Memory

Question 1

Cognitive psychology definition

Answer 1

concerned with people’s thought processes and how these affect the way in which they behave.

Question 2

Memory definition

Answer 2

the process of retaining learned information, and accessing this information when it is needed.

Question 3

What are the processes in memory

Answer 3

Coding

Storage

Retrieval

Question 4

What are the different types of memory

Answer 4

Sensory register

Short term memory

Long term memory

Capacity

Duration

Question 5

Coding definition

Answer 5

The way information is changed so that it can be stored in mem

Question 6

Storage definition

Answer 6

Keeping information within the memory system until it is ne

Question 7

Retrieval definition

Answer 7

Recovering information stored in the memory system when it is
required.

Question 8

Sensory register definition

Answer 8

contains unprocessed impressions of information received through the senses.

It is modality specific meaning that each sensory store codes information differently. It has a separate sensory store for each sensory input.

E.g There is an iconic store for visual information and the echoic store for auditory information.

Question 9

Short term memory definition

Answer 9

a temporary store for information received from the SR.

Question 10

Long term memory definition

Answer 10

a permanent store holding limitless amounts of information for long periods of time, potentially a lifetime.

Question 11

Capacity definition

Answer 11

The amount of information that can be held in memory before new incoming information displaces it.

Question 12

Duration definition

Answer 12

The amount of time information can be held in a memory store before it is lost due to decay.

Question 13

Investigating coding in STM (Baddeley)

Answer 13

he gave participants four lists of words to recall.

List A contained words that sounded similar and list B had words that sounded dissimilar.

List C contained words that had similar meanings and list D had words with dissimilar meanings.

Baddeley argued that STM is coded acoustically because when tested participants performed worse with list A than list B, but there was no difference between list C and D. This is because STM organises information according to how it sounds, similar sounding words can become muddled.

Question 14

Investigating coding in LTM (Baddeley)

Answer 14

He tested participant’s recall of the lists A,B,C,D after a 20 minute delay in order to ensure the information had passed into LTM.

Participant’s recall of list C was worse than their recall of list D. There was no difference between list A and list B.

He concluded that LTM is coded semantically. LTM organises information according to its meaning, so words with similar meaning can become confused.

Question 15

Evaluation of Baddeley’s investigations into STM and LTM

Answer 15

Advantages

1) This study is a laboratory experiment and so it is easy to replicate as variables have been closely controlled. This means that reliability can be assessed.

Disadvantages:

1) The findings of this study have low ecological validity. The material (lists of unconnected words) which participants needed to recall was artificial (unlike the types of information which people need to recall in their everyday life) as was the laboratory setting.

Question 16

Investigations into the capacity of the STM (Jacobs)

Answer 16

digit span test - He gave participants several sequences of digits or letters, asking them to repeat each sequence immediately after he had given it, in the correct order. The sequences got longer by one item each time.

Jacobs found that on average we can hold 9.3 digits and 7.3 letters.

Question 17

Evaluation of Jacobs digit span test

Answer 17

Advantages
1) Jacob’s research was the first to acknowledge that STM capacity gradually improves with age.

2) - Although the validity of his study could be questions, given that his study was conducted so long ago and cannot be sure that extraneous variables were controlled as they would be today (for example, distractions and pps IQ levels whilst doing the study), the study has since been repeated and the same results found suggesting the study does have validity.

Disadvantages:
1) - Jacob’s research lacks ecological validity- learning random lists of numbers is not a realistic test of STM. More meaningful information may be recalled better e.g. learning playing card sequences, perhaps showing STM to have an even greater capacity.

2) previous sequences recalled by participants may have confused them on later trials so we don’t know if that factor became a confounding variable which affected how the capacity of the STM was measured.

Question 18

Investigation into the capacity of the STM (Miller)

Answer 18

Miller reviewed psychological research studies and concluded that the span of STM is 7 (+/) 2.

If we try to recall more information than we have the capacity for then new incoming information displaces old information.

He also found that people can recall five words as easily as five letters, and so chunking (grouping large amounts of information into smaller groups) can help us remember more.

Question 19

Evaluation of Millers investigation into the capacity of the STM

Answer 19

Disadvantages:
1) Cowan reviewed research and argued Miller may have overestimated the capacity of the STM. He conclude that the capacity of the STM was about 4 chunks (suggesting that the lower end of 7±2 items is more accurate)

Question 20

Peterson and Peterson’s investigation into the duration of short term memory

Answer 20

1) Participants were presented with a nonsense trigram (3 random consonants)
2) Asked to count backwards in threes to stop them repeating/rehearsing the consonant trigram.
3) After intervals of either 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds, participants had to stop counting and repeat the trigram.
4) Repeated using different trigrams

Results: Participants could remember about 90% of trigrams after 3 seconds, 20% after 9 seconds, and 2% when there was 18 second interval.

Conclusion: Information decays (disappears) very quickly when you can’t rehearse it. The maximum STM duration is about 18 seconds.

Question 21

Evaluation of Peterson and Peterson’s study

Answer 21

Advantages:

1. Peterson and Peterson’s study is a lab experiment where variables can be tightly controlled for example, how many trigrams are presented. The procedure can also be replicated to test if results are reliable – for example the nonsense trigrams can be repeated on lots of participants over time and the duration of STM can be tested to see if it has changed over time (i.e. gone better or worse)
2. the research has a high level of control, using standardised procedures to make sure all participants underwent the same process.

Disadvantages:

1) trigrams are unrealistic things to remember. It can therefore be said the experiment has low ecological validity (the findings may not apply to everyday life).

2) The trigrams presented on earlier trials may have caused confusion when participants came to remember trigrams in later trials (in other words, the earlier trigrams may have interfered with the later trigrams) so we are not sure whether the results gained from the participants were due to them forgetting the trigrams or being confused – this then may question how the duration of STM was tested.

3. the finding of the study may have been caused by interference rather than STM having a short duration. It is possible that earlier learnt trigrams became confused with later ones
4. Since Peterson and Peterson’s study more research into the STM duration has been carried out. The overall conclusion is that the STM maximum duration is between 18-30 seconds without rehearsal.

Question 22

Investigation into the duration of long term memory (Bahrick et al’

Answer 22

tested 400 people of various ages on their memory of their classmates.

A photo recognition test consisted of participants being shown 50 photos and deciding if they belonged to their classmates or not.

In a free recall test participants were asked to list the names they could remember from their graduating class.

They found 90% accuracy at identifying faces of school friends within 15 years of leaving school. After 48 years this declined to 70%.

Free recall of names of classmates was 60% accurate within 15 years of leaving school, dropping to 30% after 48 years.

He concluded that the duration of LTM is potentially a lifetime but sometimes we have retrieval failure and need retrieval cues in order to access this information.

Question 23

Evaluation of Bahrick et al investigation into the duration of long term memory

Answer 23

Advantages:

1) This was a natural experiment with meaningful material so has higher ecological validity than Peterson’s study which uses nonsense trigrams which are meaningless in the everyday world but remembering names is an everyday task so Bahrick’s study is relevant to everyday life

Disadvantages
1) It only looked at a very specific type of information- names of classmates. This type of information is particularly meaningful and regularly rehearsed. It could also be argued that not all LTMs remain for a lifetime

2) As Bahrick’s study is a natural experiment, it is harder to control for EVs e.g. if classmates were still in touch or had been talked about since, making results potentially invalid.

Question 24

The multi store model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin)

Answer 24

It attempts to explain how information flows from one memory store to another.

There are three permanent structures in the memory system: the sensory register (SR), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).

Each of these memory stores differ in terms of their capacity, duration, coding and how information is lost from them.

Question 25

The sensory register

Answer 25

Environmental stimuli received through the senses enters the SR, which is a short duration store retaining unprocessed impressions of information received through the senses.

It has a separate sensory store for each sensory input.

The capacity of the SR is unlimited but the duration is only 250 miliseconds.

A small fraction of the information received by the SR is attended to and selected for further processing in STM. If not attended to, sensory information is lost due to decay.

Question 26

Short term memory

Answer 26

If information in the SR is attended to it is acoustically coded into STM.

STM is a temporary store for information received from the SR before it is transferred to LTM.

Information may be recalled at this point and then forgotten before it is transferred to LTM.

STM has a limited capacity of 7 (+/-2) pieces of information so information can be displaced by new incoming information.

STM has a duration of 18-30 seconds. This means that without rehearsal information will decay very quickly.

Information can be kept in STM by:

• maintenance rehearsal (repeatedly verbalising or thinking about the information). This is known as a rehearsal loop.
• elaborative rehearsal, (where information is organised in a meaningful way)
• the information may then be transferred to LTM for more permanent storage.

Question 27

Long term memory

Answer 27

If information is sufficiently rehearsed in STM then it is semantically coded into LTM. This is a permanent store holding vast amounts of information for long periods of time.

The capacity of LTM is potentially infinite and there is no way of accurately measuring it. The duration of LTM could potentially be a lifetime.

When information in LTM is needed it is retrieved by STM and then recalled.

Sometimes we cannot access information from LTM because of retrieval failure and so we may need retrieval cues to help us access it.

Question 28

Evaluation of the multi store memory model

Answer 28

Advantages:

• Neurobiological Evidence
  1) Scoville attempted to treat a patient he referred to as HM’s epilepsy by removing several brain areas, including his hippocampus. This resulted in the patient being unable to code new long-term memories, although his short-term memory was unaffected. This supports the idea of separate and distinct STM and LTM.

Lab experiments:
1) + Murdock (1962) presented participants with a long list of words to be recalled in any order, this was referred to as the free recall experiment. Words at the beginning and the end of the lists were recalled better than those in the middle (serial position effect). Words at the beginning of the list are recalled because they have been constantly rehearsed and transferred to LTM (the primacy effect), while words at the end of the list are recalled because they are still in STM (the recency effect). This supports the idea of separate and distinct STM and LTM

Disadvantages:
Neurobiological evidence:

1) Shallice and Warrington reported the case study of KF who as a result of a motorbike accident had reduced STM capacity of only one or two digits, yet his LTM was normal. This supports the idea of a separate STM and LTM stores. However, KF had poor STM for verbal tasks but not visual tasks and this suggests that there is more than one type of STM, which contradicts the Multi-Store Model (MSM) of memory. Also, according to the MSM, LTM are retrieved by STM so if STM is damaged it should be difficult to retrieve LTM. However, KF was able to access LTM with out any difficulty.

1) The MSM is over simplified in assuming that there is only one type of STM and one type of LTM. Research studies indicate that there are several types of STM, such as one for verbal information (phonological loop) and another for non-verbal information (visuo-spatial sketchpad). Research also suggests that there are several types of LTM, we have episodic memory for life events, semantic memory for knowledge and facts and procedural memory for motor skills.

2) Baddeley and Hitch claimed that the MSM could not explain the ability to multi-task; if there is only one type of STM then multi-tasking would not be possible. However, this is not true

Question 29

The working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch)

Answer 29

STM is an active store holding several pieces of information while they are being worked on

LTM is the passive store that only holds previously learned material to be used by STM when needed.

Question 30

The central executive

Answer 30

drives the whole working memory system and allocates data to the other components, known as slave systems.

deals with cognitive tasks such as decision making, reasoning and problem solving.

Individuals have a limited attentional capacity, tasks that are automated make less attentional demands on the central executive and so leave us free to perform other tasks.

A person who has been driving 10 years will find that driving has become an automated task that does not make as many attentional demands

Question 31

The phonological loop

Answer 31

deals with spoken and written material. It has two sub-components.

Phonological Store:
- sometimes referred to as the inner ear. It is linked to speech perception and holds information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds.

Articulatory Loop
- sometimes referred to as the inner voice.
- linked to speech production and is used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store. This allows for maintenance rehearsal.

Question 32

The Visio spatial sketchpad

Answer 32

stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form. It is used for navigation.

sometimes referred to as the inner eye.

It has two sub-components.

• Visual Cache
  The visual cache stores visual material about form and colour.
• Inner Scribe
  The inner scribe handles spatial relationships.

Question 33

The Episodic Buffer

Answer 33

Baddeley added another component after as the model needed a general storage component to operate properly.

The slave systems only deal with processing and temporary storage of specific types of information, and the central executive has no storage capacity.

The episodic buffer is a limited capacity store, integrating information from the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad, as well as from LTM.

Question 34

Evaluation of the working memory model

Answer 34

Advantages

• Neurobiological Evidence
  1) Shallice and Warrington reported the case study of KF who, because of a motorbike accident, had poor Short-Term Memory (STM) for words that were presented verbally but not for words that were presented visually. This suggests that there is more than one type of STM, as the Working Memory Model (WMM) suggests. In particular, it shows that we have a type of STM for verbal tasks (phonological loop) and another for visual (visuo-spatial sketchpad).
• Laboratory Experiments
  1) Baddeley and Hitch gave participants a dual task. They were asked to complete a reasoning task, which uses the central executive, at the same time as a reading aloud task, which uses the phonological loop. Participants could do both tasks simultaneously very well, supporting the idea of separate components in STM.

2) Baddeley et al gave participants brief visual presentations of lists of words. These words were made up either of short words or long words. Participants were asked to recall the list immediately in the correct order. It was found that participants could recall more short words than long ones. Baddeley called this the word length effect and concluded that it supports the idea that the phonological loop can hold as many items as can be said in 1.5 to 2 seconds rather than being limited by 7 (+/- 2) items as the multi-store model argues.

1) The WMM has practical applications; it has improved understanding of how people learn to read and so helped psychologists to assist those with Dyslexia who can struggle with reading

Disadvantages
1) Several psychologists have criticised the WMM because they think the idea of a central executive is vague and untestable. Damasio presented the case of EVR who had a cerebral tumour removed. He had good reasoning skills, which suggested his central executive was intact, but he could not make decisions, which suggests his central executive was damaged. This case study strongly indicates that the central executive is more complicated than the WMM claims.

Question 35

What are the different types of long term memory?

Answer 35

Episodic
Semantic
Procedural

Question 36

What is episodic memory

Answer 36

Episodic memory is your memory for events

Episodic memories have three elements:
- specific details of the event
- the context of the event
-the emotions you were feeling at the time of the event.

stored in the hippocampus.

Question 37

What is semantic memory

Answer 37

Semantic memory is your memory for facts and general knowledge about the world.

Can relate to things such as the functions of an object, what behaviour is appropriate in a certain situation, as well as abstract concepts such as mathematics and language.

They begin as episodic memories as we acquire knowledge based on personal experiences.

There is a gradual transition from episodic memory to semantic memory when memory slowly loses its association to particular events and is generalised.

Sometimes people can have a strong recollection of when and where they learned a particular fact.

Semantic memories are stored in the temporal lobe.

Question 38

What is procedural memory

Answer 38

Related to motor skills and actions, e.g knowing knowing how to drive or knowing how to read.

They are acquired through practise and repetition and seem to be more resistant to forgetting or amnesia than other types of LTM.

We are less aware of procedural memories because they have become automatic and are unavailable for conscious inspection (unlike episodic memories and semantic memories) making it difficult to explain them verbally.

Often, if you think too much about procedural memories it prevents you from carrying them out.

It is important that procedural memories are automatic so that we can focus our attention on other tasks while performing these everyday skills.

Procedural memories are stored in the cerebellum.

Question 39

Evaluation of long term memory

Answer 39

Advantages
1) Evidence for the distinction between episodic/semantic and procedural memory has come from research on patients with amnesia. Typically patients with amnesia are unable to store new episodic or semantic memories but their procedural memory appears to be largely unaffected.

2) Scientific evidence captured from brain scans supports the view that there are different types of LTM. For example, when asking participants to recall different types of information, different areas of the brain are shown to be active on an fMRI. Episodic memories are associated with the hippocampus, semantic memories are associated with the temporal lobe and procedural memories are associated with the cerebellum.

3) Case studies of brain damaged patients offer support for the different types of LTM. For example, Clive Wearing is a man who suffered from a viral infection which damaged his hippocampus. He has no episodic memory and cannot form new semantic memories. However, his procedural memory is intact (e.g. he can still play the piano).

Disadvantages:
1) Research into the different types of LTM have typically been conducted on individual patients (e.g. Clive Wearing and HM). Case studies are highly detailed and provide a lot of information but are isolated cases of one individual. It would be inappropriate to assume that everyone’s’ LTM is formed in the same way. The findings cannot be generalised to the wider population.

Question 40

Forgetting definition

Answer 40

used to refer to a person’s loss of ability to recall or recognise something that they have previously learned.

Question 41

Interference definition

Answer 41

forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory.

It is more likely to occur when the two lots of information are similar to one another. Inference is less likely to occur when there is a gap between the instances of learning.

Retroactive interference is when new learning affects the recall of old information.

Proactive interference is when old learning affects the recall of new information

Question 42

Evaluation of interference theory

Answer 42

Advantages:

1) Underwood (1957) investigated proactive interference. He found that participants who learned ten lists of words could only recall 20% of the words from the first list the next day. Participants who learned one list of words recalled over 70% of the words the next day.

2) McGeoch and McDonald (1931) demonstrated retroactive interference. They gave participants lists of words that they had to learn until they could recall them with 100% accuracy. Participants then learned a new list. This new list was either synonyms (words with similar meanings to the words on the original list) or antonyms (words unrelated to the original list). Participants were then asked to remember the original list. Participants given the list of synonyms had the worst recall. Learning two lists of words that have the same meaning would cause interference.

3) This theory has practical applications. Students should be made aware of this theory so that they do not attempt to revise similar content/subjects at the same time, as this will make interference more likely to occur.

Disadvantages:
1) When interference occurs the loss of information may only be temporary, therefore interference is not a true explanation for forgetting because the information is not actually over-written and is still in Long-Term Memory.

2) Some psychologists argue that retrieval failure is a much better explanation of forgetting in everyday life than interference. This theory states that we forget when there are not enough retrieval cues to help us remember. Godden and Baddeley got divers to learn and recall word lists on either dry land or underwater. Results showed that words learnt and recalled in the same context were better remembered as there were retrieval cues in the environment to help them remember the words.

Question 43

What is Retrieval failure

Answer 43

forgetting occurs in the absence of appropriate retrieval cues.

When information is initially placed in memory, data associated with this information is stored at the same time. If these retrieval cues are not available at the time of recall, it may make it appear as if you have forgotten the information when in fact you just cannot access it at that time.

Some retrieval cues are linked to the material that needs to be remembered in a meaningful way, for example, the anagram ‘STM’ may lead people to recall all sorts of information about short-term memory. Other retrieval cues are coded at the same time of learning but not in a meaningful way.

Question 44

What are context cues

Answer 44

The environment in which material is learnt can act as a retrieval cues.

This means that if you recall information in the same environment that you learned it then your recall will be better.

If you are not in the same context at retrieval as you were at coding then forgetting can occur.

Question 45

State cues

Answer 45

An individual’s physical state (e.g. mood) can affect their recall.

Research studies suggest that recall is facilitated if people have a similar physical state at recall as when the information was coded.

If you are not in the same physical state at recall as you were when you learned the information then you might fail to access the information.

Question 46

Evaluation of Retrieval Failure Theory

Answer 46

Advantages
1) Abernethy demonstrated the importance of context-dependent cues. They tested participants’ recall using a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar instructors and teaching rooms. Participants tested by a familiar instructor, in a familiar room, performed the best because the instructor and room acted as retrieval cues.

2) Godden and Baddeley demonstrated the importance of context- dependent cues. They asked divers to learn and recall word lists on either dry land or underwater. Results showed that words learnt and recalled in the same context were better remembered as there were retrieval cues to help them remember the words.

3) Darley et al. showed the importance of state-dependent cues. They found that participants who hid money in a large warehouse while under the influence of cannabis were more likely to recall the hiding place when in a similar drugged state.

4) Retrieval Failure has practical applications. Whenever possible students should learn/revise in the room, in which they will take their final exams.

Disadvantages:

1) Baddeley argues that the influence of retrieval cues is not actually very strong. In real life, we often recall something in a different context to where we learnt it. For instance, students do not often take their GCSE examinations in the classroom where they learned the information they need for that exam.

Question 47

What is Eyewitness testimony

Answer 47

the evidence supplied to a court by people who have seen a crime, based on their memory of the incident.

This evidence can include an identification of the perpetrator or details of the crime

Juries are often heavily influenced by eyewitnesses.

Question 48

Leading questions definition

Answer 48

questions that are phrased in such a way as to encourage a witness to give a certain answer.

The response-bias explanation argues that leading questions do not affect memory, merely the answer a person chooses to give.

the substitution-bias explanation proposes that leading questions distort memories because they contain misleading information.

Question 49

Leading questions investigation and findings (Loftus and Palmer)

Answer 49

Procedure:
showed 45 American students a film of a car crash and then asked them to estimate the speed that the cars were travelling when they crashed.

different verbs were used in the question depending on the condition. The verbs were contacted, hit, bumped, collided, or smashed.

Findings:
Participants in the ‘contacted’ condition estimated the speed as 31mph but in the ‘smashed’ condition participants estimated the speed as 41mph. A week later participants were asked if they saw any broken glass, even though there was no broken glass shown in the film. 32% of the participants in the ‘smashed’ condition reported seeing broken glass compared to only 12% in the control condition.

This shows that leading questions have a significant impact on what people recall and can change a person’s entire memory of an event.

Question 50

Evaluation of Leading Questions

Answer 50

Advantages

1) This study is a laboratory experiment and was therefore highly controlled. This reduces the chance of extraneous variables, increasing the validity of the results. Furthermore, it is easy for psychologists to replicate their research study to see if the same results are found, meaning the study is reliable.

Disadvantages:
1) This study has questionable ecological validity. The participants watched a video of a car crash. People who witness a real car accident, who have a stronger emotionally connection to the event, may not be as susceptible to leading questions.

2) This study also lacks population validity. The study consisted of 45 American students. Students are less experienced drivers may be less competent at estimating speeds. Consequently, we are unable to generalise the results of this study to other populations. Older and more experienced drivers may be more accurate in their judgement of speeds and therefore less susceptible to leading questions.

Question 51

Post-Event Discussion definition

Answer 51

The memory of an event can be contaminated through discussing events with others due to misinformation (memory contamination).

A desire for social approval can lead co-witnesses to reach a consensus view of what happened (memory conformity).

Question 52

Post event discussion investigation (Gabbert et al)

Answer 52

Procedure:
put participants in pairs and got them to watch a different video of the same event so that they each got unique details.

In one condition the pairs were encouraged to discuss the event with one another before individually recalling the event.

In the other condition they did not discuss what they had seen with one another.

Findings:
71% of witnesses who had discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall details that they could not have seen themselves, but that they had learned of during the discussion with their partner.

Question 53

Evaluation of Post-Event Discussion

Answer 53

Advantages
1) This study has population validity. Two different populations, students and older adults, were compared and there were no significant differences between these two groups. This allows us to conclude that post-event discussion affects younger and older adults in a similar way.

Disadvantages
1) This study lacks ecological validity. The participants knew they were taking part in an experiment and they therefore are more likely to have paid close attention to the details of the video clip. The results do not reflect real life where witnesses may be exposed to less information.

Question 54

How does anxiety affect eyewitness testimony

Answer 54

DEFINITION : state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from a threatening situation.

When anxiety is high it can impair both physical and psychological functioning.

Several psychologists have suggested that the anxiety that occurs when witnessing a crime can prevent accurate and detailed recall of that crime.

The presence of a weapon during a crime increases anxiety and therefore could impair witnesses’ memory of the crime. People who observe a violent crime will often pay attention to the aspect of the situation posing the most threat to them because of the anxiety these weapons cause.

This means that witnesses who see a violent crime involving a weapon can often describe a criminal’s weapon in great detail, but they cannot recall much about the criminal themselves. This is called the weapon focus effect.

Question 55

Investigating the effect of anxiety on the recall of a crime (Loftus)

Answer 55

There were 2 conditions:
In the experimental condition:

Loftus arranged for participants to overhear a heated and hostile argument between two people.

They heard the sounds of furniture being overturned and broken glass.

Then a man emerged carrying a letter opener covered in blood.

control condition:
participants overheard a conversation between two people about laboratory equipment failure. A man with grease all over his hands emerged carrying a pen.

Participants were then asked to identify the person they had just seen from 50 photos

Findings:

33% of the participants in the bloody letter opener condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the letter opener

49% of the participants in the pen condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the pen.

Loftus argued that this occurred because people in the experimental condition focused on the bloody letter opener rather than the person carrying it, because the letter opener was a weapon that could pose a threat to them.

Question 56

Evaluation of the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony

Answer 56

Advantages:

1) This study is supported by other research studies. Loftus & Burns allocated participants into one of two conditions. One group watched a violent short film where a boy was shot in the head. The other group watched a non-violent short film of a crime. Participants were less accurate in recall when they saw the short film with a gun than those who watched the non-violent movie.

Disadvantages
1) Loftus study lacks ecological validity. Although they were waiting in the reception area outside of the laboratory, they may have anticipated that something was going to happen, which could have affected the accuracy of their judgements and the validity of the study.

2) Loftus study violated many ethical guidelines. The participants were deceived about the nature of the experiment and were not protected from psychological harm. They were exposed to a man who they were led to believe had just killed someone, holding a bloodied knife, which could have caused them extreme distress. Participants may have left the experiment feeling exceptionally stressed, especially if they, or someone they knew, had been involved in knife crime.

3) Yuille and Cutshall investigated the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting, in which one person was killed and another person seriously wounded. 21 witnesses were originally interviewed by investigating police and 13 of these witnesses agreed to take part in a follow-up interview five months later. The witnesses were accurate in their eyewitness accounts five months later and little change was found in their testimony. Those who had been most distressed at the time of the shooting gave the most accurate account. In real life cases leading questions and anxiety do not affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony the same way they do in the laboratory.

4) There are individual differences in how anxiety affects memory. Some people actually have better recall when they are anxious. Christianson and Hubinette conducted a research study using 110 real life eyewitnesses who had witnessed one of 22 bank robberies. Some were onlookers and some were bank clerks who had been directly threatened by the robbers. It was found that victims were more accurate than onlookers in their description of the bank robbers.

Question 57

Fisher et al’s views on the Standard interview

Answer 57

Fisher et al. studied police interviews over a four-month period and found that questions were brief, direct, fact based and closed.

Witnesses were often interrupted and not allowed to expand upon their answers.

He argued that this might be contributing to the failure of eyewitnesses to accurately recall the event they had witnessed.

Question 58

The cognitive interview (Geiselman et al) - the 4 main stages:

Answer 58

1) Context Reinstatement:
- The witness tries to mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment (e.g weather, feelings)
- this may act as context dependent retrieval cues to improve recall.

2) Report Everything:
- Encourage the witness to recall all details about the event - even though they may seem unimportant.
-This may highlight details which have been overlooked and trigger other memories.

3) Recall From Changed Perspective
- The witness tries to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view.
-This promotes a more holistic view of the event which may enhance recall and reduce the influence of schemas.

4) Recall in Reverse Order
- The witness is asked to recall the scene in a different chronological order, e.g. from the end to the beginning.
- This should verify the accuracy of the witnesses’ account and reduce the possibility that recall may be influenced by schemas

Question 59

Enhanced cognitive interview (Fisher)

Answer 59

Fisher added additional guidelines for interviews including:

• Encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly - this reduces anxiety and may enhance recall
• Avoid distractions.
• Use open-ended questions.
• Offer comments to help clarify witness statements - may improve detail

Question 60

Evaluation of the cognitive interview

Answer 60

Advantages:
1) Geiselman et al. showed participants a video of a simulated crime and tested recall using the cognitive interview, standard interview or hypnosis. The cognitive interview led to the most information being recalled by the eyewitnesses.

2) Fisher et al. trained real police officers in Miami to use the enhanced cognitive interview when interviewing eyewitnesses. They found that on average there was a 46% increase in the amount of information witnesses gave. 90% of the information that could be verified was accurate.

Disadvantages:
1) Koehnken et al. found that witnesses recalled more incorrect information when interviewed with the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview technique, perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chance of making a mistake.

2) The cognitive interview is time consuming to implement and police officers often do not have the time, training and resources to use it.

3) Memon et al. reported that police officers believed that Recall From Changed Perspective stage of the cognitive interview misleads witnesses into speculating about the event they witnessed rather than reporting what they actually saw. For this reason the police were reluctant to use it.