memory Flashcards
who made multi store memory model
atkinson and shiffrin
explain the multistore memory model
-human memory has 3 distinct stores; sensory memory, STM and LTM
this is divided into echoic and iconic memory
attention needs to be paid for information to be passed on from the STM to the LTM. The capacity of the STM is limited, if new information enters the STM memory the old information is pushed out due to the limited capacity (7+/-2) info is coded acoustically
stays for approx 18 seconds
when information reaches the LTM it has unlimited capacity and is coded semantically
info can be lost due to interference
evaluation of the multi store memory model
+jacobs supports as he found pps recalled an average of 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters on a memory test. This shows the capacity of STM is limited
- most of the research to support the theory is lab-based which means that it lacks ecological validity as it doesn’t reflect how the memory works in real life- difficult to value the theory - model is oversimplified so doesn’t take into account the nature of the information and how easy it is to remember each thing
+case of clive wearing supports the theory as he lost his long term memory but not his short term memory- this shows that the ST and LT memory are separate
-However, this case lacks generalisability as it was only one unique case so can’t rely on it as supporting evidence
- may forget info even when you rehearse it eg in an exam. This suggests that rehearsal is nit the most important part of memory but what you do with the information is more important.
what is coding
the format in which information is stored in memory
what study supports coding
Baddely- coding in STM and LTM
explain baddely’s coding experiment
AIM
explore the effects of acoustic and semantic encoding in STM and LTM. The pps were presented with a random sequence of 5 words in the following categories
-acoustically similar words
-acoustically dissimilar words
-semantically similar words
-semantically dissimilar words
pps had to recall the words in order immediately after to test STM
to test LTM each list of words was extended to ten and presented four times. Recall was tested after an interval of 20 minutes during the time the patients were prevented from recalling the words.
CONCLUSION
pps had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM
pps had difficulty remembering semantically similar words in the LTM but not the STM
STM relies on acoustic encoding
LTM relies on semantic encoding
what does capacity mean
the amount of information that can be held in a memory state
who studies capacity
jacobs- capacity of STM
explain jacobs study
AIM
measure capacity of STM
digit span technique was used
pps presented with a sequence of letters or numbers which comprised of at least 3 digits
all letters were used apart from w and 7 because they had 2 syllables
had to serial recall the digits straight after
increased the amount of digits by 1 everytime until pps only accurately recalled 50% of the time
CONCLUSION
difference for capacity of numbers and letters easier to recall numbers
average recall 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters
what does duration mean
length of time information can be kept in the memory
who studies duration
perterson and perterson- duration of STM
bahrick et al- duration of LTM
explain peterson and petersons study
AIM
24 uni students presented with a nonsense trigram
read aloud to pps
immediately after pps had to count backward in 3s until told to stop
pps were asked to recall trigram with different retention intervals
CONCLUSION
80% of items were recalled correctly with a 3 second interval
10% items were recalled correctly with an 18-second interval
explain bahrick et al research
AIM
establish length of memories that can be retained
392 graduates from an american high school were provided with a memory test
free recall- pps remeber names of people who they graduated with
photo recognition- pps were given a group of names and had to match names with photos
photo recall- pps name people in the photos
name recognition- pps identified nsames from a list
CONCLUSION
photo and name recognition were 90% correct 34 years after graduation
48 years after pps were 80% accurate in name recognition and 40% photo recognition
free recall- 60% accurate 15 years later 30% accurate after 48 years
evaluation for coding capacity and duration
- wouldnt be asked these questions in real life so lacks ecological validity
+lab experiment so high control variables and standardised so can replicate
-research conducted a long time ago so has temporal validity issues
-research was based on limited samples so hard to generlise
who did the working memory model
baddely and hitch
explain the working memory model
theory of short term memory
different types
-central executive- important component of working memory model and acts like a conductor- coordinates the activity of the two slave systems
limited capacity
-phonological loop- responsible for processing phonological info (sounds)
can store for around 20-30 seconds
2 subcomponents- phonological store and the articulatory process
info decays after 2 secs
-visuo-spacial sketch pad- inner eye
capacity of 3-4 objects
-eposodic buffer-
binds all info together
capacity is 4 chunks
evaluation of the working memory model
+baddelly et al- aim to test the capacity of the phonological loop- 5 short words or 5 long words
recalled more shot words compared to long words
estimates capacity is 1.5 seconds
+ evidence from PET scans
- vague and difficult to test scientifically- specifically the central executive.
- ethical issues- require dual tasks which cause distress
+ wmm is useful and is often used to help recruit for certain jobs. for example the us airforce. results on a us recruits wmm capacity correlated with scores on their intelligence test. can be used as a measure of intelligence in real life.
explanations of forgetting
interference theory
retrieval failure theory
interference theory
occur in LTM
pieces of info conflict with each other
usually between old and new memories
memory is available but just needs accessing
2 types
proactive- old memory interferes with a new one
retroactive- new memory interferes with an old one
evaluation of the interference theory
-most of the research used to support this theory is lab-based so lacks ecological validity and not representative of life
-theory states that absence of cues results in forgetting, claims that cues available during learning are absent during recall- contradicts interference theory
- doesn’t take into account that certain types of info might be forgotten more easily
+ used to apply in real life education- students should avoid revising similar things in the same space of time
what is retrieval failure theory
-cue dependent forgetting applies to long term memory , suggests that forgetting occurs due to the lack of cues for retrieval
-cues are bits of info to guide us to what we are looking for
context dependent recall- depends on cue from external enviroment. recall is more likely to occur if the learning enviroment is similar to the recall enviroment
state dependent recall- this requires a physiological cue.
evaluation of the retrieval theory
+ godden and baddely- studied 18 divers at a university diving club in scotland. Given word lists to learn. carried out over 4 days. everyone took part in both conditions. either presented at the beach or 20ft under sea. asked recall would either be same location or different. List presented twice with 10 second gap. the pps heard 15 digits and had to either stay where they were or move. Waited 4 mins then recalled. FINDINGS- recall was 50% higher when took place in same enviroment
-this study lacked ecological validity as its not reflective of real life. may not be useful to support the model
+ useful. explains ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomena- explains real life behaviour
+ real life application- used in exam performance.
what study was used to investigate leading questions in eye witness testomonies
loftus and palmer- verb study
what was loftus and plamers study on leading questions
investigate whether leading questions affected speed estimates of a car involved in an accident
45 pps were placed in 5 conditions of a lab experiment, pps watched 7 clips about the car crash and then asked qus
verb was changed- bump hit collided smashed contacted and had to estimate speed of car
CONCLUSION
smashed+ highest estimated speed 40.8 mph
contacted + lowestr speed estimated 31.8 mph
evaluation of loftus and palmer leading qus
-low in ecological validity as not a natural setting. In real lie there would be other factor affecting your memory also stress and emotion and not interviewed straight after.
+ high reliability as extranuous variables such as the enviroiment setting was standardised
-pps may work out the aim and suffer demand characteristics- decreases validity
+ independant design was used so less liekly to suffer boredem affects and will not work out that the verb is being manipulated
- pps knew consequences were not real so may not have taken it seriously- lowers validity
+ research can be used to to warn justice system of the lack of validity in EWT
what study was used to investigate post event discussion
gabbert et al
what was gabbert et al post event discussion study
to see if post event discussion lead to inaccuracies in EWT
each pps watched the video of the same crime but from different POV this meant some pps could see things others couldn’t
pps discussed what they had seen and there was a conrol group with no discussion
CONCLUSION- 71% of pps recalled aspects of the event they hadn’t seen in the video but picked up from the discussion
0% of conrol group recalled false info
who studies the influence of anxiety into anxiety of EWT
deffenbacher et al
loftus et al
yuille and cutshall
what was defenbachers study
meta analysis of 18 studies looking at the effect of anxiety of EWT and found there was alot of evidence to suggest that high levels of stress negatively impacts the accuracy of EWT
what was loftus et al study into EWT
see if weapon focus affected the recall of an EWT
2 conditions which involved pps overhearing a discussion about equipment failure
condition 1= amicable conversation with person emerging with pen
condition 2= heated dicussion with sound of overturned furniture and person with bloody paperknife
pps asked to identifyfrom 50 photos
CONCLUSION
1= 49% accurate
2= 33% accurate
concluded weapon focus distracts person
what was yuille and cutshalls study into EWT
see if stress affected recall in an real life shooting
21 individuals witnessed a real life shooting outside a real gun shop in canada
police interviewed witnesses 5months later 13 witnesses were reinterviews
two misleading qus were asked and pps rated stress on a 7 point scale
CONCLUSION
recall was accurate 10/13 weren’t affected by leading qus
more stressed = more accurate
evaluation of yuille and cutshalls study
+ high validity as witnessed experienced a real life event- natural reactions
-study was carried out 5 months after so doesn’t affect how quickly they would have been interviewed in real life- decreases validity
-research lacks population validity as onl;y 13 pps used so doesn’t reflect target population
-seen as unethical to make witnesses recall a traumatic event
- field experiment so lacks ecological validity- unable to control extrenous variables
what is the cognitive interview
developed by fisher and geiselman
report everything
context reinforcement- metally recreate the original context in which the event occured
change in order
change in perspective
enhanced cognitive interview:
-avoid distractions
-witness control flow of info
-ask open ended questions
-get witness to speak slowly
-pps reminded not to guess
-reduce anxiety
evaluation of cognitive interview
+stein and memon- tested effectiveness in brazil. cleaners ata large university watched videos of an abduction and it was found that CI increased the amount of correct into recalled- could prevent miscarriges in justice
-number of practical issues- very time consuming an time is often unavailable- not useful in real life
- not suitable on young children as complicated - eg change in order may confuse them. decreases validity
how long does echoic memory hold information for
echoic memory holds auditory information for 2 seconds
how long does iconic memory hold information for
iconic memory hold visual information for a second
what are the types of long term memory
episodic memory
semantic memory
procedural memory
what is episodic memory
long term memory store used for personal events. included memories of when events happened, the people involved and behaviours involved. the strength of episodic memories are influenced by the emotions at the time of coding.
have to make a conscious effort to recall.
prefrontal cortex is associated.
3 elements- specific detail of the event, context, emotion
explicit memory
what is semantic memory
contains our knowledge of the world and meaning of things. More concerned with the facts and contains an collection of material.
frontal and temporal lobes.
linked with episodic memory.
explicit memory
what is procedural memory
memory for skills and actions. we can recall this information without consicus awarness. often occur in early life.
implicit memory
evaluation of types of long term memory
+ clive wearing- case study supports the view that there are different types of LTM. episodic memory was severly impaired as a consequence of amnesia. clive could stll walk and talk and learn new skills suggesting that his procedural and semantic memory as still intact but he could not form any more personal, episodic memories.
- case studies lack validity as there is no controls over different variables so no cause and effect relationship could be established.
- difficult to establish which part of the brain has been affected until after the patient has died. most studies are conducted on living patients. reduces the validity of the findings
+ evidence for epidodic memory comes from Tulving et al. they got the pps to perform memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. they found episodic memory and semantic memory were both recalled from an area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. left side of the prefrontal cortex was more active for semantic memories and right side was more active for episodic memories.
+ real life application. use this knowledge to improve peoples lives. teaching memory strategfies such as computer based attetion training and imagery in older people who had mild cognitive impairments.
