Evaluation

Question 1

Two studies that critique the capacity of short term memory

Answer 1

Cowan 2001 - suggests that the STM is limited to about 4 chunks
Vogue et al 2001 - also found that the STM limited to 4 chunks with visual info

Question 2

Does the size of the chunk matter

Answer 2

Simon (1974) - found that people had a shorter memory span for larger chunks such as eight word phrases

Question 3

What are individual differences in STM capacity

Answer 3

Jacobs also found that digital span recollection increased with age. May be due to changes in the brain capacity or the development of strategies such as chunking

Question 4

What is a critique of research investigating the duration of STM

Answer 4

Studies like Peterson and Peterson (1959) are very artificial and does not reflect most everyday memory activities. However we do remember meaningless phrases or numbers so it does have some relevance.

Question 5

What is another critique of Petersons’ study

Answer 5

Counting back from the number may displace the consonant syllable

Question 6

STM may not be purely acoustic. Describe a study that supports this

Answer 6

Brandimote et Al 1992 - found participants used visual coding in STM if given a visual task and prevented from doing any verbal rehearsal.
Other research also showed that STM could be semantic (Wickens et Al 1976)

Question 7

LTM may not be purely semantic. Name two studies that support this.

Answer 7

Frost 1992 - long term recall was related to visual as well as semantic categories
Nelson and Robert 1972 - found evidence for acoustic coding in LTM

Question 8

How can we critique Baddeley’s methodology

Answer 8

As he only waited 20 mins before recall of the list with semantically similar words is he really waiting long enough for that to be considered long term memory

Question 9

Describe two studies that support the difference of LTM and STM

Answer 9

Beardsley (1997) - found that the prefrontal cortex is active during STM but not long term tasks
Squire et Al (1992) - found that the hippocampus is active when LMT is engaged

Question 10

What is a study that supports different areas of the brain being for LTM and STM

Answer 10

Scoville and Milner (1957) - patient (referred to as HM) had the hippocampus removed from both sides of his brain to reduce his epilepsy. He could no longer make new LTMs but could remember LTMs from before the surgery

Question 11

Why is MSM too simple ?

Answer 11

Research supports that the working memory is divided into qualitatively different stores. Same for LTM. E.g maintenance rehearsal can explain LTMs for knowledge but not episodic memory (memories of events)

Question 12

Why can we critique msm for its emphasis on maintenance rehearsal

Answer 12

Craik and Lockhart (1972) - suggests that the enduring memories are dependant on the depth of processing not amount of repetition
Craik and Tulving (1975) - gave participants a word and asked a question involving deep or shallow processing - shallow may be asking if a word is printed in caps but deep may ask if the word fitted in a sentence.

Question 13

How separate is LTM and STM - name two studies that cover this

Answer 13

Logie 1999 - said that the STM relies on the LTM
Ruchkin et Al 2003 - asked to recall a set of words then a set of pseudo words. Much more brain activity was detected when recalling real words, indicating involvement of LTM.

Question 14

Who did studies on the capacity of stm

Answer 14

Jacobs 1887 - digit span - 9.3 for numbers and 7.3 for letter
Miller 1956 - 7+- 2

Question 15

Who did studies of the duration of memory

Answer 15

Stm - Peterson and Peterson 1959 - consonant syllable an 3 digit number. Count back from number and after certain time recall the syllable - 90% correct after 3 sec and 2% correct after 18 sec
LTM - bahrick et al - photo recognition test - 15 years after 90% correct 48 years 70%. Free recall - 15 yr 60%, 48 yr 30%

Question 16

Who studies coding

Answer 16

Baddley 1966 - harder to remember acoustically similar in STM but not LTM - opposite for semantically similar

Question 17

What did muller and pilzecker suggest

Answer 17

Recall was impaired when doing an intervening task (interference)

Question 18

What did underwood do ?

Answer 18

Meta analysis and suggested that the more lists learnt the lower percentage of recall

Question 19

Explain McGoech and McDonald

Answer 19

Study of similarity in interference - word list + list of synonyms = 12% recall, list of words + list of digits = 37% recall

Question 20

Describe the baddeley and hitch interference study

Answer 20

Rugby players - recall teams they played against. Those who played more forgot proportionally more than those who played less

Question 21

What did tulving and pearlstone study

Answer 21

Retrieval failure - when a list of words had a title (eg fruits) recall was 60% when without title 40%

Question 22

What did Goodwin study

Answer 22

State dependant forgetting - drunk vs sober

Question 23

What did Loftus and Palmer study in EWT

Answer 23

Leading questions - car crash video then asked people how hard did the car hit, bump, smash etc the other car. More aggressive verb = faster speed

Question 24

What did Gabbert et Al study

Answer 24

The conformity effect in post event discussions. Those who have a post event discussion will more likely agree they saw somthing they didn’t if others say.

Question 25

How did LeRooy et al study misleading information

Answer 25

Repeated interviews allows for the comments from the interviewer to become incorporated into the recalling - especially within children

Question 26

What did Johnson and Scott study in relation to anxiety

Answer 26

Weapon focus reduced the recall of faces. Staged an argument in another room and man runs through with either a pen or knife. 49% accuracy of identification with pen and 33% with knife

Question 27

Loftus et Al (anxiety study)!

Answer 27

Eye tracking and found that the weapon was a focus

Question 28

What did Christiansen and Hubinette study (anxiety)

Answer 28

Found that high anxiety victims had a higher accuracy in remembering - they questioned real witnesses of a bank robbery - argument for anxiety being a positive in recollection

Question 29

Deffenbecker et Al - explain

Answer 29

Meta analysis explains high vs low anxiety in relation to recollection - the Yerkes-Dodson effect (U curve)

Question 30

Dual task performance evaluation

Answer 30

Baddeley and hitch Participants are slower during dual tasking. Task 1 uses Central Exec and task 2 involves the articulatory loop.

Question 31

Brain damaged patients evaluation

Answer 31

Patient KF brain damaged - no problems with remembering audio but not visual - auditory issues were only with verbal material like letters and sounds but not meaningful sounds. Brain damage only impacted phonological loop

Question 32

Problems with using case studies evaluation of WMM

Answer 32

Brain damage is traumatic so may change behaviour making people worse at certain tasks. Individuals may have other issues that make them underperform in certain tasks. Unique case studies can’t be generalised to the whole population

Question 33

Evidence for the phonological loop and articulatory process

Answer 33

Baddleyes word length is evidence for the processes - longer words can’t be rehearsed as the don’t fit into the 2 seconds of the phonological loop - shorter words can and therefore can be remembered —> clear evidence

Question 34

Vagueness of the central executive

Answer 34

Eslinger and Damasio - studied patient with tumour removed - performed wel in tests that required reason which suggests that his CE was intact but he had issues with decision making and couldn’t do that - suggesting that his CE was not fully intact

Question 35

LTM Brain scan evaluation

Answer 35

The 3 types of LTM supported by scans - episodic = hippocampus and temporal lobe
Semantic = temporal lobe
Procedural = cerebellum and the motor cortex

Question 36

Distinguishing procedural and declarative memories

Answer 36

Study of HM - had parts of his temporal lobe removed - he could form new procedural memories but not any LTMs - he could learn how to draw somthing but had no memory of learning how to.

Question 37

Distinguishing episodic and semantic memories

Answer 37

Hodge and Patterson - studied Alzheimer’s patients and they would form new semantic memories but not episodic - could also be in reverse - separate areas for the two - evidence for existence

Question 38

Research is artificial - interference evaluation

Answer 38

Most research was conducted with artificial word lists or pseudo words - not high ecological validity

Question 39

Interference only explains some forms of forgetting

Answer 39

Interference requires special conditions and the memories need to be similar. Not relevant to everyday. - Anderson

Question 40

Accessibility vs availability evaluation

Answer 40

Ceraso - memory tests after 24 hours recognition showed recovery and recall remained the same

Question 41

Real world application

Answer 41

Danaher et al

Question 42

Individual differences (interference)

Answer 42

Kane and Engle - those with greater working memory are less effected by proactive interference. Given 3 word lists to learn results show the statement

Question 43

Real world application (retrieval failure)

Answer 43

Abernathy - learn in a room will recall better in same room

Question 44

Retrieval failure explains interference

Answer 44

Tulving and pearlstone - interference are due to the absence of cues. Word lists - category or not. With category given recall improved

Question 45

Cues do not always work

Answer 45

If info is complex or related to more many things. Not as effective. Outshining hypothesis- cues effects reduces when a better cue is there

Question 46

Supporting evidence of misleading info

Answer 46

Loftus and Palmer - car crash vid

Question 47

Individual differences in ETW

Answer 47

Elderly find it harder to recall information therefore more susceptible to misleading information- Schacter et Al

Question 48

Crit of Loftus

Answer 48

Car crash vid may not be accurate due to lab settings not having the same emotional state for participants - not higher levels of anxiety or psychological arousal

Question 49

Weapon focus could not be caused by anxiety

Answer 49

Weapon focus may be caused by surprise. Identifying was more accurate in high threat over high surprise

Question 50

Individual differences in anxiety

Answer 50

Bothwell et al - people labels as neurotic accuracy decreased as they got more anxious but people labled as stable got more accurate with anxiety - high anxiety not always more accurate