Memory 💭

Question 1

Identify the two explanations of memory

Answer 1

• Multi Store Memory Model
• Working Memory Model

Question 2

Who created the Multi store memory model

Answer 2

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Question 3

Outline the multi store memory model

Answer 3

• A linear information processing model in which information is shown to flow through the system in one direction.
• It’s split into three passive stores that hold onto information before it’s passed on or lost; the sensory register, short term memory and long term memory.

• Each store has three features:
- Coding: the information format the brain uses to store memory
- Capacity: how much information can be held
- Duration: how long the information can be held in that store before it’s lost

Question 4

Outline the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 4

• Sensory information is detected and recorded automatically, not under cognitive control like the short and long term memory

• Information is passed to the short term memory by paying attention

Question 5

Identify the coding, capacity and duration of the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 5

Coding: Modality specific, depending on which
sense organ information comes from all
of which have different durations and
capacities

Capacity: Large and highly detailed in an
unprocessed and ever-changing format

Duration: Limited (less than half a second),
though duration of each store
isn’t constant with different types of
information decaying at different rates

Question 6

What are the sensory stores of the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 6

• Iconic (visual)
• Echoic (sound)
• Haptic (touch)
• Gustatory (taste)
• Olfactory (smell)

Question 7

Outline short term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 7

• Temporarily stored information received from the sensory register
• It’s an active memory system as it contains changing information currently being thought about
• Information’s passed to the long term memory through rehearsal

Question 8

Identify the coding, capacity and duration of short term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 8

Coding: Raw information’s encoded into mainly
acoustic but also visual and semantic
stores

Capacity: Limited, small amounts can be held in
each store (7+-2 Miller’s magic number)
which can be increased by chunking (ref
study)

Duration: Limited, (18-32 seconds) but this can be
increased through rehearsal

Question 9

Outline long term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 9

• Stores information permanently when it comes from the short term memory via rehearsal

• In order to use these memories, they must be passed back to the short term memory via retrieval

• Long term memory’s aren’t passive over time, they may change or merge with other memories

Question 10

Identify the coding, capacity and duration of long term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 10

Coding: Stored semantically in the form of
‘meaning’

Capacity: No limit to the amount of information
that can be stored in the long term
memory. Information can be lost as it
isn’t accessible but not because the long
term memory is ‘out of room’

Duration: Potentially unlimited as childhood recall
is normal for even the oldest people

Question 11

Outline a study for the coding of the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 11

Crowder (1999) found the sensory register only retains information in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but for two to three seconds within the echoic store, supporting the idea of sensory information being coded into different sensory stores

Question 12

Outline a study for the capacity of the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 12

Javitt et al (1996) reported a biological basis to the sensory register’s capacity as the capacity of the iconic and echoing stores was found to be related to efficiency of the nervous system, suggesting there are individual differences in sensory register capacity

Question 13

Outline a study into the duration of the sensory register in the multi store memory model

Answer 13

Walsh and Thompson (1978) found the iconic sensory store has an average duration of 500 milliseconds, decreasing as individuals get older, suggesting duration of sensory memories is limited and dependent on age

Question 14

Outline a study into the coding of short term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 14

Baddeley (1966) stated information in the short term memory coded acoustically, finding only 10% of participants didn’t confuse similar sounding words when given a list to remember, suggesting information’s coded acoustically

Question 15

Outline a study into the capacity of short term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 15

Miller (1956) reviewed research, finding the capacity of short term memory to be between 5-9 items but the amount recalled can be increased by chunking (grouping information into meaningful sections). This was referred to as Miller’s magic number (7+-2) suggesting the capacity of short term memory to be between 5-9 ‘chunks’

Question 16

Outline a study into the duration of short term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 16

Peterson and Peterson (1959) tested 24 undergraduates on nonsense trigrams, and then got them to count backwards in threes from a three digit number to prevent rehearsal during the retention interval. 90% of trigrams were recalled correctly after 3 seconds, but only 5% after 18 seconds, suggesting a limited duration of short term memory

Question 17

Outline a study into the coding of long term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 17

Frost (1972) gave 16 drawings in four categories (eg. animals) differing in visual orientation. The order of recall of items suggested participants used visual and semantic coding, implying evidence for a visual and semantic code in the long term memory

Question 18

Outline a study into the capacity of long term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 18

Wagenarr (1986) created a diary of 2,400 events over six years and tested himself on events rather than dates finding he had excellent recall, suggesting a large capacity of the long term memory

Question 19

Outline a study into the duration of long term memory in the multi store memory model

Answer 19

Bahrick et al (1975) showed 400 participants between 17 and 74 a set of photos and names, some of which were old school friends. Those who’d left in the last 15 years identified 90% of names and faces, while those who’d left 48 years ago identified 80% of names and 70% of faces, suggesting memory of faces is long lasting

Question 20

Who proposed the working memory model

Answer 20

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 21

Outline the working memory model

Answer 21

• A four-component information processing model created to replace the short term memory store in the multi store memory model due to criticism

• The short term memory was said to be more complex than a single, unitary store that only exists to pass information to the long term memory. It must be an active processor that holds multiple types of information while they’re being worked on.

• It consists of the central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer, visiospatial sketchpad and long term memory that each contain two features of coding and capacity

Question 22

Outline the central executive of the working memory model

Answer 22

• The ‘head of the model’ that control attention. It received sensory information and filters it before passing it onto the ‘slave systems’

• It’s capacity is limited to one strand of information but it’s coding is modality free and so isn’t limited to any one sense information

Question 23

Outline the phonological loop of the working memory model

Answer 23

• The ‘inner voice’ that processes auditory coded information with a limited capacity of two seconds of information

• It deals with the order of information and is broken down into the phonological store (the inner ear), which holds recently heard words and the articulatory process (the inner voice), which holds information via sub-vocal repetition

Question 24

Outline the visiospatial sketchpad of the working memory model

Answer 24

• Processes visual and spatially coded information with a capacity of 3-4 objects and is thought of as the ‘inner eye’

• It’s broken down into two parts; the visual cache is a passive store of form and colour and the inner scribe is an active store that holds the relationship of objects in 3D space

Question 25

Outline the episodic buffer of the working memory model

Answer 25

• Added to the working memory model in 2000, as the model needed a general store to hold and integrate information from the visiospatial sketchpad, phonological loop and central executive and transfer information to the long term memory

• It’s coding is modality free and it has a capacity of four chunks

Question 26

Outline long term memory

Answer 26

• Involves storing information over long periods of time, research indicates the existence of several types of LTM, each with separate functions and associated with different brain areas

• LTM is split into explicit (declarative) memories, recalled of consciously thought about and implicit (non-declarative) memories which don’t require conscious thought

• Endel Tulving (1972) was one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise the MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible, seeing LTM as a single unitary store. He proposed three LTM stores; Episodic, Semantic and Procedural

Question 27

Outline episodic long term memory

Answer 27

• Explicit form of LTM that gives individuals an autobiographical account of personal experience

• Strength of memory is determined by the strength of emotion experienced during its creation or the degree of processing of information at coding

• Associated with the prefrontal cortex during coding and the neocortex during consolidation and storage, memories of different parts of an event are located in different visual, auditory and olfactory areas of the brain and are connected in the hippocampus

Question 28

Outline semantic long term memory

Answer 28

• Explicit memory that contains all knowledge

• Better sustained over time than episodic memories and are positively associated with the degree of processing occurring during coding

• Coding’s mainly associated with the frontal and temporal lobes, and potentially the hippocampus but there’s disagreement over all brain areas involved

Question 29

Outline procedural long term memory

Answer 29

• Implicit memory that allows individuals to perform learned tasks with little conscious thought, such as speaking and language abilities

• Associated mainly with the neocortex and cerebellum; doesn’t require the hippocampus

Question 30

Define and outline forgetting

Answer 30

• Failure to retrieve memories
• Explanations vary between those that see memory as no longer in storage or a failure to access stored information, the two main theories are interference theory and retrieval failure as well as repression

Question 31

Outline interference theory

Answer 31

• Interference between memories makes them harder to locate. Two pieces of information conflict with each other, resulting in the forgetting of one or both

• Proactive interference occurs when an older memory interferes with a new one e.g. telling someone your old address
• Retroactive interference occurs when a new memory interferes with an older one e.g. a teacher can’t remember her previous class

• Predominantly used for LTM as information is typically permanent and so any forgetting is probably because the memory can’t be accessed.

• Interference is most likely when the two pieces of information are similar due to response competition and is less likely to occur when there’s a large gap between the instances of learning

• Key research comes from Schmidt et al (2000)

Question 32

Outline Schmidt et al (2000)

Answer 32

• Assessed influence of retroactive interference on childhood memories of street names: 700 names were randomly selected from a database of 1700 former students of a Dutch elementary school and sent a questionnaire

• 211 participants from 11-79 years old were given a map of Molenberg had to recall street names and they noted how many had moved house (25 never moved while 1 had moved 40 times) retroactive interference was assessed by the number of moves

• Found a positive association between the number of times moved and number of names recalled, however potentially a confounding variable could be that students who walked to school remember street names better

Question 33

Outline retrieval failure (cue-dependant forgetting)

Answer 33

• Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory, the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
• E.g. the ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon is explained as people often recall a word when prompted with (e.g.) the first letter

• Encoding specificity principle (Tulving, 1983) states if a cue is present at encoding and again at retrieval it will aid the recall of the memory so if cues are different at encoding and recall forgetting can occur

• Forgetting can occur due to context dependant forgetting, state dependant forgetting and category dependant cues

• Key research comes from Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Question 34

Explain the causes of forgetting according to retrieval failure explanation

Answer 34

• Context dependant forgetting occurs when we lack environmental cues. Aspects of the external environment (e.g. sounds/smells) work as cues to memory, so being in a different place would inhibit memory

• State dependant forgetting occurs when we lack state dependant cues. Aspects of the internal environment (e.g. emotions/arousal/drugs) work as cues to memory, so being in a different emotional state would inhibit memory

• Category dependant cues are cues that relate to the memory that may aid recall, the most effective cues have fewer things associated with them. The lack of organisation/category cues may inhibit memory

Question 35

Outline Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Answer 35

• Aimed to see if people who learn and are tested in the same environment recall more than tide who learn and are tested in different environment

• Participants were deep sea divers and 18 were divided into four groups, two groups learnt lists of words underwater and one of those groups were tested underwater while the other was tested on the shore. The two other groups learnt the words on the shore and one of those groups was tested underwater and the other remained on shore

• Groups who learnt and recalled in the same environment recalled 40% more words, so recall of information is better in the same context
• May provide practical application for students e.g. wearing the same perfume when revising as in an exam

Question 36

Outline repression as an explanation of forgetting

Answer 36

• Repression is motivated forgetting; repressed memories can be analysed through dreaming or Freudian slips

• Emotionally threatening events are thought to be banished to the unconscious mind to prevent feelings of anxiety. Although the repressed memories continue to affect conscious thoughts, desires and actions, they’re difficult to retrieve

• This is a controversial area as repressed memories ‘recovered’ during therapy have often turned out to be false (false memory syndrome)

Question 37

Outline eyewitness testimony

Answer 37

• Eyewitness Testimony (EWT) is the ability to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed

• They’re used to provide evidence for a criminal trial immediately after the events happened to help police determine the perpetrator and details of a crime scene

Question 38

Identify the important of eyewitness testimony

Answer 38

• The verdict of people being tried in court often depends on the accuracy of EWT because jurors often find it important in making decisions. However in 75% of cases where individuals have been found by DNA evidence to have been wrongly convicted, the original guilty verdict was based off of inaccurate EWT.

• Research into EWT is imperative, as it helps develop understanding of how memory works, especially how inaccurate memories can be created, which helps form practical applications such as the cognitive interview as to how court cases should be conducted and how witness statements should be gathered

Question 39

Outline AO1 research into eyewitness testimony

Answer 39

• The Devlin Report (1973) found there were 850 cases where EWT was the only evidence of guilt. In 75% of these cases the accused was found guilty by a jury. The Devlin Committee advised that no jury should convict on EWT alone.

• Wells et al (1998) reanalysed evidence when DNA testing was introduced in 1990. By March 1994, 40 people were found to be wrongfully convicted, some of them having been sentenced to death. In 36% of these, mistaken EWT was the major evidence presented against them

• Bartlett (1932) argued memories aren’t accurate ‘snapshots’ of events perfectly preserved but are instead ‘reconstructions’ of events influenced by schemas. If recall isn’t objective, that’s an issue for EWT.
• Reconstructive memory means memory isn’t an accurate recoding if events but instead reconstructed in recalling and may produce errors called confabulations. This is because schemas are used to make sense of the world and ‘fill in gaps’ which affects the reliability of EWT

Question 40

Identify factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 40

• Misleading Information (including post-event discussion and leading questions)

• Anxiety

Question 41

Outline anxiety as a factor that affects eyewitness testimony

Answer 41

• Anxiety is a state of emotional and physical arousal. This includes cognitive changes such as worried thoughts and feelings of tension and physiological changes such as increased HR and perspiration.

• One main criticism of EWT research is that it often uses artificial scenarios that have no emotional involvement for witnesses. Real-life events such as violent crimes produce high anxiety that can affect recall by diverting attention away from important aspects of a witnessed event . This could be put down to the Yerkes-Dodson hypothesis

Question 42

Outline AO1 research into anxiety as a factor affecting eyewitness testimony

Answer 42

• When under stress the fight or flight response is activated, part of this preside is making us more alert and some psychologists argue this improves memory, as were more aware of situation cues.

• Yullie and Cutshall (1986) assessed stress at the time on an incident on a seven-point scale, finding individuals reporting higher stress gave more accurate testimony five months later (88% vs 75%)

Question 43

Outline the Yerkes-Dodson hypothesis

Answer 43

• The Yerkes Dodson hypothesis (inverted U- theory) states that as arousal increases, so does performance and if an individual reaches the optimal arousal level so does their performance. However if an individual becomes too stressed or anxious their performance will drastically decrease.

• This was applied to EWT by Deffenbacher (1983), stating that anxiety can improve recall, but if there’s too little or too much anxiety recall is negatively affecting. The YDH sees moderate anxiety as improving accuracy and detail of recall.

Question 44

Outline misleading information as a factor affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 44

Made up of leading questions and post-event discussion.

• Leading questions refer to leading the witness by asking questions that suggest a certain answer. This includes the response-bias explanation and the substitution explanation

• Post-event discussion is when misleading information comes from other sources e.g. co-witnesses when they discuss details of a crime or incident after the incident. This includes memory contamination and memory conformity.

Question 45

Outline leading questions as a form of misleading information

Answer 45

• Leading questions refer to leading the witness by asking questions that suggest a certain answer. This includes the response-bias explanation and the substitution explanation.

• Questions that imply a particular answer can influence how memory is recalled or create false memories (confabulations). They increase the likelihood of an individuals schema influencing them into giving an inaccurate statement, this is due to:

• Response-bias explanation suggests the wording of the question has no real impact on the participants memories but influences how they decide to answer, they feel pressure to give a specific response.

• Substitution explanation suggests the wording of the question actually changes the participants memory

• Key research comes from Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) first experiment (comprised of two separate experiments)

Question 46

Identify the aim of Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Answer 46

To assess the extent to which participants estimates of the speed of cars involved in accidents witnessed on videos could be influenced by misleading questions

Question 47

Identify the sample and method of Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) first experiment

Answer 47

• 45 university students were shown seven videos of car crashes. After each accident, participants wrote an account of what they could recall and answered specific questions.

• The key question was to estimate the speed of vehicles. There were five conditions of nine participants, each using a different verb when asking participants to estimate the speed cares we’re going when they (________) eachother

Question 48

Identify the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) first experiment

Answer 48

• As the intensity of the verb used in the key question increased, so did the estimate of the speed of the car.

• Participants who heard ‘smashed’ produced the highest speed estimate of 40.8mph and the lowest estimate was from participants who heard contacted (31.8mph)

Question 49

Identify the sample and method of Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) second experiment

Answer 49

• 150 students watched a video of a car crash and were divided into three groups of 50 participants

• They were asked a key question with either the word ‘smashed’, ‘hit’ or a control group not asked the question.

• A week later they were asked whether they saw any broken glass (there wasn’t any)

Question 50

Identify the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) second experiment

Answer 50

Participants were twice as likely in the ‘smashed’ condition to recall the false memory of broken glass, with 16/50 participants claiming to recall the glass compared with 7/50 and 6/50 in the ‘hit’ and control groups

Question 51

Identify the conclusion of Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Answer 51

• Experiment one showed misleading information in the form of leading questions can affect memory recall of eyewitnesses

• Experiment two showed misleading information in the form of post-event information can also affect memory recall of eyewitnesses

• Both studies suggest that at recall misleading information is reconstructed with material from the original memory

Question 52

Outline post-event discussion as a form of misleading information

Answer 52

• Post-event discussion is when misleading information comes from other sources e.g. co-witnesses when they discuss details of a crime or incident after the incident. This includes memory contamination and memory conformity.

• Post-event discussion in the real world can cause witnesses to combine information, potentially without realising, of other witnesses with their own memories

• Memory contamination refers to the phenomenon where memories or information reported by other witnesses influences an individual and is incorporated into the individuals memory

• Memory conformity is when witnesses add information to their statement to win social approval

• Key research comes from Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) second experiment (comprised of two separate experiments) and Gabbert et al (2003)

Question 53

Outline AO1 research into post-event discussion

Answer 53

• Gabbert et al (2003) put 60 students from the University of Aberdeen and 60 older adults into pairs and showed them a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet

• Each participant watched the crime from a different video perspective, so each participant either saw the girl steal the money or not. They then discussed the video and independently completed a questionnaire.

• A control group completed the task within post-event discussion and there was 0% mistakes in recall, while 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects they didn’t see in the video and 60% said the girl was guilty without seeing her commit the crime

• This suggests that witnesses often go along with others to win social approval or because they believe others are right

Question 54

Outline the cognitive interview

Answer 54

• The cognitive interview (CI) was developed by Fisher and Geisleman (1992) based on Tulving’s (1974) idea that there are several retrieval paths to each memory.

• It involves memory retrieval and communication techniques designed to help recall in police interviews and is based on a rapport with the interviewee to enable them to feel comfortable discussing witnessed events

• The CI involves Tulving and Thompson’s encoding specificity theory (1973) which suggests as many retrieval cues as possible should be used to enhance recall. Context provides cues that increase feature overlap between initial witnessing and subsequent retrieval contexts

• Components of the CI include changing the perspective and narrative order. This aids recall by reducing the use of prior knowledge, expectations and schemas to increase witness accuracy. Other components include mental reinstatement of context and the idea of reporting everything

Question 55

Identify and explain the components of the cognitive interview that aid recall

Answer 55

• Change in perspective, where the interviewee is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives e.g. how it would appear to other witnesses at the time.
• This is to disrupt the effect schemas have on recall, so prevents the expectations of that schema impacting recall. It was proposed by Anderson and Pichert (1978) where remembering a study about two boys skipping school to play ‘Hookey’ from different perspectives caused participants to remember different details

• Change of narrative order where the interviewer may try alternative ways through a timeline e.g. reversing the order that events occurred
• Recollections are influenced by schemas so starting from the end of events and going backwards prevents pre-existing schemas influencing recall because of expectations. They also help prevent dishonestly because it’s harder to produce an unfaithful account in reverse

Question 56

Identify and explain the 3rd and 4th components of the cognitive interview

Answer 56

• Mental reinstatement of context is when the interviewee is encouraged to mentally recreate the physical/psychological environment of the incident e.g. the weather or what the felt at the time
• This is based on context-dependant forgetting in that cues from the context may help trigger recall to make memories more accessible. Sometimes witnesses can be taken back to the scene to help with this

• Report everything is a technique where the interviewer encourages reporting every single detail even if they seem irrelevant
• Memories are interconnected and what may seem trivial could trigger other memories and details can be pieced together from many witnesses

Question 57

Outline the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)

Answer 57

• Fisher and Geisleman suggested an amended version of the CI that seeks to build a more trusting relationship and improve communication quality while focusing on social dynamics such as when to establish and relinquish eye contact

• Extra features of the ECI include:
1. The interviewer not distracting with unnecessary interruptions or questions
2. The witness controlling the conversation flow
3. Asking open ended questions
4. Getting the witness to speak slowly
5. Participants being reminded not to guess and use the ‘I don’t know’ option to reduce confabulations
6. Reducing anxiety in witnesses

Question 58

Describe the process of the enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 58

1. Getting witnesses to control the flow of information by asking open ended questions on neutral topics
2. Context reinstatement (recalling environmental and emotional context)
3. Witness has free recall of event and the improtant of ‘report everything’ is stated and emphasised
4. Ask information about recall using memory focused techniques e.g. mental images of memory such as a persons face. From this the interviewer guides their questions accordingly