memory Flashcards
what does the term memory refer too ?
process of….. information
storing
retaining
retrieving
why do cognitive psychologist use theoretical and computer memory in memory ?
to explain and make inferences about the structure and processes of memory
who and what year created the multi-memory store ?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
1968/71
what do Atkinson and Shiffrin suggest about our memory ?
it is divided into 3
independent and distinct stores
they are unitary
what are the 3 parts our memory is divided into ?
sensory register
short-term memory
long term memory
what does distinct mean ?
all have there own separate job
what does unitary mean ?
only one of them
what does coding-encoding mean ?
the way/form information enters memory
what does capacity mean ?
the amount of information we can hold in memory at any one time
what does duration mean ?
how long information can be held in the memory store
how does the sensory memory encode ?
-takes information in from all 5 senses
-preserves it long enough for them to recognised
- consists of several stores for each sensory modality
what is sensory modality ?
- specific to sense receiving info
-one aspect of a stimulus or what we perceive after a stimulus
what are the 2 sensory modalities ?
acoustic store= sounds, visuals
iconic store= pictures
what is the duration for sensory memory ?
-long enough to be recognised
- it is then either lost or passed to STM if attended to
what is the capacity of sensory memory ?
very large
how does STM encode ?
it is stored acoustically
what is the duration for STM ?
-18-30 seconds if not rehearsed
- can last considerably longer if rehearsed
what is the capacity for STM ?
- ## 5-9 items
how can you remember the capacity for STM ?
7 +/- 2
how does LTM encode ?
-semantically
- dependent of meaningfulness
- if you understand it your more likely to remember
what is the duration of LTM ?
- very long time
- potentially forever
what is one thing about memorise in LTM ?
- it is never truly forgotten
- we can simply no longer retrieve the memory at will
what is the capacity of LTM ?
unlimited
what will happen if one store of memory is damaged ?
the others should stay intact
what is Jacobs (1887) study for ?
- capacity of STM
- how much information can be held in STM
what accurate technique did Jacobs devise ?
serial digit span
what was Paterson & Petersons (1959) study for ?
- duration of STM
- show info is only held in STM for about 20 sec and then after disappears if no rehearsal
what are trigrams ?
nonsense syllables in sets of three
what is Baddeley’s (1966) for ?
-encoding in STM and LTM
- establish that STM is encoded acoustically (sound) and them LTM is encoded semantically (meanings)
what is an independent groups design ?
they only take part in one condition in the investigation
what is Bahrick (1974) for ?
-duration of VLTM
- show memories could last over several decades to support the assumption that the duration of a memory is a lifetime
what way did Bahrick aim to test VLTM ?
- ecologically valid and mundane realism way
what is declarative memories ?
specific events and facts
it is divided into 2 further sub groups
what is a procedural memory ?
aids the performance of a task without our conscious awareness of these previous experiences
responsible for knowing how to do things
who created the working model and what year ?
baddeley and hitch
1974
why did they created this model ?
as they believed that STM was not just one store but a number of different ones
what happens if you do 2 visual tasks at the same time ? and why ???
then you perform less well then if you do them separately
as there is conflict as the attention is divided
what happened if you do 2 things at once when 1 is visual and other involves sound ?
there is not interference between the 2
what does working memory model suggest about the processing system ?
that it is active not passive like multi store suggests
what is a active processing system ?
needs to engage in active cognitive process to learn
what are the 4 components of the working memory model ?
central executive
phonological loop
visuo-spatial sketchpad
episodic buffer
what is the central executive ? (6 things)
attentional control system
it allocated tasks between the 3 sub systems
it is modality free
had a limited capacity and duration (as model of STM)
can process information from any senses
it is where decision making happens
what are the 2 components reliant on the CE ?
phonological loop
visuo-spatial sketchpad
what is the phonological loop ?
deals w auditory and verbal information in speech base form
therefore modality specific- auditory
can hold a limited amount of info for a short time
what r the 2 subdivisions in the phonological loop ?
phonological store
articulatory process
what is the phonological store ?
speech based storage system
holds the words you hear for brief periods
decay rate- approx 2 seconds
also known as ‘inner ear’
what is the articulatory process ?
the sub-vocal repetition process
it silently repeats words to prevent decaying
has a limited capacity of 3-4 items
also known as the ‘inner voice’
what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad ?
deals with a limited number of objects (3-4)
they are spatial and visual
it is a temporary storage system
what is the the 2 components of the VSS ?
visual cache
inner scribe
what is the visual cache ?
deals w coding objects and features
such as shapes and colours
limited capacity
also known as the ‘inner eye’
what is the inner scribe ?
a spatial component that deal with the location and movement of objects in your field of vision
what is the episodic buffer ?
temporary storage system
allows info from the CE PL VSS to be combined w the info from the LTM
integrates this info
who realised that the MSM view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible ?
Tulving (1985)
he was the first cognitive psychologist to realise
what did Tulving propose ?
that there was in fact 3 LTM stores
they contain different types of info in each
what are the explicit types of LTM ?
+ meaning ?
declarative
so episodic and semantic
‘knowing that’s
what are the implicit types of LTM ?
+ meaning?
procedural
‘knowing how’
what are the 2 types of LTM ?
procedural memory
declarative memory
what are the 2 sub groups of declarative memory ?
semantic memory
episodic memory
what is semantic memory ?
responsible for storing information about the world
meaning of words or general knowledge
fact based
it involves conscious thought as declarative
what is episodic memory ?
responsible for storing information about events that we have experienced in our lives
involves conscious thought
the significant events stand out the most
what does the semantic memory mainly activate ?
the frontal and temporal cortex
what does the episodic memory activate ?
the hippocampus
when is proactive and retroactive interference is thought to more likely occur ?
when the memories r similar
what is the explanation for forgetting in interference ?
that one set of information becomes confused with another
what does the interference theory process look at ?
what occurs before during and after learning the new information
what 2 things does interference do ?
-prevents the new info passing from STM to LTM
- also as the amount of info grows in the LTM there will be increasing interference between competing memories
what are the 2 types of interference ?
proactive
retroactive
what is proactive interference ?
where old learning interferes with the new info being learnt
so new learning is interfered with by the old task that has been previously learnt
what we already known interfere w what we currently learning
what was underwood study in 1957 for ?
proactive
different lists
what is keppel and underwood study in 1962 for ?
proactive
study replication of peterson and paterson
to do w trigrams
what is underwood and postman study in 1960 for ?
proactive and retroactive
lists and control group and experimental group
what is the retroactive pet of underwood study ?
that they have to recall first word park list first the old info
what is the proactive part of the underwood and postman study ?
both have to recall second list the new info
what is retroactive interference ?
idea information in the long term may become confused or combined with other info during encoding which distorts and disrupts memories
new info that has entered LTM interfere with recalling existing memories
what does retroactive interference mean ?
that the existing memories are weakened as they have been displaced and stronger new memories replace them meaning they forgot
what is baddley and hitch study in 1977 about ?
rugby players
and recalling the amount of teams they have played in the season
the more teams harder it was not the length of time
what was tulving and psotka study in 1970 about ?
provide evidence about interference
asked to learn words that were in categories
during free recall the less categories learnt more likley to remember
why is recall important if a individual witnesses a crime ?
to provide a eyewitness testimony
what is an eyewitness testimony?
a description of the events they have witnessed
how can a memory of crime or accidents be damaged ?
easily be distorted by other factors
- such as interference and absence if retrieval cue
memories distorted by existing schema
- like stereotypes so can misinterpret the situation
what is reconstructive memory ?
- according to barlett 1932
- memories are distorted by an existing schema (old info) eg) stereotypes
- it then caused us to misinterpret the situation
what is the problem with EWT ?
that alot of judges and defence attorneys and psychologists find EWT extremely unreliable
- but jurors find it highly believable
what does Elizabeth loftus (major researcher in EWT) claim about EWT ?
- memory is affected by out selectivity
- memory affected by conditions of weather and light
- what we perceive is affected by the amount of stress we are under
- memory is vulnerable to suggestibility especially the effects of leading question’s
what was loftus and plamer first experiment in 1974 about ?
studying the effects of language on recall in EWT
- showed them a video and asked questions and 1 specific questions changed the wording and i get a specific answer
- wanted them to estimate the speed
- leading questions affect the pps memory as the answer to a leading question is implicit
what is loftus and palmer 2nd experiment about ?
post event information
- separate groups to first experiment
- asked a week later after doing 1st experiment w this group if there was broken glass in the video even though there wasn’t
-the leading question make us remember things that weren’t there
what is the procedure for Yuille and Cutshall study ?
- real life situations where a shop owner shot and killed a thief
- 21 witnesses who all gave EWT
- 4 months later 13/21 asked 2 misleading questions
what was the findings for Yuille and Cutshall 1986 experiment ?
all accounts still remained highly accurate
- therefore misleading info doesn’t effect real-life memories to an extent as emotions were experienced
- already been interviewed so ‘memories were ‘fixed’
what is post event discussion ?
information given after witnessing an event and it will potential influence the memory of it
what is source monitoring ?
information from other sources are used to fill in the gaps of our memory from an event
- leads to a creation of a confabulated memory
what is conformity effect ?
rationalising and seeking guidance information about the event we just witnessed by looking at other sources for conformation
what does a conformity effect do to your memory ?
the witnesses may come to a consensus view of what actually happened and their memories of the event blend with one another
what is source monitoring often referred to as ?
source monitoring
what can source monitoring lead too ?
- a witness to mistakenly believe that they saw something
- can happen when a witness are repeatedly questioned as well
why would we seek reassurance from other sources after an event happened ?
as we try and rationalise and make sense of what we have just seen
what are 3 ways conformity effect can happen ?
- reading
- speaking
- dwelling over the event
to reconstruct it in our mind
what does witnessing a real life crime of violence tend to cause ?
anxiety
what is the best level of anxiety for recalling ?
the optimum level is moderate complexity
the moderate level of stress and anxiety
what did deffenbacher say about low anxiety and high anxiety effecting recall ?
that it will be a poor recall
how was the inverted u created ?
by deffenbacher in 2004
- w 21 studies so meta-analysis
- average of low is 54% accurate recall
- average of high is 42% accurate recall
what does deffenbacher study suggest about high anxiety and recall ?
having high anxiety leads pps to recalling fewer details about the culprit and the scene
what is the weapon focus effect ?
if a weapon is involved during a crime or event then the witness focuses on the weapon and not on other details like the event or offender or peripheral information
what did loftus 1987 study about anxiety ?
the effect on accuracy of EWT
-about waiting and 2 conditions 1 w a weapon and one not
- suggest if a weapon involved less likely to identify their offender
what does hosch and cooper (1982) suggest ?
- something own stolen more stressful so more likely to identify offender as better recall
- thief either stole pps watch some else calculator or nothing
what is one way to improve the accuracy of EWT ?
cognitive interview
what is a standard police interview like ?
- typically focused on eliciting information for immediate use
-revolves around the interviewer not the witness - interviewer speaks the most and asks specific questions ( leading and closed )
- interview can be routinely interrupted so stops natural flow of memory recall
who suggested the cognitive interview approach ?
geiselman and fisher
what are the 4 aspects of cognitive interview ?
- context reinstatement
- recall from changed perspectives
- report everything
- recall in reverse order
what is context reinstatement ?
- both state and context cues are used
- eyewitness should mentally recreate the context ( physically or imaginary )
- eg) heard, saw
- aim to make memories more accessible as triggers them
what is recall from changes perspectives ?
- various perspectives should be used by the witness
- report the eps. in various perspectives
- eg ) where others stood, block out everything
- tries to disrupt any effect schemes may have on our memories
what is report everything technique ?
- report every detail you can recall without blocking anything out
- shouldn’t be interrupted
- memories are interconnected if you recall one can trigger others
- get out more correct facts for short and long term
what is recall in reverse order ?
-try to describe the episode as it would have been seen from different orders
- allows a timeline to be but together
- sometimes missing info recalled
- reasons is too approach is that we use schemas in our recollections and they can influence recall
when should statements be taken ?
as soon as possible
- so memories are still fresh
what did geiselman find out about correct no. statements using CI ?
41.1
what did geiselman find out about correct no. statements using standard interview ?
29.4
what did fisher and geiselman in 1989 find out ?
people recalled better when given retrieval cues
what did fisher and geiselam use to support there retrieval cue theory ?
did a field experiment by getting 16 officers where 7 used CI and 9 where control group interviewed 47 victims and witnesses
what did fisher and geiselman find from there theory ?
47% more facts obtained relating to what matters
what in enhanced cognitive interview ?
method of interviewing witnesses that uses cognitive techniques within a planned structure
what does ECI involve ?
- open questions
- not being interrupted
- getting witness to relax
- getting witness to speak slowly
