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Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the multi-store model?

A
  • A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores:
    the sensory register, STM, and LTM
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2
Q

What does the MSM model consist of

A
  • Stimulus from the environment
  • Sensory register: the memory stores for each
    of our 5 senses, such as vision (iconic store)
    and hearing (echoic store)
  • STM store
  • LTM store
  • Retrieval and rehearsal help info pass between STM and LTM
  • Attention is the key process
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3
Q

What does the sensory register consist of?

A
  • All stimuli from the environment passes into the sensory register (SR)
  • Iconic memory store codes for visual info, and echoic memory store codes acoustically
  • Duration of material in the SRs is very brief – less than half a second - Very high capacity
  • Info passes further into the memory system only if you pay attention to it
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4
Q

What is short-term memory (STM)?

A
  • The limited- capacity memory store - can only contain a certain amount of things before forgetting occurs - Coding is mainly acoustic (sounds), capacity is between 2 and 9 items,
  • Duration is about 18s unless maintenance rehearsal occurs
  • Prolonged rehearsal passes info from STM -> LTM
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5
Q

What is long-term memory?

A
  • The permanent memory store
  • Coding is mainly semantic (meaning)
  • It has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime
  • To recall info from LTM it has to be transferred to STM by retrieval
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6
Q

What is coding?
How does coding work in the STM and LTM?

A

The format in which information is
stored in the various memory stores
- STM: prefers to code acoustically
- LTM: prefers to code semantically

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7
Q

Who researched coding and what did they find?

A
  • Baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to
    remember:
    Group 1 (acoustically similar); Group 2 (acoustically dissimilar); Group 3 (semantically similar); Group 4 (semantically dissimilar)
  • STM did worse recalling acoustically similar and LTM (after 20mins) did worse with semantically similar
    STM -> codes acoustically
    LTM -> codes semantically
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8
Q

What is capacity?
What is the capacity in the STM and LTM?

A
  • The amount of information that can be held in a memory store
  • STM: 7+/- 2 items
  • LTM: unlimited
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9
Q

Which two psychologists researched capacity and what did they find?

A
  • Digit span (Jacobs): asked participants to recall 4 digits and adds one until the participants can’t recall the order correctly
  • Mean digit span- 9.3
  • Letter span- 7.3
  • Span of memory and chunking (Miller): made observations of everyday practice and saw that many things come in 7s (days of the week etc) - span of STM is 7+/- 2
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10
Q

What is duration?
What is the duration of the STM and LTM?

A
  • The length of time information can be held in memory
  • STM: 18-30s
  • LTM: up to a lifetime
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11
Q

What is decay?

A

The automatic fading of memory that’s not rehearsed -> causes information loss from the STM

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12
Q

Who researched STM duration?

A
  • STM duration (Peterson & Peterson): tested 24 students in 8 trials each
  • On each trial the student was given a consonant syllable and a 3-digit number to remember
  • Students counted backwards from this number until told to stop
  • On each trial they were told to stop after varying periods of time: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18s (retention interval).
  • After 3s: 80% recall and after 18s: 3% -> STM duration = 18s
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13
Q

Which psychologist researched LTM duration?

A
  • Bahrick et al studied 392 American participants aged 17-74
  • Tested recall with high school yearbooks through: photo recognition test, and free recall test of names
  • Photo recognition:
    15yrs= 90% accuracy
    48yrs= 70%
  • Free recall:
    15yrs= 60%
    48yrs= 30%
  • LTM duration may last up to a lifetime
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14
Q

What is a strength and weakness of research into coding? (AO3)

A

+ Separate memory stores: Baddeley identified a clear difference in coding for the stores - important step in our understanding of the memory system-> MSM

  • Artificial stimuli: Baddeley’s word lists were meaningless to participants - tells us little about coding in everyday life -> limited application
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15
Q

What is a strength and weakness of research into capacity?

A

+ Valid study: has been replicated - old study and early psychological research lacked adequate controls (underestimated digit spans - confounding variables) -> Jacob’s findings were confirmed by Bopp and Verhaegen

  • Miller may have overestimated STM capacity: Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that STM capacity is only 4 +/- 1 chunks
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16
Q

What is a strength and weakness of research into duration?

A

+ High external validity: Bahrick et al used meaningful memories-> reflects a more real estimate of LTM duration

  • Artificial stimuli: Peterson & Peterson used consonant syllables - doesn’t reflect most everyday memory activities where we try to remember meaningful things (phone numbers are meaningless - not completely irrelevant study) -> lacks external validity
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17
Q

What is a strength of the MSM? (A03)

A
  • Research support: that shows the difference between STM and LTM
  • E.g. Baddeley found that STM codes acoustically and LTM codes semantically - adds internal validity
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18
Q

What are the weaknesses of the MSM?

A
  • There is more than one type of STM - Shallice and Warrington studied amnesia patient KF -> found that his memory for digits was poor when read to him but improved when he read them himself ->STM store for sounds & images
  • Prolonged rehearsal is not needed - in the MSM what matters is the amount of rehearsal you do -> Craik and Watkins found that type of rehearsal matters (maintenance & elaborative=needed for LTM storage) -> partial explanation
  • There is more than one type of LTM: we have a LTM store for episodic, procedural, and semantic memories -> contradicts MSM view that there are only 3 types of memory stores
  • Reductionist: reduces complex memory processes to simple storage systems + ignores qualitative aspects of memory e.g. influence of emotions, schemas on encoding & retrieval
  • Artifical research methods: lab studies
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19
Q

Who proposed that there were 3 types of LTM and what are they?

A

Tulving:
- Episodic
- Semantic
- Procedural

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20
Q

What is episodic memory?

A
  • Refers to our ability to recall events from our lives
  • e.g. first day of school
  • Time stamped
  • Contain several elements
  • Require conscious effort to recall
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21
Q

What is semantic memory?

A
  • Refers to our knowledge of the world
  • e.g. capital cities
  • Less personal and based on facts of the world
  • Requires conscious effort
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22
Q

What is procedural memory?

A
  • Refers to our memory for actions, skills, and how to do things
  • e.g. walking, writing
  • Automatic and requires no conscious effort to recall
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23
Q

What are the strengths of the different types of LTM (A03)?

A
  • Clinical evidence: case studies of HM (dogs) and Clive Wearing (pianist) - episodic memory of both was impaired due to brain damage -> had difficulty recalling past events but procedural & semantic were still intact
  • Real-world application: the ability to identify different types of LTM has allowed psychologists to target certain kinds of memory to better lives -> Belleville et al found that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment (control=no memory training)
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24
Q

What are the weaknesses of different types of LTM? (A03)

A
  • Conflicting neuroimaging evidence: Buckner & Petersen found that semantic is on the left of the prefrontal cortex but other research by Tulving links it to the right - poor agreement
  • Evidence to suggest episodic and semantic store are the same: Tulving’s research showed that people with amnesia have a functioning semantic alongside a damaged episodic - believes episodic memory is a specialised subcategory of semantic
  • Reliance on Case Studies: Clive Wearing - could play the piano (procedural memory) but had severe episodic memory loss -> offers rich qualitative data - lacks generalisability - findings are based on unique individuals with specific brain injuries -> difficult to apply conclusions to the general population
  • Artificial research methods: experimental studies often use artificial tasks to test different types of LTM, such as learning word lists (semantic memory)
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25
Q

What is the working memory model?

A

An explanation of how STM is organised and functions

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26
Q

What does the working memory model consist of?

A
  • Central executive
  • Episodic buffer
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
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27
Q

What is the role of the central executive?

A
  • Monitors incoming data
  • Focuses and divides our limited attention
  • Allocates subsystems to tasks
  • Limited processing capacity and does not store information.
28
Q

What is the role of the episodic buffer?

A
  • A temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing
  • Storage component of the CE
  • Limited capacity
    of about four chunks (Baddeley)
  • Links working memory to LTM
29
Q

What is the role of the phonolgical loop and what does it consist of?

A
  • Deals with auditory information (codes acoustically) and preserves the order in which the information arrives
  • Phonolgical store: stores the words you hear
  • Articulatory process: allows maintenance rehearsal - capacity = 2s of what you can say
30
Q

What is the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and what does it consist of?

A
  • Stores visual and/or spatial information when required
  • Limited capacity, which according to Baddeley (2003) is about 3 or 4 objects
  • Visual cache: stores visual data.
  • Inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
31
Q

What are the strengths of the working memory model? (A03)

A
  • Clinical evidence: Shallice & Wallington case study of brain damage patient KF -> poor STM ability for verbal info but could process visual info (his immediate recall of digits/letters was betteer when he read them) - his phonoloigcal was damaged but other areas of memory still intact
  • Dual-task performance: Baddeley et al’s particpants carried out a visual & verbal task at the same time (performance was similar to separated) - when both were visual/verbal (tracking a light + describing the letter F), performance declined as they are competing for the same subsystem - supports the separate existence of the visuospatial sketchpad.
32
Q

What are the weaknesses of the working memory model (A03)

A
  • Lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive: Baddeley said, ‘The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory’ -> needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attentional process’ - the CE is an unsatisfactory component and other psychologists believe it may consist of separate components
  • Lacks external validity: these studies use tasks that are unlike everyday tasks (e.g. recalling random sequences of letters) -> also carried out in highly controlled lab conditions
33
Q

What is proactive interference?

A

Where past information hinders your ability to recall new information
e.g. calling your new teacher by your old teacher’s name

34
Q

What is cue overloading?

A

A retrieval cue is associated with multiple different memories

35
Q

What is retroactive interference

A

Where recent information hinders your ability to recall older information
e.g. learning new A-Level content has made you forget your GCSE content

36
Q

Who conducted research into the effects of similarity on interference and what did they found?

A
  • McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials
  • Participants had to learn a list of 10
    words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy
  • Divided into 6 groups and had to learn a new list of e.g. synonyms, antonyms
  • Interference is strongest when the memories are similar
37
Q

What are the strengths of the interference explanation for forgetting? (A03)

A
  • Real-world interference: Baddeley & Hicth asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played against during a rugby season - all played for the same time interval but some players missed matches due to injury - >players who played the most games (most interference) had the poorest recall
  • Research support: many lab experiments have been carried out into this explanation of forgetting (McGeoch & Mcdonald) ->lab experiments control extraneous variables so it’s a valid explanation
  • Real-World applications: applied to practical settings, e.g. explaining revision strategies for students (e.g., avoiding studying similar subjects back-to-back) & understanding how information overload impacts memory in the workplace -> ecological validity
38
Q

What are the weaknesses of the interference explanation for forgetting (A03)

A
  • Interference can be overcome using cues: Tulving & Psotka gave participants lists of 24 words in 6 non-obvious categories -> recall was 70% for 1st list but became worse as participants learned each additional list -> recall rose to 70% again when given cued recall test - interference causes a temporary loss of
    accessibility to LTM material
  • Artificial stimulus material: most studies use word lists - more mundane realism than consonant trigrams but doesn’t accurately represent everyday memory
39
Q

What is the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting?

A

It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access a memory - the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided

40
Q

What is a cue?

A

A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory

41
Q

What are the strengths of the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting? (A03)

A

Real-world application: Baddeley suggests cues may not have a strong effect but are still worth paying attention to -> when we have trouble remembering something it’s worth trying to recall the environment you learned it first - research reminds us of strategies we can use in real-world to improve recall

Research support: Baddeley & Godden + Carter & Cassaday studies show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to state & context-dependent forgetting in everyday life

Holistic: provides a more holistic explanation of forgetting compared to interference, as it considers the interaction between memory and environmental/ internal cues -> aligns with the understanding that memory is influenced by a range of contextual factors

Internal validity: experiments investigating retrieval failure, e.g. those using context & state-dependent memory, often take place in controlled lab settings -> ensures extraneous variables are minimized -> reliability

42
Q

What are the weaknesses of the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting? (A03)

A
  • Depends on the type of memory being tested (recall v recognition): Godden & Baddeley replicated their study with a recognition test instead of retrieval -> no context-dependent effect and performance was the same for all conditions
  • Problems with ESP: not possible to establish whether a cue has been encoded or not (cause and effect) - reasoning is circular and based on assumptions -> reduces validity
43
Q

What is eyewitness testimony?

A

The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed

44
Q

What is misleading information?

A

Where incorrect information is given to an eyewitness usually after the event

45
Q

What is a leading question?

A

A question which because of the way it’s asked suggests a certain answer

46
Q

What are the two explanations for why leading questions affect EWT?

A
  • The response-bias explanation: the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants’ memories, but just influences how they decide to answer e.g. when a participant gets a leading question using the word ‘smashed’ - encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate
  • Loftus and Palmer conducted a 2nd experiment that supported the substitution explanation: the wording of a leading question changes the participant’s memory of the film clip -> participants who originally heard smashed were later more likely to report seeing broken
    glass (there was none) than those who heard hit -> critical verb altered their memory
47
Q

What did Loftus and Palmer investigate about leading questions?
(substitution explanation)

A
  • Loftus and Palmer made 45 students watch film clips of car accidents and then asked them a leading question about how fast the cars were going. ‘About how fast were the cars going when they (hit/contacted/bumped/ collided/smashed) each other?’
  • Findings: mean estimated speed for contacted was 31.8 mph. For smashed, the mean was 40.5 mph - The leading question biased the eyewitness’s recall of an event
48
Q

What is post-event discussion and why does it affect EWT?

A

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event - they may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses/others -> could influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall

49
Q

What are the two explanations for why post-event discussion affects EWT?

A
  • Memory contamination: when co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other, their EWT’s may become altered or distorted - they combine (mis) information from other witnesses with their own memories.
  • Memory conformity: Gabbert et al. concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and
    they are wrong-> actual memory is unchanged
50
Q

What is a strength of misleading information as a factor affecting EWT? (A03)

A

+ Important practical uses in the criminal justice system: Loftus believes leading questions can have a distorting effect on memory so police need to be careful when interviewing + psychologists can be asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries - help to improve the way the legal system works + prevent faulty convictions

51
Q

What are the weaknesses of misleading information as a factor affecting EWT? (A03)

A
  • Evidence against substitution: EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others -> Sutherland & Hayne showed participants a clip and when later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones (resistant to misleading info) - og memories for central details survived
  • Evidence challenging memory conformity: there is evidence that PED alters EWT -> Skagerberg & Wright showed participants 2 versions of a film clip (one with a mugger with dark brown hair and the other light brown) - participants discussed the clips in pairs and reported a blend of the two -> memory is distorted through contamination bymisleading PED, rather than memory conformity
52
Q

How does anxiety have a negative effect on recall?

A
  • It creates physiological arousal which prevents us from paying attention to important cues -> reduces recall
  • Weapon-focus effect: the presence of a weapon creates anxiety -> leads to a focus on the weapon, reducing the witness’s recall for other details of the event
53
Q

How did Johnson and Scott investigate the negative effect of anxiety on recall?

A
  • Johnson & Scott’s participants believed they were taking part in a lab study
  • While in a waiting room ppts in the low-anxiety condition heard a casual conversation, then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen + with greasy hands
  • In the high anxiety condition participants overheard an argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass-> a man walked out of the room, holding a blood-covered knife
  • Findings: out of a set of 50 photos, 49% in low-anxiety could identify the man -> 33% in high-anxiety could identify the man with knife
  • Tunnel theory of
    memory: people have enhanced memory for central events - weapon focus due to anxiety can have this effect
54
Q

What is the tunnel theory?

A

Tunnel theory of memory: people have enhanced memory for central events - weapon focus due to anxiety can have this effect

55
Q

How does anxiety have a positive effect on recall?

A
  • Witnessing a stressful event creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body
  • The fight or flight response is triggered, increasing alertness
  • May improve memory for the event as we become more aware of cues in the situation
56
Q

How did Yuille and Cutshall investigate the positive effect of anxiety on recall?

A
  • Yuille and Cutshall conducted a study where ppts were witnesses to a shooting in a shop - 21 witnesses, 13 took part in the study.
  • Interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews at the time of the shooting
  • Witnesses were asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident (on a 7-point scale) and whether they had any emotional problems since the event (e.g. sleeplessness).
  • Findings: participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to
    75% for less-stressed group)
57
Q

What is the inverted-U theory (Yerke Dodson’s law)

A
  • The inverted-U theory looks at the relationship between emotional arousal and performance
  • It states that performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically
  • Deffenbacher found lower levels of anxiety=lower recall accuracy
58
Q

What are the strengths of anxiety as a factor affecting EWT? (A03)

A
  • Support for positive effects: Christianson & Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden (both directly & indirectly involved) -> 75% accuracy across all witnesses, and even more for the anxious direct victims
  • Support for negative effects: Valentine & Mesout’s real-world setting study (Labryinth horror, London dungeon) - objective measure (heart rate) to separate conditions -> ppts completed questionnaires of their self-reported anxiety at the end of the visit + had to describe a person encountered in the horror show -> 17% of high-anxiety group identified correct actor compared to 75% of low-anxiety group
59
Q

What are the weaknesses of anxiety as a factor affecting EWT? (A03)

A
  • Johnson and Scott’s study may not have tested anxiety: Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet, or raw chicken as hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video - eyewitness accuracy was poorer in high unusualness conditions (chicken + handgun) -> weapon-focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety
  • Inverted-u explanation may be too simplistic: places emphasis on physical arousal & assumes this is the only aspect linked to EWT -> ignores that anxiety has many elements - cognitive, behavioural, + emotional factors
60
Q

What is cognitive interview and what are the four main techniques?

A

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories

-Report everythng
- Change perspective
- Reverse the order
- Reinstate the context

61
Q

What is the ‘report everything’ technique?

A
  • Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant
  • Trivial details may be important and trigger other important memories
62
Q

What is the ‘reinstate the context’ technique?

A
  • The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ - imagine their environment + emotions
  • Related to context-dependent forgetting
63
Q

What is the ‘reverse the order’ technique?

A
  • Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence e.g. from final point -> beginning
  • Prevents people from reporting their expectations of how the event happened rather than reporting the actual events
  • Prevents dishonesty
64
Q

What is the ‘change perspective’ technique?

A
  • Witnesses should recall the event from other people’s perspectives
  • Disrupts the effects of expectations & schema on recall -> the schema you have of a particular setting may generate expectations of what would have happened
65
Q

What is enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) and who developed it?

A
  • Fisher et al developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction
  • Enhanced CI also includes ideas like reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, open-ended questions, getting the witness to speak slowly
66
Q

What are the strengths of cognitive interviews in helping improve the accuracy of EWT? (A03)

A

+ Support for the effectiveness of CI: Kohnken et al’s meta-analysis combined data from 50 studies comparing the CI with standard police interview -> CI gave an average 41% increase in accurate info compared with standard - effective technique

+ Variations of the CI: studies of the effectiveness of CI inevitably use slightly different techniques of the enhanced CI -> more flexible + allows individuals to develop an approach according to what works best for them

67
Q

What are the weaknesses of cognitive interviews in helping improve the accuracy of EWT? (A03)

A
  • The CI is time-consuming: police may be reluctant to use it as it takes more time than standard police interviews -> time to establish rapport + requires special training & many forces haven’t been able to provide more than a few hrs of training (Kebbel & Wagstaff) - unrealistic
  • Not all elements are equally effective: Milne & Bull found each technique to produce more info than standard police interview - also found that using a combination report everything & context reinstatement produced better recall than all other conditions -> reduces credibility

Psychology (11 decks)

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