Memory Flashcards
1
Q
What are the 3 stores of the multi-store model of memory?
A
. Sensory Register (SR)
. Short term memory (STM)
. Long term memory (LTM)
2
Q
What are the two distinctive features of the MSM?
A
Each store is unitary - each store is not subdivided but is its complete own store
The model is linear - the flow of information travels in one direction (SR to STM to LTM)
3
Q
Tell me about the history of the MSM?
A
. Developed in 1967 by Atkinson and Shiffrin
. First ever model that tried to explain how human memory works, laying scientific foundations for future research into memory
. Currently replaced by WMM
. also known as the ‘modal model’ as it was the most used model of memory for a long time
4
Q
Why are theoretical models such as the MSM needed?
A
As you can’t physically see memory, so you can only use a template that allows you to infer what is going on in someone’s head.
5
Q
How do we know that certain regions of the brain are responsible for the different parts/stores of memory?
A
Cognitive neuroscience brain scans
6
Q
Briefly explain how the MSM works?
A
. Incoming stimuli from your 5 senses enters your SR
. you must pay attention to the info in one of the sensory stores for the info to make it to the STM.
- if you don’t pay attention, the info can only stay in the SR for milliseconds
. Information you pay attention to is transferred to your STM and must be dealt with within 30 seconds.
. Information must be processed before going to the LTM, meaning the information must be rehearsed, otherwise it is completely discarded.
. You cannot retain info you haven’t understood
7
Q
What is meant by processing information with memory?
A
Subvocal repetition = silently repeating words that are said to you in your head
8
Q
What are the two forms of rehearsal?
A
Elaborate rehearsal - rehearsal that is strong enough to carry info from STM to LTM
Maintenance rehearsal - repeatedly rehearsing your STM info until elaborate rehearsal can take place as neural pathways are strong enough
9
Q
Briefly explain the science behind how memories are created?
A
When you come across new info, an electrical signal is sent across synapses, creating a new neural pathway that is initially fragile (can be forgotten easily) through the use of chemical (neurotransmitters)
- if you keep getting told new info over and over, too many fragile neural pathways will be created
- if you consolidate the info you have as a fragile pathway, the neural pathways will be strengthened and get closer to your LTM
10
Q
What are the two ways of information being encoded?
A
Semantically = by meaning
Acoustically = by sound
11
Q
Explain how info is encoded in the STM?
A
Info can be encoded here acoustically, just by the sounds of words, they don’t have to be understood
12
Q
Explain how info is encoded in the LTM?
A
Info here is encoded semantically, it must have meaning/be understood
13
Q
What is maintenance rehearsal?
A
When Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed a direct relationship between the number of repetitions of rehearsal in the STM with the strength of the LTM
14
Q
We often believe there were things we have forgotten from our LTM, but what does the MSM show is actually happening?
A
Either:
. You didn’t strengthen your neural pathways (make it permanent through consolidation)
. You just can’t find the info
15
Q
What is meant by displacement of information?
A
As the STM has a max capacity of 5-9 items, new STM info will displace old STM info once max capacity is reached
16
Q
How is info retrieved from the LTM according to MSM?
A
It must first be passed back through the STM before the info is available for use and retrieval
17
Q
What did Sperling (1960) do?
A
. Presented a grid of letters for less than a second (so it enters short term memory)
. Participants had to record the letters they saw
18
Q
What were the findings and conclusions from Sperling (1960)?
A
Average of 4 letters recorded per person
Found information about duration of sensory register: info decays from SR in about one second or less (often milliseconds)
As we can only attend to some items (limited capacity), many of the items decay before we can report them all
19
Q
What happened in Jacob’s digit span experiment?
A
Had to read digits out loud as they increased in digit span every time (prevented subvocal repetition so information stayed in the short term memory). Did same for letters
20
Q
What were the findings of Jacob’s digit span experiment?
A
We have an average digit span of between 5-9
- mean span for digits was 9.3
- mean span for letters was 7.3
21
Q
Why did Jacob’s argue the mean digit span for letters was lower?
A
There are more letters than digits 0-9
22
Q
What does Jacob’s digit span experiment tell us about capacity of STM?
A
Has a capacity of 5-9 items before it seemingly becomes full up
23
Q
What did Miller develop in 1956?
A
Reviewed Jacob’s Digit Span experiment and created Miller’s Magic 7
24
Q
What did Miller’s Magic 7 find after reviewing Jacob’s research?
A
. Our STM capacity is similar for numbers, letters and even words - it can be represented as :
- capacity of STM = 7+-2 items
25
What did Miller propose after his findings?
Chunking - breaking up information into smaller chunks to increase our ability to expand the capacity of our STM to its full potential (e.g when remembering our phone number we naturally chunk the information)
26
How did Miller’s magic 7 experiment use the STM?
. Information wasn’t in your sensory register as you were showed the sequences for longer than 1 second
. Had to pay attention to access the STM
. given less than 30 seconds so couldn’t do elaborate rehearsal for LTM transferral
. Had to use maintenance rehearsal through subvocal repetition to keep info in STM/chunking
27
What is the definition of the short term memory?
Your live memory, what you are currently thinking and processing
28
What was the aim of Baddeley (1966)?
Investigate how LTM and STM are encoded
29
What was the procedure of Baddeley’s experiment?
IV = two lists: List A (acoustically similar words), List B (acoustically dissimilar)
DV = correct number of words recalled out of 10
. All 3 letter words
. One at a time
. Timed
. Standardised experiment
. No extraneous variables
30
What was the significance of Baddeley’s experiment on encoding being a lab experiment?
Controlled for extraneous variables, meaning the only thing that affected remembering the words were the differences between List A and B
31
What were the findings of Baddeley (1966)?
. STM acoustically encoded, it is harder to recall large amounts of acoustically remembered information as you can remember more of it than semantic information so you get confused as there is an overload of similar information which can’t be processed, leading to acoustic confusion
. Similarity of meaning (semantic similarity) had a very small detrimental effect on STM
32
How were the STM and LTM study of Baddeley different?
STM study: had to remember 5 words in serial order
LTM: had to remember 10 words in order after a 10 minute interval
33
What was the aim for Peterson and Peterson (1959)?
Investigate the duration of the STM and provide empirical evidence for the MSM
34
What research method was the Peterson and Peterson experiment?
Lab experiment
35
What was the procedure of Peterson and Peterson’s STM duration experiment?
. 24 psychology students had to recall trigrams of random, meaningless consonant syllables so previous schemas couldn’t be used
. To prevent subvocal repetition, participants had to count back in 3’s out loud from a 3-digit-number till a red light appeared (Brown-Peterson technique)
. Had to recall at intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 18
36
What were the results of Peterson and Peterson (1959)?
. 80% recalled after 3 seconds
. 50% recalled after 6 seconds
. Less than 10% recalled after 18 seconds
37
What conclusion was made from Peterson and Peterson’s results?
The duration of the STM is UP TO 30 seconds
38
What four groups did Baddeley use in his (1966) experiments on coding?
Group 1: acoustically similar words
Group 2: acoustically dissimilar words
Group 3: semantically similar words
Group 4: semantically dissimilar words
39
What did Baddeley’s coding work on LTM show?
Information is coded semantically in the LTM as the recall was worse after the 20 minute interval with semantically similar words
40
What was the aim of Bahrick et al (1975)?
To establish whether there is a very long term memory and if it is affected differently by recognition and recall
41
What were the two levels of IV in Bahrick et al?
Recognition group and recall group
42
What was the procedure for Bahrick et al?
392 graduates from a high school in America from ages of 17-74 were shown photos from yearbook,
Recognition group: had to match list of names to the photo (list acted as a cue)
Recall group: had to remember the names from just the photo
43
What were the findings of Bahrick et al (1975)?
Recognition group: 90% correct 14 years after graduation
. 60% correct after 47 years
Recall group:
. 60% accurate after 7 years
. <20% correct after 47 years
44
What conclusion came from Bahrick et al (1975)?
People can remember certain types of information for almost a lifetime but the very long term memory is more accurate with prompts/cues
45
What did Tulving (1985) claim about the MSM of memory?
It was too simplistic and inflexible
46
What did Tulving say about LTM in 1985?
Tulving opposed the idea of unitary stores in the MSM
He said that our LTM has 3 types across different areas of the brain:
. Episodic
. Semantic
. Procedural
47
What are procedural memories?
. Implicit type of memory: something we know how to do but can’t explain how we do it
. Memory of actions, skills as well as memories of previously learned skills
. Can recall these without conscious awareness
. Automatic memories
. Takes a lot of practice for a skill to become part of your procedural memory
. Can be thought of as your muscle memories
48
Describe episodic memories
Ability to recall significant events
- time stamped: you remember when they happened
- can remember details such as who was there, places and objects
. Explicit type of memory: you can tell someone about the event
. You have to make a conscious effort to recall them
49
Describe semantic memories
. Knowledge of the world (can be anything)
. Not time stamped: we don’t remember when or how we learned the knowledge, just that we know about it
. Have to deliberately recall these facts
50
Where are our memories stored in different regions of the brain?
. Frontal lobe: stores semantic and episodic memories
. Motor cortex: involved in storing procedural memories
. cerebellum (important): role in storing procedural memories
. Prefrontal cortex: storage of short-term memories
. Temporal lobe: formation and storage of long term semantic and episodic memories and contributes to the processing of new information in the STM
. Hippocampus: role in forming new long-term explicit memories
. Amygdala: vital to the formation of new emotional memories
51
What are the two main pieces of clinical evidence for the types of LTM?
HM and Clive Wearing: both had SELECTIVE memory loss
52
How was it clear that HM and CW both kept procedural memories after damage?
. CW could still play piano, sing and read music
. HM learnt to draw a star by looking in the mirror
53
Which part of Clive Wearing’s LTM was mainly damaged?
His episodic memory: he had difficulty recalling memories of the past such as names of his children
54
Which part of LTM for HM and CW were relatively unaffected?
Semantic memories, they could still hold convos with general knowledge
55
How can you use the clinical evidence of CW and HM to support types of LTM?
If LTM is one unitary stores, CW and HM would’ve had a completely affected memory, but this wasn’t the case (evidence against MSM memory)
56
What happened to KC?
Got in a motorcycle accident that caused widespread brain damage, including bilateral hippocampal lesions
57
What did Rosenbaum et al (2005) find KC’s accident caused?
. Memory impairment
. Knowledge, including about himself, from before the accident was generally intact (semantic memories)
. Incapable of recollecting personal events (episodic memories)
58
What did Rosenbaum et al (2005) conclude about KC?
that he had developed ‘episodic amnesia’ but his semantic memories were still mostly intact, providing evidence against LTM being one unitary store
59
What did Tulving (1994) do and find?
Using a PET scanner, he got his participants to perform memory tasks while different regions of the brain were stimulated
Finding: episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex
Left prefrontal cortex = recalling semantic memories
Right prefrontal cortex = recalling episodic memories
60
What kind of memories do the cerebellum and basal ganglia store?
Procedural memories
61
What does Tulving (1994) support about memory?
The idea that different types of LTM are related to different regions in the brain, not one unitary store
62
What can be said about the validity of Tulving (1994)?
Used PET scans which provide empirical data
The findings were replicated and found to be consistent
63
What is the current model used to describe the STM?
Working memory model (WMM)
64
When was the WMM developed and when was it updated?
1978 by Baddeley and hitch into 3 components
In 2000, a fourth component (episodic buffer) was added
65
What are the four components of the WMM?
. Central executive
. Phonological loop
. Visuo-spatial sketch pad
. Episodic buffer (2000)
66
How can the WMM do two things at once?
We can recall info from our LTM into our live memory and create a picture in our mind (one thing) and identify things in that picture at the same time (second thing)
67
Baddeley and Hitch claimed the MSM model of STM was way too simple. What did they come up with about WMM?
. It is an active system: the STM is a live system that is made of multiple stores, not a unitary store
. WMM is not a unitary store, it is made up of many components
68
What is the role of the WMM?
temporarily store and manipulate information that needs to be used
69
How is the WMM fragile?
Susceptible to:
. Distractions
. Overload (too much information at once)
. Overwork (from complicated calculations)
Therefore, you can’t multitask when these things are happening. Two different slave systems must be used to multitask
70
How did Baddeley get the idea of the WMM?
. Did simultaneous tasks such as going crosswords while listening to music and singing in shower
He wondered why we can multitask for some things but not others?
71
What is the most important part of the WMM?
Central executive, supervises everything that comes into your working memory and allocates information to the separate slave systems
72
What are the 5 responsibilities of the central executive ?
. Process information from the 5 senses (coded from 5 senses)
. Determines what you are going to pay attention to when faced with two/more tasks (selective attention)
. Allocates the appropriate slave system for different tasks
. Coordinates activity needed to carry out more than one process at once
. Has the capacity to focus, divide up information and switch attention
73
How is the central executive information coded?
From your 5 senses
74
What is the capacity of the central executive and what does this mean?
Limited capacity: So much information comes at you from your 5 senses that you can’t simultaneously attend to everything, so the central executive selectively chooses what to pay attention to.
75
What is the first slave system?
Phonological loop (PL)
76
What is the phonological loop also known as and what does this mean?
The inner ear: deals with auditory information and language-based information THAT YOU HEAR and holds auditory speech information such as visually-represented language
77
How does the phonological loop get used when you are reading?
You are still using the same area of the brain controlling your inner ear as if you are hearing the information that you see. The information is processed as auditory information (visually-represented language)
78
What does the ‘articulatory loop’ of the phonological store do?
Inner voice - Controls the articulatory control process, allowing maintenance rehearsal through subvocal repetition so that you can tell your brain what to focus on and pay attention to as it is constantly repeated
79
What did Baddeley (1975a) find out about the duration of the phonological loop?
It has a duration of 2 seconds worth of what you can say in your head
80
What is the second slave system and what is it also known as?
Visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye)
81
What are the two sections of the phonological loop?
Articulatory control system (inner voice) and the phonological store (inner ear)
82
What is the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
Limited as you can’t deal with too much visual/spatial information at once: it is only a temporary memory system for holding visual/spatial information such as planning a route or picturing a room in your head
83
Why was the episodic buffer introduced?
To address criticism on how processed information in your STM becomes integrated into your LTM
84
What is the episodic buffer and what does it do?
. Storage component for the central executive
. Used to forward information from STM to LTM
. has a limited capacity
. Integrates visual, spatial and verbal information being processed from the slave systems together to be forwarded to the LTM
. Temporary store (just takes info and forwards it, like a connection)
. Maintains a sense of time sequencing (this, then…)
. Also links working memory to wider cognitive processes such as perception
85
What does Baddeley’s dual task study emphasise?
That we can’t do two tasks from the same slave system at once due to the limited capacity of the slave systems
86
What did Baddeley’s dual task (1975) using phonological loop consist of, including the findings?
Had to remember a list of words while saying ‘the the the’ repeatedly
Findings: not possible to remember many of the words as your live recall is damaged as saying ‘the the the’ causes ‘articulatory suppression’ as you prevent subvocal repetition which would be used to do maintenance rehearsal on the list of words
. ‘The the the’ uses your inner ear and reading words uses inner voice, both using same slave system
. Demonstrates the word length effect (some words were very long)
Conclusion: task recall from the same slave system is much harder due to the limited capacity of the slave systems
87
What is the word length effect?
. Short monosyllabic words are recalled more successfully than longer polysyllabic words
. The longer words fill up the limited capacity of the articulatory process, resulting in the decay of longer words
. Forgetting is more likely with longer words
. Polysyllabic words are harder to remember
. The rehearsal of longer words takes longer than 2 seconds, inhibiting rehearsal for longer words which is needed for maintenance rehearsal using articulatory loop
88
What does articulatory suppression override?
The word length effect
89
What did Baddeley say about the limited capacity of the VSS (2003)?
About 3 to 4 objects
90
What did Logie (1995) subdivide the VSS into?
. Visual cache: stores visual data
. Inner scribe: records an arrangement of objects in the visual field
91
What did Braver et al (1997) do?
Supported the existence of the central executive by carrying out brain scans while carrying out cognitive tasks:
Finding: the prefrontal cortex was associated with tasks carried out by the central executive, showing it is a separate component of the WMM
92
What happened in Shallice and Warrington (1970)?
Patient KF got in a motorcycle accident and suffered brain damage in his left parieto-occipital region
What he could do:
. No problems with LTM
. visuospatial sketchpad remained intact
What he couldn’t do:
. Short-term forgetting of auditory letters and digits was greater than his forgetting of visual stimuli
. Short-term memory deficit limited to verbal materials and didn’t extend to meaningful sounds e.g couldn’t remember words but could for sounds
93
How is Shallice and Warrington (1970) useful as clinical evidence for the WMM?
No problems with LTM = different regions of brain for STM and LTM
Difficulty with sounds but could remember letters and digits = his phonological loop was damaged
. Supports existence of a separate visual and acoustic store
94
How is evidence from brain-damaged patients limited?
It concerns especially unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences
95
What is the role of each region of the brain in the WMM?
prefrontal cortex = central executive
Left parietal lobe = phonological loop
Left frontal/Broca’s area = articulatory control process
Occipital lobe = spatial tasks
96
What is interference?
When one memory interfere with another, you either remember 1/2 of the memories or none of them
97
When is interference more likely to occur?
When memories are similar e.g mixing up similar vocab across 2 different lanaguages
98
What is proactive interference and give an example?
When new information is interfered with by old information
- previously stored information prevents properly storing new information
E.g remember your old phone number but not your new one
99
What is retroactive interference and example?
When old information is interfered with by new information
- new info ‘overwriting’ previously stored info
E.g teacher can’t remember old class names as they remember the names of the current class
100
Who first identified the effects of RI and what was the procedure?
Müller and his student Pilzecker.
They gave participants a list of nonsense syllables to learn for 6 minutes and asked the participants to recall the list after a retention interval
101
What were the findings of Müller and Pilzecker’s research into RI?
. Performance was worse if participants had been given an intervening task during their retention interval (shown 3 landscape paintings and asked to describe them)
. The intervening task produced RI because the task of describing pictures interfered with the nonsense syllables they had previously learned
102
How did Underwood (1957) investigate PI?
Analysed findings from number of studies and found that if participants memorised 10 or more lists, after 23 hours, they remembered about 20% of what they learned
If they only had to learn one list recall was over 70%
103
What did mcGeoch and McDonald (1931) investigate?
The effects of similarity of materials on interference
104
What was the procedure of McGeoh and McDonald?
. Participants given a list of 10 adjectives (List A)
. After these adjectives were learnt, there was a 10 minute resting interval where they learned List B and then recalled List B
105
What were the findings of McGeoh and McDonald?
. If List B was a list of synonyms of list A, recall was bad (12%)
. If list B was nonsense there was slightly better recall (26%)
. If list B was numbers there was decent recall (37%)
106
Who investigated interference effects in everyday life?
Baddeley and Hitch (1977) rugby players study
107
What did Baddeley and Hitch (1977) aim to do?
Find out whether interference or decay theory is more correct in explaining forgetting
108
What was the procedure of Baddeley and Hitch (1977)?
. Asked group of rugby players to recall the names of teams they played over a season
. Some players played all games and some missed some due to suspensions/injuries
109
What was the main situation in Baddeley and Hitch (1977)?
The time interval for all players was the same as the interval for games is the same
BUT the number of interfering games was different as some players missed more games than others
110
What were the findings and conclusion of Baddeley and Hitch (1977)?
. Recall for last game was equally good whether played some time ago or very recently
. Players who missed more games recalled more of the names of teams
Conclusion: incorrect recall wasn’t due to decay as this would be affected by time interval, but it was actually due to the number of interfering games
- interference is a reason for forgetting in everyday life
111
What are the two main theories of forgetting?
. Interference theory
. Retrieval failure
112
What is retrieval failure?
When information is stored in the LTM but can’t be accessed due to a lack of cues
113
What are internal cues?
The mental state we are in at the time of learning e.g physical, emotional, moody, drunk
114
What are external cues?
When we code information in the context of the environment we are in e.g perform better doing exams in a psychology classroom we are used to
115
What is Context-dependent forgetting also called?
Environmental forgetting
116
How can context-dependent forgetting occur?
When the environment during recall is different from the environment during learning
117
Which study investigated context-dependent forgetting?
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
118
What was the aim of Godden and Baddeley (1975)?
To investigate the effects of the environment in recall. The study took place in Scotland as a field experiment
119
What were the 4 conditions in Godden and Baddeley’s study?
A. Learn on beach recall on beach
B. Learn on beach recall under water
C. Learn under water recall under water
D. Learn under water recall on beach
Individual groups design
120
What were the results and conclusion of Godden and Baddeley (1975)?
Results: mean recall in same environments as learning was much greater than in different environments to learning
Conclusion: the context of recall acted as a cue to recall
121
When does state-dependent forgetting occur?
When your mood/physiological state during recall is different to the mood you were in when learning (absence of internal cues)
122
Which study investigated state-dependent forgetting?
Goodwin et al (1969)
123
What was the procedure of Goodwin et al?
48 male medical students participated on day 1 in a training session and in day 2 in a testing. They were randomly assigned to four groups
Participants had to perform 4 tests on testing day: avoidance task, verbal rote-learning task, word-association tests and a picture recognition task
124
What did the intoxicated groups have in their system in Goodwin et al?
100ml alcohol in their blood
125
What were the 4 groups in Goodwin et al?
SS = sober both days
AA = intoxicated both days
AS = intoxicated day 1 sober day 2
SA = sober day 1 intoxicated day 2
126
What are the results and conclusion from Goodwin et al?
Results: more errors on day 2 in AS and SA condition
- not the case for picture recognition task
. SS performed best on all tasks
Conclusion: supports state-dependent memory
127
What should you do after witnessing a crime?
Don’t discuss with others
128
What is the conformity effect in PED?
The original memory of an event may be distorted through discussion of the event with other people
- when you don’t trust your opinion as you aren’t part of the majority opinion (ISI)
129
What is memory conformity?
When your memory is influenced by another persons report of an event, resulting in similar memory reports
130
What is conformity theory?
Going along with co-witness’ opinions to win social approval (demand characteristic - NSI) or genuinely doubting your own opinion (ISI)
131
What is source monitoring theory?
When your memories are genuinely distorted as your view of what happened in an event is slightly changed by a co-witness. As the two beliefs merge, you undergo source confusion and can’t remember what you’re saying is your belief or the co-witnesse’s belief
132
Which two theories show why PED affects EWT?
Source monitoring theory and conformity theory
133
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?
Investigate how information provided to a witness after an event will influence their memory of the event
134
What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s first experiment on leading questions and misleading information?
1. 45 students split into 5 groups of 9 and shown 7 films of different traffic accidents
2. After each film, the participants had to complete a questionnaire
- the critical question in the questionnaire asked how fast the cars were going when they ‘…’ each other
- this … was replaced with different verbs for each group and acted as a leading question
135
What were the 5 verbs used in Loftus and Palmer’s first experiment?
. ‘Hit’
. ‘Smashed’
. ‘Collided’
. ‘Bumped’
. ‘Contacted’
136
What were the findings on L and P’s first experiment?
MEASURED MEAN SPEEDS IN MPH
Smashed - 40.8mph
Collided - 39.3mph
Bumped - 38.1mph
Hit - 34mph
Contacted - 31.8mph
137
What are the conclusions from L and P’s first experiment?
. EWT is generally unreliable and susceptible to leading questions.
. The form of questioning has a massive impact on the answers given to the same question
This is a response-bias explanation of EWT recall (wording of question doesn’t fully change memories but influences how individual answers)
138
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment?
To investigate whether a leading question just causes bias to a person’s response or actually causes information to be altered before it is stored (substitution explanation)
139
What was the procedure of L and P’s broken glass study?
1. 50 participants divided into 3 groups and all shown a film of a car accident lasting around 1 minute
2. The participants answered more questions on the speed, same as last time, this time there was a control group
3. A week later, the participants were asked 10 questions, including the critical question: ‘did you see any broken glass’ (even though there wasn’t any)
140
What were the quantitative findings of the broken glass study?
Smashed - 16 yes to broken glass, 34 no
Hit - 7 yes to broken glass, 43 no
Control - 6 yes to broken glass, 44 no
Those who though the car was travelling fast based on the verb given in the speed question were more likely to believe there was broken glass due to it acting as a cue
141
What research has demonstrated how PED causes EWT’s to become contaminated?
Gabbert and her colleagues (2003) studied participants in pairs
142
What was the procedure of Gabbert and her colleagues (2003)?
. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view
- this meant each participants saw elements of the event that the other couldn’t
. Both participants discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall
143
What were the findings of Gabbert and her colleagues (2003)?
. 71% of participants mistakingly recalled aspects of the event they didn’t see but picked up through PED
. the control group with no discussion had 0% mistakes in recall
144
What was the conclusion of Gabbert and her colleagues (2003)?
Came up with memory conformity - 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
145
What is Loftus and Palmer’s reconstruction hypothesis?
The conclusion from both experiments that two kinds of info go into a person’s memory of an event:
1. Info obtained from perceiving an event
2. Other info supplied to us after the event (PED)
Over time, these types of info become integrated, created a ‘memory’ that would be unreliable compared to what really happened (interference)
146
How did Loftus and Palmer explain their findings in their first experiment?
1. Could be due to a distortion in the memory of the participant due to the verbal label used to characterise the intensity of the crash
2. Due to response-bias factors, where the participant isn’t sure of the speed due to estimation being subjective, making leading questions cause participants to adjust their answer to fit the expectations of the questioner (demand characteristics)
147
How, biologically, can anxiety have a negative effect on EWT recall?
Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, causing recall to become worse
148
Who investigated the effect of weapons on accuracy of EWT recall (negative effect of anxiety)?
Johnson and Scott (1976)
149
How were the participants deceived in Johnson and Scott?
They led participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study to reduce demand characteristics, although there are ethical issues with deceiving
150
What were the two conditions in Johnson and Scott’s study?
‘Low-anxiety’ condition = a man walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen and with grease on his hand
‘High-anxiety condition’ = heard the same heated argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out, holding a paper knife covered in blood
151
Where were the participants placed for both conditions in J+S’s study?
In a waiting area with the heating argument in the next room
152
What are the findings of Johnson and Scott’s study?
Participants had to pick the man out of 50 photos
. 49% of the participants who saw the man carrying the pen could identify the man
. 33% for the man carrying the blood-covered knife
153
What does the tunnel theory of memory argue?
A witness’s attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because it’s a source of anxiety
154
How can anxiety have a positive effect on recall?
The stress of witnessing a crime causes a fight or flight response which provides more blood to our brain and adrenaline is released, improving alertness and improving our memory of the event as we become more aware of the cues in the situation
155
What study investigated how anxiety can have a positive effect on EWT recall?
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver where the shop owner shot a thief dead
156
How many of the witnesses took part in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
13 of the 21 witnesses agree to take part
157
What was the procedure for the participants in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
The participants were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and these interviews were compared to the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting
. Witnesses asked how stressed they felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale
. Asked if they had any emotional problems since the event, such as sleeplessness
. Accuracy of recall was the main thing being measured
158
How was accuracy in the Yuille and Cuthsall interviews determined?
By the number of details reported in each account
159
What were the findings of the Yuille and Cutshall study?
. The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and little change in amount of accuracy after 5 months
. Some details were less accurate such as the colour of items
. Those who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate
160
What is the Yerkes Dodson Law?
Relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an ‘inverted U’
- performance will increase with stress, but only to an optimum point before it decreases drastically with too much stress
161
Who applied the Yerkes-Dodson law to EWT recall?
Kenneth Deffenbacher (1983)
162
When was the cognitive interview developed and by who?
Geiselman in 1984 to replace the standard interview
163
What were the problems with the standard interview?
Used:
. Leading questions
. Didn’t mention no PED
. Interrupted
164
What were the aims of the cognitive interview (CI) when it was created?
. To improve techniques used when interviewing
. Apply results of psychological results which show memory is an active process that is fragile to manipulation, not just like a video camera recording everything
165
What are the 3 main challenges with accurate EWT?
. Encoding challenges (setting, distractions, stress, guilt)
- information coming into the brain can be affected or not focused on due to these factors
. Retrieval challenges - schemas, such as assuming a knife in a fight that resulted in deathly emotional factors
. Interviewer challenges - types of questions used, whether witness used schemas, whether they’d been affected by emotional factors
166
What is the mnemonic in CI steps?
R-einstate the context
O-rder change
P-erspective change (not often used)
E-verything reported
167
How do interviewees reinstate the context in real life?
. Judges sometimes ask for a site visit so the jury can visualise what the witness is describing
. If not in person, can visualise the scene and mentally reinstate context by drawing out the scene
168
Why is reinstating the context so important?
Makes memories more accessible through cues to correct being wrong
169
What are some examples of cues that can be helpful in reinstating the context and providing a more accurate recall?
. The weather as you may correct yourself on what someone was wearing during it
. Distinctive smells as you can describe the smell of somebody
. Anything distinctive
170
Why is changing the order so important in CI?
. Police don’t want start to finish of events usually as you will plug gaps in your knowledge with your schemas, creating a story that may not be true
. Starting at the most memorable moment is often a good place to start
. Your schemas are much harder to use outside of chronological order
. Prevents dishonesty
171
Why don’t police tend to get people to change the perspective of the incident in CI?
Trying to imagine what someone else saw isn’t actually your own recall of the event
172
Why is changing the perspective in CI sometimes important?
. Disrupts effect of schemas on recall
- the schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of what would have happened
173
What are the features of reporting everything in CI?
. No interruptions as this can completely dissolve your train of thought
. Telling interviewer everything, even if trivial, can trigger other important memories
174
What did Fisher et al (1987) do?
Developed some additional elements of CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction
175
How was the cognitive interview enhanced in Fisher et al?
. Interview needs to know when to establish eye contact and not
. Includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions
176
Why is the CI far superior for children (Holliday 2003)?
Children can’t use the standard interview as they would fall into every leading question
177
What was the aim of Geiselman et al (1988)?
To test the effectiveness of the CI by comparing it to the standard interview
178
What was the procedure of Geiselman et al (1988)?
. 89 Trainee police officers were shown police training videos of crimes.
. 2 days later they were interviewed using either the standard or cognitive interview
179
What were the findings of Geiselman et al (1988)?
. Significantly more factually correct info retrieved with CI
- error rates were very similar
. CI gives lots of info but witnesses still make many errors due to schemas
- memory still open to errors
180
What was the procedure of Fisher et al (1989)?
. Study of real life cognitive interview performance
. Researchers trained police detectives in Florida in use of CI
- compared interview performance before and after training
181
What were the findings of Fisher at al (1889)?
After training, the detectives gained as much as 47% more useful info from witnesses to real crimes compared to when they used standard interview
