to novel viewpoints during memory retrieval. In this talk, I will present behavioural and functional neuroimaging data that demonstrate how visual perspective during retrieval shapes memories during immediate and subsequent retrieval. I will end the talk by discussing the functions and origin of multiple visual perspectives in memories and offer directions for future research.
This talk is held in collaboration with Cognitive Science Lecture Series.
Prof. St. Jacques will also give a talk in Münster on July 10th in Room 40, Fliednerstr. 21, Münster
On 1.07.19 at 4:00 PM
Venue: NB 3/57, Ruhr University Bochum
The research unit FOR 2812 "Constructing scenarios of the past: A new framework in episodic memory" is a project funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). The research unit studies the cognitive and neuronal mechanisms underlying scenario construction in episodic memory. We employ and integrate approaches from Philosophy, Psychology, and Experimental and Computational Neuroscience.

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Tel: +49 (0)234 32 27996
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