Memory

Question 1

Who created the MSM?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Question 2

What are the 3 stores in the MSM?

Answer 2

Sensory register (SR), Short-term memory (STM) and Long-term memory (LTM)

Question 3

What are the 3 main stores in the SR?

Answer 3

• ionic register (visual)
• haptic register (touch)
• echoic register (sound)

Question 4

What is the SR’s: capacity, duration, and coding?

Answer 4

capacity: very limited
duration: 1-2 seconds
coding: raw, unprocessed

Question 5

How does information get passed on from the SR to the STM?

Answer 5

by paying attention

Question 6

What is the STM’s: capacity, duration, and coding?

Answer 6

capacity: 7±2 chunks
duration: 18-20 seconds
coding: acoustic

Question 7

How is information retained in the STM?

Answer 7

Maintenance rehearsal

Question 8

How is information passed into the LTM from the STM?

Answer 8

Prolonged / elaborative rehearsal

Question 9

What is the LTM’s: capacity, duration, and coding?

Answer 9

capacity: unlimited
duration: lifelong
coding: semantic

Question 10

Who did an experiment to show the STM’s duration?

Answer 10

Peterson & Peterson

Question 11

Outline Peterson & Peterson’s experiment

Answer 11

Participants were given a random trigram to remember, and then were told to count down from a given number in 3s to prevent rehearsal. After a given amount of time, they were told to recall the trigram they had been previously given. Each time they did this, the distraction duration would increase by 3 seconds. The results showed that once the distraction duration had reached 18 seconds, only about 10% of participants were able to correctly recall the trigram.

Question 12

Evaluate Peterson & Peterson’s experiment

Answer 12

Strength: Lab experiment -> high controlled env. -> extraneous variables won’t impact results
Strength: Reliable - can be replicated and have similar results making the experiment seem dependable
Limitation: Lacks mundane realism therefore cannot be used as representative data for real life situations
Limitation: Only focuses on one type of stimuli (elaborate later)

Question 13

Who did an experiment to investigate the STM’s capacity?

Answer 13

Jacobs (1887)

Question 14

Outline Jacobs’ experiment

Answer 14

Participants were given a string of digits and were expected to recall them correctly immediately after receiving it. If they got it correct, the amount of digits would increase by 1. The average amount of digits memorised was 7±2 digits.

Question 15

Evaluate Jacob’s experiment

Answer 15

Strength: Supported by Miller’s observations

Question 16

Who did an experiment to investigate STM and LTM coding?

Answer 16

Baddeley (1966)

Question 17

Outline Baddeley’s experiment on coding

Answer 17

72 uni students - 4 groups, given 10 words that they were expected to recall in the given order
IV: the words given were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar
DV: their score on the recall test (as a percentage)
The pps undertook a recall test 4x. After the fourth trial, they took a break and completed an unrelated interference test. After this break, they were asked to recall the list of words again.
Results: STM codes acoustically, LTM codes semantically

Question 18

Evaluate Baddeley’s experiment on coding

Answer 18

Strengths:
Generalisable - large sample size would even out any anomalies
Reliable - can be replicated by anyone, this experiment had been altered and repeated by Baddeley himself and he got similar results
Application - Results can be utilised: e.g. using mind maps with semantic links for revision

Limitations:
Generalisability: although there were a large number of participants, the conditions only had about 15-20 people. Acoustically similar only had 15 people which could greatly impact the results if an anomaly was present as the numbers are so small
Ecological Validity - lacks mundane realism as it is based on recalling the ORDER of words, rather than just the words themselves

Question 19

Who did an experiment to investigate the efficiency of cognitive interviews

Answer 19

Fisher and Geiselman

Question 20

Outline Geiselman’s experiment

Answer 20

89 students, 2 groups
Watched a simulated video of a crime
2 days later, they underwent either a CI or standard interview
Results:
Correct items recalled: C - 41.9, S - 29.4
Incorrect items recalled: C - 7.3, S - 6.1

Question 21

Outline Fisher’s experiment

Answer 21

Used real witnesses from a crime scene in Canada
16 experienced detectives
Some pps underwent CI, others had a standard interview
Results showed that more information was elicited from the CI but there were no significant differences in accuracy of recall

Question 22

Who did an experiment to investigate interference

Answer 22

McGeoh and McDonald

Question 23

Outline the experiment for interference

Answer 23

5 groups were provided with 1 list that was identical and another list which differed
The second list either contained: synonyms, antonyms, words with no correlation, 3 digit numbers, consonant syllables
The 6th group was the control group and therefore only had 1 list
They were asked to recall the words from list 1
The results showed that interference is most severe when words are similar

Question 24

Who did an experiment to investigate the weapon focus effect?

Answer 24

Johnson and Scott

Question 25

Outline Johnson and Scott’s experiment

Answer 25

There were 2 conditions
One condition overheard a casual conversation and witnessed a man walk out holding a pen with grease on his hand
The other condition overheard a heated argument followed by the sound of breaking glass and they then witnessed a man walk out with a bloody knife.
The 2 groups were then asked to identify the man who had walked out from the 50 photos they had been given.
Pen Group: 49%
Knife Group: 33% , due to tunnel vision

Question 26

Who carried out the study which shows that anxiety can increase the accuracy of EWT

Answer 26

Yuille and Cutshall

Question 27

Outline Yuille and Cutshall’s experiment

Answer 27

Interviewed 13 of the 21 witnesses from a real shooting in Canada 5 months after the official police reviews
They were asked to assess how stressed they were at the time of the event on a 7 point scale
Results showed that the accuracy of the more stressed group was 88% whereas the accuracy of the less stressed group was 75%.

Question 28

Outline the Yerkes-Dodson Law

Answer 28

At low levels of anxiety, the accuracy of EWT is low. However, as it increases, performance gets better and at a certain level, the performance is heightened. This point is known as the optimum anxiety level. Once anxiety levels surpass the optimum, the performance begins to decrease again.

Question 29

Who conducted the experiment investigating leading questions?

Answer 29

Loftus

Question 30

Outline Loftus’ experiment on leading questions

Answer 30

All participants watched the same video of a car crash and were asked the same questions about it. However, the leading question was slightly altered for each group as the verb differed. The leading question was asking how fast the car was going when it smashed/hit/crashed/contacted the other car. Results showed that the mean speed for the “smash” condition was 40.5mph but for “contacted” it was 31.8mph

Question 31

Outline Bahrick’s experiment

Answer 31

396 American participants were asked to match names to the faces of those who they had graduated with 40 years prior
This experiment had been done before, after 14 years there was a 90% accuracy and after 40 years, there was a 60% accuracy