Memory Flashcards
what is the capacity, duration and coding for the sensory register memory store and state the psychologists who completed a study on it
capacity: unlimited (Sperling)
duration: less than half a second (Sperling and Baddeley)
coding: modality specific (Chowder)
Who did the research for sensory memory capacity and explain it
Sperling (1960)
- found that participants could recall letters from a 3x4 grid when it was flashed up for one 20th of a second. Suggesting a large capacity
Who did the research for sensory memory duration and explain it
Sperling (1960)
- research showed that iconic (visual) memories are stored for a fraction of a second.
Who did the research for sensory memory coding and explain it
Chowder (1993)
- found that echoic and iconic stores have different durations (information is coded into different sensory stores)
what is the capacity, duration and coding for the short term memory store and state the psychologists who completed a study on it
capacity: 5-9 items (jacobs)
duration: 18-30 seconds (Peterson and Peterson)
coding: Acoustic (Baddeley)
Who did the research for short term memory capacity and explain it
Jacobs (1887)
- used the digit span technique where participants are given 4 digits and have to recall these in order. they are then given 5 digits, with the number increasing if they get the previous string correct
Who did the research for short term memory duration and explain it
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
- participants given a trigram to remember (three consonants)
- given a three digit number and asked to count backwards to prevent rehearsal)
- length of time spent counting increased each time and it was found that recall was 80% after 3 seconds and 3% after 18 seconds
Who did the research for short term memory coding and explain it
Baddeley (1966)
- gave different lists of words to four groups of participants
- were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar or semantically dissimilar
- participants were asked to recall the words in the correct order immediately and did worse on acoustically similar words
what is the capacity, duration and coding for the long term memory store and state the psychologists who completed a study on it
capacity: unlimited (wagenaar)
duration: few minutes to a lifetime (bahrick et al)
coding: semantic (baddeley
who designed the multi stage memory model
Atkinson and Shiffrin
What is the sensory register
picks ups information from the 5 senses and has a store for each sense
explain the multi-store memory model
1) info comes into the sensory register from the environment
2) if this information is not attended to it does not register
3) if attended to it will move to the Short term memory store
4) in the short term memory store info can be lost via decay or displacement
5) through rehearsal the info from the STM can move into the LTM
6) once in the LTM it can come back into the STM via retrieval
7) however it can be lost due to interference or decay
Who designed the working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch
explain the working memory model
- the working memory is the use of our STM that is used when we are working on a task and we are both processing and storing information simultaneously
- it consists of the central executive that controls the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad which are referred to as slave systems, and to decide what we pay attention to and what to ignore
- The phonological loop is responsible for processing sound based information and consists of two components (articulatory process and the phonological store)
^the articulatory process is also known as the inner voice as it rehearses verbal sounds (helps to prep speech
^the phonological store also known as the inner ear and is responsible for receiving and storing sounds (speech perception) - The visuospatial sketchpad is responsible for visual and spatial information
^consists of the inner scribe (spatial and movement information) and visual cache (visual info like colour) - episodic buffer integrates information from all the components in the model as well as info from the LTM
^can store both visual and verbal based info
name 3 types of long term memory
-episodic
-semantic
-procedural
Describe episodic memory
refers to a personal experience
- time and a place
- conscious effort is needed to recall the memory
- Example: family holiday, first day at school
Describe semantic memory
information that is known to everyone
- requires conscious recall
- starts off as episodic
- Example: capital of England is London
Describe Procedural memory
- skills and knowing how to do it
- muscle memory
- no conscious recollection
- developed through repetition
- Example: tying shoe laces
What are the two explanations for forgetting
- interference theory
- retrieval failure
Describe the interference theory
- suggests that forgetting occurs due to two memories competing
- the greater the level of similarity the more likely we are to get confused
two ways it can happen :
Proactive - already stored information interferes with the attempt to store new info (Peterson and Peterson)
Retroactive - new info interferes with old info that is already stored (postman)
Describe the retrieval failure theory
- states that we forget because we lack the correct prompts or cues to recall the information
- two types of cues and prompts (contextual - environment, state - how we feel)
- to help us recall info, cues that are present at the time of learning also need to be present at the time of retrieval
- context: we forget if we do not have the same environmental cues during retrieval
- state: we forget if we do not have the same internal (feeling) cues during retrieval
^more likely to remember if we are in the same emotional state as we learnt it in
What is a leading question
- a question that either by its form or content suggest to the witness what answer is desired or leads him or her to the desired answer
What is the key study on leading questions and explain it
- Loftus and palmer
- carried out two experiments
1) Experiment (speed of car)
- 45 students shown traffic accidents
- each accident had a Questionaire and a critical question
- the critical question asked at what speed where the cars going when they smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted with each other?
^results: smashed had the highest speed
2) Experiment (broken glass)
- shown accidents
- asked to come back one week later and answer questions
- one was a critical question
- “did you see any broken glass” yes or no
^findings: the critical question (leading question, did change the memory of some of the participants)
describe the post event discussion using the two components
- conforming effect: recollection influenced by discussion with others
- Repeat interviewing: comments from interviewer will affect recollection
Describe anxiety and the affect it has on accuracy of eyewitness testimony
- stress reduces performance in complexed tasks (negatively affects accuracy or memory)
Describe yerkes and dodson inverted u theory
- inverted u theory suggest that
What study can be used to explain the affect of anxiety on an eye witness testimony and explain it
- Johnson and scott
- Weapon faces effect reduces accuracy of face identification
- 2 scenarios: people in a waiting room and man runs through
*man with a knife and blood (high anxiety)
*man with a greasy pen (low anxiety) - participants were later asked to identify the man based on a set of photos
findings: mean accuracy for the pen was 49% where as the mean accuracy for the knife was 33%
what evidence is there that anxiety could have a positive affect on accuracy
- Christianson and Hubinette
*swedish bank robbery - those who were most anxious had the best recall
what did Deffenbacher suggest when he reviewed 21 studies of the effects of anxiety on eyewitness memory
- moderate anxiety = high accuracy
- extreme High/Low anxiety = low accuracy
Describe the process of a Cognitive interview
- developed by Geiselman
1) mental reinstatement of original context (environment)
2) report everything (every detail)
3) change order (reduces effect of schemas)
4) change perspective
Strengths of multi-store memory model
- Squire et al
carried out brain scans and found that the hippocampus was more active when using LTM whereas areas in the prefrontal cortex are more active for STM tasks. Supports it as it suggests that the LTM and STM are two separate memory models and can work independently
Weakness of multi-store memory model
- Conflicting research : Brown and Kulik (flashbulb memory)
the role of rehearsal isn’t always necessary in transferring material from the STM to LTM. Some memories which are highly emotional, significant and shocking can go straight into LTM and by pass the rehearsal needed for STM
Strengths of the working memory model
- Supporting research : Baddeley and hitch
‘dual task techniques’ - participants asked to perform a sentence-checking task whilst saying aloud a list of six digits. it was found that participants performance was not affected because the tasks required the use of two different systems. Suggests the existence of different components with different functions within the STM.
Limitations of the Working memory model
- Methodological limitations
the research tends to come from case studies and lab experiments
case studies are idiographic, unique cases of individuals who have damage to their brain.Difficult to generalise the results
Lab experiments tend to lack ecological validity as they test recall of digits
