Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the two assumptions of the Multistore Model of Memory?

A

Memory consists of a number of separate stores and memory processes are sequential (flowing from one to another).

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2
Q

Who came up with the Multistore Model of Memory?

A

Atkinson and Shiffrin

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3
Q

Briefly describe the multistore model of memory

A

Info from enironment —> sensory register
–attention– > STM –rehearsal –> LTM

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4
Q

What sensory registers are linked with hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell?

A

Echoic, iconic
haptic, gustatory and olfactory

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5
Q

What is the duration for iconic and echoic information in the sensory register?

A

iconic - only milliseconds
echoic - 2 seconds

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6
Q

What is maintenance rehearsal?

A

When something is rehearsed over and over again.

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7
Q

What is the coding, capacity and duration for the sensory register?

A

Coding: sense-specific
Capacity: All sensory experiences (large and detailed)
Duration: Different for all senses

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8
Q

What is the coding, capacity and duration for the STM?

A

Coding: Acoustic
Capacity: 7+/-2 items
Duration: 18-30s

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9
Q

What is the coding, capacity and duration for the LTM?

A

Coding: Semantic
Capacity: Unlimited
Duration: Lifetime

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10
Q

Evaluate the Multistore Model of Memory

A

+ Case study evidence: HM could remember old LTM and STM but not new LTM.
- Oversimplified: HM could learn new skills (and Clive Wearing)

+ Supporting research: Brain scans show activation of different areas of the brain when doing STM than LTM tasks.
- Oversimplified: KF Hard to process verbal info in STM, but fine processing visual info.

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11
Q

What are the different types of LTM? Describe them.

A

Episodic: Personal experiences - explicit
Semantic: Facts, concepts and knowledge - explicit
Procedural: Skills - implicit

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12
Q

What does explicit and implicit mean?

A

Explicit = requires conscious recall
Implicit = doesn’t require conscious recall - automatic

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13
Q

What was Tulving’s experiment? What did he find?

A

Used brain scans on 6p’s while performing memory tasks. He studied the prefrontal cortex.

Episodic memories had more blood flow to anterior regions of the PFC.
Semantic memories had more blood flow to posterior regions of the PFC.
Procedural memory was located in the cerrebellum.

+ Objective - separate stores of LTM
- Only 3/6 p’s showed the difference

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14
Q

Evaluate Types of LTM (1S & 1L)

A

+ Supporting Case Studies: e.g. KC inability to recollect personal experiences after an accident but could recall facts and general knowledge.
- Studying brain damaged people may have other complications - e.g. lack of concentration - affecting performance of tasks.

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15
Q

Who came up with the Working Memory Model?

A

Baddeley and Hitch

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16
Q

Why did Baddeley and Hitch criticise the MSM?

A
  • STM too simplistic and STM not one single store.
  • STM seen as an active store, holding info that is currently being worked on.
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17
Q

Describe the WMM (overview)

A

Phonological loop <—- Central executive —-> Visuo-spacial sketchpad

CE —> Episodic buffer –> LTM

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18
Q

Describe the central executive

A

Acts as a filter, determining which info is paid attention to.
Oversees and co-ordinates the other ‘slave’ components.

Limited capacity of 4.
Coded sense-specific.

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19
Q

Describe the phonological loop

A

Deals with auditory info in speech form (coding is acoustic - inner ear). Capacity is around 2 seconds.

Divided into:
- Phonological store (stores what you hear)
- Articulatory process (rehearsal of info)

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20
Q

What is the articulatory suppression experiment?

A

When someone has to remember a list of words while counting out loud. This fills up the phonological loop’s capacity, so words are harder to remember.

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21
Q

Describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad

A

Stores visual and spacial information. Coded visually (inner eye). Capacity is around 3-4 objects.

22
Q

Describe the episodic buffer. Capacity?

A

Temporary storage of info from other stores - integrates auditory and visual info in coding. Capacity limited to 4 chunks. Transfers info to LTM.

23
Q

Why was the episodic buffer added?

A

Because the central executive has no storage and info that is both verbal and visual can be temporarily stored..

24
Q

Evaluate the WMM

A

+ Brain scans show different areas of the brain active when performing visual or verbal tasks.
+ Practical applications - children with ADHD - instructions broken down into small steps and frequently repeated.
- Not all aspects fully understood - e.g. Central Executive - little is known as to what it exactly is. Vague and not possible to test.

25
Q

What is the word length effect?

A

The capacity of the phonological loop is set by how long it takes to say the words rather than the number of them.

26
Q

What is accessibility issue and availability issue in terms of forgetting?

A

Accessibility issue = inability to access a stored memory
Availability issue = memory is no longer in storage

27
Q

What are the 2 theories for forgetting?

A

Interference Theory and Retrieval Failure Theory

28
Q

What are the two main features of retrieval failure?

A

Context-dependent forgetting: external retrieval cues are absent during recall.

State-dependent forgetting: internal retrieval cues are absent during recall. This could be physical or emotional.

29
Q

Evaluate retrieval failure

A

+ Practical Applications - e.g. improving eye witness testimonies - greater chance of identifying correct suspect.
- Research studies used are often quite extreme context changes - e.g. Darley (high on marijuana at coding, not high at recall) - lacks mundane realism

+ Supported by lots of research - e.g. Godden and Baddeley (info learnt underwater/on dry land) - scientific, empirical evidence. Lots of = High in reliability, so increased validity.

30
Q

What is Interference theory?

A

When info in LTM is disrupted by other info at coding. More likely to occur if info is learned close together in time.

31
Q

What are the 2 parts to interference theory?

A

Proactive - when old information interferes with recall of new information.

Retroactive - when new info interferes with recall of old info.

32
Q

Evaluate interference theory

A

+ Supporting research - words learned from 2 lists. If list B was similar to list A, words were harder to recall.

  • Much research has small amount of time between learning and recall - doesn’t represent real life so cannot be generalised to real memory.
33
Q

State the 2 factors affecting EWTs

A

Misleading information and Anxiety

34
Q

What are the two topics that fall under misleading information?

A

Post-Event Discussion and Leading Questions

35
Q

How does Post-Event discussion affect EWT?

A

Mis-information from other witnesses combine into their own memory, creating a false memory. Leading to source-monitoring errors.

36
Q

What are source-monitoring errors?

A

Where the source of a memory is incorrectly attributed to their own recollected experience. e.g. info from a dream becoming someone’s actual memory.

37
Q

What was Loftus and Palmer’s study?

A

Researching the affects of leading questions.

2 experiments:

1) 45 uni students shown 7 car crash clips. Write an account of the crash and asked about the speed of the car. 5 conditions - varying the verb used (‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘hit’, ‘bumped’ and ‘contacted’). Estimations recorded. Found that mean speed estimate was higher for the ‘smashed’ condition than the ‘contacted’ condition.

2) 150 uni students - 2 conditions, 1 control group (asked no question). Shown video of a car crash. Conditions asked about speed using either ‘smashed’ or ‘hit’. 1 week later all 3 groups asked if there was any broken glass. More of those in the ‘smashed’ condition recorded broken glass than in the ‘hit’ and control group.

Conclusion: Leading Questions can affect memory and memory can be reconstructed.

38
Q

Evaluate Loftus and Palmer’s study

A

+ Highly scientific - controlled, quantitative data.
+ Practical applications - EWT interviews
- Low ecological validity
- Low population validity

39
Q

Evaluate Misleading Information

A

+ Practical applications - improved use of questioning by the police - more accurate recall.
+ Research - Loftus and Palmer
- Research lacks mundane realism - in a normal crime there are often large time gaps between coding and recall.

40
Q

What are the negative effects of anxiety on recall?

A

Anxiety creates arousal in the body which prevents us from paying attention to important things so recall is worse.

Weapon focus effect: weapons cause anxiety so attention drawn to the weapon, causing poor EWT. An example of the tunnel theory of memory.

41
Q

What is evidence for and against the weapon focus effect?

A

+ knife vs pen. P’s account less accurate in knife condition.
- weapon vs celery stick. Celery stick focused on as much as a weapon - suggesting we focus more on unusual items, rather than just anxiety-related items.

42
Q

What are the positive effects of anxiety on recall?

A

The stress of a situation can trigger the fight or flight response which increases alertness and improves memory.

43
Q

What evidence is there for the positive effects of anxiety on recall?

A

+ Witnesses reported to be the most stressed during a crime (gun shop shooting) were found to be the most accurate.
+ From a bank robbery, witnesses who were tellers - threatened by the offender - were found to have better recall than bystanders.

44
Q

What is the inverted U Hypothesis? Evaluate it.

A

A graph showing: as stress increases, performance increases. However when over-aroused (very high stress levels) performance decreases dramatically.

+ There is research to support this
- Unfalsifiable concept - difficult to test
- Ethical issues - studies have to induce anxiety

45
Q

Who devised the Cognitive Interview?

A

Geiselman and Fisher

46
Q

What components does the Cognitive Interview contain?

A

Reinstating the context of the event - state/context acts as retrieval cues
Report Everything - interconnected memories act as cues
Change order - prevent schemas
Change perspective - prevent schemas

47
Q

What does the cognitive interview do to EWT? What principle is it based on?

A

Increases the accuracy and detail

The encoding specificity principle - argues cues at coding need to be present during recall to trigger memories.

48
Q

Fisher also developed the Enhanced Cognitive Interview - focusing on building a ______ relationship with the witness and improving their __________.

What did this include?

A
  • Trusting
  • Communication

Reducing anxiety
Minimising distractions
Getting witnesses to speak slowly
Encourage witness not to guess

49
Q

Evaluate the Cognitive Interview

A

+ Supporting research - Fisher et al - witnesses of shoplifting given 2 interviews. Condition 1 = 1 standard, 1 cognitive. Condition 2 = 2 standard. 47% more facts in condition with CI, while no gain in facts from the other condition.

+ Blue packpack - LQ green. Those with CI reported more accurately.

  • While CI can increase quantity, it doesn’t mean the details are all accurate.
  • Takes a lot of time.
50
Q

What are the issues of standard interviews?

A
  • Short Qs leaves more possibility for leading Qs.
  • Recall takes place in a different context to coding.
  • Lack of retrieval cues which can inhibit recall