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memory Flashcards

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1
Q

who devised the multi-store model (MSM) and in what year?

A

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

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2
Q

what’s the duration of the sensory register? (SR)

A

about 250 milliseconds

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3
Q

what’s the capacity of the SR?

A

9-18 items

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4
Q

describe Sperling’s study on the capacity of the SR (1960)

A
  • flashed a 3x4 grid of letters onto a screen for one-twentieth of a second.
  • 2 conditions: whole report and partial report.
  • in whole report participants recalled as many letters as they could.
  • they remembered 4-5 letters on average. (33-40% accuracy)
  • in partial report condition they did it again but when screen went blank, they heard a high, medium or low pitch tone. (high=top row, low=bottom row) they had to remember the letters from that row
  • they recalled 3-4 letters on a row on average (75-100%)
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5
Q

what’s the coding of the SR?

A

modality specific

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6
Q

what’s the duration of the STM?

A

18-30 seconds

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7
Q

describe Peterson and Perterson’s study on the duration of the STM

A

-24 psychology students

  • trigrams appeared on screen, then disappeared.
  • has to count backwards in 3’s from a random number until a read light appears to prevent rehearsal.
  • tested recall of trigrams after intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds.
  • they found that the STM duration declined rapidly after 18 seconds and without the benefit of maintenance rehearsal.
  • at 3 seconds - 80% accuracy
  • at 18 seconds - 10% accuracy.
  • so STN have limited duration of around 18 seconds
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8
Q

what’s the capacity of the STM?

A

7±2 items

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9
Q

describe Jacob’s study on the capacity of STM (1887)

A
  • sample of 443 female London students (8-19yrs)
  • used the digit span method
  • participants given increasingly long lists of numbers or letters and had to recall them in the right order.
  • when participants failed on 50%, they’re said to have reached their capacity
  • average of 7.3 letters and 9.3 numbers.
  • he also noticed recall increased with age
  • be concluded that STM has a capacity of 5-9 items.
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10
Q

what method can we use to increase our capacity

A

chunking (miller)

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11
Q

what is the main coding used in STM?

A

acoustic

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12
Q

describe Baddley’s study on coding of STM (1966)

A
  • 2 lists of 5 worlds and asked to recall immediately
  • experimental list - acoustically similar
  • control list - acoustically dissimilar
  • he found the acoustically similar words were the least well recalled (10% accuracy)
  • acoustically dissimilar list - 60-80%
  • this shows the STM encodes acoustically as similar sounding words caused the most confusion
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13
Q

what’s the duration of the LTM?

A

unlimited

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14
Q

describe Bahrick’s study on the duration of LTM

A
  • almost 400 American University graduated aged 17-74
  • fee recall test - remembering names from their graduating class without their pics
  • then had to put names to faces in second task. (50 pics)
  • those who’d graduated within 48 years were 70% accurate in matching faces to names, but 30% accurate in free recall.
  • those who’d left within 15 years were 90% accurate in matching faces to names, but 60% accurate in free recall.
  • both could perform best in the recognition tasks which shows we can store lots in our STM but aren’t always able to retrieve it. when given a cue, we are able to access this info.
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15
Q

what’s the capacity of the LTM?

A

unlimited, but info can be lost through decay or illness.

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16
Q

what’s the main encoding in the LTM?

A

semantic

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17
Q

describe Baddeley’s study on the coding of LTM (1966)

A
  • 2 lists of 10 worlds, asked to recall after 20 mins.
  • control list - semantically dissimilar
  • experimental list - semantically similar
  • worst recall in semantically similar list (55%)
  • 70-85% accuracy for semantically dissimilar
  • shows the coding is semantic due to the confusion caused when coding semantically similar words
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18
Q

evaluate Baddeley’s study on coding of STM and LTM.

A

strengths:
- lab experiment (high internal validity, extraneous variables controlled, so easily replicated)
- used interference tasks to make sure he was actually measuring LTM which increased the internal validity
- ethical
- good sample size (72) so more reliable.
- helpful in an educational setting as could help students know how to revise.

weaknesses:
- ethnocentric - only British students
- everyone’s memories are different so unreliable
- lacks ecological validity
- there are other forms of coding and he only tested acoustic and semantic
- only 20 mins for LTM - would it have been better tested after a week for example?

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19
Q

evaluate the MSM (summary)

A

strengths:
- research support (e.g. Baddeley)
- case study of HM that proves STM and LTM are separate stores.

weaknesses:
- too over-simplified (other types of coding e.g. visual, and more recent research, e.g. scanning, has shown there are more than 3 stores (diff types of LTM)
- over-emphasis on need for maintenance rehearsal. Craik and Lockhart suggested LTM can be formed by elaborating rehearsal (putting meaning and emotion behind info)

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20
Q

describe the case study of HM

A
  • cracked skull as child
  • suffered severe epilepsy
  • got a neuroscientist to remove his hippocampus.
  • at first, his seizures stopped and his IQ increased, but his memory soon diminished.
  • he could retain a number for 15 mins then forget it which shows STM and LTM are separate (supports MSM)
  • still has procedural memory as he could improve over repeated trials of tracing a star inside a star by only looking in a mirror)
  • however, this also proves different types of LTM, therefore also disproving MSM. p
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21
Q

describe the limitations of using the case study of HM as evidence

A
  • had brain damage to different to neurotypical brain, which means it’s a very unique case and so can’t be generalised to population.
  • not replicable
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22
Q

define episodic memory

A

personal experiences

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23
Q

give some examples of episodic memories

A
  • first day of school
  • what you watched on TV last night
  • your friends wedding
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24
Q

what brain areas are involved in episodic memory?

A
  • right prefrontal cortex
  • hippocampus
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25
Q

is episodic memory implicit or explicit?

A

explicit

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26
Q

what’s the difference between implicit and explicit memories?

A

explicit = declarative (easy to put into words)
implicit = non-declarative (not easy to put into words)

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27
Q

define semantic memory

A

the memories that make up our knowledge (facts, concepts, meaning)

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28
Q

give some examples of semantic memory

A
  • your address
  • where the Eiffel tower is
  • knowing who your parents are
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29
Q

what areas of the brain are involved in semantic memory?

A
  • left prefrontal cortex
  • hippocampus
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30
Q

is semantic memory implicit or explicit?

A

explicit

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31
Q

describe Tulving’s study on episodic and semantic memory.

A
  • 6 participants (including Tulving and his wife) were injected with particles of radioactive gold to track blood flow in a PET scan.
  • when recalling episodic memories, blood flow increased at the right prefrontal cortex
  • when recalling semantic memories, blood flow increased at the left pre-frontal cortex, showing their somewhat separate
  • however, the hippocampus was active in both which shows they new linked
  • there’s also no way of monitoring what they’re actually thinking of.
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32
Q

define procedural memory.

A

the memory that lets you perform tasks with little conscious thought.

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33
Q

give 3 examples of procedural memory

A
  • riding a bike
  • how to make a cake
  • how to walk
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34
Q

what areas of the brain are involved in procedural memory?

A
  • neocortex areas
  • cerebellum
  • prefrontal cortex

NOT HIPPOCAMPUS

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35
Q

is procedural memory implicit or explicit?

A

implicit

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36
Q

describe the case study of Clive Wearing and explain how it links to the different types of LTM.

A
  • suffered a viral infection of the brain, damaging his hippocampus
  • his ability to play the piano and being able to read and write haven’t been effected (procedural still in tact)
  • however, he has no memory of any event in his life showing he’s lost his episodic.
  • how semantic memory has been partially affected as he can recognise his wife, but can’t remember her for more than a few minutes.
  • be can remember key names and numbers from early childhood, showing some of his semantic is still in tact.
  • overall this case study shows that all the different types of LTM are separate as he lost some and kept some.
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37
Q

who composed the working memory model and in what year?

A

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

38
Q

why was the WMM made?

A

STM in MSM was too simple. B + H said the STM was more complex than just being a temporary store for transferring info to LTM. They felt that more pieces of info are hold simultaneously for a few seconds while the brain decides what’s relevant.

39
Q

what does the central executive do?

A

acts as a filter to determine which info received by the sense organs is/isn’t attended to. (decision making)

40
Q

what’s the coding of the CE?

A

modality free

41
Q

what’s the capacity of the CE?

A

limited

42
Q

what are the 2 slave systems?

A
  • phonological loop
  • Visio-spatial sketch pad
43
Q

what does the phonological loop do?

A

stores auditory info

44
Q

name and describe the 2 PL sub-systems

A
  • phonological store - ‘inner ear’ (words recently heard)
  • articulatory control system - ‘inner voice)
45
Q

what’s the coding of the PL?

A

acoustic

46
Q

what’s the capacity/ duration of the PL?

A

2 seconds

47
Q

what does the VSS do?

A

stores visual info

48
Q

name and describe the 2 subsections of the VSS

A
  • visual cashe (stores info about form and colour - visual info)
  • inner scribe (stores info about the physical relationship of items - spatial info)
49
Q

what’s the coding of the VSS?

A

spatial

50
Q

what’s the capacity of the VSS?

A

3-4 chunks

51
Q

when was the episodic buffer devised?

A

2000 (25 years later)

52
Q

what does the episodic buffer do?

A

stores info from the CE, PL, VSS and LTM.

53
Q

what coding does the episodic buffer use?

A

modality free

54
Q

what’s the capacity of the episodic buffer?

A

4 chunks

55
Q

describe Gathercole and Baddeley’s study on the VSS. (1993)

A
  • asked participants to track a moving light at the same time as describing the angles on a letter F (2 visual tasks- VSS + VSS)
  • they compared this with participants simultaneously doing a verbal talk and tracking the light (PL + VSS)
  • performance was worse when doing 2 visual tasks, and when the 2 separate systems were in use, participants found it easier, showing they’re separate and that the VSS has a limited capacity.
56
Q

describe Baddeley’s study on the PL. (1975)

A
  • demonstrated the word length effect.
  • asked participants to remember long or short words in lists.
  • they could hold fewer long words in the PL, as each word occupied so much memory space.
  • however, if they had to speak out loud whilst learning the short word list, they had similar problems as the PL was kept busy with speech.
57
Q

what are the 2 explanations of forgetting?

A

interference, cue-dependent forgetting.

58
Q

what’s proactive interference?

A

previously learnt info disrupts the new info you are tying to learn.

59
Q

give an example of proactive interference.

A

difficulty remembering a new phone number after having previously learnt the old one.

60
Q

what’s retroactive interference?

A

new info learnt disrupts the recall of older/already stored info.

61
Q

give an example of retroactive interference.

A

getting a new bank card and memorising the PIN, b it when you want to use the old card, you’ve forgotten the PIN for that one.

62
Q

explain Ebbinghaus’ serial position curve (1885)

A
  • he taught himself a list of words, then tried to recall them in free recall.
  • he found that the words were recalled best from the beginning and end of the original list
  • this is called the primacy and recency effect

primacy effect - words heard first have the advantage of no interference until the words learned later interfere, so RI

recency effect - words heard last have an advantage of little RI but there could be PI

63
Q

describe Baddeley and Hitch’s research study on interference (1977)

A
  • examined rugby players who’d played every match and players who’d missed some games due to injury.
  • they found that the players who’d played the most games forgot proportionally more games than those who’d played fewer games.
  • supports retroactive interference as the learning of new info (new team names) interfered with the memory of older info (earlier team names)
64
Q

what can the absence of a cue cause?

A

failure to retrieve a memory from the LTM store.

65
Q

what’s context-dependent forgetting?

A

occurs with external retrieval cues, with forgetting occurring when the external environment is different at recall and coding/ learning.

66
Q

give an example of context-dependent forgetting.

A

learning on land and recalling underwater

67
Q

what’s state-dependent forgetting?

A

occurs with internal retrieval cues, forgetting occurs when internal environment is different at recall than when it was coded.

68
Q

give some examples of state-dependent failure

A

being hungry, drunk, sad, at one and not the other

69
Q

describe Godden and Baddeley’s study on context-dependent forgetting

A

-18 divers from diving club asked to learn lists of 36 words.

  • 4 conditions: (BOOB)
    1. leant on beach, recalled on beach
    2. learnt on beach, recalled underwater
    3. learnt underwater, recalled on beach
    4. learnt underwater, recalled underwater.
  • recall was best when learning and recall conditions were both the same
70
Q

describe some limitations of Godden and Baddeley’s study on context-dependent forgetting

A
  • lacks ecological validity and mundane realism.
  • those who had to change their environment had an interruption which could have caused bad recall
71
Q

describe Goodwin’s study on state-dependent forgetting (1969)

A
  • 48 male medical students (ethnocentric)
  • day 1 training session, day 2 testing.
  • randomly assigned to 4 groups:
    1. sober on both days (SS)
    2. intoxicated on both days (AA)
    3. day 1-intoxicated, day 2, sober (AS)
    4. day 1-sober, day 2-intoxicated (SA)
  • more errors made in the AS and SA conditions, showing that being in the same state helped recall
  • but overall SS performed best in all tasks.
72
Q

give some examples of real-life applications of cue-dependent forgetting

A
  • when we forget what we went to fetch when we leave the room we started the thought process in.
  • why students find multiple-choice questions easier (acts as a cue)
73
Q

what’s a leading question?

A

questions that are worded to suggest and prompt a particular answer.

74
Q

what’s response-bias explanation?

A

when a person gets a leading question, it biases their response without actually changing their memory

75
Q

what’s the memory-substitution explanation?

A

when a person gets a leading question, it actually changed the stored memory.

76
Q

describe Loftus and Palmer’s study on leading Q’s

A
  • 45 American students were shown films of different traffic accidents.
  • after each film, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire asking them to describe the accident.
  • one critical question - about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
  • the verb ‘hit’ was replaced with smashed, collided, contacted and bumped in 4 other groups.
  • the group given smashed guessed a higher speed than the other groups
  • smashed - 41mph
  • contacted - 30mph
  • this shows that the EWT is generally inaccurate and therefore unreliable.
  • the form of questioning can have a significant effect on a witnesses answer to a Q.
77
Q

what was the problem with lotus and palmers first experiment on leading Q’s

A

still didn’t know if leading Q’s created a response bias or if they actually alter a persons memory

78
Q

describe experiment 2 of the Loftus and palmer study on leading Q’s

A
  • 150 psychology students
  • same procedure as exp 1
  • asked ‘hit’, ‘smashed’ and no verb (control)
  • then asked “did you see any broken glass?” (there wasn’t any)
  • 32% of the participants who got the verb smashed said yes.
  • 14% who got the verb hit said yes
  • 12% with control said yes.
  • shows that leading Q’s can reconstruct memory so that people remember more violent crashes based just on the verb.
79
Q

evaluate Loftus and Palmer’s studies on leaving Q’s

A

STRENGTHS:
- good sample size
- real like application (EWT questioning) so high ecological validity.
- uses quantitative data, so high reliability and objectivity meaning it’s easier to compare results. also reduces researcher bias of the subjectivity of interpreting results.
- reliable as used standardised procedures - all watched same vid. this means extraneous variables are reduced and can be sure the IV effected the DV.
- mostly ethical (past experiences could bring up trauma)
- lab experiment (highly controlled)

WEAKNESSES:
- experiment 2 consisted of only psychology students (demand characteristics)
- no individual differences in terms of age, older gen poorly represented.
- students are also less likely to be drivers so speed estimates could be inaccurate, this all shows that it lacks generalisability.
- could be participants variables that effected the estimates, not the verb.
- lack of emotion and consequence so low ecological validity
-EV’s still not controlled (e.g. experience of driving)

80
Q

what is post-event discussion?

A

when witnesses discus what they saw after a crime, their memory can become contaminated by what others say.

81
Q

how would you avoid post-event discussion?

A
  • witnesses must be kept apart until statements are made
  • witnesses to not see media coverage of the case
82
Q

describe Gabbert’s research on the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of the EWT.

A

-60 students from uni of Aberdeen and 60 older adults from local community

  • participants watched a vid of a girl in an office looking though drawers and examining a wallet.
  • half the participants saw the girl take money and the other half didn’t.
  • their memory of vid was tested in pairs (experimental - told they’d seen same vid but hadn’t) and individually (control)
  • then completed a questionnaire testing their memory
  • 71% of the witnesses in the post-event discussion group recalled info they hadn’t seen.
  • 60% of those said she was guilty despite them not seeing her commit a crime.
  • this shows that post-event discussion can severely affect the accuracy of the EWT.
83
Q

evaluate Gabbert’s study on post-event discussion

A

STRENGTHS:
- uses qualitative data which increases reliability and objectivity so easier to compare.
- very reliable as used control group and helps establish causality.
- good sample size and age range
- real life application (EWT questioned by the police- means there’s some ecological validity however lack of pressure, emotion and consequence)

WEAKNESSES:
- lacks ecological validity as doesn’t recreate emotion of a real life incident.
- lacks generalisability as all from same area.
- description- told they’d watched the same video (but necessary)
- demand characteristics (could figure out aim of both saying different things in post-event discussions.
- can’t control post event discussion
- other possibilities (e.g conformity - changing your beliefs/ behaviour with those of the people around you)

84
Q

describe Johnson and Scott’s study on anxiety.

A
  • participants asked to sit outside lab.
  • one condition (low anxiety) was a quiet argument and a man walked out with a pen.
  • other condition (high anxiety) was a hostile incident, then man walked out with bloody knife.
  • participants given 50 photos and asked to identify the man.
  • pen condition - 49% accurate
  • knife condition - 33% accurate
  • this shows that increased anxiety makes EWT less accurate.
85
Q

describe Loftus’ follow up study on Johnson and Scott’s study.

A
  • recorded eye movements and found the focus of attention was on the knife, diverting attention from identity of perpetrator.
  • he called this the weapon focus effect.
86
Q

describe an explanation as to why weapon focus effect occurs.

A

Tunnel theory - this argues that a witnesses attention narrows to focus on the weapon as it’s a source of anxiety.

but when a witness focuses all their attention on the weapon, it leads to other important details not being recalled such as the face of the criminal.

87
Q

describe Pickel’s research study on anxiety.

A

-230 American psychology students watched a video of a thief entering a hairdressing salon carrying either:

  1. scissors (high threat, low surprise)
  2. handgun (high threat, high surprise)
  3. wallet (low threat, low surprise)
  4. a whole raw chicken (low threat, high surprise)
  • it was found that identification of the thief was least accurate in the high surprise condition rather than the high threat.
  • this shows that there may be several factors to consider when investigating the accuracy of the EWT.
88
Q

evaluate Pickel’s study on factors effecting the EWT

A

STRENGTHS:
- good sample size
- reliability - participants all saw same vid (excluding IV), all answered same Q’s. this control of extraneous variables makes the study more replicable.
- used independent researchers to score questions so no researcher bias affecting interpretation of results
- ethical - used vids not field study. content on vids could cause minor psychological harm. or bring back trauma.

WEAKNESSES:
- lacks ecological validity - lack of emotion, consequence.
- all psychology students so lacks generalisability.
- ethnocentric
- students might not be representative of general population - e.g. age, educational/ life experience, used to being tested/ paying attention.
- demand characteristics (aware of being in experiment so could work out aim)
- sim was to test how unusualness and threat affects recall but it’s unlikely participants felt any threat as it was a video, not real.

89
Q

describe Yuille and Cutshall’s study on anxiety

A
  • used witnesses to a real crime involving a gun shooting outside a gun shop in Canada.
  • a thief stole money and guns and was eventually shot 6 times and died.
  • 21 witnesses were interviewed by police at the time.
  • Y + C reinterviewed 13 of them 4-5 months later.
  • they were scored for a number on how stressed they were on a 7-point scale.
  • the witnesses who were the most stressed were 88% accurate, compared with 75% accuracy with tide who said they weren’t particularly scared.
  • this shows that anxiety has not affected memory, even after a long time and 2 misleading questions inserted.
  • this disproves the weapon focus theory and and shows that in real life cases of extreme anxiety, the accuracy of the EWT is improved.
90
Q

evaluate Yuille and Cutshall’s study on anxiety.

A

STRENGTHS:
- very high ecological validity as it’s a field study (real) this means that it is more reflective of the factors that would play a role in the recollection of events.
- is far more ethical than for example, Loftus’ weapon focus study as the researchers themselves didn’t crdTe the stressful event.
- researchers replicated police’s interview so reliable. ( achieved same results so replicable)
- 13 witnesses consented meaning it is ethical. the 8 that said no had the right to withdraw.

WEAKNESSES:
- couldn’t control post-event discussion which acts as an extraneous variable so therefore hard to establish causality.
- the witnesses that said no may had completely different experiences of it or more/less trauma which could have altered the results.
- not generalisable as it’s one unique event.
- turned qualitative data into quantitative data, which could cause a chance of bias as there is a subjective interpretation which decreases the validity.

91
Q

explain the Yerks-Dodson model (1908)

A
  • as arousal increases, so does performance up to an optimal point, after this it decreases.
  • therefore, witnesses with low anxiety or high anxiety should be poorer witnesses than those who have been a little bit scared.
92
Q

explain evidence that backs this.

A

Deffenbacher - did a meta-analysis on 21 studies and found that when individuals had very low/high anxiety, it reduced the accuracy of recall.

a level psychology (7 decks)

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