MEMORY

Question 1

Define memory

Answer 1

process of retaining information after the original thing is no longer present

Question 2

What are the 3 key concepts in memory and define them

Answer 2

CODING - format in which memories are stored
CAPACITY - amount of information that can be stored in the memory
DURATION - length and time information can be stored and held in the memory

Question 3

Match primacy and recency effect with LTM or STM

Answer 3

Primacy = LTM

recency = STM

Question 4

A01 research on capacity - digit span

Answer 4

-research on capacity of STM
-Joseph Jacobs (1887) measured capacity of the STM using digit span
-He reads 4 digits and participant recalls out loud in correct order. if correct then 5 digits and so on.
-found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 while mean span from letters was 7.3

Question 5

A03 research on capacity - digit span +

Answer 5

-A strength is that the study has been replicated and findings have been similar
-BUT some older studies lacked proper controls (cofounding variable)
-BUT replication suggests Jacob’s study is a valid test of digit span in STM

Question 6

A01 span of memory and chunking - What did George Miller find on capacity of the short term memory

Answer 6

-George Miller (1956) observed that many items in life come in groups of 7
-Believed capacity of STM was 7 items +/-
2 (referred to as Millers magic 7)
-also noted that participants could recall 5 words as easily as 5 letters
-This is done by chunking - grouping set digits/letters into units/’chunks’

Question 7

A03 span of memory and chunking ( - )

Answer 7

-Miller may have overestimated STM capacity
-Cowan (2001) reviewed other research (replicated) and concluded STM capacity is 4 +/- 1
-suggests the lower end of Miller’s estimate (5 items) is more appropriate than 7 items

Question 8

A01 duration of STM

Answer 8

-Peterson and Peterson (1959)
-tested 24 students in 8 trials each
-each trial student was given a consonant syllable and 3 digit no., to remember
-Student counted backwards from this no. until told stop, counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable (which would increase the duration of STM for the syllable).
-on each trail they’ll stop after varying period of time (retention interval)
-after 3 secs avg recall was about 80%, but after 18 secs it was 3%
- … findings suggested that STM duration may be about 18 secs, unless we repeat the info over and over (verbal rehearsal)

Question 9

A03 duration of STM (-)

Answer 9

-One limitation is that the stimulus material was artificial
-study is not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material (e.g. phone nos.). Even so, recalling consonant syllables doesn’t reflect most everyday memory activities where we are trying to remember is meaningful
- … study lacked external validity

Question 10

A01 duration of LTM

Answer 10

-Harry Bahrick (1975)
-Studied 392 American participants (17-74 Y/o) and high school yearbooks were obtained
- recall was tested in various ways:
1) photo-recognition test = consisting of 50 photos, some from participants high school year book
2) free recall test = recalled all their names of their graduating class
-within 15 years of graduation, 90% accurate in photo recognition
-after 48 yrs, recall declined to about 70’5 for photo recognition
-free recall was less accurate than recognition - about 60% after 15 yrs, 30% after 48yrs.
- … LTM may last up to a life time for some material

Question 11

A03 duration of LTM (+)

Answer 11

-one strength = high external validity
-researchers investigated meaningful memories (people’s names and faces), when studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower (e.g. shepard 1967)
- … Bahrick et al’s findings reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of the duration of LTM

Question 12

Define STM

Answer 12

Limited-capacity memory store
-coding is mainly acoustic, capacity is between 5+9 items on avg with duration of 18 secs

Question 13

Define LTM

Answer 13

Permanent memory store
-coding is mainly semantic (meaning), it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime

Question 14

AO1 coding in STM AND LTM

Answer 14

-Baddeley (1966)
- Gave lists of words to 4 groups: acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar. ppt were shown then asked to recall in correct order

results: Immediate recall = did worse with acoustically similar words
after 20 min delay ppt did worse on semantically similar words

therefore STM coded acoustically and LTM coded semantically

Question 15

A03 whole concept of STM and LTM -of Baddeley’s research (separate memory stores)

Answer 15

Strength:
- identified clear difference between 2 mem stores
-findings have stood the test of time
-important step in development of MSM

Weakness
- artificial stimuli > not meaningful to ppt> findings don’t tell use about memory tasks in every life> limited application

Question 16

What is the process of the Multi-store model

Answer 16

-stimulus from the environment
-sensory register (iconic, echoic, other sensory stores
-information is only stored if attention is payed
-Short term memory store
-prolonged rehearsal to store in the long term memory
-response is remembering

Question 17

MSM sensory register

Answer 17

• info passes into STM if paid attention, if not it gets lost.
• duration = >0.5 sec
• capacity = very high due to retrieval cells
• coding = store depends on format . e.g. visual stored in iconic memory and acoustic stored in echoic memory

Question 18

How is information stored in the short term memory

Answer 18

-rehearsal keeps info in STM if rehearsed enough , transfers to LTM
-duration = 18 secs
-capacity = 5-9 items
-coding =acoustic

Question 19

MSM LTM

Answer 19

-memories from LTM have been retrieved and transered back to STM

Question 20

How is information stored in the long term memory

Answer 20

-memories from LTM have been retrieved and transferred back to STM
-duration = life time
-capacity = unlimited
-coding = semantic

Question 21

What is the Sensory register

Answer 21

The memory stores for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store)

Question 22

What is the Multi-store model

Answer 22

A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called the sensory register, short term memory and long term memory.

Question 23

How is information stored in the sensory register

Answer 23

Duration: less than half a second
Capacity: very high
Coding: store depends on format

Question 24

How is information passed on from the sensory register

Answer 24

by paying attention

Question 25

Who came up with the Multi-store model of memory

Answer 25

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Question 26

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 26

We repeat material to ourselves over and over again which keeps it in the STM. If it’s rehearsed long enough it will pass onto the LTM

Question 27

Retrieval

Answer 27

Recalling information from the LTM into the STM

Question 28

+ MSM - research support

Answer 28

Strength
- Support from other studies show STM and LTM are different > Baddeley (1966) we tend to mix words that sound similar when using STM but mix words with similar meanings when use LTM> STM and LTM are separate + independent memory stores
-Extra evidence > Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) 2 groups ppt, 1 had immediate recall other had delay recall (counted backwards to prevent retrieval). Immediate = remembered 1st and last words. delayed = remembered word from beginning. both had difficulty remembering middle

Question 29

• MSM - non-meaningful info

Answer 29

-Uses non-meaningful info> everyday life we form memories related to useful things e.g. names, faces but MSM studies use letters, words (Baddeley), consonant syllables (peterson x2) and so have no meaning > MSM may not be a valid model of how memory works in our everyday life where we have to remember much more meaningful info
-more than 1 STm store > Shallice and Warrington (1970) client KF had a clinical memory disorder . KF’s STm for digits = very poor when read out to him but recall was better when he read digits to himself > further studies show there could be and STM store for non-verbal sounds > MSM is wrong claiming there’s 1 STM store processing different types of info

Question 30

What is a limitation of the Multi-store model of memory (Elaborative rehearsal)

Answer 30

A
-prolonged rehearsal is not needed to transfer to LTM
-Craik and Watkins found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount
-Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long-term storage and this occurs when you link the information to existing knowledge or think about what it means
-This suggests that the MSM does not fully explain how long-term storage is achieved

Question 31

What is a limitation of the Multi-store model of memory (More than one STM store)

Answer 31

-Shallice and Warrington studied a client they referred to as KF who had amnesia
-KF’s STM for digits was poor when they were read out loud to him but his recall was better when he read the digits to himself.
-Further study of KF showed that there could even be another Short term store for non-verbal sounds
-This evidence suggests that the MSM is wrong in claiming there is just one STM store processing different types of information.

Question 32

What is a strength of the Multi-store model of memory (research support)

Answer 32

-Studies show that the STM and LTM are different
-Baddeley (1966) found that we tend to mix up similar sounding world when using our STM, but similar meaning words when using LTM
-Further support in studies on capacity and duration
-These studies show that STM and LTM are separate and independent memory stores

Question 33

What is a counterpoint to research support for the multi-store model

Answer 33

-Studies that support MSM used information that was not meaningful.
-They used digits,letters and sometimes words.
-This means that the MSM may not be a valid model of how memory works in our everyday lives

Question 34

What are the 3 types of long term memory

Answer 34

Episodic
Semantic
Procedural

Question 35

Who came up with the types of Long term memory

Answer 35

Tulving (1985) realised that the MSM view of LTM was too simple and there must be multiple stores for different types of LTM.

Question 36

Episodic memory

Answer 36

-ability to recall personal events + also how events relocate to each other in time
-most complex
1) time stamped - remember when they happened
2) memory of a single episode e.g. ppl or objects
3) need to make a conscious effort to recall epi memories - done quickly

Question 37

Semantic memory

Answer 37

-contains shared knowledge of the world eg meaning of words
- less vulnerable to distortion, not time stamped, less personal, contains immerse collection of material which is always being added to

Question 38

Procedural memory

Answer 38

• memory for actions or skills
• effort isn’t needed
• once learnt how and without conscious awareness
• may find it difficult to explain to someone else how it is done
• if describe what you’re doing it may be more difficult

Question 40

What is a strength of the types of memory stores (clinical evidence)

Answer 40

-Evidence from case studies of HM and clive wearing
-episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to brain damage
-but their semantic memory and procedural memory was intact
-Still understood the meaning of words
-Didn’t recall stroking a dog half an hour ago but didn’t need to have the concept of a dog explained to him
-This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM

Question 41

What is a counterpoint of clinical evidence

Answer 41

-Studying people with brain injuries can help researchers understand memory
-Lack control variables
-The brain injuries experiences were usually unexpected
-Researcher had no way of controlling what happened to the participant before or during the injury
- no knowledge of the individuals memory before the injury
-This lack of control limits what clinical studies can tell us about different types of LTM

Question 42

What is a limitation of the types of memory stores (conflicting neuroimaging evidence)

Answer 42

-conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain
-Buckner and Petersen reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory.
-Concluded semantic memory is located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic is on the right
-Other researchers found that the left prefrontal cortex is linked to encoding of episodic memory and the right with episodic retrieval
-This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory

Question 43

What is a strength of the types of memory (real world application)

Answer 43

-Allows psychologists to help people with memory problems
-E.g as people age they experience memory loss. But research has shown this seems to be specific to the episodic memory
-Belleville derived an intervention to improve episodic memory in older people by training participants on a episodic memory test.
-This shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed.

Question 44

The working memory model

Answer 44

A representation of short-term memory. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using subunits co-ordinated by a central decision-making system.

Question 45

Central Executive

Answer 45

The component of the WMM that co-ordinate’s the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.

Question 46

Phonological Loop

Answer 46

The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonological store and articulatory process.

Question 47

The Phonological Store

Answer 47

The “Inner Ear”
Stores words you hear

Question 48

The Articulatory Process

Answer 48

The “Inner Voice”
-Allows maintenance rehearsal to keep information in working memory.
-Capacity of about 2 seconds’ worth of sounds

Question 49

The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

Answer 49

The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’

Question 50

What was the VSS subdivided into

Answer 50

The Visual Cache
Stores visual data (e.g. form and colour)
The Inner Scribe
Records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Question 51

The Episodic Buffer (later addition)

Answer 51

The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.

Question 52

What is strength of the working memory model (clinical evidence)

Answer 52

-support from Tim Shallice and Elizabeth Warrington’s (1970) case study of patient KF.
-KF had poor STM ability for auditory (sound) information but could process visual information normally.
-For instance his immediate recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual) than when they were read to him (acoustic).
-KF’s phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketchpad was intact.
-This finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores.

Question 53

What is a counterpoint to clinical evidence of the working memory mode

Answer 53

-it is unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments (apart from damage to his phonological loop)
-might have affected his performance on memory tasks. -E.g, his injury was caused by a motorcycle accident. The trauma involved may have affected his cognitive performance quite apart from any brain injury.
-This challenges evidence that comes from clinical studies of people with brain injuries that may have affected many different systems.

Question 54

What is a strength of the working memory model (dual-task performance)

Answer 54

-studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad.
-Baddeley et al’s (1975) participants carried out a visual and verbal task at the same time (dual task), their performance on each was similar to when they carried out the tasks separately. But when both tasks were visual (or both were verbal), performance on both declined substantially.
-This is because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem, whereas there is no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together
-This shows there must be a separate subsystem (the VSS) that processes visual input (and one for verbal processing, the PL).

Question 55

What is a limitation of the working memory model (nature of the central executive)

Answer 55

-lack of clarity of the central executive (CE)
-Baddeley (2003) himself recognised this when he said, ‘The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory”
-The CE needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attention’ For example, some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate subcomponents.
This means that the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the WMM.

Question 56

Who developed the Working memory model

Answer 56

Baddeley and Hitch

Question 57

What are the roles of the central executive

Answer 57

-Monitors incoming data
-divides our limited attention
-allocates subsystems to tasks

Question 58

Who divided the VSS

Answer 58

Robert Logie

Question 59

Who added the episodic buffer to the model

Answer 59

Baddeley

Question 60

Interference

Answer 60

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

Question 61

Proactive interference

Answer 61

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar

Question 62

Retroactive interference

Answer 62

Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar

Question 63

What type of memory is interference a explanation of forgetting for

Answer 63

ltm

Question 64

What is the procedure of research into effects of similarity

Answer 64

Studies retroactive interference by getting participants to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy and then learning a new list. There were six groups, who had to learn different types of words (synonyms, antonyms, three digit numbers)

Question 65

What were the results of effects of similarity (McGeoch and McDonald)

Answer 65

When participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the most similar materials (synonyms) produced the worst recall. Showing that inference is strongest when the memories are similar

Question 66

Why does similarity affect recall?

Answer 66

two possible reasons:
Proactive interference – previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store.
Retroactive interference – new information overwrites similar memories due to similarity.

Question 67

What is a strength of interference (real-world interference)

Answer 67

-Evidence of interference effects in everyday situations
-Baddley & Hitch (1977) asked Rugby Players to remember who they played against.
-Players had played different numbers of games over the season due to injury
-Players who had played the most games had the poorest recall
-Increases the validity of the theory

Question 68

What is a counterpoint of real-world interference

Answer 68

-interference may cause some forgetting in everyday situations but is unusual
-Conditions necessary for interference to occur are relatively rare
-Unlike lab studies where the high degree of control means a researcher can create ideal conditions for interference
-Suggests that most forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to lack of cues.

Question 69

What is a limitation of interference (interference and cues)

Answer 69

-Interference is temporary and can be overcome using cues.
-Tulving & Psotka (1971) gave participants lists of words in different categories.
-Recall of first list ~70%. Became progressively worse for each new list they learnt
-When a cue (name of category) was given, recall for later lists rose to ~70%.
- This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to material that is still in the LTM

Question 70

What is another strength of interference (support from drug studies)

Answer 70

-Evidence of retrograde facilitation
-Coenen & van Luijtelaar (1997) gave participants a list of words and later asked them to recall the list
-Found when the list of words was learned under the influence of diazepam recall one week later was poor
-but when learnt one week before recall was better (improved recall of material learned beforehand)
-This finding shows that forgetting can be due to interference- reduce the interference and reduce the forgetting

Question 71

Outline retroactive interference as an explanation for forgetting. (3 marks)

Answer 71

-retroactive interference is where a newer memory disrupts an older memory: the older information is forgotten
-retroactive interference is greater when the two lots of information are similar
-retroactive interference is less likely to occur when there is a gap between the instances of learning.

Question 72

Retrieval

Answer 72

Recall of information previously stored in memory.

Question 73

Cues

Answer 73

a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning

Question 74

How can forgetting occur ?

Answer 74

Forgetting may be due to insufficient cues at the time of recall.
i.e. the memory has been stored, but you don’t have the right cues to access it again.

Question 75

What is encoding specificity principle

Answer 75

Tulving found a consistent pattern:
For a cue to be helpful, it has to be present at encoding (ie learning) and retrieval (ie recall).
Cues are encoded at the time of learning.
They can be meaningful (linked to the information being remembered) or indirect.

Question 76

Context-dependent forgetting

Answer 76

Recall depends on external cues
(Weather, sounds, smell)

Question 77

State- dependent forgetting

Answer 77

Recall depends on internal cues
(Feeling upset, being drunk)

Question 78

What is the procedure of research into context-dependent forgetting
Godden & Baddeley (1975)

Answer 78

studied deep-sea divers to see how learning on land affected work under water.
Divers learned a list of words on land or underwater, then had to recall on land or underwater.

Question 79

What were the findings of research into context-dependent forgetting

Answer 79

Accurate recall was 40% lower when learning and recall conditions did not match.

Question 80

What was the procedure of research into state-dependent forgetting

Answer 80

Gave participants antihistamine drugs – produced a slightly drowsy state (different to ‘normal’ state).
Participants had to learn lists of words and prose passages, then recall them, in one of the two states.

Question 81

What were the findings of research into state dependent forgetting

Answer 81

When the state during learning was different to the state during recall, recall was significantly worse.

Question 82

What is a strength of retrieval failure ? (real world application)

Answer 82

-Retrieval cues can help recall in real world situations.
-Baddeley suggests although the effect of cues on forgetting is not very strong, they are still worth paying attention to.
-e.g. you go to collect something from another room, but when you get there you have forgotten what.
Then if you go back to the room you were in, you remember straight away.
-This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall

Question 83

What is a strength of retrieval failure? (research support)

Answer 83

-A range of evidence supports retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting.
-Godden & Baddeley (1975) and Carter & Cassaday (1998) are just two examples as they show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to forgetting
-Eysenck & Keane (2010) argue retrieval failure may be the most significant cause of forgetting in LTM.
-This evidence shows retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as highly-controlled lab studies.

Question 84

What is a counterpoint of research support to?

Answer 84

-Baddeley argues effect of retrieval cues on forgetting is not that strong.
-Contexts have to be very different (e.g. land vs underwater) before an effect is seen.
-Learning in one room and recalling in another is unlikely to have a strong effect because the environments aren’t different enough
-This means retrieval failure due to a lack of context-dependent cues may not describe much forgetting in real life.

Question 85

What is a limitation of retrieval failure ? (Recall versus recognition)

Answer 85

A
-Effects of context-dependent cues may depend on the type of memory being tested.
-Godden & Baddeley (1980) replicated their 1975 study, but divers had to say if they recognised words read to them, rather than recalling the words themselves.
-Participants given lists of words in different categories.
-When recognition was required, there was no significant difference between the conditions.
-So context-dependent cues may be a limited explanation of forgetting when recall is required.

Question 86

Who developed the encoding specificity prinicple

Answer 86

Tulving

Question 87

Retrieval failure

Answer 87

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided

Question 88

Who researched into context- dependent forgetting

Answer 88

Godden and Baddeley

Question 89

Who researched into state dependent forgetting

Answer 89

Carter and Cassaday

Question 90

What was the procedure for research into leading questions

Answer 90

45 participants watched videos of staged car accidents.
Researchers asked questions about the accident.
Participants were asked a leading question
About how fast were the cars going when they _____________ each other? eg hit , smash , bumped

Question 91

What were the four conditions of research into context -dependent forgetting

Answer 91

-learn on land-recall on land
-learn on land- recall underwater
-learn underwater- recall on land
-learn underwater- recall underwater

Question 92

what were the four conditions of recall for research into state-dependent forgetting

Answer 92

-learn on drugs-recall when on drugs
-learn on drugs-recall when not on drugs
-Learn not on drugs- recall when on drugs
-learn not on drugs-recall when not on drugs

Question 93

What were the findings of research into leading questions

Answer 93

The mean estimated for the speed was calculated for each participant group. The more violent the verb the faster the mean average was.

Question 94

How do leading questions affect eye witness testimony?

Answer 94

-Response-bias explanation suggests:
Wording has no effect on the actual memory, but influences how they choose to answer.
- Loftus and palmer conducted a second experiment that supported: Substitution explanation
Wording alters the memory of an incident. Eg participants who heard smashed more likely to report seeing broken glass when there as none - the critical verb altered their memory of the incident

Question 95

What was the procedure for research into post event discussion

Answer 95

-Gabbert (2003)
-Pairs of participants watched videos of a crime from different perspectives - so ppt saw details the other did not.
Participants then discussed what they had seen in their pairs.

Question 96

How does post-event discussion affect eye witness testimony?

Answer 96

-Memory contamination
The memory of an event is distorted by details from others witnesses when these are combined with the original memory.
-Memory conformity
Witnesses may go along with each other to gain social acceptance or because they believe other accounts are more correct. The actual memory is unchanged, but reporting of it is affected.
-Source Monitoring
Eyewitnesses can recall information about the event, but not where it came from (their own memory of the event of from someone else’s account (known as source confusion).
The memory is distorted as the source information is lost.

Question 97

What were the findings of research into post event discussion

Answer 97

71% of participants incorrectly recalled details they had not seen (so had picked up from discussion). (For control group = 0%)

Question 98

post-event discussion

Answer 98

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event.

Question 99

Leading question

Answer 99

A question which because of the way its phrased suggests a certain answer.

Question 100

What is a strength of misleading information (Real-world application)

Answer 100

-Has important practical uses in the criminal justice system.
-The consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious.
-Loftus (1975) believes police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses.
-Psychologists are sometimes asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries.
-This shows that psychologists can help to improve the way the legal system works, especially by protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT.

Question 101

What is a counterpoint of real-world application

Answer 101

-However, the practical applications of EWT may be affected by issues with research.
-Loftus and Palmers’ participants watched film clips in a lab, a very different experience from witnessing a real event.
-Foster et al. (1994) point out that what eyewitnesses remember in research do not matter in the same way as in the real world (so research participants are less motivated to be accurate).
-This suggests that researchers such as Lotus are too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information - EWT may be more dependable than many studies suggest.

Question 102

What is a limitation of misleading information (evidence against substitution)

Answer 102

-EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others.
-Sutherland and Hayne (2001) showed participants a video clip. When participants were later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones. -Presumably the participants’ attention was focused on central features of the event and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information.
-This suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, an outcome that is not predicted by the substitution explanation.

Question 103

What is a limitation of misleading information (evidence challenging memory conformity)

Answer 103

-evidence that post-event discussion actually alters EWT.
-Skagerberg and Wright (2008) showed their participants film clips. There were two versions, e.g. a mugger’s hair was dark brown in one but light brown in the other. Participants discussed the clips in pairs, each having seen different versions. They often did not report what they had seen in the clips or what they had heard from the co-witness, but a ‘blend of the two.
-This suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading post-event discussion, rather than the result of memory conformity.

Question 104

eyewitness testimony

Answer 104

The ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information and anxiety

Question 105

Misleading informtion

Answer 105

Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event. It can take many forms such as leading questions and post event discussion between co-witnesses and other people

Question 106

Leading question

Answer 106

A question which because of the way its phrased suggests a certain answer.

Question 107

Anxiety

Answer 107

A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension.

Question 108

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)- procedure and finding

Answer 108

*Procedure
-Johnson and Scott
-one group seated in a waiting room participants heard a casual conversation in the next room and then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen and with grease on his hands= low anxiety condition
-Other participants overheard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room, holding a knife covered in blood =high-anxiety condition.

*Findings and conclusion
-participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos
- 49% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him.
-participants who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife was 33%. -The tunnel theory of memory= people have enhanced memory for central events

Question 109

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall- procedure and findings

Answer 109

*Procedure
-Yuille and Cutshall
-conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Canada.
-The shop owner shot a thief dead.
-There were 21 witnesses - 13 took part in the study.
-They were interviewed four to five months after the incident and these interviews were compared with the original police interviews
-The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident (on a 7-point scale)

*Findings and conclusion
-The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after five months
-Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group)

Question 110

explaining the contradictory findings- effects of Anxiety on EWT

Answer 110

-Yerkes and Dodson= relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
-there is an optimal level of anxiety, which is the point of maximum accuracy. -If a person (or eyewitness) experiences any more arousal, then their recall suffers a drastic decline.

Question 111

What is a limitation of anxiety having a negative effect on recall (unusualness not anxiety)

Answer 111

-May not have tested anxiety
-Pickel’s experiment,Weapons are unusual – Johnson & Scott (1976) may have been measuring this effect, rather than anxiety.
-Hair salon video featuring a handheld item:
Scissors (high anxiety, low unusualness)
Wallet (low anxiety, low unusualness)
Hand gun (high anxiety, high unusualness)
Raw chicken (low anxiety, high unusualness)
-Recall was poorer in both unusual situations.
-So J&S tell us nothing specifically about the effect of anxiety on EWT.

Question 112

What is a strength for anxiety having a positive effect on recall

Answer 112

-More support for positive effects
-Christianson & Hübinette (1993)
Interviewed 58 witnesses to bank robberies in Sweden
-Some directly involved, some indirectly involved.
-Researchers assumed those directly involved had higher anxiety.
-Recall was 75% across all witnesses.
Direct witnesses recall was even higher.
-Findings from actual crimes support the idea that anxiety does not have a negative effect on recall, and can have a positive effect.

Question 113

What is a counterpoint of the strength to support anxiety having a positive effect on recall

Answer 113

-Problems with Christianson & Hubinette (1993) research
-Length of time between robbery and interview (4-15 months)
-Researchers had no control over confounding variables in that time (e.g. post-event discussion).
-Results might be to do with these confounding variables - invalidates their support of the theory.

Question 114

support for negative effects (Anxiety)

Answer 114

-strength
-evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall.
-Valentine and Mesout supports the research on weapon focus, finding negative effects on recall.
-In their study anxiety clearly disrupted the participants’ ability to recall details about the actor in the London Dungeons’ Labyrinth.
-This suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.

Question 115

what is cognitive interview

Answer 115

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on evidence-based psychological knowledge of human memory - report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.

Question 116

what are the four main techniques that are used in cognitive interview and elaborate on them

Answer 116

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105
Q
what are the four main techniques that are used in cognitive interview and elaborate on them

1)Report everything
-Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event
-trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories.
2) Reinstate the context
-witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind’ and imagine the environment and their emotions
-This is related to context-dependent forgetting
3) Reverse the order
-Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence
-This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events
4) Change perspective
-Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives
-is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect of schema on recall.
-The schema you have for a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened

Question 117

what is the enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 117

-Fisher et al. developed some additional elements of the Cl
-e.g. the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it.
-also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

Question 118

What is a strength of cognitive interview (support for the effectiveness of the CI)

Answer 118

evidence that it works.
-a meta-analysis by Köhnken et al. (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI (and the ECI) with the standard police interview.
-The CI gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview.
-Only four studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interview.
-This shows that the CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information thaat is stored in memory (available) but not immediately accessible.

Question 119

What is a counterpoint of the effectiveness of the CI

Answer 119

-Köhnken et al. also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants.
-This was a particular issue in the ECI, which produced more incorrect details than the CI.
-Cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT (i.e. accuracy) in favour of quantity (amount of details).
-This means that police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from CIs/ECIs w

Question 120

What is a limitation of cognitive interview (some elements may be more useful)

Answer 120

-not all of its elements are equally effective or useful.
-Milne and Bull (2002) found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. But they also found that using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any of the other elements or combination of them.
-This confirmed police officers’ suspicions that some aspects of the Cl are more useful than others.
-This casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview.

Question 121

What is another limitation of cognitive interview (the CI is time consuming)

Answer 121

-police officers may be reluctant to use the CI because it takes more time and training than the standard police interview.
-more time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax. The Cl also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997).
-This suggests that the complete Cl as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and (as in the point above) it might be better to focus on just a few key elements.