Memory

Question 1

What is the sensory register?

Answer 1

Memory store where information comes 1st through the senses.
Temp. stores info which disappears via spontaneous decay.
Limited capacity and duration, coded depending on sense.

Question 2

What is short term memory?

Answer 2

Temp memory store. Limited capacity and duration (30 secs). Coding = acoustic.

Question 3

What is long term memory?

Answer 3

Memory involving storage and recall of info over time. Unlimited capacity and theoretically perm. Coding = semantic.

Question 4

What are the 3 types of LTM?

Answer 4

Episodic = stores info about events. Declarative.
Semantic = stores facts and knowledge - conscious recall.
Procedural = how to do things - not consciously recalled.

Question 5

How did Sperling study duration in the sensory register?

Answer 5

3x4 grid of letters for 0.05s + immediate recall all or 1 row. 4/5 letters if all. When row, 3 items. Trace faded out sensory register. Artificial and lacks ecological validity.

Question 6

How did Peterson + Peterson study duration in STM?

Answer 6

Nonsense trigrams and recall. Counting backwards = interference task. 3s, recall 80%. 18s, recall 10%. When no rehearsal, v little in STM for longer than 18s.
Many trigrams = confusion, 1 stimulus.

Question 7

How did Bahrick et al study duration in vLTM?

Answer 7

Names of ex classmates = free recall. Then photo recognition, then name recognition. In 15y, recognise 90%. 60% on free recall but after 30y decreased to 30%. Recognition better than recall.

Question 8

How did Jacobs study capacity of STM?

Answer 8

String of letters/digits and repeat back. Recalled 9 digits and 7 letters. Capacity increases with age, but STM capacity = 5-9 items.
Digits easier because less.

Question 9

How did Miller study capacity of STM?

Answer 9

Reviewed research into capacity - 7+-2 is Miller’s magic number.
Chunking to combine items.

Question 10

How did Baddeley study coding of LTM and STM?

Answer 10

4 sets of words - acoustically or semantically similar/not. Independent groups. Problems with acoustically similar if immediate recall, and semantically after interval.
No control and lacks ecological validity.

Question 11

What is the multi-store model of memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin?

Answer 11

3 stores and info must move through to become a memory. Attention, rehearsal important.

Question 12

What are the primacy and recency effects?

Answer 12

Primacy - recall 1st few list items better than middle as rehearsed better -> LTM.
Recency - recall last few better than middle - displaced from STM.

Question 13

What are evaluation points for the multi store model?

Answer 13

Korsakoff’s syndrome = alcoholic amnesia. LTM = poor, so separate stores.
Rehearsal not always needed and some can’t be (smells).
Oversimplified.

Question 14

What is the working memory model by Baddeley and Hitch?

Answer 14

STM = active processor.
CE = attention with limited capacity and controls slave systems.
PL - speech based info
VSS - temp storage of visual and spatial info
EB - added later, briefly stores info + integrates it together.

Question 15

What are evaluation points for the WMM?

Answer 15

Based on results from interference tasks.
Less emphasis on rehearsal.
Less simplistic
Lab studies only
CE = simplistic and vague
Only explains STM info.

Question 16

What is forgetting?

Answer 16

Loss/modification of info already encoded and stored. From STM = availability issue. Maybe displaced or decayed.
From LTM = decay or accessibility issue or retrieval issue.

Question 17

What is interference?

Answer 17

Ability to remember affected by learning something similar before/after. 2 types:
1. Retroactive - new info interferes with ability to recall old information.
2, Proactive - old info interferes with ability to recall new info.

Question 18

What are the strengths and weaknesses of interference?

Answer 18

Strengths: many studies to support, ecological validity, evidence for real world situations.
Weaknesses: effects greater in lab, not fully explain why/how, low external validity.

Question 19

What are cues?

Answer 19

Affects ability to recall info. Prompts - higher chance of remembering if appropriate cue. Internal/external.
Cue dependent learning.

Question 20

What are evaluation points for interference?

Answer 20

• best forgetting explanation in LTM
• strongest evidence
• high internal validity
• hard to generalise
• most caused by retrieval failure
• artificial evidence with low external validity
• not explain all memory types

Question 21

What are the studies related to interference?

Answer 21

RETROACTIVE - Underwood and Postman. 2 groups with paired word list. Group 2 given 2nd list with 2nd words different to 1st list. Interference from 2nd list present.

PROACTIVE - Underwood. meta analysis of results about forgetting over 24 hours. If learnt 15+ word lists in same trial, recall of final list = 20%. If not, recall = 80%.

Question 22

What is EWT?

Answer 22

The ability of people to remember details of events seen.
Relies on recall from memory. Witnesses often inaccurate with memories - not very reliable as people not agree.

Question 23

What did Loftus and Zanni study?

Answer 23

Leading questions - film of car crash and asked about broken headlight. No broken light in film. 17% ‘the’ said yes vs 7% ‘a’.
Affects accuracy.
Lab study - control variables can establish causality.

Question 24

How did Tulving and Psotka study forgetting?

Answer 24

Given 1-6 lists of 24 words, each with 6 categories. Trial 1 - total free recall. (RI evidence). Trial 2 - given category names. (recall same = 70%).

Interference not cause forgetting as memories accessible with cues.

Question 25

How did Loftus and Palmer study EWT?

Answer 25

Experiment 1: 45 students shown car crash video. Wrote account and answered questionnaire. Estimate speed in diff conditions.
Smashed = highest estimate.
Experiment 2: 150 students shows car crash video. 1 group asked smashed, 1 group hit, 1 group not asked. 1 week later; any broken glass?
more likely yes if smashed condition.

Question 26

How can EWT testimony be affected?

Answer 26

By misleading info, leading questions and post event discussions.
eg. Shaw et al - when p’s responded 1st, recall = 58%. When confederates 1st, = 67% but 42% if wrong.

Misleading info through conversation and age can also have an affect.

Question 27

How does age affect EWT?

Answer 27

Valentine and Coxon - 3 groups of diff ages - video of crime and questions. Elderly and kids gave more incorrect answers but children more misled on leading questions.
Artificial and not emotionally arousing.

Question 28

How can anxiety affect focus?

Answer 28

Small increase can increase accuracy, but high levels decrease accuracy. In violent crimes, witness focus on central details only. Yerkes-Dodson law.

Loftus - man with pen and grease (1) vs bloody knife (2). Identify from 50 photos. 1 = 49% accurate, 2 = 33%.

Question 29

What are evaluation points for anxiety affecting focus?

Answer 29

• high ecological validity
• not determine if proximity/stress = main factor as highest stress is closest.
  Field study showed witnesses of gun shooting had v accurate memories 5 months later. Misleading questions had no effect.

Question 30

What is the cognitive interview technique?

Answer 30

Geiselman et al to increase accuracy of recall in police questioning.
Relax witness, tailor language, mentally recreates environment, everything they remember, diff. orders/perspectives.

Much more accurate.

Question 31

What is the enhanced CIT?

Answer 31

Removing issues due to wrong question order. Not distract with interruptions, open questions, speak slowly, not to guess, witness in control.