Memory Flashcards
What is coding
To enter memory, info must be ‘written’ in a particular format or code
Different memory stores use different codes
What are the different memory codes
Visual (images)
Acoustic (sound)
Semantic (meaning)
What is capacity
The amount of storage space available in memory
Different memory stores have different storage capacities which is measured by number of items that can be held at once
What is duration
Refers to how long information lasts before it is no longer available or forgotten about
Info may be available for less than a second or for many decades
What is the duration of short term memory
18-30 seconds
What is the duration of the long term memory
Potentially forever
What is the capacity of short term memory
7 + / - 2
What is the capacity of the long term memory
Potentially unlimited
How is short term memory coded
Acoustically
How is long term memory coded
Semantically
What is the capacity of the sensory register
9 items
How is information coded into the sensory register
Visual - iconic store
Acoustic - echoic store
What is the duration of information in the sensory register
less than 1s iconic store
2s echoic store
What is the case study of HM
HM had hippocampus removed to control epilepsy.
After surgery was unable to produce long term memories. Short term memory was unaffected
Suggests memory is not unitary
What research reflects the idea memory comprises separate stores
HM
What are the 3 main assumptions about memory (MSM)
There are 3 separate stores
These stores are unitary
Information is transferred through rehearsal
Who conducted research into the sensory register
Sperling
Explain sterling’s research into the sensory register
To investigate capacity and duration of iconic store
Used a tachistoscope to present 12 symbols to participants for 1/20 of a second. PP’S had to recall high, medium, low row of letters
As long as sound was sounded within 250 Millie seconds participant could report 3 out of 4 symbols
Capacity or iconic store is about 75% duration is about 1 second
Who researched duration of STM
Brown-Peterson
Explain Brown-Peterson technique study on STM
PP’S shown nonsense trigrams asked to remember, prevented rehearsal by counting backwards in intervals, told to recall trigrams
3 second interval = 80% correct
18 second interval = 10% recalled correct
Some people can retain info up to 30s but this is max
Who conducted research into the capacity of STM
Jacobs
Explain jacobs research into STM
Investigate capacity
List of digits presented at half second intervals - PP’S to recall list in correct order
Participants on average could hold 5-9 items
Who investigated coding in STM
Conrad
How did Conrad investigate coding STM
PP’S shown series of random sequences of six consonants in rapid succession and asked to write letters in correct order
PP’S found it more difficult to recall acoustically using similar sounds than dissimilar
STM codes acoustically
Who researched the duration of LTM
Bahrick
Explain Bahrick’s research into the duration of LTM
Graduate yearbooks traced, time since graduation was two weeks to 57 years. PP’S asked to match pictures with names after free recalling names
Free recall was 50% at 3 months but dropped to 20% after 40 years
LTM may last forever but whether it can be accessed depends on circumstances
Who conducted research into coding of LTM
Baddeley
Explain Baddeley research into coding of LTM
70 young servicemen split into 4 groups presented with same words but order changed for each group, asked to write down in order
Difference in recall between semantically similar words (55% accurate) and semantically dissimilar words (85% accurate)
Evaluate multi store memory model
Supporting evidence from study’s (bahreck and Baddeley)
Challenging evidence
Some challenge idea of unitary STM AND LTM
Suggested multiple components instead of one store as working memory model claims. Tulving argued LTM is subdivided.
MSM too simplistic
Researcher challenge rehearsal importance
Not always required - sometimes remember unrehearsed info but unable to recall rehearsed info
Hyde and Jenkins found no difference in recall between group who told to be expected to recall words and group who wasn’t
Role of rehearsal less important than claimed
Who created the working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch
What are the different components of the working memory model
Central executive
Phonological loop
(Primary acoustic store)
(Articulately control process)
Episodic buffer
Visuospatial sketchpad
(Inner scribe)
(Visual cashe)
Long term memory
Describe the role of the central executive in the WMM
Pay attention to tasks and allocate working memory recourses to complete tasks
Can take over slave systems when overloaded
Recourses are ‘slave systems’
Capacity = very limited
Coding = modality free
Describe the role of the phonological loop
Slave system concerned with auditory and speech based info
Phonological store - (inner ear) holds words that are heard for a brief period of time
Articulating rehearsal system - (inner voice) allows maintenance rehearsal of spoken words - silently repeated in a loop until needed
Coding = acoustic
Capacity = 2 seconds worth of what’s said
How is the central executive coded
Modality free
What is the capacity of the central executive
Very limited
What are the names of the two stores in the phonological loop slave system
Phonological store
Articulatory rehearsal system
How is the phonological loop coded
Acoustically
What is the capacity of the phonological loop
2 seconds of what’s said
Describe the Visuo-spatial sketch pad of the WMM
Slave system referred to as ‘inner eye’
Visual cache - store and process info associated with shape and colour
Inner scribe - store and process info about arrangements of objects in visual field
Coding = visual
Capacity = 3-4 objects
What are the names of the stores in the Visuo - spatial sketchpad slave system
Visual cache
Inner scribe
How is the visuo spatial sketchpad coded
Visual
What is the capacity of the visuo spatial sketchpad
3-4 objects
Describe the episodic buffer of the WMM
Combines info processed by other slave systems and interacts with LTM
a general store to hold any information
Coding = modality free
Capacity = 4 chunks of info
How is the episodic buffer coded
Modality free
What is the capacity of the episodic buffer
4 chunks of info
Explain Robbins research into the working memory model
12 chess players given 3 minutes to choose next chess move whilst doing one of 3 options which would either use the phonological loop, central executive or visuo spatial sketchpad
Making up meaningless letter sequences led to poorer quality chess movements
People’s performance is impacted when completing two tasks that place demands on the same components of the working memory model, however people could complete 2 tasks concurrently if they require separate components
Evaluate the working memory model
Supportive evidence
Robbins research, showing performance impaired if completing two tasks which use the same component.
Suggests WMM provides an accurate account of STM since it is able to explain and predict the performance of participants in these dual task studied - confidence that STM is subdivided
Challenge use of studies of patients with brain damage
Brain injury may lead to cognitive difficulties and this may explain why individuals underperform in memory tasks
Therefore hard to generalise to those who haven’t had brain injury
Theory is based on evidence which may be flawed, question extent to which theory is supported
Challenging evidence regarding views of the central executive.
Seemed to be most important but little is known about it.
Appears to have similar functions to ‘attention’ which may be too vague as there may be more to it.
Patient EVR had tumour removed, after this performed poorly on decision making but well on tests of reasoning. Suggesting central exec is not unitary.
Central exec may be more complex than WMM implies
Describe episodic memory
Our ability to recall events from our lives
E.g - what you are for breakfast or a holiday last year
Make a conscious effort to recall an episodic memory - you are aware you are actively searching for the memory
(Tulving eat al)
Known as declarative or explicit memory
What did Tulving propose about long term memory
There are 3 types
Episodic
Semantic
Procedural
What are features of episodic memory
Remembering what happened
Different parts of memory woven together into one part - connected in the hippocampus to create memory of an event rather than a collection of separate memory’s
Memory can be strong or weak - strength of memory is influenced by our emotions at the time of the memory - traumatic events tend to be well recalled as well as a highly processed event
Explain research into episodic memory’s LTM
Clive wearing contracted a virus which affected his hippocampus - prior to this he was a musician
He can still play the piano but can not recall episodic memories, he recognises his wife however if she leaves the room for a minute he will greet her as if he hasn’t seen her in ages
Describe semantic memory’s LTM
Knowledge about the world - lots of people may know
• capital cities
• age children start school
• what a fridge does
Tend to begin as episodic memories as we acquire knowledge through personal experiences - overtime becomes semantic
Stronger if processed more deeply during coding - conscious effort to recall memories
Brain scans suggest temporal and frontal lobes are active when processing or recalling semantic memories
Where are semantic memories coded
Temporal and frontal lobes
Where are episodic memories coded
Collected at hippocampus
Who conducted research into semantic memories
Herlitz
Explain research into semantic memories LTM
Herlitz investigated gender differences in semantic memories found no difference between males and females in semantic memory ability
Describe procedural memory
Concerned with skills - very little conscious effort needed to recall (implicit memory).
Allows us to focus attention on other tasks
•riding a bike
• walking
• speaking
Associated with cerebellum and primary motor cortex
What part of the brain is procedural memory associated with
Cerebellum
Primary motor cortex
Evaluate types of long term memory
Supportive evidence from brain scans which reveal when different parts of the brain are active with different LTM tasks episodic associated with hippocampus. Semantic associated with temporal and frontal. Procedural associated with cerebellum and motor cortex.
Suggests Tulving correct in proposing different types of LTM
challenged distinction between episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memory’s are needed to form semantic memory’s as we acquire knowledge through personal experiences. May only be two types of LTM
Practical applications
Belleville found older people with mild cognitive impairment could be taught to have improved episodic memories.
Being able to identify different types of LTM allows psychologists to have a positive impact on people’s lives with memory issues
Explain proactive and retroactive interference as an explanation for forgetting
Interference occurs when content is very similar
Proactive - where an older memory interferes with a newer one - meaning newer information gets forgotten
Retroactive - where a newer memory interferes with an older memory meaning the older memory is forgotten
What is an example of proactive interference
Studying German for 5 years at school then start to learn Italian at college but can only recall German vocabulary
What is an example of retroactive interference
Learning the number of your new mobile and forgetting your old mobile
Who researched into proactive and retroactive interference
McGeoch and McDonald
Underwood
Explain McGeogh and McDonald’s research into proactive and retroactive interference
Investigated similarity of material on retroactive interference
3 groups given same list of 10 words to learn, once they could recall with 100% accuracy had an interval of 10 mins they learned lost B ( each group had a different set of words then asked to recall list A again
The accuracy of recalling list A depended on content in list B showing retroactive interference is strongest when content learned is very similar
Explain Underwoods research into proactive and retroactive interference
Investigated proactive interference using a meta analysis
Found participants are asked to learn list of unrelated words their recall of new info declines with each successive list learned.
The more lists learned the harder it is to recall - proactive interference
Evaluate proactive and retroactive interference as an explanation of forgetting
Supporting evidence McGeogh and McDonald - strength as lab experiment used which controls for extraneous variables increasing confidence in drawing conclusions about cause and affect - that interference is accurate explenation of forgetting
Some psychologists challenged use of lab experiments to support interference theory as these studies use meaningless stimulus material and are done over a short period of time. Conditions rarely encountered in every day life, questions whether these studies can be used as they lack ecological validity
Practical application - interference found when people exposed to adverts from competing brands within short space of time. Study found recall and recognition of advert message was impaired when participants shown two adverts of competing brands in one week. Problem for companies as they spend lots on advertising - lead to strategies which may reduce interference such as exposing viewers to adverts multiple times in one day. Success of this strategy shows theory may be accurate
Explain retrieval failure due to absence of cues as an explenation of forgetting
Memories can not be recalled because the correct cues are not present. A cue is something that acts as a reminder
Retrieval cues can be meaningful linked to content to be remembered or they may not be meaningful but may be down to factors such as the environment and your emotions at the time
Forgetting occurs because of a lack of accessibility rather than availability
2 types
Context depending forgetting
State dependent forgetting
What is context dependent forgetting
Occurs if the relevant environmental variables that were present when learning took place are absent to recall
Eg - people tend to better recall if they are in the same room learning occurred
What is state dependent forgetting
Occurs in the absence of physical or psychological variables that were present during learning these act as internal cues such as the mood someone was in
Explain research into retrieval failure due to absence of cues
Tulving and Pearlstone
PP’S asked to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories. 2 recall categories (recall freely) or recall when categories where cued
40% recalled freely
60% recalled cue
Suggests we are more likely to remember info if a cue is present that was present at the time of learning
Goodwin et al
Investigated state dependent forgetting - asked male pp’s to remember a list of words when they where drunk or sober - asked to recall 24 hours later when some where drunk and some where sober
Best recall from those sober learning and recalling. Shows info is more available when in the same state during recall
Evaluate retrieval failure due to absence of cues as an explanation of forgetting
Supporting evidence - retrieval failure occurs due to absence of cues from lab and field experiments as well from anecdotal evidence. Strength because having many studies support explanation gives us confidence retrieval failure may be accuracy
Some psychologists challenged lab experiments as studies carried out in artificial settings where PP’S change state for investigating (eg being drunk) . In everyday life these circumstances rarely exist. This questions whether studies can be used to support idea as they have low ecological validity
Practical applications - students can apply explenation through revision
Revising in a room where exam may be taken may improve recall or thinking about the room you revised in may create a ‘mental reinstatement’ which has also been applied to cognitive interviews. Success in these strategies would suggest retrieval failure may be an accurate explanation of forgetting
What is an eye witness testimony
A legal term referring to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed - also an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory
Juries tend to pay a lot of attention to eyewitness testimony
What factors may affect an eyewitness testimony
Misleading information
Leading questions
Post event discussion
Explain how misleading information can affect eyewitness testimony
Misleading information is content given to an eyewitness that can influence the recall of an event
Elizabeth Loftus was one of the first to suggest misleading info could introduce errors in an eyewitnesses recall of events
Misleading info may take place through being asked leading questions or during post event discussion
What is a leading question
Questions that are phrased in such a way as to prompt a particular response
Explain loftus and palmer research into eyewitness testimony
Lab experiment
45 students shown seven films of car accidents
After each film asked to describe accident, one critical question asked groups how fast cars either ‘collided, bumped, smashed, contacted, hit’
Wording affects response as harder sounding students put faster for example smash was the fastest
Follow up experiment they where asked if they had seen broken glass (there wasn’t any) 32% of the smashed group said yes compared to 14% of the hit group
Leading questions can change actual memory of event
What is post event discussion
Conversations held between eyewitness and another person, this can lead to the memory of an event being altered or contaminated
Explain Gabbert eat al research into post event discussion with other eye witnesses
Participants watched video of crime in pairs - from different viewpoints and discussed what they saw
71% participants incorrectly reported aspects of the crime they had not seen but was mentioned after
Suggests eyewitnesses go along with each other which could be to gain social approval ‘memory conformity’
Explain post event discussion with interviewers
When an eyewitness is interviewed, comments from the interviewer may become incorporated into the eyewitnesses memory/events
Makes repeat interviewing damaging
Evaluate research into misleading information
Supporting evidence - loftus and palmer found leading questions could influence participants response and Gabert found participants recall could be influenced by discussing eyewitness with other individuals - supports idea that misleading info can lead to EWT being less accurate
Challenged use of lab experiments to support misleading info can lead to EWT being less accurate. Participants in study are aware they are taking part in research and may not try as hard to recall info as they would in real life, participants in experiment also less likely to be emotional as they would in real life (Foster showed participants more likely to recall info from real crime)
Not all misleading info misleads to the same extent - the elderly and very young are more susceptible to misleading info. We cannot say misleading info will affect all EWT the same way. Misleading info may also be limited to less important info or details. Loftus and Palmer focused on details from peripheral details. It may be harder to distort central details than it is minor details such as broken glass. We cannot argue with certainty all misleading info leads to immaculate recollections
What is anxiety
An unpleasant emotional state that is often accompanied by an increased heart rate and rapid breathing
Why does anxiety have a negative effect on the accuracy of EWT
When we are anxious, fight or flight to concentrate on basic tasks required for survival, memorising an event is complex so ability to do so is reduced when we witness stressful event - we recall less
Weapon focus - seeing a weapon causes anxiety and distracts attention away from everything else - eyewitness focused on weapon so when asked to recall struggles to recall anything other than weapon
Explain Johnson and Scott research into anxiety and EWT
Investigated weapon focus
PP’S asked to sit in a waiting room when heard argument next door - then saw man running through room with a pen covered in grease (low anxiety) or a knife covered in blood (high anxiety) participants asked to recall man from 50 photos
Pp’s in pen condition accurately recalled 49% of time, knife group recalled 33% of time
Why does anxiety have a positive effect on EWT
high anxiety leads to production of lasting memory’s. Evolutionary psychologists argue it would be advantageous to remember events that are emotionally impacted
Evaluate research into anxiety and eye witness testimony
Supportive evidence - Johnson and Scott found participants who were less anxious were more able to recall info correctly compared to pp’s who where more anxious. yuille and cutshall found recall more accurate for individuals who were most anxious. Although findings differ for anxiety increasing or decreasing memory, research shows clearly anxiety has an impact and supports both sides of argument. Conflicting research has also lead to additional research of why anxiety might affect people differently, consequently increasing our understanding in this area.
Challenging evidence -researchers usually interview real life witnesses, sometimes after the event during which time participants have spoke about the event with others, read accounts of the event and have been interviewed by the police. This means participants may be subject to misleading info. Researcher has no control over extraneous variables which means effect of anxiety on memory is almost impossible to assess by time participants are studied by researcher.
Researchers challenge use of lab experiments. Many studies show participants a staged crime. Participants are aware they’re in a study and may work out what they are going to be asked to recall after. Demand characteristics may lead participants to respond in a way that does not reflect their natural behaviour, findings are in accurate.
Research challenged idea of weapon focus by suggesting reduced accuracy when weapon is present is due to surprise not anxiety. Pickel conducted an experiment and found participants were poorer at the high suprise condition than the high anxiety condition. This questions whether research studies investigating weapon focus tell us anything useful about the effect of anxiety on EWT
What is the cognitive interview
The cognitive interview is a response to criticisms of the standard traditional police interviews to eye witness testimony’s where the police did most of the talking and used closed questions which would provide in accurate information and cause witnesses to withhold information that could be important. Geisleman and Fisher developed four stages of cognitive interview.
Recreate the context - witness is asked to mentally recreate both environment and emotional context of the event, what they could smell, what they could hear, what the weather was like
Report everything - witness encouraged to recall anything that comes to mind even if it seems irrelevant or incomplete
Recall in different orders - witness asked to recall event in different orders
Change perspective - witness asked to recall from what other eye witnesses might’ve seen
What theory underpins cognitive interview?
Based on Tulvings encoding specificity theory which suggests as many retrieval cues as possible should be used to aid memory retrieval. Report everything works as details which seem irrelevant can trigger important memory’s.
Second two stages are designed to increase accurate recall because they disrupt an eyewitness use of previous knowledge and expect actions - reduce impact of schemas on recall. Asking witness to recall event in reverse also reduces dishonesty as it’s harfer to produce account this way
What is the enhanced cognitive interview
Geisleman and Fisher amended the cognitive interview to improve it with extra features
No distractions
No interruptions
Encourage witness to speak slow and relax
Offer comments to help clarify statement
Who made the cognitive interview and which year
Geisleman and Fisher 1985
Who enhanced the cognitive interview and which year
1987 Geisleman and fisher
Who researched the effectiveness of the cognitive interview
Geisleman
Explain Geisleman research into the cognitive interview
Investigated whether the cognitive interview improved EWT
Participants shown police training film of violent crime and interviewed 48 hours later using cognitive interview or standard interview
Found no difference between two types of interview in amount of incorrect information recalled
Standard interview produced least amount of information
More accurate information found from cognitive interview
Suggests cognitive interview more effective way of obtaining information
Evaluate the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eye witness testimony
Supporting evidence - Geisleman also conducted a meta analysis of 53 studies and found 34% more accurate information found in cognitive interview compared to standard. Strength because it indicated real practical benefits for police of using cognitive interview as it increases chance of catching criminals which benefits society.
Psychologists challenged conclusions made by researchers who have investigated whether cognitive interview improves EWT as cognitive interview is a collection of techniques not a set procedure. Means researchers conducting experiments may use different lab techniques, evidence of police officers in real world using different techniques too. This makes assessing effectiveness of cognitive interview very difficult since research studies are not necessarily measuring the same variable.
Cognitive interview was developed to increase quantity of correct recall without decreasing quality. Investigations claim cognitive interview is effective in terms of quantity but ignores quality. Researcher found found those using enhanced cognitive interview recalled 81% more accurate info but also 61% more inaccurate info. Suggests police need to treat all info collected with caution as procedure does not guarantee accuracy of EWT
Weakness - interviews are time consuming. More time is needed to establish rapport with witness compared to standard police interview. More interview training required, adds to police pressure. It’s likely that ‘full’ versions have not been used reducing overall effectiveness of these interview techniques
