2. Memory Flashcards
What is coding?
The form that info is stored in
What is duration?
The length of time info can be held in mem
What is capacity?
How much info that can can be held in a mem store
What is short term memory?
Items you’re using now
What is long term memory?
Stored items you can access again
What is retrieval?
Acessing info from LTM
What is attention?
Mental focus on an an object
What is the multi-store model?
An explanation of memory based on 3 seperate memory stores & how info is transferred between these stores
What is the sensory register?
- Info at the senses –> collected by eyes, nose, ears etc
- Info retained for brief period of time
- Capacity of sensory mem is very large
What is the Central Executive?
Monitors & coordinates all other functions in working memory (wm)
What is the episodic buffer?
Receives input from many sources, temporarily stores this info & then integrates it in order to construct a mental episode of what is happening
What is the phonological loop?
Codes speech sounds in working mem, typically involves maintenance rehersal
This is why this component of working mem is reffered to as ‘loop’
What is the visup-spatial sketchpad?
Codes visual info in terms of seperate objects as well as the arrangement of these objects in one’s visual field
What is the working memory model?
An explanation of the mem used when working on a task
Each store is qualitatively different
What is episodic memory?
Personal memories of events, such as what you did yesterday or a teacher you like
This kind of mem includes contextual detatils plus emotional tone
What is procedural memory?
Mem for how to do things, for example riding a bicycle or learning how to read
Such memories are automatic as the result of repeated practice
What is semantic memory?
Shared mems for facts & knowledge
These memories may be concrete, such as knowing that ice is made of water, or abstract, such as mathematical knowledge
What is interference?
An explanation for forgetting in terms of one memory distrupting the ability to recall another
This is most likely to occur when the two memories have some similarity
What is proactive interference (PI)?
Past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something
What is retroactive interference (RI)?
Current attempts to learn something interfere with past learning
What are cues?
Things that serve as a reminder
May meaningfully link to material to be remembered or may not be meaningfully linked, such as environmental cues (a room) or your mental state (being sad/drunk)
What is retreival failure?
Occurs due to the absence of cues
Explanation for forgetting based on the idea that hte issues relates to being able to retrieve a memory that is there but not accesible
Retrieval depends on using cues
What is eyewitness testimony?
The evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identify the perpatrator of the crime
What is a leading question?
A question that, either by its form or context, suggests to the witness what answer is desired/leads him or her to the desired answer
What is misleading information?
Supplying info that may lead a witness’ memory for a crime to be altered
What is post-event discussion?
Conversation between co-witnesses/an interviewer & an eyewitness after a crime has taken place which may contaminate a witness’ memory for the event
What is anxiety?
An unpleasent emotional state that is often accompanied by increased HR & rapid breathing
i.e. physiological arousal
What is a cognitive interview?
Police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime, which encourages them to recreate the original context of the crime in order to increase the accesibility of stored info
Our mem is made up of a network of associations rather than of discrete events, memories are accessed using multiple retrieval strategies
What sort of info is stored in the STM?
Info that we process & recall straight away is usually stored in our STM
When we experience sensory info, what happens to it?
It stays there just long enough to decide if we should process it further
If we rehearse it, will go to STM - if not it is forgotten
What is the sensory input/memory like?
It takes in info from sense & transforms them into a memory trace - for example they may have been acoustically coded
What is rehersal?
Attending to info so it stays in your mem
e.g. verbally repeating it over and over again
What does the STM contain?
Small amounts of info which we’re currently aware of
How is STM coded?
Acoustically
e.g. sound
How is info kept in the STM?
Using rehersal
What is LTM?
The permanent mem store
Where does info go after the STM?
It goes to the LTM to be stored more permanently
How is LTM coded?
Semantically
e.g. words mean similar things
What is the capacity of the LTM?
It is potentially unlimited - it can hold info until we wan to retrieve it
What is retrieval?
Process of locating & recalling stored memories
What is the capacity of the STM?
Limited - between 5-9 items
What is the duration of the STM?
Betweem 18-30 seconds
What is the duration of the LTM?
A potential lifetime
What did Miller’s study (1956) on memory show about STM?
He conducted experiments & argued that most things come in 7s
He concluded that on avg. we can recall 7 items (7 + or - 2) with a range of between 5-9 items
What memory store was Miller’s 1956 study concerning and what was it testing?
STM - the capacity of it
Is the capcity of the STM memory limited to just 5-9 letters?
No - Miller discovered we can remember 5 words as easily as we can remember 5 letters
Using chunking
What is one way to test the capacity of STM?
The digit span test
Who developed the digit span test?
Jacobs 1887
What does the digit span test, test?
Researcher gives a numebr of digits & ppt has to recall all in order
Researcher then increases the amount by 1 digit & ppt has to recall again until they cannot recall in correct order
This detemines their digit span
What was the mean digit span in Jacobs study for letters and numbers?
Mean digit span = 9.3 items
Letters = 7.3
This suggests the STM is better at sting digits than letters
What study did Bahrick et al. conduct?
The yearbook study - testing LTM duration
What was the process of Bahrick et al.’s LTM study?
(Testing LTM)
Tested 400 people of various ages (17-74) on thie memory of classmates
Photo-recognition test consisted of 50 photos, some from ppt’s yearbook
Free-recall test - ppts asked to list names of those in their graduating class
When was Bahrick et al.’s study?
1975
What were the findings of Bahrick et al.’s study?
Ppts tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate
After 48 years down to about 70%
Free recall was about 60% after 15 years & 30% after 48 years
When was Peterson & Peterson’s study?
1959
What was Peterson & Peterson’s study testing?
STM duration
What was the process of Peterson & Peterson’s study?
24 students - each ppt tested over 8 trials
Each trial ppt given consonant syllable & 3 digit no. (e.g. THX 512)
Asked to recall the consonant syllable after retention interval of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 seconds
During retention interval they had to countcount backwards from their three-digit no.
What were the findings of Peterson & Peterson’s (1959) study?
Ppts on avg, were 90% correct over 3 seconds, 30% correct after 9 seconds & 2% correct after 18
What did the findings of Peterson & Peterson’s (1959) study suggest about the duration of the STM?
That STM has a very short duration - less than 18 seconds - as long as verbal rehersal is prevented
When was Baddely’s coding of memory study?
1966
What was the process of Baddely’s coding of memory study?
He used words lists thay were acoustically/semantically similar to test the effects of acoustic & semantic similarity on the STM & LTM
What did Baddely’s 1966 find in his coding of memory study?
He found ppts had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM
Semantically similar words posed little problem for STMs but led to muddled LTMs
What did the findings of Baddely’s 1966 coding of memory study suggest?
That STM is largely encoded acoustically whereas LTM is largely encoded semantically
What are the evaluations for capacity of STM/LTM memory?
- Capacity of STM may be more limited than the magic number (7+-2)
- Size of the chunck matters
- Individual differences
What are the evaluations for duration of STM/LTM memory?
- Testing STM was artificial
- STM results may be due to displacement
What are the evaluations for coding of STM/LTM memory?
- STM may not be exclusively acoustic
- LTM may not be exclusively semantic
- Baddely may not have tested LTM
Who designed the multi store model of memory?
Atkinson & Shiffrin - 1968
What are the elements of the Multi Store Memory model?
Sensory mem –>
STM –>
LTM
Draw the Multi Store Memory model
Check against the textbook :)
Who was sensory memory designed by?
Spelling - 1960
What did Sperling do to test sensory memory?
He conducted an experiment- ppts saw a grid of digits for 50 milliseconds.
They were either asked to write down all 12 items, or that they would hear a tone immediately after & they would have to recall a particular row
What were the results of Sperling’s (1960) study on the sensory store?
Grid test:
Whole grid = 5 items recalled about 42%
One row = 3 items recalled about 75%
What did the results from Sperling’s (1960) study show?
Ppts should have been able to remember 4 items from a row - approx. only 3 were remembered
Suggests sensory mem cannot hold info for long
What did Sperling’s (1960) study conclude about sensory memory?
- Info decays rapidly in the sensory store
- This supports the existence of a sensory store
What was the study conducted by Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)?
It looked at the serial position effect
Showed ppts a list of 20 words, presented one at a time & asked to recall them
What is the serial position effect?
When asking people to remember a list of words that is greater than capacity of STM they tend to remember the words from the begginign & end of the list
What are the 3 effects theorised in Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) study?
- Serial position effect
- Primacy effect
- Recency effect
What is the primacy effect?
The tendency for people to remember the first 5 or so words from the beginning of the list
What is the recency effect?
The tendency for people to remember remember the last 5 or so words from the end of a list
How does Glanzer & Cunitz’s (1966) study support the MSM?
Primacy effect - proves LTM existence
Recency effect - proves STM existence
How does the Primacy effect prove the existence of the LTM?
It occurs as the first words in the list are best rehearsed & transferred to LTM
How does the Recency effect prove the existence of the STM?
It occurs as the last words in the list are the last to be presented
They are therefore fresh in the STM at the start of recall
What was the case of HM?
HM was a normal child, however when he was a young teenager he was hit by a car while riding his bike
He saw no effects until his 16th bday where he had his first epileptic fit
A doctor attempted to cure this by sucking out his hippocampus - did cure his epilepsy but him unable to form new LTMs
How does HM’s brian damage support the MSM?
HM is still alive but has marked problems in STM after brain surgery
He has remembered little of personal (deaths) or public events (Vietnam war) that have occured in the last 45 yrs
However his LTM is still intact
What are the two opposing views on anxiety affecting eyewitness testimony?
Christianson & Hubinette (1993) - Anxiety helps make strong memories
Johnson & Scott (1976) - Anxiety makes memory formation worse
Define Cognition
Capacity to process info
Which researchers thought that anxiety could improve memory?
Christianson & Hubinette (1993)
What was the aim of Christianson & Hubinette’s (1993) anxiety affecting EWT study?
To investigate effects of anxiety on eyewitness recall, with 58 real bank robbery witnesses, 4-15 months after incident
What were the IV and DV of Christianson & Hubinette’s (1993) anxiety affecting EWT study?
- IV(1) = Victimg of crime (bank teller)
- IV(2) = Bystander (customer)
- DV = Detail match to CCTV of crime
What were the findings of Christianson & Hubinette’s (1993) anxiety affecting EWT study?
All vicitims had above 75% avg. accuracy
Victims reporting more anxiety had better recall (+ive correlation)
What was the conclusion of Christianson & Hubinette’s (1993) anxiety affecting EWT study?
Semantic/Episodic mem formation is better when anxious
Which researchers thought that anxiety could make memory worse?
Johnson and Scott
What was the aim of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) anxiety affecting EWT study?
Investigate the effect of anxiety on eyewitness recall
What were the IV and DV of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) anxiety affecting EWT study?
- IV(1) = Witness argument, see confederate holding greasy pen
- IV(2) = Witness arguemnt, see confederate holding bloody knife
- DV = ID of criminal accuracy %
What were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) anxiety affecting EWT study?
EWT accuracy:
- Pen - 49%
- Knife - 33%
What was the conclusion of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) anxiety affecting EWT study?
The weapon focus affect causes memory to be worse
How does the weapon focus effect work?
Using the Yerkes-Dodson Curve (similar to inverted U in PE)
Anxiety helps memory until a certain point, after this point, memory gets worse
Who suggested that the Yerkes-Dodson Curve could explain anxiety affecting EWT?
Kenneth Deffenbacher
In 1983 he reviewed the studies - decided the curve could account for the inconsistency in the opinions
What was the procedure of Johnson & Scott’s (1976) study?
Asked ppts to sit in a waiting room where they heard an argument in an adjoining room
They then saw a man carrying either a pen covered in grease or a knife covered in blood
ppts later asked to identify the man from a set of photos
What was the high/low anxiety condition in Johnson & Scott’s (1976) study?
High anxiety = knife covered in blood
Low anxiety = pen covered in grease
Who came up with the Working Memory Model?
Baddely & Hitch (1974)
Why did Baddely & Hitch come up with the WMM?
Believed me is not just one sotre but a no. different stores
2 visual tasks = poorer performance but 1 visual & 1 verbal means no interruption
Which store does the WMM focus on?
STM only & believed it wan not a single store like MSM
LTM more passive - holds previously learned material for use by the STM when needed
What are the four stores in the WMM?
- Central executive
- Episodic buffer
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- Phonological loop
Where does the WMM fit in memory?
It is the STM, between the sensory mem and LTM
What is the capacity of the Central Executive?
Limited capacity - data arrives from the senses but it can’t hold it for long
What is the Central Executive like?
- Determines how resources from slave systems are allocated
- Involves reasoning & decision making tasks
How did Baddely (1986) describe the Central Executive?
Uses the metaphor of a company oss to describe the way in which the CE operates
Company boss makes decisions about whihc issues deserve attention& which are ignored
What is the capacity of the phonological loop?
Limited capacity
What is the phonological loop like?
Deals with auditory info & preserves word order - inner ear
What did Baddely (1986) divide the Phonological loop into?
- Phonological store = holds words hears
- Articulatory process = holds words hear/seen & silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice - kind of maintenance rehersal
What is the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
Limited capacity: 3-4 objects
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad like?
Visual and/or spatial info stored here - inner eye
What did Logle (1995) suggest that the visuo-spatial sketchpad could be divided into?
- Visuo-cache (store)
- Inner scribe for spatial relations
When was the episodic buffer added and why?
Baddely (2000) added episodic buffer as he realised model needed a more general store
What is the role of the episodic buffer?
- Slave systems deal w specific types of info
- CE has no storage capacity - EB had limited capacity of 4 chunks
- Integrates info from all other areas
How is the phonological loop coded?
Acoustically
How is the visuo-spatial sketchpad coded?
Visually
How is the episodic buffer coded?
Modality free (like CE)
How is the central executive coded?
Modality free
What is modality free coding?
How CE and EB are coded
Not limited to sight or sound or any one sense since it reads to manipulate all manner of info
What is the evidence for the WMM?
Dual task perdormance - Baddely & Hitch (1976)
Aimed to show STM should be divided into several components
What were the IV and DV for dual task performance study (Baddely & Hitch 1976)?
IV(1) - CE occupied by repeating a word
IV(2) - CE and AL occupied by repeating random no. sequence
DV - True/false task accuracy (seconds + errors)
What were the findings in the dual task performance study (Baddely & Hitch 1976)?
Reduced accuracy when 2 WM areas are used together
What was the conclusion of the dual task performance study (Baddely & Hitch 1976)?
Existence of CE & AL is supported & they are functionally different
What is the duration of the phonological loop?
It holds the amound of info you can say in 1.5-2 seconds (Baddely et al., 1975)
What is the word length effect?
The phonological loop finds it harder to remember words that are longer than 1.5-2 seconds long
Makes it harder to remember a list of long words such as ‘association’ compared to shorter words like ‘harm’
When does word length effect dissapear?
If a person is gicen an articulatory surpression task (saying ‘the, the, the’ while reading the words)
What does the word length effect prove about the WMM?
Supports the existence of Phonological Loop and Articulatory Loop
Why does the word length effect disappear when you’re given an articulatory supression task?
(repeating ‘the, the, the’ task)
The repetitive task ties up your articulatory process & means you can’t rehearse the shorter words more quickly than the longer ones, so the word length effect disappears
What are the two theories of forgetting
- Retrieval failure
- Interference theory
Who conducted the study into retrieval failure?
Tulving et al., 1973
Why do we forget, according to Retrieval Failure?
The reason we forget is due to insufficient cues
What is are schematic memories?
All memories are ecoded with info from the environment
they’re like “webs” in the brain/mind - they’re all interconnected so its impossible to use one part of a memory without “pulling” on the others
How do cues help retreival of memories?
- Schematic items associated w target mems act as cues
- Cues help us to remember by helping to retrieve the schema
- Fewer cues = more likely we’ll fail to retrieve memories
What is the Encoding Specificity Principle?
The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original mem
How can cues be linked to the item to help us recall it better?
Some cues are linked to material in a meaningful way
A meaningful link or connection to help you remember it
Give an example of how a cue can be linked in a meaningful way to aid recall
Mnemonics - tools to help remember facts or large amounts of info
Can be a song, rhyme, acronym, image or a phrase
What are the two types of cues?
- Context cues (known as ‘context depended forgetting’)
- State cues (known as ‘state depended forgetting’)
What is a context cue?
They’re external environmental cues (e.g. a place)
What are state cues?
Internal cues (e.g. being drunk or tired)
Which type of forgetting did Godden & Baddely (1975) conduct their study on?
Context-dependet forgetting
What was the AIM of Godden & Baddely’s (1975) study on context-dependet forgetting?
To investigate whether context affects memory
What was the procedure of Godden & Baddely’s (1975) study on context-dependet forgetting?
- Scuba divers give a list of words
- IV(1) = On land
- IV(2) = Underwater
- DV(1) = No. words correctly recalled on land
- DV(2) = No. words correctly recalled under water
What were the findings of Godden & Baddely’s (1975) study on context-dependet forgetting?
Recall was significantly better in original context
e.g. if they wre first learned on land & recalled on land
What was the conclusion of Godden & Baddely’s (1975) study on context-dependet forgetting?
Forgetting is context-dependent
Which type of forgetting did Goodwin et al. (1969) conduct their study on?
State-dependent forgetting
What was the aim of Goodwin et al.’s (1969) study on state-dependet forgetting?
To discover if mental/physical state affects mem
What was the procedure of Goodwin et al.’s (1969) study on state-dependet forgetting?
- Male volunteers given a list of words
- IV(1) = At 3x legal drink/drive limit
- IV(2) = Sober
- DV = No. words correctly recalled after 24 hours (all ppts randomly assigned drunk/sober)
What was the design of Goodwin et al.’s (1969) study on state-dependet forgetting?
Independent groups design was used - not matched pairs
What were the findings of Goodwin et al.’s (1969) study on state-dependet forgetting?
Recall was significantly better in original state (even if that state is drunk!)
What was the conclusion of Goodwin et al.’s (1969) study on state-dependet forgetting?
Forgetting is state-dependent
What is availability in terms of memory?
Memories are gone
What is accessibility in terms of memory?
You cannot reach the memory
What is interference?
One mem disturbsthe ability to recall another
This could result in forgetting or distorting a mem or both
More likely to happenif the mems are similar
What are the two types of interference?
- Proactive interference
- Retroactive interference
What is proactive interference?
Previously learnt info interferes with the new info you’re trying to learn
Give an example of proactive interference
You have difficulties learning the names of the students in your psychology class, instead you keep remembering the names of the students in your maths class last year
What is retroactive interference?
A new mem interferes with an old one
Give an example of retroactive interference?
You have trouble remembering the names of the students in your maths group last year because you learnt the names of your psychology class this year
What was the study that McGeoch & Mcdonald (1931) about?
Looked at the similarity of materials and how this affected mem
(part of interference as an explantion for forgetting)
