Memory

Question 1

What is coding?

Answer 1

The format in which information is stored in various memory stores

Question 2

What is capacity?

Answer 2

The amount of information that can be held in a memory store at a given time

Question 3

What is duration?

Answer 3

The lengths of time information can be held in a memory store

Question 4

What is Short term memory?

Answer 4

STM is a limited capacity memory store.
Coding - acoustic
Capacity-7+/-2
Duration- 18-30 sec

Question 5

What is long term memory?

Answer 5

LTM is a permanent memory store.
Coding- semantic
Capacity- unlimited
Duration- unlimited

Question 6

who researched the coding of STM and LTM?

Answer 6

Baddeley

Question 7

Who researched the capacity of STM?

Answer 7

Jacobs and miller

Question 8

Who researched the duration of LTM?

Answer 8

Bahrick

Question 9

Who researched the duration of STM?

Answer 9

Peterson and Peterson

Question 10

Baddeley’s research into coding in STM and LTM

Answer 10

Aim: researching coding in STM and LTM

Procedure: used word lists such as cat, mag, hat, and chat in research on memory. There were 4 sets of word lists acoustically similar and dissimilar, and semantically similar and dissimilar. Participants had to recall the the order of the word lists. This was done immediately to assess STM and 20 minutes after to assess LTM

Findings: acoustically similar words had the worst recall as they confused similar sounding words. Semantically similar words had the worst recall as they confused similar meanings words.

Conclusion: the lists which had the poor recall shows that the words had become confused. For the immediate recall the acoustically sounding words were not remembered well. Suggests that STM is acoustically coded because people were able to remember other lists of words fine. For the delayed recall semantically sounding words were not remembered well. This suggests that LTM is semantically coded because people were able to remember other lists of words fine .

Question 11

Jacobs (1887) research on capacity of STM

Answer 11

Aim: research capacity of STM

Procedure: developed a technique to measure digit span- how many items an Individual can remember in sequence and repeat back in order

Findings: the mean span of digits across participants was 9.3 items and the mean span for letters across participants was 7.3.

Conclusions: memory can hold 7-9 items

Question 12

Miller (1956) research of STM

Answer 12

Aim: research capacity of STM

Procedure: observed that things come in sevens: days of the week, notes on a music scale, deadly sins etc. Also used the digit span technique but “chunked” items into groups e.g words and sets of numbers

Findings: found people could recall 5 words, as well as they can recall 5 letters via chunking

Conclusion: used the term “the magical number 7” to describe the capacity of STM

Question 13

Peterson and Peterson (1956) research on the duration of STM

Answer 13

Aim: research duration of STM
Procedure: 24 students took part in 8 trials and were given a consonant syllable/ trigram such as BNT and a 3 digit number and were asked to count backwards to prevent rehearsal. On each of the trial, they were stopped at either 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. This was retention interval.

Findings: found that STM lasts about 18 seconds and after this only a very few people can correctly recall the correct consonant syllable

Conclusion- STM has a very short duration unless it is rehearsed

Question 14

Bahrick (1975) research the duration of LTM

Answer 14

Aim: research duration of LTM
procedure: tested recall of people that participant has gone to school with using photo recognition (50 photos from a person’s yearbook and free recall (participants recalled the names of their graduating class)
Findings: found 90% accuracy for photo recognition for people who had graduated within 15 years and 60% accuracy of free recall. After, 48 years photo recognition recall was about 70% and 30% for free recall.
Conclusions: LTM lasts for a long time

Question 15

Strength of research into the c c d of STM and LTM (DW)

Answer 15

Bahrick et al’s study has high external validity. They used memories that were part of real like (peers at school). Using real-life meaningful memories means that the findings are more likely it accurately represent memory in the real world. However, confounding variables were not controlled such as the fact some of the participants may recently looked over their yearbook photos

Question 16

Limitations of research into the c c d of STM and LTM (HB)

Answer 16

Baddeley’s study did not use meaningful material. The words used had no personal meaning to participants. When information is meaningful people will use semantic coding even in STM.

Peterson and Peterson’s study used artificial stimulus. Consonant syllables/ trigrams for example, YCG, BNT don’t reflect real life memory activities. This means that the study lacks external validity

Question 17

What is the coding, capacity and duration of Sensory register?

Answer 17

Coding: echoic, iconic, haptic , gustatory, olfactory
Capacity: high
Duration: less than half a second

Question 18

what is the multi store model of memory?

Answer 18

The MSMM is a representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, STM and LTM. It describes how information is transferred from one store to another and how it is remembered and how it is forgotten

Question 19

What is the sensory register ?

Answer 19

The memory store for each of our 5 senses such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoing store) (ccd)

Question 20

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) on the development of the multi-store model of memory

Answer 20

Atkinson and Shiffrin developed the MSM which describes a flow between three permanent store of systems of memory: SR , STM, LTM
The SR is where information from the senses is stored, but only for half a second before it is forgetten. It is modality- specific i.e whichever sense is registered will match the way it is consequently held (taste held as taste)

However, if attended to, sensory information moves into the STM for temporary storage where it is primary encoded acoustically as sound

STM is thought to have a capacity of 5-9 items and this can be increased through ‘chunking’

Rehearsing information via the rehearsal loops helps to retain information in the STM and consolidate it to LTM which is predominantly encoded semantically. Information can be stored and retrieved for up to any duration and equally has a seemingly unlimited capacity.

Question 21

MSM evaluation

Answer 21

Strength: there is a large base of research that supports the idea of distinct STM and LTM systems. For example, brain damaged case study patient KF’s STM was impaired following a motorcycle incident. This shows that STM and LTM are different memory stores.

Limitation: some research into STM duration has low ecological validity as the stimuli participants were asked to remember bear little resemblance to items learned in real life. For example, Peterson and Peterson used trigrams such as ‘XQF’ to investigate STM duration. this means that the findings regarding memory may not be accurate when applied to ‘real life’ stimuli.

Question 22

What is episodic memory?

Answer 22

Episodic Memory is a long term memory store for personal events. It includes memories when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from these store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort.

Question 23

What is semantic memory ?

Answer 23

Semantic memory is the a long term memory store for our Knowledge of the world. This includes facts and knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually need to be recalled deliberately.

Question 24

What is procedural memory ?

Answer 24

Procedural memory is a long term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of leaner skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Question 25

What is explicit and implicit memories?

Answer 25

Explicit Memories that can be inspected and recalled consciously (declarative)

Implicit memories are memories that are unable to be consciously recalled (non- declarative)

Question 26

Episodic memories

Answer 26

Episodic memory refers to any event that can be reported from a person’s life.this covers information such as any times and places involved. For example, when when you went to the zoo with a friend last week. It is time stamped and it is a type of declarative memory which means that it can be explicitly inspected and recalled consciously. The prefrontal cortex is involved in initial coding of episodic memories with consolidation and storage involving the neocortex and hippocampus

Question 27

Semantic memory

Answer 27

Semantic memory is a type of declarative memory. The conscious recall is of facts that have meaning, as opposed to the recall of past life events associated with episodic memory. For instance, recalling that you listen to music using your ears doesn’t require knowing when or where you first learnt this fact. The hippocampus, frontal lobes and temporal loved are thought to be involved in semantic memory.

Question 28

Procedural memory

Answer 28

Procedural memory is non-declarative and describes our implicit knowledge of tasks that usually do not require conscious recall to perform them. One example would be riding a bike as you might struggle consciously recall how to manage the task, but we can unconsciously perform it with relative ease. The neocortex including the primary motor cortex, cerebellum and prefrontal cortex are though to be involved with procedural memory.

Question 29

Types Long term memory evaluation strength (HB)

Answer 29

Strength: there is evidence from brain scans to show that the different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain. Tucking found that episodic and semantic memory were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex - however, the left PFC was involved in semantic memories and the right PFC for episodic memories. This supports the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM

Identifying different types of memory allows treatments to be developed. Belleville showed that episodic memories could be improved in individuals who had mild cognitive impairment; the trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group. This shows that there are real life applications to research into the type of LTM

Question 30

Types of LTM evaluation limitations (CW + HB)

Answer 30

There is clinical evidence to support the view that there are different types of LTM. HM could learn new procedural memories but not episodic or semantic memories. He got better at tasks like drawing by looking at a reflection in the mirror, but he was unable to recall doing it previously. This evidence demonstrates that one store could be damaged but the other is unaffected. However, there is a serious lack of control with brain damaged patients as we cannot see how they were like before the injury. It could be that their memory structures do not represent this of “normal people”

There is some argument about whether episodic and semantic memory should be separate. Cohen and Squire disagree with Tulving’s decision of LTM into three types and instead argued that there should only be two declarative and non-declarative. This is because it if very difficult to separate episodic and semantic memory into completely different types as they are also both stored in the prefrontal cortex suggesting some similarity.

Question 31

Examples of episodic memory

Answer 31

Your friends wedding
Your first date
The row you had with your friend last week
Your first day at school
What you watched on TV last night

Question 32

Examples of procedural memory

Answer 32

How to juggle
How to ride a bike
How to book a restaurant table
How to make a cake
How to use your phone to work out the bill
How to check a bill

Question 33

Examples of semantic memory

Answer 33

Where the Eiffel Tower is
Who won the women Wimbledon final
The purpose of a piggy bank
Your address

Question 34

What is the working memory model?

Answer 34

A representation of STM that suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system

Question 35

What is the central executive?

Answer 35

The component in the WMM that coordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.

Question 36

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 36

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

Question 37

What is the Visuo-spatial sketchpad ?

Answer 37

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

Question 38

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What is the coding and capacity of each store of the WMM?

Answer 39

Central executive
Coding: iconic, echoic, haptic, gustatory and olfactory
Capacity: one strand of information at a time

Phonological loop
Coding: auditory
Capacity: amount of information that can be spoken out loud in two seconds

Visuo-spatial sketch pad
Coding: visual and spatial
Capacity: 3 or 4 objects

Episodic buffer
Coding: iconic, echoic, haptic, gustatory and olfactory
Capacity: 4 chunks of information

Question 40

Central executive

Answer 40

The central executive manages attention, and controls information from the two slave stores (PL and VSS) . It processes information in all sensory forms but is only able to deal with one strand of information at a time.

Question 41

Phonological loop

Answer 41

The phonological loop
Temporarily retains language-based information in auditory form and holds the amount of information that can be spoken out loud in two seconds

The articulating process (inner voice) of language allows maintenance rehearsal. This includes any language presented visually that is then converted to a phonological state. It involves subvocal repetition.
The phonological store (inner ear) which holds auditory speech information and the order in which it was heard

Question 42

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 42

The visuo-spatial sketchpad temporarily retains visual and spatial information. It can hold 3 or 4 objects at own time. It consists of the visual cache which stores visual information about form and colour; the inner scribe deals with spatial relationship and arrangement of objects.

Question 43

Episodic buffer

Answer 43

The episodic buffer facilitates communication between the components of the WMM and long term memory. It integrates information from the other stores and maintains sense of time sequencing. It can hold 4 chunks of information.

Question 44

Difference of CE and EB

Answer 44

The central executive is the sorter of information and the episodic buffer holds information together and remembers the sequence of information

Question 45

Dual task

Answer 45

If one store is utilised for both tasks then task performance is poorer than when they are competes separately, due to the stores limited capacity. (Repeating the the the aloud whilst reading text silently using the articulatory phonological loop and slows performance)
If the tasks require different stores then performance would be unaffected when performing them simultaneously. For example, saying the the the whilst going on your phone as it uses CE and VSS which are separate.

Question 46

The working memory model evaluation strength (dw +HB)

Answer 46

Support for the WMM comes from shallice and Warrington’s study of patient KF who had suffered brain damage. After the damage had happened KF had poor STM stability for verbal information but could process visual information correctly i.e he had difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits. This suggest that his phonological loop had been damaged leaving other areas of memory intact. This shows that there is evidence to support the existence of separate STM stores for visual and acoustic information.

Studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. Baddeley et al showed that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time. The increased difficulty for the two visual tasks is because they were both competing for the same slave system whereas when doing a visual and verbal task there is no competition. This means that there must be a separate slave system, the visuo spatial sketchpad, that processes visual input, further supporting the existence of separate STM stores for visual and acoustic information.

Question 47

The working memory model evaluation limitation (DW)

Answer 47

Evidence from case studies of patients with brain damage needs to be treated with caution. Evidence from brain damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences. Baseline assessments are not taken of their behaviour before the brain damage which means that there is no control to compare the performance after the injury. It may be that the performance of these brain damaged individuals is not the same as that of someone without brain damage.

Cognitive psychologists suggest that there is a lack of clarity over the central executive. It is argued that this part of the model is not really explained. The central executive need to be more clearly specified that just being an attentional process. This means that the WMM could be viewed as incomplete.

Question 48

What is interference theory ?

Answer 48

Interference theory is forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.

Question 49

What is proactive interference?

Answer 49

Forgetting occurs when older memories that are already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
Eg) calling current bf the name of your ex

Question 50

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 50

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

Question 51

Interference

Answer 51

Interference is an explanation for forgetting in long term memory. Once information reaches LTM is it more-or-less permanent and therefore forgetting is thought to occur because we cannot access the information, even though it is thought to be available. It occurs when information that is comical in format gets in the way of the information that someone is trying to recall.

Question 52

McGeoch and McDonald study on retroactive interference.

Answer 52

Aim: McGeoch and McDonald investigated retroactive interference
Procedure: participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. Participants then had to learn another list of words. There were 6 different conditions, each with a different second word list
Group 1= synonyms (word meaning the same as original)
Group2= antonyms (words meaning the opposite of the original)
Group3= unrelated words
Group4=non-sense syllables
Group5= 3 digit numbers
Group6= no new list

Findings: recall of the original list was dependant on the nature of the second list. The most similar material, group 1 synonyms produced the worst recall

Conclusions: shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar

Question 53

Interference theory evaluation strength (DW)

Answer 53

There is support for retroactive interference. McGeoch and McDonald had 6 groups of participants who each had to learn a list of 10 words. Each group was then given a second, but different word list to learn. When the participants recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list, with similar material in the second list leading to the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when memories are similar. This suggests that interference is a valid explanation for forgetting.

There is research support for interference theory from everyday situations. Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to try and remember the names of the teams that they had played in a season, week by week. Most players miss out a game at some point, so the ‘last team’ was different for each player. The results showed that accurate recall did not depend on how long ago the matches took place, but the number of matches that had been played. This shows that interference explanations can apply to some every day situations. Therefore this increases the validity of the explanation of forgetting.

Question 54

Interference theory evaluation
Limitations (DW)

Answer 54

There is much greater chance that interference will be demonstrated in lab experiments, than in real life, due to the artificial nature of the stimuli. Learning lists of words is a common task in memory studies but it’s not the same as trying to remember in real life such as faces, names, birthdays list of ingredients. This is a limitation because the supporting evidence for interference theory cannot be generalised to everyday situations. This reduces the validity of the explanation.

The explanation of learning information for a study on interference does not represent everyday life. Participants may have to learn to one list of words and then learn a second one 20 minutes later. Recall of a list may then be a few minutes after that. The setup of the studies means that they are designed to cause the maximum amount of interference. Normally we would not learn and remember information like this in real life meaning that studies into interference may overemphasis interference as an explanation of forgetting. This reduces the applicability of the explanation in the real world.

Question 55

Retrieval failure theory

Answer 55

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we do not have the necessary cues to access memory.The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
Forgetting in long term is due to a lack of access to a memory rather than the availability of a memory. The reason people forget is because of insufficient cues. If cues are not available at the time of recall, it may make it appear as thought the information has been forgotten i.e. context and state dependant forgetting. However if they are similar at recall to the situation where the memory was originally processed then the changes of recalling the memory will be increased

Question 56

What are cues?

Answer 56

Cues are a “trigger” of information. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning .they can be external (environment context) or internal (state or mood).

Question 57

Encoding specifity principle

Answer 57

Recall of information is best when there is a large overlap between the information available at the time of retrieval (cues) and the information in the memory trace(from learning)

Question 58

What is context dependent failure?

Answer 58

A form of forgetting where recall occurs in a different external setting to coding.

Question 59

What is state- dependant failure?

Answer 59

A form of forgetting where recall occurs in a different internal setting to coding

Question 60

Godden and Baddeley’s research on cue-dependant forgetting

Answer 60

Aim: to investigate cue-dependant forgetting
Procedure: divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall either underwater or on land
E.g) L= land R=land or L=land R= underwater
Findings: in condition 1 and 4, where leanrjng and recall conditions matched recall was 40% higher than in non-matching conditions.
Conclusions: external cues available at learning help to “trigger” memories if they are also there at recall.

Question 61

Carter and cassaday’s research on state-dependant forgetting.

Answer 61

Aim: to investigate state- dependant forgetting

Procedure: antihistamine drugs were given to participants as they were mild sedatives that caused slight drowsiness. Participants had a words and passages of prose to learn and then recall when they were either on or not on the drug.
(On drug, not on drug, on drug , on drug)
Findings: in conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse.
Conclusions- internal cues available at learning help to trigger memories if they are also there at recall.

Question 62

Retrieval failure evaluation strength (HB+DW)

Answer 62

An range of laboratory, field and natural experiments support the idea of retrieval failure. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) demonstrated the importance of context-dependant learning and carter and Cassaday (1998) demonstrated the importance of state-dependant forgetting. Research support increases the likelihood that this is a valid explanation for forgetting.

There are real life applications from research into retrieval failure. Baddeley’s research into context dependant forgetting held to explain a common occurrence we all experience in our everyday life of forgetting when the environment changes. These results could therefore be used to help those who have more problems with forgetting. When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably with making the effort to remember where we were when we learnt it- this is one of the basic principles of cognitive interview.

Question 63

Retrieval failure evaluation limitation (DW)

Answer 63

The research conducted to support this explanation is very different to how this type of forgetting occurs in real world. Baddeley argued that context effects are not actually very strong in real life. Contexts must be very different before an effect is seen e.g under water and on land. Leaning something in one room and recalling in another is not likely to produce the same degree of forgetting. This is a limitation because it means that forgetting due to retrieval failure does not actually explain forgetting in the real world.

It may impossible to test context dependant forgetting. In experiments where a cue produces the successful recall of the word, we assume the cue must have been encoded at the time of learning. If the cue does not produce the recall, we assume it was not encoded. However, these are just assumptions. This may mean that the experiments have low internal-validity, i.e they are not actually testing context dependent forgetting. Reducing the validity of supporting research, reduces the validity of the explanation for forgetting.

Question 64

What is an EWT?

Answer 64

The evidence given court or a police investigation by someone who has witnessed a crime or accident.

Question 65

What is Misleading Information?

Answer 65

Incorrect information given to an eyewitness following an event. It gives them the wrong impression. This can be during post-event discussion or take the form of leading questions

Question 66

What is a leading question?

Answer 66

A question which, because of the way it is phrased suggests a certain answer

Question 67

What is post event discussion ?

Answer 67

Occurs when there is more than one “witness” to an event. Witness may discuss what they have seen with co-witness or with other people. Repeat interviewing also created a form of this. It may influence the accuracy of each witness’ recall for the event

Question 68

Loftus and Palmer (1974) leading questions study

Answer 68

Aim: to investigate the effect of leading questions on eyewitness accounts
Procedure: 45 American students were divided into 5 groups of 9. All of the participants watch a video of a car crash answered a questionnaire and were asked a specific question about the speed of the cars. (Contacted: 31.8 mph, bumped: 34.0 mph, hit: 38.1 mph, collided: 39.3 mph, smashed: 40.8 mph) Loftus and palmer manipulation the verb used in the question for example: “how fast were they care going when they smashed/collided/bumped/hit/ contacted with each other?”

Findings: they found that the estimated speed was affected by the verb used
Conclusion: the results show the accuracy of EWT is affected by leading questions and that a single word in a question can significantly affect the accuracy of our judgments

Question 69

Experiment 2 - Loftus and Palmer leading questions on later memory

Answer 69

Aim: to investigate the effect of leading questions on later memory
Procedure: 150 students watched a one minute video depicting a car accident and then were given a questionnaire to complete. One group was asked “how fast were the cars when they hit each other?” Another group was asked “how fast was the car when they smashed into each other?” The final group (control) was not asked about the speeds of the vehicles. One week later the participants returned and were asked a series of questions about the accident. The critical question was “Did you see any broken glass?” but tehre was none.
Findings: the verb smashed has connotation of faster speeds and broken glass and thus question led the participants to report seeing something that was not actually present. Their memory for the original event was distorted by the question used one week earlier, demonstrating the power of leading questions.

Question 70

Response bias explanation (explaining how leading questions impact EWT)

Answer 70

The waiting as the question has no real impact on the participant memory, it Just influenceshow they decide to answer. When participants get a leading question like “smashed” it encourages them to choose the higher speed estimate

Question 71

Substitution explanation (explaining how leading questions impact EWT)

Answer 71

The wording of a question can actually change the participants memory. This was demonstrated in loftus’ 2nd experiment, where the participants had their memory altered depending on which word they had heard in the original question.

Question 72

Gabbert et al (2003) post event discussion study

Answer 72

Aim; investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of EWT.
Procedure: 60 students from the university of Aberdeen and 60 older adults recruited from a local community participated. They watched a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet, but it had been filmed from different points. The participants were either treated individually (control) or in pairs (co witness group) on their recall
The participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video, but they had seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person witnessed the girl stealing. Participants in the co witness group discussed the crime together.
Findings: 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information that they had not seen
Conclusion: these result highlight the issue of post event discussion and the powerful effect it can have on the accuracy of EWT.

Question 73

Misleading information evaluation strength (DW)

Answer 73

There are practical application of research into misleading information. Geisalman and colleagues designed the cognitive interview to ensure that police officers do not ask leading questions. The impact of this is that innocent people are less likely to be convicted of a crime they didn’t commit based on eyewitness testimony.

Question 74

Misleading information evaluation limitation (DW)

Answer 74

Research into misleading information uses artificial tasks. Loftus and Palmer got participants to watch a video of a car crash. This is very different experience from watching a real accident, which reduced then external validity of the findings. This means that research into the area may tell us very little about how leading questions impact EWT in cases of real accidents or crimes.

Although research into misleading information shows that it has an impact on the accuracy of EWT this may not be true in the real world. Participants in an EWT study usually know that they are in a study. They know that, now matter how serious or horrific the incident, the answers they will no have any significant effects. In the real world EWT could have serious and far reaching consequences so misleading information may have less of an impact on the accuracy of EWT. Therefore, laboratory studies into misleading information may underestimate the accuracy of EWT as a result of the lack of consequence, reducing the external validity.