Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

Define memory

A

The process of how retain information from past events

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2
Q

What is Chunking?

A

Grouping digits or letters into smaller chunks to improve recall

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3
Q

What is the capacity, duration, and encoding of the Short Term Memory?

A

Capacity: 5-9 chunks
Duration: Up to 30 seconds
Encoded: Acoustically

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4
Q

What is the capacity, duration and encoding of the Long Term Memory?

A

Capacity: Potentially lifetime
Duration: Limitless
Encoded: Semantically, based on meaning

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5
Q

What is the order of the Multi store model?

A

-Incoming sensory info
-Into sensory register
-No attention, forget
-Attention, STM
-Short Term memory
-Not rehearsed, forget
-Prolonged rehearsal, LTM
-Long Term memory
-Some lost over time
-Retrieved, STM
-Maintenance rehearsal

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6
Q

Give the features of the sensory register

A

Coding: Iconic store- visual info
Echoic store- acoustic info

Capacity: Very high, one hundred million cells in each eye storing info

Duration: Less than half a second

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7
Q

What is maintenance rehearsal?

A

When we repeat info to ourselves, keeping it in the STM, but if rehearsed for long enough it will move to the LTM.

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8
Q

What is displacement in terms of the STM?

A

When STM is at full capacity, a piece of info is shunted out to make room for the new info.

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9
Q

Evaluate the multi store model

A

+Supporting studies: Baddely found we mix up words that sound and mean the same, acknowledges we have separate memory stores.

-Too simplistic: evidence of more than one STM, study in amnesia patient showed differences in recall using acoustic or semantic.

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10
Q

What is Baddely’s research in to coding in STM and LTM? and evaluate

A

Had 4 groups:
A: acoustically similar
B: acoustically dissimilar
C: semantically similar
D: semantically dissimilar

A+B recalled immediately and did worse in A- encodes acoustically

C+D recalled after 20 mins and did worse on C- encodes semantically

+Identified separate memory stores
-Artificial task, not meaningful material

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11
Q

There were 2 studies into the capacity of STM: Jacob and then Miller, outline them both and evaluate

A

Jacobs read out digits and asked p’s to recall them. Read out 4, if correct then 5 and so on. Mean for letters: 7.3 and numbers: 9.3

Miller stated things come in 7s, e.g days of week, so that must be how much we can remember (7+-2), we chunk things.

-(Jacobs) lack of standardisation and appreciation of scientific methods: historical research is not as reliable due to confounding variables.
-Over estimated capacity, other research suggests the chunks are 4+-1

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12
Q

Outline and evaluate Peterson’s study into STM duration

A

-24 students, 8 trials
-Given a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number to remember.
-Asked to count back from this number until told to stop (prevents rehearsal)
-Either after 3-9 secs or 12-18 secs
-Recall the letter

80% could recall in 3-9 secs
3% could 12-18 secs therefore STM duration is 18secs

  • Meaningless stimuli, an artificial task, low mundane realism and ecological validity
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13
Q

Outline and evaluate Bahrick et als research into duration of LTM

A

-392 American p’s aged 17-74
-Used high school year books for photo recognition and name recall tasks of 50 people

Recognition: 15yrs after grad, 90%
48yrs after grad, 70%

Name recall: 15yrs, 60%
48yrs, 30%

+ High external validity, meaningful stimuli and high mundane realism, easily generalised to real life.

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14
Q

Who suggested there were 3 different types of LTM?

A

Tulving

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15
Q

What are the 3 types of LTM and what are they?

A

(PES)

Procedural- concerned with learned motor skills

Episodic- personal memories, such as associations of a particular place or time

Semantic- concerns facts taken independent of context

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16
Q

What is declarative/explicit memory and give an example of the type?

A

Requires conscious recall e.g episodic and semantic

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17
Q

What is non-declarative/implicit and give an example of the type?

A

Classically conditioned memory, doesn’t require conscious thought e.g procedural

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18
Q

What are the 2 types of episodic memory?

A

Autobiographical- particular life events

Flashbulb- vivid and detailed recollections

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19
Q

What evidence is there that supports the separate LTM types?

A

Research from patients with Amnesia e.g patient HM
-Are able to remember semantic and episodic memories from before getting amnesia, yet cannot remember new ones. However their procedural memory is not effected at all e.g playing piano
-Shows there is separation between the types

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20
Q

Evaluate the 3 types of LTM

A

+Support from case studies: patients with brain damage have severely impaired episodic, but semantic is fine.
+Real world application

-Conflicting research linking types of LTM to areas of the brain
Suggests different types are on opposites sides of the brain, yet other research suggests episodic encoding is on the left, and the right is for episodic retrieval.

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21
Q

Who came up with the Working Memory Model and what is it?

A

Baddely and Hitch

Believed the STM is not just one store, but a system of stores

22
Q

Describe the structure of the Working memory model

A

Central Executive

Visuospatial Episodic Phonological
Sketch Pad Buffer Loop (2 subs)

             Long-Term Memory
23
Q

What is the role of the Central Executive in the WMM?

A

Acts as a filter by monitoring incoming info and divides our attention to it if needed, allocating subsystems tasks.
Has limited capacity of one piece of info.

Like a boss

24
Q

What is the role of the Visuospatial Sketch Pad in the WMM?

A

A temporary memory store holding visual and spatial info, a slave system having 2 parts:

Visuo-cache: visual data such as colour and shape
Inner-scribe: arrangements of objects

Capacity of 3-4 objects

25
Q

What is the role of the Episodic Buffer in the WMM?

A

-A slave system that acts as a backup store for extra info and communicates with the LTM and other slave systems.
-Recalls info from LTM and integrates it to STM when working memory requires it
-Capacity of 4 chunks

26
Q

What is the role of the Phonological Loop in the WMM?

A

Holds auditory info in speech-based form:

Phonological Store- words we hear
Articulatory Process- maintenance rehearsal, repeating the words heard silently in our head.

Capacity of 2 seconds

27
Q

What is Proactive interference?

A

Occurs when older memory interferes with our new memory.

e.g teacher can remember names of last years class but not this years.

28
Q

What is Retroactive interference?

A

Occurs when a newer memory interferes with an older one.

e.g teacher learnt so many names this year, they can’t remember old class.

29
Q

Outline McGeoch and McDonald’s research into interference

A

P- 6 groups had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, then learnt a new list:
1-synonyms
2-antonyms
3-unrelated to previous list
4-consonant syllables
5-3 digit numbers
6- no list (control)

F- When asked to recall the original list, most similar words were the worst recalled, therefore interference is most likely to occur when material is similar.

30
Q

Evaluate interference

A

+Support from other studies that get the same results, which aslo tend to be lab studies, so highly controlled environments.

-Artificial stimuli used in study, no ecological validity.

-Interference is temporary and can be overcome by cues: research into lists recall shows recall was bad, but improved when given a cue like telling them the category of word.

31
Q

Define what is meant be an Eye Witness Testimony (EWT)

A

The ability of people to remember the details of event , such as accidents or crimes, which they themselves have observed.

32
Q

Outline Loftus and Palmer’s research into leading questions (misleading questions effecting EWT)

A

P’s watched watched a clip of a car accident and then asked the leading question “How fast was the car travelling when it ______ the other car?” and used the verbs: contacted, bumped, hit, collided, and smashed.

They found leading questions were biased:
Contacted- 31.8 mph
Smashed- 40.5 mph

33
Q

Outline Gabbert et al research into Post-event discussion (effecting EWT)

A

Pairs watched the same video of a crime but from different point of views, to see different elements and then discussed what they had seen before a recall test.

They found 71% mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn’t see- memory contamination.

34
Q

Define ‘Memory Contamination’

A

Combining misinformation from other witnesses with their own memory, or go along with each other, believing they are wrong.

35
Q

Evaluate the research on misleading information

A

+Real world application: practical uses in the criminal justice system

-A limitation of the substitution explanation is EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than others: research shows we are able to recall central aspects better than peripheral ones as we are probably paying more attention to them.

-Artificial stimuli, car crash video does not give the same anxiety as a real life one, and we know anxity effects memory.

36
Q

What is a cognitive interview?

A

A method of retrieving more accurate memories from eyewitnesses.

37
Q

Outline and explain the 4 techniques used in a cognitive interview

A
  1. Report everything: include every detail even if it seems irrelevant or you aren’t confident about it.
  2. Reinstate the context: return to the original crime scene in their mind, context-dependent forgetting.
  3. Reverse the order: change the order of events to prevent any expectations.
  4. Change perspective: recall the event from other peoples perspectives.
38
Q

What is the Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI)?

A

Fisher et al developed additional elements to the cognitive interview that focus on the social dynamics of interaction e.g reducing anxiety and distractions.

39
Q

Evaluate the cognitive interview

A

+Evidence to support the cognitive interview works: a meta-analysis combined data from 55 studies, comparing the cognitive interview with a standard interview, 41% more accurate info with CI.

-The different elements of the CI are not equal in their effectiveness: research found each technique alone produced more info than a standard interview, but reinstate and report everything combined was better recall. Doubt credibility of overall CI.

40
Q

Define anxiety

A

A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension.

41
Q

Outline Yuille and Cutshall’s research in to anxiety having a POSITIVE effect on recall

A

A shooting in a gun shop, where the shop owner shot a thief dead with 21 witnesses, 13 in the study. They were interviewed 4-5 months after, details recorded and anxiety rated.

Recall was very accurate, especially from those who felt the most anxiety.

42
Q

Outline Johnson and Scotts research into anxiety having a NEGATIVE effect on recall

A

(weapon caused anxiety)

P’s are seated in a waiting room:
1. A man walks past with a pen and grease on his hands
2. Can hear a heated argument and glass breaking.
3. Man holds a knife covered in blood

-49% were able to pick the man holding a pen out from 50 pics.
-33% could identify the man carrying a knife.

43
Q

What is tunnel theory?

A

Enhanced memory for central events.

44
Q

Evaluate the research into anxiety effecting recall

A

+Evidence to support anxiety having a positive impact on recall: interviewed 58 people about robberies in Sweden, some directly involved. Found direct victims had more recall although higher anxiety.

-Johnson and Scotts research may not have actually tested anxiety, but focused on the weapon and became stressed or scared. Study used a gun or raw chicken, accuracy was worse with chicken because it was unusual.

45
Q

What does the Yerkes-Dodson curve show?

A

Stress/anxiety will increase performance to a certain point, then will decrease.

46
Q

What is the ‘Encoding Specificity Principle’?

A

A cue has to be both present at encoding and retrieval

47
Q

What is Context-dependent forgetting?

A

Recall depends on external cues e.g the weather

48
Q

What is State-dependent forgetting?

A

Recall depends on internal cues e.g feeling upset

49
Q

Outline Godden and Baddeley’s study into context-dependent forgetting

A

-Used deep sea divers
-Had to learn a list of words
-Had 4 conditions:
Learn on land, recall in water
Learn on land, recall on land
Learn in water, recall on land
Learn in water, recall in water
-Recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions

50
Q

Outline Carter and Cassaday’s study into State-dependant forgetting

A

-Used antihistamines as the ‘drug’ state to compare with the ‘normal’ state
-Learn a list of words with 4 different conditions:
Learn on drug, recall on drug
Learn on drug, recall in normal
Learn in normal, recall on drug
Learn in normal, recall in normal
-More forgetting when stages are different

51
Q

Evaluate the research into context and state dependent forgetting

A

+Retrieval cues can help overcome forgetting in everyday situations.
+Eysenck suggested retrieval failure may be one of the main reasons we forget info from the LTM, increases validity of retrieval failure explanation.

-Findings may lack ecological validity: it was argued that in real life it is very hard to find situations as polar opposite as water and land so not providing an accurate description of forgetting in every day life.

-Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall: they found no significant difference in accuracy of recognition between the two conditions, do the explanation is limited to certain types of forgetting (recall).

52
Q

Evaluate the Working Memory Model

A

+Studies of dual-task performance: ps did a verbal and visual task simultaneously, decreased performance shows the slave systems competition .

-Central executive has not been precisely defined: may be made up of several sub-components or even part of a bigger one, very vague.

+Support from case study: shows KF had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but increased STM recall for visual, shows they are separate.