Memory

Question 1

what is memory?

Answer 1

the process by which we retain information about events that have happened in the past.

Question 2

what are the two types of memory?

Answer 2

short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).

Question 3

what is long-term memory (LTM)?

Answer 3

the permanent memory store, lasts up to a lifetime. (semantic coding)

Question 4

what is short-term memory (STM)?

Answer 4

the limited capacity memory store, lasts approximately 18-30 seconds. (acoustic coding)

Question 5

how do the STM and LTM differ?

Answer 5

coding, capacity and duration.

Question 6

what is coding?

Answer 6

the way in which information is changed and stored in memory: acoustically (sound) - dominant method for STM, visually (image) and semantically (meaning) - dominant method for LTM

Question 7

what is capacity?

Answer 7

how much information can be held in a memory store.

Question 8

what is duration?

Answer 8

how long information can be held in a memory store.

Question 9

who conducted research on coding and when?

Answer 9

baddeley (1966)

Question 10

what did baddeley (1966) do in his study and what were the findings / conclusions?

Answer 10

researched coding in STM and LTM - word recall of similar / dissimilar words and found that words were coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM.

Question 11

what is a strength of baddeley’s coding research?

Answer 11

supports separate memory stores for LTM and STM.

Question 12

what is a weakness of baddeley’s coding research?

Answer 12

use of artificial and meaningless stimuli - the word lists had no personal meaning and do not reflect how memory works in everyday life so the findings lack external validity and real life application.

Question 13

who conducted research on capacity and when?

Answer 13

jacobs (1887) and miller (1956)

Question 14

what is digit span?

Answer 14

a way of measuring capacity of STM in terms of maximum no. of digits that can be recalled in the correct order

Question 15

what did jacobs (1887) do in his study and what were the findings / conclusions?

Answer 15

developed digit span, he asked participants how many number they could recall in a row and found that the mean = 9.3 items and 7.3 letters

Question 16

what is a strength of jacobs’ digit span research?

Answer 16

the study has been replicated which proves that is it a valid test of digit span in STM.

Question 17

what are weaknesses of jacobs’ digit span research?

Answer 17

the research is outdated (1887), so may not have been done to the same scientifically rigorous standard as research today, therefore low in validity.

not representative of STM tasks performed in real life situations (lacks generalisability).

Question 18

what did miller (1956) do in his study and what were the findings / conclusions?

Answer 18

investigated the span of memory and chunking in STM, concluded 7 plus or minus 2 ‘bits’ of information to describe capacity and that putting items together (chunking) extends STM capacity, the capacity of LTM is thought to be potentially unlimited.

Question 19

what is a weakness of miller’s capacity research?

Answer 19

overestimated STM capacity - cowan established only 4 chunks which suggests that miller’s research is flawed.

Question 20

who conducted research on duration and when?

Answer 20

bahrick et al (1975) and peterson and peterson (1959)

Question 21

what did peterson and peterson (1959) do in their study and what were the findings / conclusions?

Answer 21

researched duration of STM, used consonant syllables and counting backwards as a means of preventing rehearsal and found that STM lasts about 18 seconds.

Question 22

what is a weakness of peterson and peterson’s duration research?

Answer 22

use of artificial stimuli - lacks external validity.

Question 23

what did bahrick et al (1975) do in their study and what were the findings / conclusions?

Answer 23

research duration of LTM, used recall tests of yearbooks (photos and names) and found that after 15 years = 90% facial recognition and 60% free recall, after 48 years = 70% facial recognition and 30% free recall which he then councluded that LTM lasts up to a lifetime for some material but over time memories are lost.

Question 24

what is a strength of bahrick et al’s duration research?

Answer 24

used meaningful materials which lead to better recall than other studies - high external validity.

Question 25

what is the multi-store model of memory (MSM)?

Answer 25

information comes through stimuli into sensory register - irrelevant info is lost and decays, attention is payed to important info from sensory register and transferred to STM - info not lost in STM: this is through maintenance rehearsal so forgetting does not occur and moved to LTM where stays and retrieved back to STM.

Question 26

what are the strengths of the MSM?

Answer 26

there is research support, patient HM - STM intact but could not form new LTMs while old LTMs were still there which supports STM and LTM stored separately; MSM true & accurate.

baddeley (1966) - found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STMs and have similar meanings when using LTMs which shows STM and LTM as separate and independent memory stores.

Question 27

what are the weaknesses of the MSM?

Answer 27

there is conflicting evidence, patient KF - visual STM undamaged but verbal STM damaged, can store LTMs without passing through damaged STM - suggests STM isn’t a unitary store: different parts processing different information.

lack of RWA - memories relate to peoples’ faces, names, places etc. but studies use artificial stimuli (digits, letters, words etc) which suggests that MSM is not reliable or valid.

prolonged rehearsal is not needed for LTM - information can be transferred without rehearsal which suggests that MSM doesn’t fully explain how long-term storage is achieved.

Question 28

what are the three types of LTM?

Answer 28

episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory.

Question 29

what is tulving’s theory on the types of LTM?

Answer 29

tulving makes a distinction between different types of LTM: procedural memory and declarative memory and he splits declarative memory into two sub-types: episodic memory and semantic memory.

Question 30

what is declarative memory?

Answer 30

the memory of meaningful events, it is recalled consciously and is explicit.

Question 31

what is episodic memory?

Answer 31

the ability to recall events and specific information (declarative - explicit, timestamped).

Question 32

what is semantic memory?

Answer 32

the ability to recall facts that have meaning (declarative - explicit, not timestamped).

Question 33

what is procedural memory?

Answer 33

the ability to recall actions and skills and it is recalled subconsciously (non-declarative - implicit, not usually timestamped).

Question 34

what was the case study on clive wearing like?

Answer 34

• he suffered severe memory loss but he can still walk, talk, read, write, play piano, doesn’t remember children’s names, recognises his wife and greets her sweetly.
• he had a 7 second STM, no new LTMs formed but still knew his old LTMs, reduced memory for personal events (damaged STM, no new LTMs), his case supports the MSM as it shows that in order for LTMs to be formed, the STM is needed.

Question 35

what are the strengths of tulving’s theory on the types of LTM?

Answer 35

there is clinical evidence:
- the case study of clive wearing supports tulving’s theory as clive was severely impaired due to brain damage but his semantic memories were unaffected and his procedural memories were intact.
- miner (1962) studied the case of patient HM and showed that he could learn procedural tasks even though he had poor episodic or semantic memory.
both these studies support tulving’s theory of there being more than one type of LTM - one store can be damaged and the others unaffected.

brain scanning studies show that different areas of the brain are active when performing tasks involving different types of LTM, this supports that types of LTM are physically different.

Question 36

what are the weaknesses of tulving’s theory on the types of LTM?

Answer 36

however, there are issues in case studies, clive wearing and patient HM’s illnesses before are unknown so they cannot be compared to the rest of the population, this lack of control limits what clinical studies can say about different types of LTMs, therefore lacking generalisability.

Question 37

what is a dual-task performance?

Answer 37

using two different parts of the STM - so not interfering with each other.

Question 38

what is the working memory model (WMM)?

Answer 38

the WMM suggests that the STM does not exist as unitary stores and it is an account of how short-term memory functions when working on a task, it is made up of the central executive, the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS), the phonological loop and the episodic buffer.

Question 39

what is the central executive?

Answer 39

the supervisory role - monitors incoming data, allocates ‘slave’ systems (subsystems) to tasks, has a very limited processing capacity and doesn’t store information.

Question 40

what is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 40

a subsystem for the inner eye - it stores visual data (images) in visual cache and manipulates / arranges images in visual field (inner scribe), it has a limited capacity (3-4 objects) and it is coded visually.

Question 41

what is the phonological loop?

Answer 41

a subsystem for the inner voice - stores words heard in the phonological loop and rehearses them (maintenance rehearsal) in articulatory loop, it has a limited capacity (2 seconds) and coded acoustically.

Question 42

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 42

a subsystem - integrates and temporarily stores information processed by other subcomponents and maintains time sequencing (order of events), it is the storage component for CE and links working memory to LTM and perception, it has a limited capacity (4 chunks) and it is modality free (not limited to a sense since it needs to manipulate all manner of information).
(added in 2000)

Question 43

what are the strengths of the working memory model?

Answer 43

the study of KF supports the WMM, he had a poor STM ability for auditory information but could process visual information normally, his phonological loop damaged, but his visuospatial sketchpad was intact which strongly supports existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores. however, it is unclear whether other cognitive impairments may have affected his performance e.g trauma may have affected his cognitive performance which challenges clinical evidence for participants with brain injuries.

baddeley et al (1975) found that when participants had to perform two tasks simultaneously which used the same system, they found it very difficult, but when performing two tasks using different system, performance was unaffected so this shows that there are different systems for different types of information, and that they have limited capacities.

Question 44

what are the weaknesses of the working memory model?

Answer 44

the role of the central executive has been criticised for not being explained enough, it is claimed as the most important but is the least understood so it needs to be more clearly specified than just ‘attention’, meaning that the WMM is lacking in clarity.

dual-task studies use tasks that are very unlike tasks performed in individuals’ everyday lives, they are also carried out in highly-controlled lab conditions so there is lack of validity and real-world application.

Question 45

what is the interference theory?

Answer 45

the interference theory suggests that information stored in LTM is permanent and forgetting happens when this information cannot be accessed even if available - some forgetting happens because of interference, when information that is similar conflicts with each other, resulting in a distortion or blocking of a memory.

Question 46

what are the two types of interference?

Answer 46

proactive interference and retroactive interference.

Question 47

what is proactive interference?

Answer 47

when old memories interfere with new memories.

Question 48

what is retroactive interference?

Answer 48

when new memories interfere with old memories.

Question 49

what is the explanation of effects of similarity due to proactive interference?

Answer 49

previously stored information (old) makes new similar information difficult to store.

Question 50

what is the explanation of effects of similarity due to retroactive interference?

Answer 50

new information overwrites previous similar memories because of similarity.

Question 51

who conducted a study on proactive interference of LTM and when?

Answer 51

keppel and underwood (1962)

Question 52

what did keppel and underwood (1962) do in their proactive interference study and what did they find?

Answer 52

they presented participants with meaningless 3 letter consonant trigrams at different intervals and they found that participants typically remembered trigrams that were first presented (old learning), so they concluded that proactive interference occurred as old memories interfered with new memories due to similarity of information presented.

Question 53

who conducted a study on the effects of similarity and when?

Answer 53

mcgeoch and mcdonald (1931)

Question 54

what did mcgeoch and mcdonald (1931) do in their effects of similarity study and what did they find?

Answer 54

they found that when participants were given a list of words to learn followed by a second list, recall of the first list was worse when the second set of information was more similar (e.g. a list of words with the same meanings as the originals) and this shows that interference is strongest when memories are similar.

Question 55

what are the strengths of the interference theory?

Answer 55

baddeley and hitch (1977) found that when rugby players recalled the names of teams they had played against, players who played the most games had poorest recall which shows how interference can happen in some real-life situations.

the interference theory has a lot of research support e.g. baddeley and hitch (1977), mcgeoch and mcdonald (1931) and keppel and underwood (1962), suggesting the explanation is true.

Question 56

what are the weaknesses of the interference theory?

Answer 56

there are validity issues as most of the supporting evidence uses artificial tasks, such as learning meaningless word lists and having to recall them 20 minutes later, which is not reflective of how memory works, this therefore weakens the explanation as the procedures are unrealistic.

Question 57

what is the retrieval failure theory?

Answer 57

it states the forgetting is due to the inability to access that memory - the memory is still there, but it is inaccessible due to not having the right cue, also called cue-dependent forgetting.

Question 58

what are the types of forgetting involving cues?

Answer 58

context-dependent forgetting (external) and state-dependent forgetting (internal).

Question 59

what is context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 59

the external environment differs between learning and recall.

Question 60

what is state-dependent forgetting?

Answer 60

the internal state of the person (e.g. alertness) differs between learning and recall.

Question 61

what is the encoding specificity principle (ESP) and who came up with it?

Answer 61

tulving (1983) - recall is the most effective when the same information (cues), conditions or state is present at both the time of encoding and the time of retrieval and if these cues are not present when trying to recall the information, forgetting will take place.

Question 62

who conducted a study on context-dependent forgetting and when was this?

Answer 62

godden and baddeley (1975)

Question 63

what did godden and baddeley do in their study and what did they find?

Answer 63

they studied deep-sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater, in which divers had to learn a list of words underwater (or on land), and then recall them underwater (or on land) and the conditions in which the environment of learning matched that of recall resulted in a 40% higher recall rate.

Question 64

who conducted a study on state-dependent forgetting and when was this?

Answer 64

carter and cassaday (1998)

Question 65

what did carter and cassaday do in their study and what did they find?

Answer 65

gave antihistamine drugs (hay fever) to participants - which had a mild sedative effect, putting them in a drowsy state (different from natural / normal state of awareness), in which participants had to learn lists of words whilst on antihistamines (or not on them), and then recall them on antihistamines (or not on them) and they found that conditions in which the state of learning matched that of recall resulted in a significantly higher recall rate.

Question 66

what are the strengths of the retrieval failure theory?

Answer 66

there is research support e.g. carter and cassaday, godden and baddeley, and many others, which demonstrates and supports the explanation of cue-dependent forgetting.

baddeley suggests that although cues may not have a strong effect on forgetting, they are still worth paying attention to, when individuals have trouble remembering something it can be worth making the effort to remember the environment of first learning it which shows how research has real-world application as it can remind individuals of strategies used in real life to improve recall.

Question 67

what are the weaknesses of the retrieval failure theory?

Answer 67

baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are not very strong, especially in everyday life; different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting so it doesn’t actually explain forgetting.

in a replication of the deep-sea diver study there was no context effect when divers had to recognise words from the list (rather than having to simply recall them) which shows that context effects may only be applicable to certain types of memory test, weakening the explanation.

Question 68

what is an eyewitness testimony (EWT)?

Answer 68

when an individual witnesses a crime or accident, they are often asked to recall information about the events.

Question 69

what are leading questions?

Answer 69

questions worded in a way that encourages an individual to give a specific answer.

Question 70

what is post-event discussion (PED)?

Answer 70

co-witness discussion affects memories of event.

Question 71

who conducted research on the accuracy of EWT and when?

Answer 71

allport and postman (1947)

Question 72

what did allport and postman (1947) do in their study?

Answer 72

participants were shown a picture of a well dressed black man and a casually dressed white man holding a razor, when they were asked to describe the pictures, the descriptions changed to the black man holding the razor which suggests expectations and stereotypes affect memory.

Question 73

who conducted research on leading questions and when?

Answer 73

loftus and palmer (1974)

Question 74

what did loftus and palmer (1974) do in their study and what did they find?

Answer 74

had 45 participants watch car accidents and questioned them in 5 groups and each group had a different verb in their question: 1 = hit, 2 = contacted, 3 = bumped, 4 = collided, 5 = smashed.

they found that those given ‘smashed’ as their verb estimated a speed of 41mph and those given ‘contacted’ estimated 32mph, this shows how the phrasing of the question suggested how fast the car was going, and affected the participant’s answer (the response-bias explanation).

another explanation is the substitution explanation, where the question actually changes the witness’s memory, in a second experiment that they conducted, they asked participants if there was broken glass and they found that those given the ‘smashed’ question were more likely to say that they did see broken glass, even though the clip did not have any.

Question 75

what is the response-bias explanation?

Answer 75

suggests that the wording of a question doesn’t have an effect on memory but influences answers.

Question 76

who conducted research on post-event discussion and when?

Answer 76

gabbert et al (2003)

Question 77

what did gabbert et al (2003) do in their study?

Answer 77

they studied pairs of participants and had each participant watch clips of car accidents in different angles and do a recall test after discussing with each other.

Question 78

what did gabbert et al (2003) find in their study?

Answer 78

they found that 71% mistakenly recalled what they did not see and 0% mistakenly recalled in control group (no discussion) which was evidence of memory conformity and they concluded that PED affects EWT due to memory contamination and memory conformity, also concluded that witnesses go along with each other for social approval or belief of themselves being wrong but their

Question 79

what is memory contamination?

Answer 79

(mis)information from other witnesses combined with own after discussion.

Question 80

what are the strengths of the research of misleading information on accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 80

there is real-world application, due to leading questions having a distorting effect on memory, police need to be careful with how they word their questions in interviews and psychologists are sometimes asked to act as expert witnesses in court and explain limits of EWT shows they can help improve the legal system which strengthens the value of research into EWT.

Question 81

what are the weaknesses of the research of misleading information on accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 81

studies such as loftus and palmer take place in labs, watching film clips, meaning that the emotional aspect of witnessing an accident or crime is not present (less stressful environment) so the experiments may therefore not tell us about how EWT may work in the real world.

answers that participants may give may be due to them wanting to please the experimenter or guess what the experimenter wants from them (demand characteristics), so they may not answer in this way if recalling a real-life event, this reduces the validity of these findings.

Question 82

what is anxiety?

Answer 82

a state of emotional arousal (e.g. worried thoughts and feelings of tension) and physical arousal (e.g. increased heart rate and sweating), it occurs as a reaction to stressful situations and can affect EWT.

Question 83

who conducted a study for anxiety having a negative effect on recall and when?

Answer 83

johnson and scott (1976)

Question 84

what did johnson and scott do in their study?

Answer 84

they conducted a lab study using two groups of participants where they were left to wait alone in the reception area and there were two conditions: ‘no weapon’ (low anxiety) and ‘weapon’ (high anxiety), in the ‘no weapon’ condition, participants heard an argument in an adjacent room, followed by glass breaking, then a man walked into the room holding a pen with grease on his hands and in the ‘weapon’ condition, participants saw the man walk in with a paper knife, with blood on his hands instead.

Question 85

what did johnson and scott find in their study?

Answer 85

they found that 49% of the ‘no weapon group’ later accurately identified the man in a line-up, compared to 33% of the ‘weapon group’, as a result they came up with the weapon-focus affect and the findings suggest anxiety has a negative effect on EWT and reduces its accuracy, as witnesses will focus on the weapon as a source of anxiety and not concentrate on any other details (the tunnel effect).

Question 86

what is the weapon-focus effect?

Answer 86

when participants are exposed to a weapon, they experience higher levels of anxiety and are more likely to focus attention on a weapon and not face of target.

Question 87

who conducted a study for anxiety having a postive effect on recall and when?

Answer 87

yuille and cutshall (1986)

Question 88

what did yuille and cutshall do in their study?

Answer 88

they assessed a real life case study (the shooting of a gun shop - one person killed and others injured), 13 witnesses took part in their study and they interviewed them 4-5 months after the incident where they found that participants who reported experiencing the highest levels of stress were more accurate in their recall of details of the event than those that reported feeling less stressed (88% compared to 75%) so this suggests that anxiety can have a positive effect on EWT which led to them to come up with the yerkes dodson law.

Question 89

what is the yerkes dodson law?

Answer 89

a moderate amount of anxiety can have a positive effect on recall and accuracy of EWT, but once the level of anxiety gets too high, accuracy will reduce.

Question 90

what are the strengths of research into anxiety on EWT?

Answer 90

there is research support for negative effects; valentine and mesout (london dungeon) found that anxiety reduced accurate recall in individuals (17% = high anxiety, 75% = low anxiety) which suggests high anxiety does not have a negative effect on recall therefore supporting johnson and scott.

there is research support for positive effects; christianson and hübinette (real life bank robberies) found that the most anxious eyewitnesses had the most accurate recall, however, interviews were long after the event so lacks control of confounding variables.

Question 91

what are the weaknesses of research into anxiety on EWT?

Answer 91

the johnson and scott study may have actually tested surprise rather than anxiety over the weapon, pickel (1988) found that participants were less accurate with recall when viewing a scene in a hairdressers including items such as a raw chicken (when compared to scissors, for example) so the internal validity of Johnson and Scott is therefore in question as it suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety.

field studies such as yuille and cutshall cannot be controlled, e.g. how good the participant’s memories are generally, or whether they talked about what they saw so the research is therefore weakened as a result.

the yerkes-dodson law is too simplistic and there are problems with it as it ignores cognitive aspects of anxiety and focuses only on emotional and physical aspects.

Question 92

who conducted a study on improving the accuracy of EWT and when?

Answer 92

fisher and geiselman (1992)

Question 93

what did fisher and geiselman do in their study?

Answer 93

they argued that EWT can be improved with better techniques and developed the cognitive interview (CI) as a way of improving the accuracy of EWT as they are based on psychological insights of memory, it has four elements:
1 - report everything.
2 - reinstate the context.
3 - reverse the order of recall.
4 - change the perspective.

Question 94

what is report everything?

Answer 94

recalling every possible detail of the event, as minor details may act as a cue to trigger more important information.

Question 95

what is reinstate the context?

Answer 95

return to the scene of the event (which could be real or imaginary), as this may provide cues to help recall detail (avoids context-dependent forgetting).

Question 96

what is reverse the order of recall?

Answer 96

recall from end and work backwards, which can prevent the witness’s expectations of events and dishonesty.

Question 97

what is change the perspective?

Answer 97

asked to put themselves in a different point of view e.g. another witness or victim, which is done to prevent effects of expectations and schemas.

Question 98

what is the enhanced cognitive interview and who came up with it?

Answer 98

fisher et al (1987) added further social dynamics to the CI, focusing on the dynamic between the interviewer and witness e.g. minimising distractions, maintaining eye contact and how long for, asking open questions, getting the witness to speak slowly.

Question 99

what are the strengths of research in improving accuracy of the EWT?

Answer 99

milne and bull (2002) found that the CI does lead to more information being reported, especially ‘report everything’ and ‘reinstate the context’ which strengthens the CI, as it suggests it is useful.

fisher et al (1990) found that witnesses responded greater in accounts of crimes with american detectives trained to use technique of ECI / CI.

köhnken et al (1999) found that CI produces 41% more accurate recall than standard interview, however, CI also increases inaccurate information and even more in ECI.

Question 100

what are the weaknesses of research in improving accuracy of the EWT?

Answer 100

the CI is very time-consuming as it takes longer and needs special training, and many police forces don’t have the resources to properly use it, limiting its usefulness as an interview technique and may not be a realistic method for the police making it unreliable.