Memory

Question 1

What are the types of memory?

Answer 1

sensory memory- immediate info coming in from the environment
can be auditory, visual or tactical

STM- temporary store where small amounts of info are stored and can be easily lost

LTM- permanent store where limitless amounts of info can be stored

Question 2

What is coding?

Answer 2

the format in which information is stored
Alan Baddeley- groups learnt different words 
1- acoustically similar
2- acoustically dissimilar
3- semantically similar
4- semantically dissimilar
acoustically similar were harder in STM
semantically similar were harder in LTM
STM= acoustic LTM= semantic
artificial task

Question 3

capacity

Answer 3

amount of info that can be held in a memory store
Miller- 7±2 capacity and we use chunking to help us remember things
may be overestimated

Question 4

What is duration?

Answer 4

the length of time info can be held in the memory

Peterson x2- presented trigrams that people had to remember and had to count backwards from a number in between and had to wait (3,6,9 seconds) after each
duration=18 sec

Bahrick et al- 392 ps from a high school tested LTM (aged 17-74) did photo recognition from yearbook or free recall of class
duration=lifetime

Question 5

What is the multi store model?

Answer 5

proposed by Atkinson and Shriffin
main idea is that human memory system is a number of separate and distinct stores
sensory store- stimuli from environment which only passes further is you pay attention
can be iconic (visual) echoic (auditory)
STM- coded acoustically and lasts 18s unless rehearsed
LTM- coded semantically and can be transferred to STM for retrieval

maintainence rehearsal occurs when we repeat info to keep it in our stm and if it is repeated enough then it will pass to our ltm

Question 6

Multi store model evaluation (strengths)

Answer 6

HM case study- had hippocampus removed in operation
-STM was same but he couldn’t form long term memories
shows they are separate stores

Glazer and Cunitz- ps remember words right at the start and right at the end of a list
shows that LTM and STM are separate stores
shows primary (LTM) and recency (STM) effect

Question 7

Multi store model evaluation (weaknesses)

Answer 7

KF case study (Shallice and Warrington)
had brain damage due to a motorbike accident
STM was poor when words were read to him but good when he read words
shows that STM processes different types of memory in different ways

Tulving suggested there are 3 different stores for LTM

Question 8

What did Tulving propose?

Answer 8

the MSM of LTM was too simplistic and it actually contains three different stores

procedural-knowledge of how to do things- learned skill

episodic-personal events including memories of when events occurred and the people, places involved

semantic- knowledge of the world including facts and knowledge of what words and concepts means

Question 9

What is evidence for the idea of different types of LTM?

Answer 9

Clive Wearing case study- suffered brain damage due to an infection
parts of his LTM were damaged but some was normal
episodic was impaired
semantic was fine
procedural was fine- played cards and played piano

Question 10

What are problems with case studies?

Answer 10

they are very unique cases and only occur in a small amount of people
cant be generalised

Question 11

What is the working memory model?

Answer 11

proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974

explained that STM was several active stores rather than one distinct store

Question 12

What is the central executive?

Answer 12

supervisory component which monitor incoming data and divides our attention to what is important
allocates tasks to different slave systems
has limited capacity
all types of coding - not limited to sight or sound

Question 13

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 13

deals with auditory information
phonological store and articulatory loop
has 2 seconds capacity
coded acoustically

Question 14

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 14

stores visual (what you see) and spatial (where is it in relation) information
visual cache and inner scribe
has capacity of 3-4 objects
coded visually

Question 15

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 15

buffers information from all the components and puts it together to link the STM with the LTM
capacity of about 4 chunks
not limited to sight or sound

Question 16

Evaluation of WMM (strengths)

Answer 16

Dual task exp- tasks that are similar are harder as they are using the same stores and they only have limited capacity

evidence from KF- could read info for himself but couldn’t process info read to him
shows that VSS was still working but PL was impaired

evidence from brain studies showing different areas of the brain being active in visual and verbal tasks (PL or VSS active) different stores in different parts of the brain

Face validity as it matches how we think- active stores

Question 17

Evaluation of WMM (weaknesses)

Answer 17

case studies are very unique to the person esp when they have had brain damage so cant be generalised

not all aspects of the model have been researched eg CE is known as attention but may consist of lots more subdivisions (Eslinger and Damasio performed tasks using CE but had different results)

Question 18

Why do we forget?

Answer 18

lack of rehearsal
interference with other memories
lack significance
memories are repressed

Question 19

What is interference?

Answer 19

when one memory disturbs the ability to recall another which may result in distorting on or the other or both

Question 20

What are the types of interference?

Answer 20

proactive- when previously learnt information interferes with new information you are trying to learn
retroactive- a new memory interferes with older ones

Question 21

What studies are there into interference?

Answer 21

Underwood and Postman (1960)
1 group asked to learn one list of word pairs then another
2nd group only asked to learn first list
2nd group recall was better - retroactive interference

Question 22

Evaluation of interference (strengths)

Answer 22

Baddeley and Hitch- asked rugby players to recall names of teams recently played
players who missed games and had less interference remembered more games which supports retroactive
players who played more remembered less due to more interference

Question 23

Evaluation of interference (weakness)

Answer 23

Cesaro tested ps of the U+P study 24 hours after and they remembered more words
shows that interference is temporary

lots of studies occur in lab which makes them low in external and ecological validity

Question 24

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 24

an explanation for forgetting that says we forget if we don’t have sufficient cues to access a memory

Question 25

What is context dependant forgetting?

Answer 25

recall depends on external cues

memory is about the context it occurred in

Question 26

What are studies into context dependant forgetting?

Answer 26

Godden and Baddeley- learning lists of words
deep sea divers - learn land- recall land, learn land-recall sea, learn sea- recall land, learn sea-recall sea
recall was 40-50% higher when env was same for both
-high ecolgical validity, standardised procedure
- artificial task, cant be generalised as not all people would be as comfortable in sea as divers

Question 27

What is state dependant forgetting?

Answer 27

recall depends on internal cues

people remember information better when there is a match between mood at learning and retrieval- Bower

Question 28

What are studies into state dependant forgetting?

Answer 28

Carter and Cassidy- gave anti histamine drugs to ps
which have a mild sedative effect
same learn recall as CDF
remembered words better when in the same state for learning and recall

• lab exp, demand characteristics, generalisability

goodwin et al- drunk and sober
eg hiding things when drunk could be found again when drunk but not when sober

Question 29

What is eye witness testimony?

Answer 29

refers to the account given by a person of an event that they witnessed

Question 30

Leading questions

Answer 30

a question that in some way suggests a certain answer and is usually closed

response bias- wording of the q doesn’t affect the persons memory but affects how they answer the q

subsitution explanation - leading question changes the persons memory of an event

Question 31

Leading questions study

Answer 31

Loftus and Palmer 1974- 50 students
ps watched video of car crash and asked about how fast the cars were travelling (1 group weren’t)
“how fast were the cars travelling when they hit eachother” - 34mph
“how fast… when they smashed into eachother”- 40mph

pt2 came back a week later and asked if they saw broken glass in the video (there was none)
1- 14% yes (hit)
2- 32% yes (smashed)
3- 12% yes (control)

Question 32

Loftus and Palmer evaluation

Answer 32

lacks mundane realism and ecological validity as they watched videos instead of being at an actual crash
lab exp so lacks external validity but easy to replicate
experimental reductionism
use of students which isnt representative

Question 33

Post event discussion

Answer 33

when co witnesses to a crime discuss it with each each other which may cause their EWT to become contaminated as they compare information and it may be wrong

Question 34

PED study

Answer 34

Fiona Gabbert et al (2003)
studied ps in pairs watching a video of a crime from diffferent pov
each p could see different parts of the crime
discussed what they saw then did a recall test

found that 71% of ps mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn’t see
didn’t happen at all in control group (no discussion)
memory conformity / social approval

Question 35

Gabbert evaluation

Answer 35

high pop. validity as done with young and old adults
ps knew they were taking part in an exp so they would be looking out for things to say - low ecological validity
doesnt explain why the distortion occurs; just the fact that it does (memory conformity, poor memory)
Skagerberg and Wright- suggested memory is distorted; it is not just memory conformity

Question 36

What is anxiety?

Answer 36

an unpleasant emotional state where we feel like something bad is about go happen
has been shown to both positively and negatively affect EWT

Question 37

Anxiety: negative effect

Answer 37

Johnson and Scott (1976)
ps asked to stand outside lab and wait for exp to start
1- heard friendly discussion and saw a man come out holding a pen with greasy hands
2- heard a hostile discussion and furniture breaking and saw a man come out holding a bloody knife

were asked to identify the man they saw from 50 photos
1- 49% accurate 2- 39% accurate

example of the weapon focus effect or tunnel theory of memory- weapon narrowed focus of p as it was high danger and took attention away from face

Question 38

Johnson and Scott evaluation

Answer 38

ethical issues as ps were deceived and may have caused psychological harm

may not be measuring anxiety but unusualness instead as they wouldn’t have expected a knife

Valentine and Mesout measured heart rate and split into high and low anxiety groups and asked to recall info about statue outside London Dungeons and found high levels of anxiety made recall worse (support)

Question 39

Anxiety: positive effect

Answer 39

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - real life exp
interviewed 13 witnesses of robbery and shooting
4-5 months after event and compared accuracy of EWT to official police interview
asked ps to rate their anxiety levels

found that witnesses were accurate with little change from original
highest levels of stress gave most accurate EWT
fight or flight had been triggered- increases alertness

Question 40

Yuille and Cutshall evaluation

Answer 40

high validity as it was a field study
high ecological validity as had real EWT
small sample so problems with generalising
lack of control as ps could have spoken to others about it
ethics- psychological harm bringing up bad memories

Christianson and Hübinette interviewed 58 witnesses of bank robberies in Sweden
found recall of event was 75% accurate and even more accurate in those directly involved (supports)

Question 41

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 41

a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate information
developed by Geiselman and Fisher (1992) to improve EWT for police

Question 42

What are the parts of a CI?

Answer 42

report everything-small things may trigger important parts
reverse order- prevents saying what their expectations are
change perspective- remember event from someone else’s perspective to disrupt schema and expectations of what ‘should’ happen
reinstate context- return to crime scene in their mind which links to context dependant forgetting- cues
RRRC

Question 43

What is the enhanced CI?

Answer 43

developed by Fisher which focused on social dynamics of CI incl.
knowing when to make eye contact
reduce eyewitness anxiety
minimising distractions
not interrupting
asking open questions

Question 44

Cognitive interview evaluation

Answer 44

very time consuming compared to normal police interview so may not be used properly and most police officers use a combination of the parts that work best for them

Milne and Bull found that some of the 4 techniques work better on their own/ with 2 of them compared to all of them together- reinstate context and report everything lead to most info

Köhnken et al combined evidence from 50 studies in a meta analysis and found that enhanced CI consistently produces more correct info compared to police interview
however it also creates incorrect info- 41% increase in correct info but increase in incorrect info especially with ECI

Question 45

LTM ao3

Answer 45

reviewed evidence (brain scans) of locations of different LTM stores - semantic and episodic
concluded that semantic was on left of prefrontal cortex and episodic was on right
other research has linked different parts of episodic memory to different sides eg encoding and retrieval
challenges neuropsychological research to support where memory stores are located