Memory Flashcards
Define Memory
Our ability to retain information/the process of remembering things
3 stages of memory process
Encoding
Storage
Retrival
Memory encoding
The process of transforming information to put it into memory
Define Memory Storage
Process of maintaining information in our minds
Memory Retrieval
process of taking memory out of the memory storage [recall and recognition]
Define memory recall
We consciously re-access a memory without having to be reminded of the memory first
Define memory recogniton
When we are able to retrieve a memory when they’re shown the memory again - because it feels familiar to them
Sensory register: coding, capacity, duration
Large capacity and short duration (1-2 seconds)
Sensory register - Sperling
Lab experiment, ppts had to repeat a grid of letters which flashed for 50 seconds. He found they could repeat 4 or 5 letters back from the grid or 3 letters from any row.
Concluded that SR has Large capacity and short duration
STM: coding, capacity, duration
Limited duration (18-30s)
Only stored until the ongoing task is completed
Limited capacity
Acoustic coding (can be sensory or semantic - acoustic is part of sensory)
STM capacity - Jacobs [magic number]
Showed ppts a string of letters or digits and asked them to repeat it back in the same order. Over the study, he increased the length of the strings. He found that most could reliably recall 7+-2 digits
Capacity of STM remains fixed very low - is limited
STM capacity: Miller [Chunking]
We can combine larger individual letters into smaller meaningful chunks to improve recall. Suggests that the capacity is determined by the number of chunks, not the individual items. So he still agreed that 7 was the max capacity of the STM (chunks not letters/digits)
Summarise/Compare Miller and Jacobs findings
They both used letters/digits tests to find the capacity of STM
Jacob found that we could recall 7+-2 digits/letters
Miller found that we could recall 7+-2 meaningful chunks of digits/letters
They both agree on the magic number, just differentiate between chunking
Long term memory coding, capacity, duration
Very large capacity
Potentially unlimited duration
Semantically coded (stored by it’s meaning)
LTM Duration - Bahrick
Asked ppts to recall names of their high school classmates. He then showed them pictures and asked for their names or showed them names and asked them to match them to pictures. He tested them 15 years after leaving school [recall: 60% recognition: 90%] and then 48 years after leaving school [recall: 30% recognition: 80%]
Concluded that the duration is very long. Ability to retrieve info is much better when asked to recognise > recall
Bahrik [LTM Duration] A03
+ names of the classmates, is something meaningful that relates to them, not artificial information like many other studies. This has high ecological validity and results are likely to generalise.
-Bahrik had no control over EVs such as how long did the ppt spend with their classmates or how much they liked them. Little control over EVs, can reduce validity.
LTM Coding - Baddeley
Asked ppts to recall a list of words straight after seeing them (STM) then asked them 20 minutes later (LTM)
4 groups; similar sounding, different sounding, similar meaning, different meaning (acoustic/semantic)
Immediate recall; correct order for similar sounding remembered the fewest words. Different sounding the most were recalled
““People use an acoustic code for short-term memory
20 min recall; Similar meaning is fewest recalled
different meaning most recalled in correct order
““People use a semantic code for long-term memory
Immediately: acoustic difficult
20 minutes: semantic more difficult
Multi-store memory model
Atkinson and Shiffrin
3 memory stores; SR, STM, LTM [explains transfer of memory between stores]
Info goes from the SR > STM > LTM (in one direction - unidirectional)
To get from SR to STM we have to pay attention to information
To get from STM to LTM we have to rehearse info
Each MS can be independently damaged
If LTM memory store is damaged, the rest can remain functioning. If STM is damaged, LTM will not be damaged but info cannot be passed onto the LTM and LTMs cannot be formed
Multi-store model: Henry Molaison - support A03
Had brain surgery that removed part of his hippocampus. He could remember things he heard a few seconds/minutes ago but forgot them minutes later. He had damage to his LTM, not his STM.
Supporting that we have multiple memory stores that can be damaged independently
Multi-store model: Brain imaging - A03 support
(neuroimaging) studies: found which parts of the brain are active when people recall info over short periods and long periods. Frontal cortex is responsible for storing STM. Hippocampus is responsible for storing LTM. Different brain areas being used supports that we have separate stores
Clive Wearing + HM damaged LTM stores
Had damage to their episodic memory but not their procedural memory
3 types of LTM - Tulving
Episodic
Semantic
Procedural
Episodic memory
Semantic Memory
Procedural Memory
What is a declarative memory
Memories that we can consciously describe out loud
Tulving A03: Support
Case studies: CW and HM
Brain imaging studies: Different parts of the brain are active when recalling the diff types.
temporal lobe - semantic
cerebellum + motor cortex - procedural
hippocampus - episodic
Tulving A03: limitations
-episodic and semantic may not be distinct types, Squire and Zola studied people who had LTM loss after damage to their temporal lobe. They researched which type of LTM was damaged semantic AND episodic memory. They believe that semantic memories may originally be episodic which then become semantic
Patient KF case study
he case study of Patient KF shows support for the Working Memory Model. The patient had a damaged short-term memory, but was still able to store new information into his long-term memory. It was shown he had difficulties with verbal short-term memory, but not visual short-term memory. The working memory model would explain this as the patient having damaged their phonological loop, but not the other short-term memory stores. This allowed information to still pass through to the long-term memory, through the other, functional short-term memory stores.
Working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch
WWM: Central Executive
An attentional process which monitors incoming data and allocates slave systems to tasks. Divides attention. Very limited capacity
WMM: Episodic Buffer
A temporary store for info which integrates the other slave systems, records events happening and maintains sequencing.
Generates episodic memories about the whole event
WMM: Visuo-spatial sketchpad
Stores visual and spatial info
visual cache: stores visual data
inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in a visual field
WWM: Phonological Loop
Auditory and verbal acoustic coding preserves the order in which info arrives
Primary acoustic store: 1-2 seconds refreshes and filters out the acoustic info that isn’t needed
Articulatory process: stores useful for an ongoing (ie typing on a phone)
Allows maintenance rehearsal
WWM: Word length effect
Capacity of articulatory process: amount of words we can say in 2 seconds
The longer the words, the fewer we can retain
WWM: Dual task technique A03 +
Lab experiment dual task procedure with 2 groups
A: Follow a moving light whilst describing the angles on letters (both visual info - full capacity)
B: Follow a moving light and recall a list of words (neither store reached full capacity)
A found the procedure more difficult
Supports that we have separate working memory stores
WWM: A03 - imaging study +
Neuroimaging to look at the parts are active when recalling word lists and spatial navigation tasks.
Occipital lobe is active when doing visuo-spatial tasks.
Temporal lobe is active when completing phonological loop involved tasks
Diff parts active = diff parts for diff stores
Define Interference
When one memory disturbs the ability to recall another. This is more likely to occur when memories are similar
Define proactive interference
When previously learnt information interferes with newly learnt information
i.e a class teacher calling new students by old students’ names
Define retroactive interference
When newly learnt memory interferes with previously learnt information
i.e
McGeoch and McDonald - retroactive interference
Changed the similarity of two sets of materials. The more similar the items, the stronger the interference. Individuals are more likely to remember numbers
Baddely and Hitch - interference theory
4 things that make our memories less accurate
Schemas
Leading questions
Post-event discussion
Anxiety
What is a schema
Mental frameworks that we develop from past experiences.
Leading questions
The answer is hidden in the question, suggesting a particular answer is correct. It can influence our memory of an event.
Schemas affecting memory
We use schemas to help us with retrieval. They can lead us to have a false memory. They can cause us to misremember events in a way that is consistent with our schemas
Post-event discussion
People discuss an event after it happened. It can influence how we remember things because other people have their own expectations of what happened.
Anxiety
Negative emotions that occur at the time of an event can influence how well we remember the event
Deffenbacher studied found low levels of emotional arousal = low accuracy of memory
mid arousal = very accurate recall
high arousal = low recall
[upside down U shaped graph]
Factors affecting EWT: Loftus and Palmer 1
in a lab experiment, made them watch videos of car crashes and asked them to remember everything that happened. They were then asked the speed of the cars. For each control group, they manipulated the wording of the Qs. How fast were the cars when they [] each other. [contacted, smashed…]
When they used a more intense verb, ppts judged that the cars were going faster. The way they asked the Q influenced the ppt’s memory
Factors affecting EWT: Loftus and Palmer 2
Replicated their study. This time, they were tested once and a week later. When asked a week later, they were asked another leading question of “did you see the broken glass”, even though there was no broken glass in the video
They found that despite there being no glass in the video, some ppts did recall seeing glass - a false memory. They also found ppts more likely to recall a false memory if the accident was described with more intense language
What did Loftus and Palmer find
Asking leading questions can influence participants’memory, leading them to recall false memories. The intensity of the verb also altered their memory on how fast the cars were travelling
Loftus and Palmer A03
Demand characteristics: Aspects of the experiment act as hints that enable participants to guess the aim of the experiment.
It is possible that the wording was too obvious, ppts may have answered because that the way they thought the experimenter was asking of them and not that their memory had changed or that they did not know the answer
May have lacked ecological validity as it was conducted in a lab. May not have been representative of how ppts would remember in real life. Seeing a real life car crash would have been much more emotionally triggering and they may have also put more effort into recalling and tried harder to give a more accurate
The Weapon Study: Effect of anxiety on memory accuracy
Johnson and Scott.
Ppts were sat in a room together whilst 2 confederates were having a loud discussion in a room. 1 confederate walked out of the room into where the ppts were sat - 2 control groups
Low anxiety: man walked out with a pen in grease
High anxiety: man walked out with a knife covered in blood
Ppts then had to identify the man from 50 diff photos.
Low A accuracy: 49%
High A accuracy: 33%
+Deffenbacker’s curve
- lab/low ecological validity
Yuille and Cutshall: Effect of anxiety on memory accuracy
Real life gun shooting 5 months earlier. Even though it was high anxiety, they had a very accurate recall even 5mo later.
- difficult to control EVs, making it hard to establish cause/effect. i.e. their memory may have been better because they were physically closer, not because of their anxiety
- doesn’t support inverted U curve
What is the cognitive interview
an interview technique designed to improve memory accuracy.
4 components of Cognitive Interview: Fisher and Geiselman
Mental Reinstatement
Change of Perspective
Change of narrative order
Reporting everything
Cognitive interview: Mental reinstatement
Describing the thoughts, feelings and experiences at the time of the event (internal cues and external cues) more likely to trigger memories.
Cognitive interview: change of perspective
Witnesses are asked to recall an event from someone else’s perspective. This reduces reliance on their own schema and it’s negative effects on recall
Cognitive interview: Change of narrative order
Asking the witness to recall the events in different chronological orders. This can help them to recall information which didn’t stick out at first
Cognitive interview: reporting everything
getting the witnesses to try and recall everything they can possibly remember - even if they believe it to be irrelevant
Can act as a cue
Witnesses won’t miss out potentially important details
Evidence for Cognitive Interview: Geiselman
A confederate wearing a blue backpack came and stole a projector from a uni lecture. 2 days later, students were interviewed to see what they could recall about the intruder. 2 groups:
standard interview technique (control) or cognitive interview (experimental)
Students were asked a leading question during the interview. Students in the CI group were less likely to recall the wrong colour bag.
Cognitive Interview conclusion (Gieslman)
The CI reduces the effects of a leading question on memory accuracy.
The students were less susceptible to leading questions
Cognitive Interview and Children (A03)
When interviewing children, they are more anxious and stressed, have worse memory than adults and are more susceptible to leading questions.
Some techniques can be too complicated for children.
To use this CI with children or more anxious poeple, G+F created the Enhanced CI.
Enhanced Cognitive Interview components
all 4 previous + techniques to build a rs between eye witness and interview.
Interviewer doesn’t interrupt the EW
Witness is given more control over flow of info
encourages witnesses not to guess
reduces likelihood of false memories
