Forgetting and Eye Witness Testimony.

Question 1

What is the interference theory?

Answer 1

Forgetting occurs because new experiences and memories disrupt one or both. The memories are there but it’s hard to locate them.

Question 2

What is proactive inteference?

Answer 2

Past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something

Question 3

Examples of proactive interference?

Answer 3

Get a new PIN but keep typing the old PIN.

Question 4

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 4

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Question 5

Examples of retroactive interference?

Answer 5

-forgetting your old telephone number when you’ve learned your new one
-forgetting what you had for dinner last week

Question 6

McGeoch and McDonald?

Answer 6

-Studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity.
-Learn a list of words until they could remember 100%
Then learnt a new list, an test new lists varied in similarity.
-The more similar the material, the more they forgot.
-Synonyms were hardest due to similarity so high level of interference

Question 7

Strengths of McGeoch and McDonald?

Answer 7

-.HIGH CONTROL: lab study with high control and standardised procedures mean they are reliable
-Easily applied to real life and are useful in improving retention in memory by avoiding learning similar items at same time.

Question 8

Weaknesses of McGeoch and McDonald?

Answer 8

-Tasks can be criticised for lacking in validity, artificial materials lack mundane realism.
.Not most useful explanation of forgetting because instances of inference is rare.

Question 9

Strengths of the interference theory: Baddeley and Hitch?

Answer 9

-Asked rugby players to name the teams they had played against this season.
-The ones who had played against more teams had the worst recall.
-Real life example of retroactive interference.

Question 10

Strengths of interference theory: drug studies?

Answer 10

-Coenen and Giles 1997.
-Asked participants to learn words and recall them later.
-If the diazepam was taken while learning the words, recall was worse than placebo group.
-If taken after learning the words, recall was better than placebo group.
-Wixted 2004 suggested the drug prevents new information reaching the brain, therefore retroactive interference is not possible.
-When you stop interference, it prevents forgetting.

Question 11

Weaknesses of the interference theory?

Answer 11

-Artificial materials - these experiment use list of unconnected words = unlike thins we have to remember in the real world and therefore lowers the generalisation of the studies. lack mundane realism.
-Artificial situations - ppts asked to learn and repeat lists of words within short time periods - whilst this does maximise the chances of interference occurring, doesn’t happen in real life = limits generalisation
-Conditions of interference rarely occur in real life.
-Temporarily overcome by the use of cues.

Question 12

Weaknesses of interference theory: Tulving and Hitch?

Answer 12

-Did a recall test to show proactive interference.
-They got participants to learn new lists of words, and tested them on recalling the first list. This was 70% accurate and got progressively worse.
-When names were added to the lists (cues), recall rose back to 70%.
-Interference is temporary, which is not explained by the theory.

Question 13

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 13

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 14

What is a cue?

Answer 14

A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory

Question 15

What is the ESP?

Answer 15

-Encoding specificity principle Tulving 1983.
-If a cue is going is to be helpful, it has to present at encoding and retrieval.
-If cues in encoding and retrieval are different then there will be some forgetting.
-Some cues are meaningful links to material (mnemonics).
-External cues and internal cues.

Question 16

What is context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 16

• External retrieval cues
• When the external environment is different at recall from how it was at coding
  e.g. a different room than learnt in

Question 17

Context dependent forgetting- Godden and Baddeley?

Answer 17

-Studied deep seas divers.
-Learnt a list of words and then recalled it. Either: land and land, land and water, water and land, water and water.
-Findings- accuracy was 40% lower in the non matching conditions. Because there are different cues in encoding and retrieval.

Question 18

Context dependent forgetting: Abernathy 1940?

Answer 18

-Tested students who were completing the course.
-Tested either in: same room and instructor, same room with a different instructor, the same instructor but a different room, or had a different instructor in a different room.
-Students in same room with the same instructor had the highest recall. The same cues led to less forgetting.

Question 19

What is state dependent forgetting?

Answer 19

Occurs when your mood or physiological state during recall is different from the mood you were in when you were learning

Question 20

State dependent forgetting: Carter and Cassidy?

Answer 20

-Looked at the effect of antihistamines, which make people drowsy, therefore the internal state is different from the normal state.
-Learnt list of words and passages of prose.
-Either: learnt and recalled on drug or off of it, learnt on drug and recalled off it, or learnt off drug and recalled on it.
-Non matching conditions had worse recall.

Question 21

State dependent forgetting: Godwin 1969?

Answer 21

-People who drank a lot forgot where they had put things when they were sober, but remembered when they were drunk again.

Question 22

Strengths of retrieval failure?

Answer 22

-Helps us with strategies to remember information (colour coding etc).
-Research support.

Question 23

Weaknesses of retrieval failure?

Answer 23

Can’t be applied to all memory types
- Baddeley found no effect on recognition tests, where the information was learnt/recalled. Therefor is a limited explanation for forgetting as it seems to only apply when recalling information.
Baddely argued that the contexts had to be very different to completely forget.
-Different rooms would unlikely lead to forgetting as they are similar.
-Completely different does not happen often so loses credibility.

Question 24

What is Eye witness testimony?

Answer 24

The ability of people to remember details about accidents and crimes, of which they have observed.

Question 25

What is misleading information?

Answer 25

Supplying information that may lead a witness’ memory to be altered

Question 26

What are leading questions?

Answer 26

A question which because of the way it has been phrased suggests a certain answer.

Question 27

Examples of leading questions?

Answer 27

has you pain been improving?
you dont have bloody stools, do you?

Question 28

Loftus and Palmer experiment 1?

Answer 28

-45 participants watched clips of car crashes.
-They were then asked questions, the critical question being about how fast the cars were going.
-The verb was either contacted, bumped, hit, collided and smashed.
-The mean estimate of speed was calculated was 40.5mph for smashed and 38.1mph contacted.
-CONCLUSION: shows response bias as the leading question didn’t seem to have an affect on memory, just how they decided to answer.

Question 29

Loftus and Palmer experiment 2?

Answer 29

-See if response bias or actually altering the memory.
-150 participants were shown the same clip of a car crashed. 50 people were asked the critical question with the phrase hit, 50 were asked with smashed, and 50 were not asked.
-A week later, they were all asked if they had seen any broken glass.
-If they had been subject to the word smash, they were more likely to report seeing broken glass.
-CONCLUSION: leading questions can alter perception of an event.

Question 30

What is post event discussion?

Answer 30

More than one witness where they may discuss what they have seen. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event.

Question 31

Research into post event discussion: Gabbert et al 2003?

Answer 31

-Studied participants in pairs. The would all watch a clip of a crime, but the two had different perspectives. Half of the pairs could discuss, half could not.
-In those who had discussed, 71% mistakenly recalled things they didn’t see in their video, but picked up in the discussion. This was 0% in the control group.
-This is evidence of memory conformity.

Question 32

What is memory conformity?

Answer 32

Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right

Question 33

What is memory contamination?

Answer 33

When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix information from other witnesses with their own memories

Question 34

Strengths of misleading information?

Answer 34

Real life application. Important uses in the real world where inaccurate testimonies have serious consequences. So research leads to improvements to interview techniques.

Question 35

Weaknesses of misleading information?

Answer 35

-Experiments used artificial video clips and were in lab conditions. There is less stress and the people are less motivated to be accurate. So research can be pessimistic of EWT.
-In lab studies, it can be argued that demand characteristics can occur.

Question 36

Why can anxiety have a positive or negative affect on memory?

Answer 36

-Yerkes Dodson law.
-Anxiety has a positive effect up to an optimal point, then after it has a negative effect.
-This explains the contradicting evidence of the effect on EWT.

Question 37

Weapon focus effect: Johnson 1976?

Answer 37

-Low anxiety condition: pen with grease on it.
-High anxiety condition: knife with blood on it.
-They then had to recall the man form 50 photos. The high anxiety condition were less likely to recall him.
-This is called the weapon focus effect, and this suggests it has a negative impact on EWT.

Question 38

Evaluation of the weapon focus effect?

Answer 38

STRENGTH:
-Meta analysis of 30 studies showed recall was less accurate in high anxiety situations.
WEAKNESSES:
-Creating anxiety is unethical.
-Lab studies have artificial material.
-There is an argument that the weapon focus effect could be due to surprise not anxiety, meaning there is a lack of internal validity.

Question 39

What research is there into the positive effect on anxiety?

Answer 39

-Christianson and Hubinette.
-Studied 58 people who experienced a real bank robbery.
-Those who had actually been threatened has better recall of the event. This was also true 15 months later.
-Doesn’t create anxiety so more ethical.

Question 40

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 40

A method of interview that aims to improve the accuracy of EWT and achieved more memories recalled.

Question 41

What are the 4 components of the cognitive interviews?

Answer 41

1. Report everything- should be encouraged to report every detail even if they think it is not important or if they are not confident.
2. Context reinstatement- they should go back to the crime scene in their min, imagining the environment and emotions to prevent context/state dependent forgetting.
3. Change order- Helps to prevent reporting what they are expecting to happen. Harder to be dishonest when in reverse order.
4. Change perspective- Report from another witness. Prevents schemas, which would effect what you think has happened.

Question 42

What are the elements of the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 42

-Open questions.
-Making them feel comfortable.
-Know when to hold/relinquish eye contact.
-Encouraged to speak slowly.
-Minimise distraction.

Question 43

Strengths of CI: Kohnkan?

Answer 43

-Meta analysis of 50 studies, which compared standard interview with the CI. The CI produced 41% increase in accurate information.
-Shows it has many practical benefits and allows the police to catch more criminals.
-However meta analysis can be biassed.

Question 44

Strengths of CI: Mine and Bull?

Answer 44

-Showed the CI produced more information but specifically context reinstate and report everything.
-Some aspects are better than others, but this is a strengths as it shows at least two parts should be used, even if the full CI isn’t used.

Question 45

Weaknesses of CI?

Answer 45

Takes more time and energy
- Is generally longer than a standard interview and also requires special training

Increases incorrect as well as correct info
- Even though correct is increased, the level of depth it being thought about in also leads to increase in incorrect information.