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Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

Define Storage

A

When information is kept in your brain for a period of time, even up to a lifetime

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2
Q

Define Encoding(input)

A

Translating (changing) information into a form that can be understood by the brain.

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3
Q

Retrieval (output)

A

When information is located in the brain and brought back.

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4
Q

What are the three ways to retrieve memories?

A

Recognition
Cued Recall
Free Recall

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5
Q

Define Recognition

A

Remembering an item based on the fact that you have seen it before.

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6
Q

Define Cued Recall

A

When you are struggling to recall information and you are given a ‘clue’ or ‘cue’ which can help you to retrieve the information.

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7
Q

Free Recall

A

When you are able to retrieve information without any ‘cues’.

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8
Q

What are the three types of encoding

A

Visual
Acoustic
Semantic

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9
Q

Define visual encoding

A

When information tends to be coded in terms of how it looks

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10
Q

Define Acoustic Encoding

A

When information tends to be coded in terms of sound

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11
Q

Define Semantic encoding

A

When Information tends to be encoded in terms of meaning

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12
Q

What are the three types of Long term memory (LTM)

A

Episodic
Semantic
Procedural

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13
Q

Define Episodic memory

A

These are based on our experience in life. Often you can remember the where, who, what, when, why and even how.

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14
Q

What is Semantic Memory

A

Semantic memory is all about meaning.
This is based around the knowledge that you share with others.
This is not related to time or an event it is based on what we all know.

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15
Q

What is Procedural Memory

A

Procedural memory is sometimes known as ‘muscle memory’.
This is based on remembering how to do things.
We recall these memories without having to put much thought into it.

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16
Q

What is an Extraneous Variable

A

An extra unwanted variable that is not the independent variable that can affect the dependent variable.

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17
Q

What is Internal validity

A

Will be high if the researcher is accurately measuring what they intend to measure (the effect of the IV on the DV)
Will be low if the extraneous variables affect the dependent variable.

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18
Q

What is the Multi Store Model of Memory (MSM)

A

Multi Store Model of memory (MSM) describes flow between three permanent storage systems of memory: the sensory memory (SM), short-term memory (STM) and long- term memory (LTM).

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19
Q

Explain a diagram for the multi store model of memory (MSM)

A

Input from the environment -> (Encode) -> Sensory memory-> (pay attention)-> Short term memory (stays in STM with maintenance rehearsal) -> (Transfer)-> Long Term Memory-> (Retrieval)-> Short Term Memory-> (Displacement)-> Output

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20
Q

What is Displacement (in MSM)

A

Information is ‘shunted out’ of storage by new information, and so becomes forgotten.

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21
Q

What is Capacity

A

How much information you can hold

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22
Q

What is Encoding

A

The process of changing information so it can be stored in the brain

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23
Q

What is Duration

A

How long you can hold information for

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24
Q

List the features of Sensory Memory

A

Capacity: unlimited
Encoding: sense specific
Duration: less than 0.5 seconds

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25
Q

List the features of Short Term Memory

A

Capacity: 5 to 9 items
Encoding: Acoustically
Duration: 18-30 seconds (without rehearsal)

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26
Q

List the features of Long Term Memory

A

Capacity: unlimited
Encoding: Semantically
Duration: Potentially forever

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27
Q

Evaluate the MSM

A

Research to support MSM was conducted by Baddely
He concluded we encode acoustically in our STM and semantically in our LTM
This supports MSM because it shows we have 3 different stores
One weakness of MSM is that the research to support it used an artificial task
This is because participants had to learn a list of words which is not a task that is representative of memory in real life.
This reduces the validity of Baddely’s research into the stores of memory.

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28
Q

Define Ecological Validity

A

The extent to which the setting of the study represents real life environments.
If the setting of the study does reflect real life environments (field experiment) it will have HIGH ecological validity.
If the setting of the study does not reflect real life environments (Lab experiment) it will have LOW ecological validity.
If there is high ecological validity we are able to generalize our findings.

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29
Q

Define Generalise

A

Generalizability refers to the degree to which research results can be applied to a broader context. Research results are considered generalizable when the findings can be applied to most contexts, most people, most of the time.

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30
Q

What is the Primacy effect?

A

Refers to what happens first. Words at the start of the list are more likely to be recalled compared to words in the middle of the list. This is because they have been rehearsed quite well before they are recalled and have become long term memories.

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31
Q

What is the Recency Effect?

A

Refers to what has happened more recently. The words that appear at the end of the list are more likely to be recalled than words in the middle as they have been heard most recently and will still be in short-term memory.

32
Q

What is the Serial Position effect?

A

Describes the tendency of people to recall the first and last words of a list. The position of the word on the list influences the likelihood of their recall.

33
Q

What was the Aim of Murdock Serial Position Curve Study

A

To provide evidence for the existence of separate stores of memory (STM and LTM)

34
Q

What was the Method used in Murdock Serial Position Curve Study

A

16 ppts listened to a list of 20 words.
They were asked to recall the words from the list in any order.
This was repeated with the same ppts 80 times over a few days with different lists of 20 words.

35
Q

What were the Results of Murdock’s Serial Position Curve Study

A

The words at the end of the list were recalled first (recency effect)
Words at the start of the list were also recalled quite well (primacy effect)
Words in the middle of the list were not recalled very accurately
Results are displayed in a graph known as the serial position curve

36
Q

What was the Conclusion of Murdock’s Serial Position Curve Study

A

The serial position curve provides evidence for the separate STM and LTM stores in the MSM of memory.
The last few words were recalled because they were still in the STM and were readily available to be recalled. This is evidence for the existence of the STM.
The first few words were remembered because they were rehearsed meaning they had passed from the STM to the LTM and were available to be recalled. This is evidence of the existence of the LTM.
The words in the middle were not recalled as they were neither rehearsed nor recently heard. Therefore, they were not in the STM or the LTM.

37
Q

Describe a Strength of Murdock’s research into memory

A

It is a lab experiment therefore it has high control over extraneous variables such as the familiarity of the words.
Because the study is carried out in a controlled environment we can be certain that is was the position of the words that affected recall and not any other extraneous variables.
This allows us to establish cause and effect between the position of the word in a list and the chance of correct recall.

38
Q

Describe a weakness of Murdock’s Serial Position Curve

A

The research used an artificial task.
This is because participants had to explain what they had to do which is not a task that is representative of memory in real life.
This lowers the overall internal validity of the research into the primary and recency effect.

39
Q

Describe a weakness of Murdock’s Research into Memory

A

The research has low ecological validity.
This is because the research took place in a controlled and artificial environment which means participants may not have displayed their natural behavior when it comes to memory.
This decreases the validity of Murdock’s study into memory.

40
Q

What is the Theory of Reconstructive Memory

A

Memory is an active process that is innacurate
We use past knowledge and experiences from the SCHEMA to reconstruct memory.
Memory can be distorted by past experiences and stereotypes.
Memory is innacurate as people put effort to interpret it and make sense of the fragements.

41
Q

What does it mean if memory is an active process

A

An ongoing process

42
Q

What is our SCHEMAS

A

Pockets of information

43
Q

What does ‘effort after meaning’ mean

A

In the theory of reconstructive memory, Individuals recall the meaning of events rather than specific details. After an event individuals make an effort to interpret the meaning in more familiar terms to make sense of the fragments.

44
Q

Explain the theory of reconstructive memory

A

Reconstructive memory suggests memory is not accurate and is an active process. It uses past knowledge and experience to reconstruct memory and memory can be distorted. Memory isn’t accurate as people put effort to interpret it and make sense of the fragments (effort after meaning). Memory can also be distorted by past experiences and stereotypes. We can alter our memories so that they fit in with our social and cultural expectations/ SCHEMAS

45
Q

Describe a strength of Theory of Reconstructive Memory

A

One strength of reconstructive memory is that Bartlett’s research reflects how memory is used in real life and is more realistic than research that uses word lists.
Before Bartlett, researchers used nonsense syllables to research memory e.g RTC and KL. These are artificial and not reflective of how we use our memory in real life.
From this research we can be more certain of how reconstructive memory works in everyday life, as people often hear stories and are asked to retell them to other friends or family.

46
Q

Describe a weakness of Theory of Reconstructive Memory

A

One weakness is that it is writing to suggest that all memories are inaccurate or affected by social expectations.
Other research has shown that memory can be very accurate for example a lot of people in the War of the Ghosts remembered that ‘something black came out of his mouth’, because it was quite a distinctive phrase. This shows that people do not always actively reconstruct memories. It may only happen on a few occasions.

47
Q

Describe another strength of Theory of Reconstructive Memory

A

One strength of reconstructive memory is that is can explain problems with Eye witness testimony (EWT). Eyewitnesses are regarded as very important and evidence in court in order to give an accurate picture of what happened during the crime.Some witnesses are required to swear under oath.
Bartlett’s research showed that memory isn’t always accurate and can be affected by our expectations of what happened.
Research on eyewitness EWT is inaccurate and now it is not considered as the most important factor in court, more reliance is paid to DNA results.

48
Q

What was the Aim for Barlett’s War of The Ghosts Study

A

To investigate whether people’s memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive

49
Q

What was the method for Barlett’s War of the Ghosts Study

A

Participants were shown the War of the Ghosts story.
They recalled it after 15 minutes, then after weeks, months and years.
Bartlett recorded the recall.

50
Q

What were the results for Barlett’s War of the Ghosts Study

A

Participants changed the story.
They left out information that they were less familiar with. The story was shortened and phrases were changed to those used in the participants’ own culture.

51
Q

What was the Conclusion to Barlett’s War of the Ghosts Study

A

Barlett concluded that our memory is not an exact copy of what we hear. It is distorted by what we already know about the world. We don’t remember details, we remember fragments and use our knowledge of social situations to reconstruct memory.

52
Q

Explain a weakness of Barlett’s War of The Ghosts Study

A

One weakness is the study was conducted with students from Cambridge University who were studying English.
This has caused some to argue that Barlett’s sample was biased. This is a weakness because students studying English will be used to reading different pieces of texts and comprehension tasks and will therefore have better recall of the story compared to other types of students.
Therefore this reduces the external validity of Barlett’s War of the Ghosts study and limits the support for memory being a reconstructive process.

53
Q

Explain another weakness of Barlett’s War of the Ghosts Study

A

One weakness relates to a lack of control.
For example, participants were not told that accurate recall was important. Other studies found recall was better when participants were told this.
This suggests that recall is more accurate than Bartlett concluded.

54
Q

Explain a third Weakness of Barlett’s War of the Ghost Study

A

A weakness is that the story was unusual.
Recall of the story may not reflect everyday memory processes as these would not be affected by cultural expectations.
Therefore, this study tells us little about everyday memory.

55
Q

What are the factors affecting accuracy of memory

A

Interference
Context
False memories

56
Q

What is interference

A

Interference is a form of forgetting
Its when two memories compete with eachother, one memory may prevent us from accessing the other memory.
This is especially likely when information is similar
When information is interfered with it reduces the accuracy of memory.

57
Q

What are two types of interference

A

Proactive
Retroactive

58
Q

What is proactive interference

A

When you forget the new information because the older information is already stored and the old informatiom interferes with the accuracy of the new memory.
Eg: calling your new boyfriends name by your old boyfriends name.

59
Q

What is retroactive interference

A

When u forget the old info because the new info interferes with the accuracy of the old memory.

60
Q

McGeoch and McDonald: Aim

A

To see whether the accuracy of recalling a list of words would be affected by a competing set of words.

61
Q

McGeoch and McDonald: Method

A

Participants learned a list of ten words and then were shown a new list.
There were five different new lists: words with the same meanings as the first list, words with opposite meanings, unrelated words, nonsense syllables, three-digit numbers, or no new list was given.

62
Q

McGeoch and McDonald: Results

A

When participants recalled the initial list of words, their memory was affected by the new list.
The effect was strongest when the new list had words with similar meanings to those in the first list.

63
Q

McGeoch and McDonald: Conclusion

A

This shows that interference from a second set of information reduces the accuracy of memory.
Interference is strongest when the two sets of information are similar.

64
Q

A strength for interference theory

A

A strength of the study was that there was high control.
Techniques like counterbalancing were used to reduce the impact that learning the lists in the same order would have on the results.
This means that the study was less biased.

65
Q

A weakness for interference theory

A

A weakness of the study is that it does not reflect real-life memory activity.
We don’t often have to remember lists of words or very similar things.
This means that a more valid research should be completed.

66
Q

Another weakness for interference theory

A

It ignores other research of why memory is inaccurate
Interference may not be the only reason why people forget. The context in which we learn info can also affect how accurately we recall info.
Therefore, interference is not a complete explanation of why our memories are inaccurate.

67
Q

What is context

A

The environment in which an event or memory happens. Context can act as a que to recall memories, improving their accuracy.
Cues from the environment are encoded at the time of learning and can trigger recall.

68
Q

Godden and Baddely (1975): Aim

A

Godden and Baddeley aimed to see if context improved recall. They used ‘underwater’ (wet) and ‘on the beach’ (dry) as the two contexts.

69
Q

Godden and Baddely (1975): Method

A

Divers listened to and recalled words in the same or different settings:
Same context: dry/dry, wet/wet.
Different context: wet/dry, dry/wet.

70
Q

Godden and Baddely(1975): Results

A

Recall was highest in the two matching conditions (dry/dry or wet/wet). When a person is in the same environment for learning and recall, their memories were more accurate.

71
Q

Godden and Baddely(1975): Conclusion

A

Context of learning acts as a trigger or cue when trying to remember information, and thus improves the accuracy of memory.

72
Q

Weakness of context study

A

A weakness of this research is that it used an artificial task to measure forgetting

Divers were asked to remember a list of words, this is not the most accurate way to measure forgetting in real life.

Other research has shown that when remembering more complex, real life information memory is not
affected by context

73
Q

2nd weakness of context study

A

A weakness is that the study was unrealistic as participants recalled the words almost immediately.
This does not relate to scenarios like exams where the gap between learning and recall is longer.
Therefore research only tells us about short-term recall.

74
Q

3rd weakness of context study

A

A weakness with context is that it only acts as a cue for recall if the context at the time of learning and recall are very similar.
This rarely happens in real-world situations.
Therefore, context does not effect accuracy of memory in many situations.

75
Q

What are false memories

A

A memory of an event that has not actually happened

76
Q

Loftus and Pickrell: False memories experiment AMRC

A

Aim: Loftus and Pickrell aimed to see if false memories could be created in participants through suggestion.
Method: Participants were given four stories about childhood events of which three were true and one false (getting lost in a shopping mall was the false one).
The story was created with the help of a relative so that it sounded realistic.
Participants read each story and wrote what they remembered.
Results! 68% of the true episodes were remembered.
Six out of 24 (25%) of participants recalled the false story fully or partially. The rest had no memory of it.
Conclusion: This shows that imagining an event can implant a false memory in a person, reducing the accuracy of memory.

77
Q

Evaluation of False memories

A

An issue is that the false memory event is not of the same traumatic kind that could be found in therapy.
Harmless events might be implanted easily but traumatic events may not.
Therefore, conclusions that can be drawn about false memories are limited.

The research raises ethical concerns.
Even though participants were debriefed, they may be left with implanted false memories which lingered after the study was finished.
Therefore the study may have caused psychological harm, an ethical issue.

A strength is that this research has implications for eyewitness testimony (EWT).
The results suggest that police questioning could accidentally implant false memories.
Therefore this research has been beneficial in explaining why EWT might be unreliable.

Psychology (5 decks)

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