memory

Question 1

coding

Answer 1

the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

Question 2

capacity

Answer 2

amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 3

duration

Answer 3

length of time information can be held in a memory store

Question 4

short term memory

Answer 4

• limited capacity
• coding - mainly acoustic
• between 5-9 terms
• duration betwen 18-30 secs

Question 5

long term memory

Answer 5

• permanent
• coding - mainly semantic
• unlimited capacity
• can store memories for a lifetime

Question 6

peterson and peterson (1959)

Answer 6

• A lab experiment where 24 participants shown very briefly meaningless trigrams
• 3 sec - 80% of trigrams recalled
  6 sec - 50%
  18 sec - less than 10%
• Study shows when verbal rehearsal is prevented information in the STM lasts 18 seconds

Question 7

eval of peterson

Answer 7

+ lab with high levels of control - possible to repeat the study improving its reliability
- lacks ecological validity, artificial task

Question 8

bahrick (1975)

Answer 8

• 392 participants aged 17-74 using high school yearbooks
  recall was tested:
  1. photo-recognition test from 50photos
  2. free recall test where ppts recalled all names from class
• recall started from 90% and declined to 30% after 48 years
• shows LTM has a very long duration

Question 9

eval of bahrick

Answer 9

+ ecological validity
- field experiment - difficult to control for confounding variables

Question 10

miller

Answer 10

established digit span was between 5-9, with the avergae being 7

Question 11

baddeley (1966)

Answer 11

encoding in stm is acoustic
encoding in ltm is semantic

Question 12

episodic

Answer 12

LTMs of events/experiences in our lives, time-stamped, consciously recalled

Question 13

semantic

Answer 13

knowledge of the world, more complex than ‘facts’

Question 14

procedural

Answer 14

skilled behaviour e.g riding a bike

Question 15

working memory model

Answer 15

baddeley and hitch (1974) - theoretical cognitive model of information processing in stm

Question 16

central executive

Answer 16

controls working memory by allocating resources and making decisions about what information should be processed

Question 17

phonological loop

Answer 17

processes verbal material

Question 18

phonological store

Answer 18

temporary storage of verbal material

Question 19

articulatory process

Answer 19

maintenance rehearsal

Question 20

visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 20

processes visual and spatial information by storing (visual cache) and manipulating information (inner scribe)

Question 21

episodic buffer

Answer 21

integrates information processed in the other subsystems and links with LTM

Question 22

interference

Answer 22

forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten

Question 23

retroactive interference

Answer 23

new information disrupting retrieval of old

Question 24

proactive interference

Answer 24

old information disrupting retrieval of new

Question 25

similarity - mcgeogh and mcdonald

Answer 25

learning similar lists of words produced the most interference and the most forgetting (mcgeoch and mcdonald)

Question 26

real life forgetting

Answer 26

rugby players recall of the last team they played depended on how many matches they had played before (baddeley and hitch)

Question 27

context dependent retrieval

Answer 27

godden and baddeley
- scuba diver study

Question 28

state dependent retrieval

Answer 28

goodwin
- alcohol study e.g hiding money

Question 29

retrieval failure

Answer 29

memory being available but not accessible

Question 30

cues

Answer 30

a trigger that enables access to memories

Question 31

encoding specificity principle

Answer 31

tulving - recall is better when the cues that were present when we learnt something are present when we recall it

Question 32

meaningful cues

Answer 32

cue linked to material-to-be-accessed in a meaningful way. other cues also encoded at the time of learning (context or state)

Question 33

loftus and palmer

Answer 33

car crash study - leading questions e.g contacted/smashed affected speed estimates given

Question 34

bartlett

Answer 34

memories arent accurate, ‘snapshots’ - influenced by attitudes by attitudes, stereotypes, bias

Question 35

post event discussion

Answer 35

discussing events after alters the accuracy - could be memory conformity

Question 36

gabbert

Answer 36

71% compared to 0% memory conformity with post event discussion

Question 37

anxiety increasing recall

Answer 37

state of arousal could improve general awareness. emotional aspect could increase memory encoding
- yuille and cutshall real life study 4 months after shooting - those who reported higher levels of stress were more accurate (88%)

Question 38

anxiety decreasing recall

Answer 38

high levels of anxiety produces poor recall of perpetrator
- johnson and scott: high anxiety - 49%, low anxiety - 33%
- tunnel theory - witness’s attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because its a source of anxiety.

Question 39

yerkes-dodson law of arousal

Answer 39

conflicting results could be explained by accuracy increasing as anxiety raises due to attention, to a point at which anxiety becomes too high and more stress results in lower accuracy

Question 40

fisherman and geiselman’s cognitive interviews

Answer 40

• context reinstatement
• report everything
• recall from a changed perspective
• recall in reverse order

Question 41

• CI is time consuming

Answer 41

kebell and wagstaff - found that most police forces have provided only a few hours training

Question 42

+ some elements might be more valuable than others
cognitive interview

Answer 42

milne and bull - using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall than any other conditions

Question 43

+ support for the effectiveness of CI

Answer 43

meta analysis by kohnken - enhanced CI consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview with the police