Memory Flashcards
Abernethy (1940)
arranged for a group of students to be tested weekly prior to a certain course beginning. Some were tested in their classroom by their teacher, some in their classroom by a different teacher, some in a different classroom with their teacher and some in a different classroom with a different teacher. The group tested in their classroom by their teacher did best
Accessibility
information that was once stored is difficult to retrieve
Alkhalifa (2009)
described the case of a patient with severely impaired long-term memory who, nevertheless, demonstrated a short-term memory capacity of up to twenty-five prose items, exceeding the capacity of both the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad, supporting the idea of an episodic buffer that holds information in working memory until it is recalled
Anterograde Amnesia
shown by Patient HM, who was unable to form new explicit memories (episodic and semantic)
Articulatory Process
holds words that are heard or seen and silently loops them like an inner voice; a type of maintenance rehearsal
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
suggested there are three stages to get to long-term memory (sensory register, short term, then long term) who suggested we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information and that there are three variables that can be used to describe the stores that information passes through: coding, capacity and duration
Availability Problem
where information is pushed out of STM due to limited duration and capacity
Baddeley and Hinch (1970)
participants were asked to perform two tasks simultaneously, either two tasks involving the articulatory loop or one task involving the articulatory loop and one taks involving both the central executive and articulatory loop. They found that participants did better in tasks that required separate parts of the brain, which supports the working model of memory
Baddeley and Hitch (1977)
involved asking rugby players to try and remember the names of teams they had played so far in the season, week by week. Most of the players had missed at least some games. The results clearly showed that accurate recall did not depend on how long ago the matches took place, more important was the number of games played in the meantime. However, Baddeley himself stated that the tasks given to participants were too close together and in real life, the events would be more spaced out, which might affect results
Bransford and Johnson Experiment
a number of experiments which illustrated the role of schemata in our understanding and recall of information. I one experiment, participants were read a passage and asked to recall it as accurately as possible. Half were given a title and half were not. The half that were given a title remembered the passage better, as the title provides a schema so information can be appropriately stored and recalled more easily
Bunge et al (2000)
used fMRI scans to see which parts of the brain were most active when participants were doing two tasks. He found that the same brain areas were active in either dual or single task conditions but there was significantly more activation in dual task conditions
Capacity of LTM
potentially infinite
Capacity of STM
five to nine digits, but digits are recalled better than letters, increases with age
Capacity of STM Experiment
by George Miller in 1956, involves an experimenter listing random sequences of numbers, making the sequence longer each time until the participants can no longer accurately recall the sequence
Carter and Cassaday (1998)
looked at the effect of anti-histamines, giving anti-histamines to their participants. They had a mild sedative effect and this created a psychological state different from the normal. The participants had to learn lists of words and then recall them. In conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, there was more forgetting
Central Executive
this decides how slave systems are allocated. It has limited capacity; data arrives from senses but can’t be held for long
Ceraso (1967)
showed that if participants in the Baddeley and Hitch study were tested 24 hours later, there is significant recovery so interference may be temporary. This research does not investigate whether information has disappeared or can be recovered later
Clifford and Scott (1978)
found that people who saw aviolent film attack remembered fewer items of information than a control group whosaw a less stressful version, showing that stress has a negative on recall
Clive Wearing
a man whose hippocampus was destroyed by a virus leaving him unable to form new memories
Close Reading
according to studies on memory, if you want to memorise something, you should only close read after first having skim-read something
Coding of Memory Experiment
done by Alan Baddeley in 1966, involved getting a group of participants to recall various lists of words in the correct order, either immediately or after being given a twenty-minute distraction task, lists of words were acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar
Coding of LTM
generally semantically
Coding of STM
generally acoustically
Cognitive Interview
developed by Fisher and Geiselman in 1992, involves four components
Reporting Everything
a component of cognitive interview, ask the witness to record every detail of the event, without asking leading questions, allowing the witness to go off on tangents
Mental Reinstatement/Original Context
a component of cognitive interview, mentally recreate the original context or go back to the scene of the crime
Changing the Order
a component of cognitive interview, trying alternative timelines through the incident
Changing the Perspectitve
a component of cognitive interview, imagining how it would appear to other witnesses
Coker (2013)
found that an ECI that placed greater emphasis on the use of focused mental imagery produced more accurate details than standard CI
Concept Formation
the process of forming concepts, for example, ‘animal’ is a concept that involves sub-concepts such as ‘birds’, ‘fish’ or ‘mammals’, which can then be further divided. It is easier to remember things if you can make links between concepts
Consolidation
the rehearsal process to move information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory
Daffenbacher (1983)
reviewed 21 studies and hypothesised that stress and performance follows a u-curve. Witnesses are either too stressed because something excited and dangerous is happening or are under-stressed because they didn’t realise that they witnessed a crime
Darley et al (1973)
had participants hide money when high, found they were better at finding it if they were high
Decay
forgetting in short-term memory because there isn’t enough time for maintenance rehearsal
Declarative Memory
theorised by Cohen, memories that are consciously recalled, suggesting that episodic and semantic memories are the same
D’Esposito (1995)
used fMRI scans and identified that the pre-frontal cortex is activated when verbal and spatial tasks are performed at the same time, suggesting the pre-frontal cortex is involved in the central executive
Digit Span
the amount of numbers someone can fit into their short-term memory
Digit Span Test
developed by Jacobs in 1887, this involves a researcher giving a number of a digits and the participant has to recall them all in order. The researcher then increases the amount by one and the participant has to recall again until they cannot recall the correct order
Displacement
forgetting in short-term memory because there is not enough capacity
Duration of LTM
potentially infinite
Duration of LTM Experiment
an experiment by Harry Bahrick in 1975, involved testing people on their high school graduation class by asking them to list their names or match names to faces, proved that long-term memory can last forever, but deteriorates after a certain amount of time, especially after the age of 75
Duration of STM
around 18 seconds
Duration of STM Experiment
done by Peterson and Peterson in 1959, involves giving a person a consonant trigram to remember, then asking them to count back in threes from a three digit number before repeating the trigram. The time elapsed increases by three seconds each time until the participant can no longer remember the trigram
Encoding Specificity Principle
in 1983, Tulving’s research into retrieval failure discovered a consistent pattern to the findings. He summarised this pattern in what he called the ESP. This states that if a cue is to help us to recall information then it has to be present at encoding and retrieval
External Cues
context-dependent cue
Internal Cue
state-dependent
Endel Tulving
in 1885, realised that the multi-store model’s view of long term memory was too simplistic and inflexible, so proposed that there are three types of long-term memory containing different types of information
Enhanced Cognitive Interview
Fisher et al (1987) developed additional elements of the cognitive interview. The enhanced cognitive interview focused on the social dynamics of the interaction, eye contact, minimising distractions, reducing anxiety, open-ended questions and slow speech
Episodic Buffer
was added as Baddeley realised the model needed a more general store. This has a limited capacity of four chunks and integrates information from all other areas
Episodic Memory
refers to the ability to recall episodes from your life, for example, your first day of school. These memories are complex, as they allow you to remember events exactly as they were and the memory will include several elements all interwoven into one memory. These require conscious effort to recall
Eyewitness Testimony
evidence provided by those recalling an event who were present when the event took place
Anxiety
a factor affecting eyewitness testimony, research suggests that frightening situations may affect recall because, as well as weapon focus, stress itself may have a negative effect on performance
Misleading Information/Leading Questions
information that suggests a desired response
Post-Event Discussion
information added to a memory after the event has occurred. For example, when more than one witness discuss a crime they have both seen, their testimonies become contaminated because they combine information from their own memory with other witnesses’ views. This can make them ore inaccurate
Fisher and Geiselman (1992)
by reviewing memory literature, which showed that people remember things better if they are provided with retrieval cues, they devised an interview technique with four components, with the aim of improving effectiveness of questioning witnesses in police films
Fisher et al (1987)
developed additional elements of the cognitive interview. The enhanced cognitive interview focused on the social dynamics of the interaction, eye contact, minimising distractions, reducing anxiety, open-ended questions and slow speech
Fisher et al (1989)
found that the ECI produced superior results in comparison to the standard police interview
Fuzzy Concept
where a concept can vary depending on context or conditions, instead of being fixed
Gabbert et al (2003)
participants were set up in pairs. Each pair watched a video of the same crime but from different perspectives. They were then paired up and discussed the crime. 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they could only have picked up from the discussion
Gathercole and Baddeley (1993)
found that participants encountered problems when simultaneously tracking a moving point of light and performing a spatial task, due to both tasks being involved using the VSS, but had little difficulty tracking the light and performing a verbal tasks simultaneously, due to these using different stores
George Mandler Experiment 1967
Mandler suggested that by organising information, you learn it even though you are not making any effort to memorise it. Mandler carried out an experiment where two groups of participants were each given a pack of one hundred cards, each with a word printed on it. Both groups were told to organised the cards into groups, and were allowed to have several goes at organising them. The only difference was that participants of the first group were told to try memorising the words whilst organising them. When both groups were later tested on how many words they remembered, there was little difference between the groups
Ginet and Verkampt (2007)
an example of anxiety affecting recall. Fake electrodes were placed on their bodies and participants were told if they misremembered the answers they would be shocked
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
Glanzer and Cunitz showed participants a list of 20 words. They were presented one at a tie and then asked to recall them. They found that people have a tendency to remember words at the beginning and at the end of a list
Gooden and Baddeley (1975)
carried out a study of deep sea divers working underwater. Divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land, and were then asked to recall the words either underwater or on land. Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions. However, the groups who learned in different environments were disrupted so this could have influenced their recall
Goodwin (1969)
repeated Carter and Cassaday’s experiment but instead of using anti-histamines used alcohol. Found that people who were sober when learning and sober when tested did best, then people who were drunk when learning and drunk when recalling
Henry Molaison
the most studied man in the history of psychology, had his hippocampus removed in order to cure his epilepsy and ended up losing his short-term memory
Holliday (2003)
compared the standard police interview with the MCI (designed for use with children) and found that the modified version produced more accurate results with groups of four to five and nine to ten year olds
Inner Scribe
used for spatial relations
Interference
where memory is inaccessible because of old or new information blocking retrieval
Interference Theory
a theory for forgetting in long-term memory
Jean Piaget
a Swiss psychologist who died in 1980 after spending over 50 years investigating how children develop thinking and cognitive skills. He proposed they did this by developing schemata, which are built up from the experience of the world, first came up with word schema
Kebbel and Wagstaff (1996)
the police are reluctant to use CI because it takes more time than a standard interview. It also requires more training than the police have time to deliver, however CI techniques vary between police forces, so it is difficult to evaluate its effectiveness fully
Klauer and Zhao (2004)
found more interference between two visual tasks than between a visual and a spatial task, supporting the idea that visual cache and inner scribe are separate
Kohnken et al (1999)
a meta-analysis of 53 studies found on average a 34% increase in the correct amount of information generated in the cognitive interview. However, most of these studies were done on university students. As well as correct information being increased, the CI also increases incorrect information. A 61% increase in the false positives were found when ECI was used compared to a standard interview
Korsakoff Syndrome
a form of brain damage caused by chronic alcoholism, has little effect on STM, but severely impairs LTM
Loci Method
a method of memorising a list where a person imagines each of the objects on the list somewhere in a known location, using mental images
Loftus (1975)
concluded that it is mainly peripheral information that is unreliable and can be tampered with. Participants were shown a man stealing a large red wallet. Even after reading an account where the wallet was described as brown, only two percent of participants changed their testimony
Loftus (1994)
each participant was given summaries of four events from their childhood, three true ones based on accounts from their parents and one fake account of getting lost in a shopping centre. After being interviewed a few weeks later, 25% now reported clear memories of being lost in a shopping centre as a child
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
asked people to estimate the speed of cars using different forms of questions. They questions would be worded differently, using words such as “smashed”, “collided”, “bumped”, “hit” and “contacted”. On average those who heard the word “smashed” overestimated the speed the most and those who heard the word “contacted” underestimated the speed the most
Loftus and Pickrell (2003)
participants were exposed to fake adverts of Bugs Bunny at Disneyland despite the fact Bugs Bunny is not a Disney creation. Afterwards, roughly a third remembered shaking hands with Bugs Bunny at Disneyland even though it never happened
Loftus et al (1987)
participants heard a discussion in another room and then saw a man emerge either holding a pen or a knife. When asked to identify the man from 50 photos, 49% remembered the pen holder and 33% remembered the knife holder, suggesting that the weapon distracted attention and explaining why witnesses may have poor memory of violent crime
Loftus and Zanni (1975)
participants were shown a video of a car crash and either asked if the saw ‘a’ broken headlight or ‘the’ broken headlight, but the video didn’t show a broken headlight. 7% of the a group said yes, 17% of the the group said yes
Logie (1995)
suggested sub-dividing the visual sketchpad into the visual cache and inner scribe
MCI
Modified Cognitive Interview
for use with children
Mello and Fisher (1996)
when CI and normal interview techniques were tested on both 72-year-olds’ and 22-year-olds’ memory, CI was found to be better for both, but was found to be a significant advantage for the elderly
Memon and Yarmey (1999)
77 undergraduates were instructed to act as kidnap victims and heard taped instructions given by mock abductors. Two days later, witnesses recall was tested using either CI or a structured interview. Participants then rated the abductors’ voice for nine speech characteristics and attempt to identify his voice from an audiotaped lineup. It concluded that the success of CI is better explained through its influence on social components of interviewing rather than the free recall aspect
Miles and Hardman (1998)
found that people who learnt a list of words whilst exercising on an exercise bike remembered better than those who learnt at rest
Milne and Bull (2002)
this laboratory experiment found that a combination of ‘report everything’ and ‘mental reinstatement’ significantly increased participants’ recall, however, this study lacked ecological validity
Mind Mapping
a method of memorising things that involves making links between concepts
Non-Declarative Memory
memories that are consciously recalled; procedural memories
Overgeneralising
young children often do this when forming concepts, for example, they may get dogs and cats muddled because their dog concept involves fur, four legs and a tail. They may not be able to identify a dog if it doesn’t fit their concept
Overton (1972)
asked participants to learn material either drunk or sober, found it was easier to recall memory in the state they learned it
Patient KF
suffered brain damage in a motorbike accident which damaged his phonological loop but his visuo-spatial sketchpad remained intact
Peters (1988)
participants attending a local health clinic for injections met with a researcher and nurse for equal lengths of time and were asked to identify them from photos a week later. They recalled the researcher better than the nurse, suggesting that the anxiety of having an injection had an impact on their memory.
Primacy Effect
the tendency fore people to remember the first five or so words from the beginning of a list
Proactive Interference
occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer memory
Procedural Memory
memory store for actions or skills, such as touch-typing. These memories can be recalled without conscious awareness or much effort, and are often hard to explain to someone else
Phonological Loop
deals with auditory information and preserves word order; it has a limited capacity
Articulatory Process
inner voice, keeps information in the phonological loop through sub-vocalised repetition of information and is linked to speech production
Primary Acoustic Store
stores work recently heard
Phonological Store
holds words that are heard
Prabhakaran et al
used fMRI scans and found greater right-frontal brain activation for combined verbal and spatial information, but greater posterior activation for non-combined information, providing support for an Episodic Buffer that allows the temporary storage of integrated information
Recency Effect
the tendency for people to remember the last five or so words from the end of the list
Retroactive Interference
occurs when a newer memory interferes with an older one
Retrograde Amnesia
shown to some degree by Patient HM because he couldn’t consciously remember making procedural memories, but unconsciously did
Rough and Atkinson 1975
a 1975 study by Michael Rough and Richard Atkinson on mental images and memory. Participants were asked to learn sixty Spanish words but only half were taught to use the key word technique, which can be used to learn foreign language vocabulary and involves mental images. On average, the participants who learnt to use the key word technique did sixty percent better than those who didn’t
Schema (pl. schemata)
a word psychologists use to describe a mental framework in which you file all knowledge about certain situations. For example, if you apply concept formation to dentist, you might categorise it as occupation, but your dentist schema would include everything you associate with the dentist. Everyone’s schemata are different
Role Schema
knowledge about how to act in a certain role e.g. expectations about how a waiter should act.
Event Schema
also known as scripts. Our knowledge and expectation about what should happen in certain scenarios e.g. going to the movies.
Self-Schema
all about us, what we are now, what we were in the past and what we hope to be in the future. Our sense of self.
Semantic Memory
contains knowledge of the world, such as the capital of France. These are stored in concepts, are generally less personal and less vulnerable to distortion or forgetting and are not time-stamped, so we do not generally remember where we learnt them
Serial Position Effect
when asking people to remember a list of words which is greater than the capacity of short term memory they have a tendency to remember words from the beginning of the list
Skim Reading
psychologists have found it is easier to memorise things if you skim read before close reading something
Stein and Memon (2006)
This Brazilian study found that CI increased the amount of correct information obtained and the detail of information when compared with normal interviewing techniques
Trojani and Grossi (1995)
SC case study, who suffered brain damage affecting the functioning of the phonological loop but not the visuo-spatial sketchpad, suggesting that the phonological loop and visual spatial sketchpad are separate systems
Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)
gave participants a list of 48 words to learn, organised into 12 categories of 4 words each. In one group, categories were given headings, in one they weren’t. The group with the headings remembered better
Tulving and Psota (1971)
participants were given 6 different word lists to remember, each consisting of 24 words divided into 6 different categories. One group was asked to simply write down as many words as they could remember and one was given category names. The second group performed significantly better than the first
Underwood (1957)
gave participants a list of nonsense syllables to remember and tested them 24 hours later. Memory was far worse than expected suggesting other irrelevant experiences were causing confusion and leading to proactive interference
Underwood and Postman (1960)
involved asking people to remember lists of paired words. Participants later had their recall tested to see if they remembered the first or second list better. A control condition was used to see what recall will occur when there is no interference
Valentine and Coxon (1997)
found both elderly and children are more likely to answer non-leading questions incorrectly, but children are more likely to be misled by leading questions
Verbal Rehearsal
repeating something multiple times to improve memory
Visuo-Cache
stores visual and spatial information
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
stores visual and spatial information and has a limited capacity of 3-4 items; it was subdivided by Logie
Weston Bousfield Experiment 1953
Bousfield asked participants to learn a list of 60 words that could be divided into four categories. Though the words were presented in a random order, the participants tended to remember them in groups, and remember them better if they were given category headings as cues
Working Memory Model
states that memory is not just one store but a number of different stores, states that we can simultaneously process different things provided different parts of the brain are used
Wright and Holliday (2007)
earlier studies have shown that recall decreases significantly between the ages of 75-95, however this study showed that the CI technique leads to older participants recalling significantly greater detail without giving any false information
Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
says that performance in memory or recall is best in conditions that arouse medium anxiety levels, such as an experiment
Yuille and Custhall (1986)
a thief stole guns and money in broad daylight, shot the shop owner who then shot and killed him. The witnesses recalled all of the important information accurately in detail, even after police used leading questions to try and throw them. This shows that real life cases involving recall contradict laboratory studies
