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Psychology > Memory > Flashcards

Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the processes of memory?

A

Encoding > Storage > Retrieval

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2
Q

How does our memory work?

A
  • We encode information into our memory.
  • We store it there until we need it.
  • We then retrieve it when we want it.
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3
Q

What is encoding?

A

Taking information into memory and changing it into a form that can be stored.

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4
Q

What is storage?

A

Holding information in the memory system.

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5
Q

What is retrieval?

A

Recovering information from storage.

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6
Q

What are the different ways of encoding?

A
  • Visually
  • Acoustically
  • Semantically
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7
Q

How does information become encoded?

A

When you pay attention to it.

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8
Q

What are the types of encoding?

A
  • Visual encoding
  • Acoustic encoding
  • Semantic encoding
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9
Q

What is visual encoding?

A

What the words look like - you make an image of the information you need to learn.

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10
Q

What is acoustic encoding?

A

What the words sound like - when you repeat something to yourself over and over again so you can hear what they sound like.

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11
Q

What is semantic encoding?

A

What the words mean - when you turn the information into something that you understand like para-phrasing.

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12
Q

What are the different types of memory?

A
  • Episodic memory
  • Semantic memory
  • Procedural memory
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13
Q

What is episodic memory?

A

Unique memories which are concerned with personal experiences or events - like a birthday party or the places you have visited.

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14
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

Our memory for carrying out complex skills. This refers to how to ride a bike or tie your shoelace.

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15
Q

What is semantic memory?

A

Memories which are concerned with general knowledge rather than personal experience. This refers to knowing the capital of France or knowing the meaning of words.

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16
Q

How are memories retrieved?

A
  • Recall
  • Recognition
  • Re-learning
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17
Q

What it is one of the theories linked with memory?

A

Multi-store model of memory.

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18
Q

What does the multi store model of memory say?

A

That information passes through a series of memory stores.

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19
Q

What is the first memory store?

A

The sensory store.

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20
Q

What is the sensory store?

A

It is the memory store that encodes the same way in which it is received from the senses. It has a very limited capacity and is for less than one second.

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21
Q

How do we move from the sensory store into the short- term store?

A

Through attention.

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22
Q

What is the short-term store?

A

It is the memory store that uses acoustic encoding. It can hold approximately seven bits of information for up to thirty seconds.

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23
Q

How do you keep information in the short-term store?

A

Through rehearsal.

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24
Q

How do we move into the short term store to the long-term store?

A

Through semantic encoding.

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25
Q

What is the long-term store?

A

The information becomes encoded semantically and it has an unlimited capacity as well as an unlimited duration.

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26
Q

What is coding?

A

The way that information is represented to be stored.

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27
Q

What are some strengths of this theory?

A
  • There is evidence to support it
    (Murdocks experiment - Primacy and recency effect)
28
Q

What are some limitations of this theory?

A
  • Some information might be rehearsed many times and it still wont move to the long-term store, the multi store model cannot explain this.
  • Can’t explain why some memories are distorted
  • Can’t explain why we can remember some things that we haven’t payed attention to like what we had for breakfast.
29
Q

What was the aim of Murdocks serial position curve study?

A

To see how the recall of lists of words relates to the serial position curve.

30
Q

What was the study design of Murdocks study?

A
  • Laboratory study = control of possible extraneous variables.
  • Procedures were standardised = could easily be replicated.
  • Participants were male and female psychology students who had a course requirement to take place in psychological research.
31
Q

What was the method of Murdocks study?

A
  • 16 participants were presented with a list of 20 words at the rate of 1 word per second.
  • Upon hearing the 20 words - they were asked to recall as many words from the list as they could remember, in any order.
  • They were given 90 seconds to recall the words.
  • This test was then repeated with the same participants 80 times over the next few days.
  • A different list of 20 words were used each time.
32
Q

What were the results found by Murdocks study?

A

The words recalled at the end of the list were recalled the best - due to the recency effect, and the words from the beginning of the list were recalled quiet well due to the primacy effect. The words in the middle of the list were forgotten.

33
Q

How do you draw the serial position curve?

A
34
Q

What was the conclusion from Murdocks study?

A
  • The first few words were recalled well and this is called a primacy effect.
  • The last words were recalled well and this is called the recency effect.
  • The words in the middle of the list were recalled well at all.
35
Q

What are some advantages of Murdocks study?

A
  • In other studies that Murdock carried out, he changed the number of words given to participants as well as the presentation time. Despite this, he got the same results which supported the existence of separate short and long term memory stores.
  • The study was conducted again but with a distraction task.
36
Q

What are some disadvantages of Murdocks study?

A
  • The study lacks ecological validity this is due to the fact that giving a list of words is quite trivial and can’t be applied to daily life situations. People use their memories for exams and work.
  • The participants were all a similar age and were all taking an introductory psychology course. This means that they could try to work out the aim of the study, or impress the experimenter. Would the results found be different if the students were taking a different course.
  • ## Other psychologists view it to be very simplistic to view memory as having one-type of store and suggest that there are multiple stores.
37
Q

What is the primacy effect?

A

More of the first information received is recalled than subsequent later information.

38
Q

What is the recency effect?

A

More of the information received later is recalled than earlier information.

39
Q

What is the serial position effect?

A

The chances of recalling any item depends on its position in the list.

40
Q

How do you explain the serial position effect?

A
  • When we hear words from the start of the list we rehearse them to put them into our long-term store.
  • When we are rehearsing the first words we often miss the words in the middle.
  • We are able to recall the words at the end of the list as they are still in our short-term store so are able to be recalled straight away.
41
Q

What does the theory of reconstructive memory say?

A

Bartlett’s theory proposed that instead memories were reconstructed and interpreted to fit in with the hopes, fears, emotions and previous experiences of individuals.

42
Q

What is reconstructive memory?

A

It is when we alter our recollection of things so that they make more sense to us.

43
Q

What did Bartlett say about memory?

A

That it was an active process that required ‘effort after meaning’, and that it was unreliable.

44
Q

What is effort after meaning?

A

Making sense of something unfamiliar after it has happened.

45
Q

Why do we change our memories?

A

So that they can become more sensible to us, it involves making assumptions or guesses about what could or should have happened

46
Q

What are the advantages of the reconstructive memory theory?

A
  • It teaches us that we should be very careful when giving - or listening to eyewitness accounts of events such as accidents or crimes. The witness might think that they are being accurate but when they are trying to make sense of the situation they might alter the events.
  • Helps us understand why two people who are recalling an event might have two completely different versions of the specific story. This doesn’t mean that one of them is lying - they just believe that their version is accurate.
47
Q

How did Bartlett investigate his theory of reconstructive memory?

A

With a study called ‘War of the ghosts’.

48
Q

What is the aim of Bartletts study?

A

To see if people, when given an unfamiliar story to remember, would alter the information so that it makes more sense to them.

49
Q

What was the design of Bartletts study?

A
  • Laboratory study so there was control of extraneous variables.
  • All procedures were standardised to ensure that the study could be easily replicated.
  • The participants were undergraduate students who were studying English at Cambridge university.
50
Q

What was the method of Bartletts study?

A
  • Each participant was asked to read the story, ‘War of the ghosts’ - a native American folk tale.
  • They were told to read the passage twice to themselves, at their normal reading pace.
  • 15 minutes later they were asked to retell the store to another person, that person then had to retell it to another person and so on and so forth.
  • A record was made of the story that each person reported, allowing Bartlett to know what the changes were from one person to the next.
51
Q

What were the results found after the passage was re-told 10 times?

A
  • Story became much shorter (330 words to 150).
  • There were lots of omissions (All mentions of ghosts disappeared).
  • There were changes to detail (unfamiliar names were changed to familiar ones: Canoes to boats, paddling to rowing)
52
Q

What was the conclusion found from Bartletts study?

A
  • Our memory is not an exact copy of what we hear.
  • It is distorted by what we already know about the world.
  • Our memory is influenced by our own beliefs and stereotypes.
53
Q

What are some advantages of Bartletts study?

A
  • His study is more relevant to how we use our memories in real life - than studies that involve learning lists, referring to how in real life we often tell people about what has been said to us and pass the information on.
  • Murdock was the first person to test memory in a meaningful way - prior to his research memory had only been tested using word lists.
54
Q

What are some disadvantages of Bartletts study?

A
  • Many people disagree that Bartletts study was testing memory in a meaningful way. They say that the story was deliberately confusing and not similar to our everyday experiences.After each retelling he produced written data - which is very difficult to score.
  • Bartlett used students who were studying English at Cambridge university. It was argued that they were likely to be much better at ready and verbalising a story than people who were not studying English.
55
Q

What factors affect the accuracy of memory?

A
  • Interference
  • Context
  • False memories
56
Q

What is interference?

A

The difficulty in recalling information when other memories get in the way.

57
Q

How can interference occur?

A
  • Things that we already know can cause problems when we try to take in new information - you know your old postcode but you can’t remember your new one.
  • New things that we learn can cause problems when we try to recall information that we learned before - you can remember your new postcode, but not your old one.
58
Q

How can we test for interference?

A

By giving a group of participants a list of words to learn, followed by another list of words to learn.
- A second group of participants is only given the first list to learn.
- All participants are then asked to recall the first list.
- The recall of the group who learned both lists are usually much lower than the recall of the second group. - This is due to the fact that the second list of words act as interference.

59
Q

What is context?

A

The general setting or environment in which activities happen.

60
Q

What do studies on context show in comparison to recall?

A

That the recall of information is higher if learning and recall take place in the same place.

61
Q

How can we test for context?

A
  • Deep sea divers were asked to learn a list of words.
  • Some learned and recalled in the same contexts (on shore or underwater), while others learned and recalled in different contexts (learned underwater and were tested on shore).
  • The recall of words were higher when both learning and recall took place in the same context.
62
Q

What are false memories?

A

Remembering something that has never happened.

63
Q

What does research say about false memories?

A

That it is very easy for a false memory to be planted in someones mind.

64
Q

How can we test for false memories?

A
  • Participants are questioned about their childhoods.
  • You can use information from their parents to describe some true events, as well as false events about getting lost in a shopping center.
  • About 25% of participants believed that they had actually been lost and could also give some detail about what had happened when they were lost.
65
Q

Why are some experiments involving false memories being criticised?

A

Due to their lack of a standardised procedure.

66
Q

What are standardised procedures?

A

A set order of carrying out a study that is applied to all participants when necessary.

Psychology (9 decks)

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