Memory Flashcards
Sensory register
Information in
Capacity: huge
Duration: millisecond
Coding: visually/acoustically
Short term memory
Attention from Sensory register Rehearsal Retrieval from Long term memory Capacity: 7+/-2 chunks Duration: 18 seconds Coding: acoustically
Long term memory
Transfer from Short term memory
Capacity: unlimited
Duration: lifetime
Coding: semantically
Reasons for forgetting
Disruption
Retrieval failure
Peterson and Peterson
Duration of STM
Students recalled different 3 letters at different intervals, counting backwards from a random number for a fixed time
Results: 3 second interval = 80% accurate recall
18 second interval = 10% accurate recall
Miller and Jacobs
Capacity of STM
443 female students asked to repeat back a string of numbers or letters without writing them down
Results: 7.3 letters recalled and 9.3 numbers recalled
Strength: large sample size
Limitation: gender bias & volunteer sample
Bahrick
Duration of LTM
392 American graduates asked to match names to faces in year book picture
Results: 60% accuracy after 47 years
Strength: large sample size & same picture for everyone
Limitation: cultural bias & only graduates (smarter)
Clive Wearings
Suffered from brain damage resulting in serve amnesia
Unable to transfer information from his STM to his LTM, unable to form new memories
Strength: demonstrates MSM is sequential and linear because if transfer of information between STM and LTM is broken we can’t form new memories
Limitation: case study - can’t generalise
Patient KF
Motorcycle accident leaving him able to access his LTM but had trouble with his STM. Could remember visuals but had trouble with sounds
Limitation: against MSM as it shows STM is coded in multiple ways
Case study - can’t generalise
Central executive
When information is collected
Sent to phonological loop/eposodic buffer/visuo spacial sketchpad
Eposodic buffer
Sends information to the LTM
Phonological loop
Coding: acoustically
Capacity: short periods of time
Articualtory control system
Phonological store
Visuo-spacial sketchpad
Coding: visually
Capacity: 3-4 objects at a time
Inner scribe and Visual cache
Baddeley and Hitch - dual task studies
Ppts completed two tasks at the same time
1: 2 acoustic tasks 2: 1 visual and 1 acoustic tasks
Results: using both phonological loop and visuo-spacial sketchpad together = significant better performance
Strength of WMM
PET scans
Different areas of the brain that correspond to the WMM components are active during verbal and visual tasks
Limitation to WMM
Only concerned with STM so is not a comprehensive model of memory
Very little research on the central executive - not clear how it work.
EWT - Anxiety - Johnson and Scott
Ppts invited to take part in fake study - two groups
1: heard heated argument, crashing of equipment and a man emerging with paper knife
2: heard disagreement about equipment and a man emerged with a pen
Ppts shown 50 photos to identify the man
Results: high anxiety group were less accurate
Strength: reduced demand characteristics and order effects
Limitation: deception & ppts variables
EWT - Anxiety - Yullie and Cutshall
Witnesses actively involved in real life shooting could accurately recall incident 5 months later
Against Johnson and Scott
EWT - Anxiety - Riniolo et al
Survivors of titanic were 75% accurate with modern forensic evidence (ship broke into two)
Against Johnson and Scott
EWT - Discussion - Gabbert et al
60 students & 60 adults put into co-witness groups and told they watch the same video of a girl stealing money from a wallet
They discussed the video after watching
Results: 71% recalled information they didn’t see & 60% said they saw theft when they didn’t
Strength: removes order effects & reduced demand characteristics
Limitation: deception, no guarantees pairs had equal abilities, weak population validity
EWT - Missleading information - Loftus and Palmer
1: 45 American groups (5groups) watched a video of a car crashing and asked about the speed of the car with a different verb in each group
Smashed = 40.5mph
Contacted = 31.8mph
2: 150 American students (3 groups) watched crash video and completed questionnaire about cars speed
1 = smashed 2 = hit 3 = not asked
A whisk later ppts asked if they saw glass, smashed was highest to say yes
Strength: application - helped criminal justice system
Limitation: lacks population validity and deception
Cognitive interview steps
Recall everything
Context reinstatement
Reverse order
Change perspective
CI - Geishelman et al
89 students watched crime video
2 days later = 1/2 cognitive interview
1/2 standard interview
Cognitive interview led to significantly higher correctly recalled information, however incorrect information was the same for both
CI - Fisher
Looked at real life police interviews for 4 months
(brief, direct + closed ended questions)
Additional elements of cognitive interview = when to make eye contact and open ended questions
