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A Level Psychology > Memory > Flashcards

Memory Flashcards

1
Q

What is memory?

A

The process by which we retain information about events that have happened in the past.

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2
Q

What are 3 types of memory?

A
  • Sensory Memory (SM)
  • Short Term Memory (STM)
  • Long Term Memory (LTM)
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3
Q

What is Sensory Memory?

A
  • Initial contact for stimuli. It is only capable of retaining information for a very short time.
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4
Q

What is Short Term Memory?

A

Information we are aware or thinking about. Forms by paying attention.

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5
Q

What is Long Term Memory?

A

Continual storage of information which is largely outside of our awareness.

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6
Q

Describe the duration capacity of short term memory

A

7 secs (plus or minus 2) - miller

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7
Q

Describe the duration capacity of long term memory?

A

Last anywhere from 2 minutes to 100 years.

UNLIMITED DURATION

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8
Q

What did Peterson & Peterson suggest about STM?

A
  • Forgetting in STM can occur if information is not rehearsed.
  • Suggested duration of STM is approx 18secs.
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9
Q

What is a positive evaluation regarding Peterson & Peterson?

A
  • Highly controlled, therefore limited the effect of extraneous variables
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10
Q

What is a negative evaluation on Peterson & Peterson’s research on STM?

A
  • Artificial stimuli, therefore lacks mundane realism
  • As a result, not generalisable.
  • Lacks external validity
  • Small sample size.
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11
Q

What was Peterson & Peterson’s experiment on STM?

A

Asked participants to recall nonsense phrases of 3 constants after different times. Found STM had a capacity of 18 seconds.

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12
Q

Describe Bahrick’s experiment

A

Participants asked to recall classmates, over long periods of time - recognition better than recall.

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13
Q

What is a positive evaluation for Bahrick’s experiment?

A
  • High external validity - real-life meaningful memories

- Large sample size

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14
Q

What is a negative evaluation of Bahrick’s experiment?

A
  • Cofounding variables are not controlled in these experiments.
  • These picture could have been rehearsed over the years.
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15
Q

What is digital span?

A

A way of measuring the capacity of STM. Participants repeat back string of digits.

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16
Q

What did Miller suggest about STM?

A

Memory capacity is 7 items (plus or minus 2)

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17
Q

What are negative evaluations of coding studies?

A
  • Artificial stimuli

- Lacks validity - digital span

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18
Q

What is encoding?

A

The way information is changed so it can be stored in memory.

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19
Q

What are different ways memory can be stored during encoding?

A
  • Visual
  • Acoustic (STM)
  • Semantic (LTM)
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20
Q

What are two sub-divisions of memory storage?

A
  • Explicit - put it into words and has to be consciously thought about to be recalled.
  • Implicit - more difficult to put into words, doesn’t require conscious thought.
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21
Q

What are episodic memories?

A

Time-stamped memories which require conscious effort to remember it.

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22
Q

What part of the brain is used in coding of memory?

A
  • Prefrontal cortex

- Hippocampus - creates a memory

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23
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

Concerned with learning motor skills, without conscious effort.
(implicit memory - doesn’t require conscious)

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24
Q

What is semantic memory?

A

Factual knowledge an individual has learned - not time related (no episodic time-stamp)

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25
Q

What is an example of a procedural memory?

A

How to walk

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26
Q

What part of the brain helps procedural memory?

A

Cerebellum - helps with timing and coordination of movements.

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27
Q

Who’s study suggested that acoustic coding takes place best over short term, whereas semantic coding is best over long term.

A

Baddeley

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28
Q

Who was Henry Molaison?

A

Man who suffered from epilepsy and after surgery couldn’t store or retrieve new memories

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29
Q

Who was Clive Wearing?

A

Suffered holes in his brain which meant that he was left with no memory - unable to create memories.

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30
Q

What are positive evaluations for Memory encoding?

A
  • Clinical evidence: amnesia (memory loss) can be affected, by impairing recall of events (episodic memory, however semantic and procedural memory can all be intact).
  • Neuroimaging evidence: Tulving found episodic and semantic memory were found in the prefrontal cortex.
  • Real-life application e.g. Tulving and HM (Henry Molaison)
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31
Q

What is the difference between semantic memories and episodic memories?

A

Semantic - recall facts and knowledge

Episodic memory - life experiences

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32
Q

What type of memory is stored in the left prefrontal cortex?

A
  • Semantic memory
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33
Q

What type of memory is stored in the right prefrontal cortex?

A
  • Episodic memory
34
Q

What are negative evaluations of memory encoding (studies) ?

A

Clinical evidence - case studies unique and not generalisable.

  • Suggestion there are 2 types of LTM:
    Procedural (doesn’t require conscience) and Declarative (requires conscience)
35
Q

What did Sperling suggest about Sensory memory?

A

Can’t hold information for long, as information decays rapidly in the sensory memory.

36
Q

What study supports the theory of existence of the sensory store?

37
Q

What is the serial position effect?

A

The suggestion that when there is a list great than the capacity of the STM, then people tend to remember the first and last words.

38
Q

What can the serial position effect be broken down into?

A

The primary effect - first 5 words

The recency effect - last 5 words

39
Q

Describe the multi store model?

A 
Environmental stimuli 
I
SENSORY MEMORY (decay)
I
Attention 
I 
SHORT TERM MEMORY (maintenance rehearsal to keep in STM)
I
Elaborative rehearsal 
I 
Long Term Memory (Retrieval to STM)
40
Q

Describe the negative evaluation of multi-store model?

A
  • There is more than one store of STM (one for visual information and one for auditory)
  • Amount of rehearsal is important
  • Artificial material - used digits, letters or words
41
Q

What are the different parts of the Working Memory Model?

A
  • Central Executive
  • Visuo-spatial sketch
  • Episodic buffer
  • Phonological loop:
    • Phonological store (holds words heard)
    • Articulatory system (silently repeats word on loop)
42
Q

What is the Central Executive?

A
  • Controls what we pay attention to
  • Decides what to do with that information
  • Delegates information to the slave systems

Limited capacity

43
Q

What is the 1st Slave system?

A

Phonological loop:
Composed of “phonological store” and “articulately system”.
(INNER EAR)

44
Q

What does the phonological store do?

A

Holds words heard

45
Q

What does the articulately system do?

A

Silently repeat words in a loop (like maintenance rehersal

46
Q

What is the visuo-spatial sketch pad?

A

Visual and spatial information stored here.
- What things look like and the relationship between things.
(INNER EYE)

47
Q

What was the 2nd Slave system?

A

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

48
Q

What is the 3rd Slave system?

A

Episodic buffer

49
Q

What is the episodic buffer?

A
  • Provides extra storage system

- Integrates information from all other areas.

50
Q

What is interference?

A

One memory blocking another, which can result in forgetting or distorting one or the other.

51
Q

What is proactive interference?

A

When older memories disrupt the recall of newer memories

52
Q

What is retroactive interference?

A

When newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories

53
Q

What did Underwood’s research support? (Interference)

A

The theory of retroactive interference:

Learning second list interfered with participants ability to recall the list.

54
Q

What is retrieval failure?

A

Failure to remember memories, which can be due to insufficient cues.

55
Q

How is context/situation relaxant to recall and memory? (Study name)

A

Learning and recall in same place/situation will lead to increase recall ability (Godden and Baddeley - underwater/shore learning and recall)

56
Q

What is the term given to a suggested relationship between ability to recalling and learning/recalling environment/situation?

A

Encoding Specificity Principle

57
Q

What is the Encoding Specificity Principle?

A

“The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory”

.

58
Q

What are the 2 types of cues?

A

Context - external environmental cues

State - internal cues

59
Q

What is EWT (Eye witness testimony)?

A

The ability of people to remember the details of events, which they have observed.

60
Q

What is misleading information?

A

Incorrect information given to the EW (Eye Witness) usually after the event

61
Q

What is a leading question?

A

A question that suggests a certain answer

62
Q

What is PED (Post-event discussion)?

A

When more than one witness discuss an event, which may negatively affect accuracy.

63
Q

What experiment did Elizabeth Loftus carry out about EWT?

A
  • Participants asked to watch clip of car accident and then asked question about the accident.
  • Changed verb used in questions
64
Q

What explanation can be used for Elizabeth Loftus’ experiment?

A

The change of verbs led to response-bias, as it affected how the participant decided to answer.

  • Alternative explanation: affected the memory of the participants.
65
Q

What is a positive evaluation for Elizabeth Loftus?

A

Useful applications:

  • Police questioning witnesses
  • Teachers asking questions
66
Q

What is negative evaluations of Elizabeth Loftus?

A
  • Participants were students - may not be representative (may be used to paying attention during tests)
  • Low ecological validity - element of surprise
67
Q

What is the relationship between anxiety and EWT?

A

EWT can lead to physiological arousal (increased heart rate, shallow breathing)

68
Q

What is the weapon-focus effect? (Johnson & Scott)

A

In violent crimes, witnesses may focus on weapon, rather than peripheral details.

69
Q

What is a theory that supports the weapon-focus effect? (Explain the theory)

A

The tunnel theory suggests that the weapon narrows the field of attention, leading to reduced amount of information being stored.

70
Q

What evidence suggests against the theory tunnel?

A

Christianson
110 bank robbers questioned:
- Those threatened were more accurate in recall - this was true 15 months later.

71
Q

What is the correlation between anxiety and EWT recall ability?

A

Low anxiety = poor recall
Medium (moderate) anxiety = good recall
High anxiety = poor recall

72
Q

What are negative evaluations for EWT explanations?

A
  • Weapon focus testing surprise not anxiety (e.g. no anxiety in hairdresser with weapon)
  • Field study - lacks control
  • Ethical issues (psychological harm)
  • Demand characteristics in lab studies of anxiety
73
Q

What is the cognitive interview?

A
  • The Cognitive interview is a questioning technique which aims to enhance retrieval of information.
74
Q

What are the 4 stages in the Cognitive Interview?

A
  • Report everything
  • Context reinstatement
  • Change perspective
  • Recall in reverse order
75
Q

How does reporting everything increase retrieval?

A

Acts as trigger causes

76
Q

How does context reinstatement increase retrieval?

A

Context-dependant memory?

77
Q

How does changing perspective increase recall?

A

Aims to disrupt schemas?

78
Q

How does recalling in reverse order increase recall?

A

Disrupt false recall

79
Q

What are features of the enhanced cognitive interview?

A
  • Asking open ended questions
  • Witness speaks slowly
  • Don’t guess
  • Reducing anxiety in participants
80
Q

What are positive evaluations for the cognitive interview?

A
  • Individual differences (more effective on elderly)
  • Support for Enhanced Cognitive Interview (meta-analysis of 53 studies - 34% increase in amount of correct information generated).
81
Q

What are negative evaluations of the Cognitive Interview? (Methodology)

A
  • Most of the samples used were university students

- In a lab - artificial situation

A Level Psychology (6 decks)

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