Memory Flashcards
What is a cognitive interview?
A police interview designed to ensure a witness to a crime does not actively reconstruct their memory.
Describe the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
Retrograde amnesia - a memory condition that affects recall of memories prior to an injury to the brain.
The inability to recall past memories
Anterograde amnesia - a memory condition that means new long-term memories cannot be made; this is typically caused by injury to the brain.
The inability to create new memories.
Explain one strength and one weakness of the Multi-Store Model (MSM).
STRENGTH: a lot of evidence to support the theory of separate memory stores.
Cases of amnesia show how brain injury can damage long-term memory, while short-term memory stays intact.
Milner (1966) reported a young man referred to as H.M. was left with severe memory impairment after brain surgery. He was unable to retain any new information and could not lay down any new memories in LTM. He was able to talk normally and to recall accurately events and people from his life before surgery, and his immediate digit span was within normal limits.
WEAKNESS: The MSM has been criticised for overstating the role of rehearsal as a means of transferring information into long-term storage. Sometimes we remember things because they are more meaningful to us without rehearsing them. Some things are simply easier to remember than others, perhaps because they are more interesting, more distinctive and/or funnier. The MSM can’t account for this.
What is a nonsense trigram?
A nonsense trigram is a set of three letters such as GVY that makes a meaningless string of letters rather than a word.
Why did Peterson and Peterson use trigrams in their research?
They used nonsense trigrams for participants to remember - because real words could have personal relevance for some participants, but not others, which could make them more or less memorable. This could have affected the results of the study (extraneous variable).
Explain two ways in which Bartlett found that “The War of Ghosts” story changed when it was remembered
ONE: Participants tended to leave out unfamiliar or unpleasant parts of the story, particularly the unfamiliar place names.
TWO: Participants tried to make sense of the ‘odd’ story by giving it meaning.
Outline the aim and conclusion of Peterson and Peterson’s 1959 study.
AIM: To test the true duration of short-term memory.
CONCLUSION: With the participants unable to rehearse the trigrams, the Petersons concluded that information held in out STM fades rapidly and only 10 per cent could be reaclled after 18 seconds.
What is a standardised procedure?
This is where the procedure of a study is the same across all conditions.
How can the MSM be seen as reductionist?
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Multi-store model can be seen as reductionist as it describes our memory as a series of component memory stores with specific functions, such as rehearsal.
Explain one strength and one weakness of Bartlett’s study.
STRENGTH: The findings of his study are reliable. Bartlett replicated his procedure using various stories and pictures and found participants had the same tendency to omit and transform the material when remembering. This gives strength to the study because the same findings have been found across other studies.
WEAKNESS: Bartlett’s study did not follow strict timing and didn’t have a standardised procedure. Bartlett didn’t always get participants to recall the story at the same time intervals and he allowed each participant to read the story at their own normal reading pace. Therefore, this study is not as scientific as it could have been as it lacked control. This is a weakness.
Encoding means…
A. Your memory for immediate events
B. A measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available
C. A measure of how much memory can be held in your memory store
D. The way information is changed so that it can be stored in the memory
D. The way information is changed so that it can be stored in the memory
Peterson and Peterson’s study demonstrated that STM duration lasts for…
A. 1 minute
B. 18 seconds
C. 35 seconds
D. 10 seconds
B. 18 seconds
In what year did Bartlett conduct his War of the Ghosts study?
A. 1930
B. 1933
C. 1931
D. 1932
D. 1932
What is mundane realism?
A. A dull study
B. A boring psychologist
C.An out of date/old study
D. A realistic, everyday task
D. A realistic, everyday task
What is the opposite of reductionism?
A. Nurture
B. Holism
C. Determinism
D. Free-will
B. Holism
