Memory Flashcards
What is meant by capacity ?
The amount of information that can be stored
What is meant by duration ?
The length of time that information can be stored
What is meant by encoding ?
The way that sensory input is represented e.g. visual, acoustic, semantic
What is meant by sensory memory ?
A brief storage of information where information is held until it can be recognised
What is Short Term Memory (STM) ?
Information is stored here for a brief period of time, this is often also called the working memory
What is Long Term Memory (LTM) ?
Vast amounts of information can be held here for long periods of time as long as a lifetime
What is meant by retrieval ?
Finding and accessing memory when it is needed
How is information in the sensory memory forgotten ?
Decay
How is information lost from the STM ?
Decay and displacement
How is information in the LTM lost ?
Retrieval failure and interference
How is information moved from the sensory memory to the STM ?
Attention
How is information moved from the STM to the LTM ?
Rehearsal
How is information moved from the LTM to the STM ?
Retrieval
What are the five sensory stores ?
Visual-Iconic
Auditory-Echoic
Touch-Haptic
Smell-Olfactory
Taste-Gustatory
Outline the procedure of Sperling’s study
He asked the participants to remember as many letters as they could from a grid of 12 which were displayed for 1/20 of a second
Outline the findings of Sperling’s study
Most participants could only remember around 4 of the letters they were shown, however, 75% reported seeing more letters than they were able to recall
What does Sperling’s study conclude about the sensory memory?
It has a very large capacity
Outline the findings of Crowder’s study
The duration of the sensory memory is 500ms for visual information and 2-3s for auditory information
How is information coded for in the sensory memory?
Crowder - sense specific
Outline the procedure of Miller
Participants were asked to immediately recall a list of numbers they had just been read by the researcher, each time they gave a correct answer, the list would increase in length by one more number, this was repeated until the participant could no longer recall the list
Outline the findings of Miller
Miller found that the capacity of the STM was 7 plus or minus 2 this is because most participants could remember 5-9 digits
What is one way that the capacity of the STM can be increased?
Chunking
What is meant by chunking ?
Where multiple items are grouped together so that they become 1 item
Outline the procedure of Peterson and Peterson
They showed participants trigrams and then made them complete a distraction task during a delay between them being shown the trigram and being asked to recall it, the delays started from 3 and increased by 3s each time until they reached 18s
What was the distraction task used in Peterson and Peterson’s study ?
Counting back from 400 in 3s
Outline the findings of Peterson and Peterson’s study
As the delay increased between seeing the trigram and being asked to recall it the less accurate the participants were at recall
Duration is 18-30 seconds
What experimental design was used by Peterson and Peterson ?
Repeated Measures Design
Outline the procedure of Baddeley’s experiment
Participants were given 4 lists of words and asked to recall them both immediately and after 20 minutes, the lists were semantically similar words, semantically dissimilar words, acoustically similar words and acoustically dissimilar
Outline the findings of Baddeley of the STM
Baddeley found that when asked to recall the lists immediately, participants struggled to recall acoustically similar words due to the confusion of sounds, showing that the STM codes mostly acoustically
Outline the procedure of Wagner
He kept a diary of around 2,400 events which he recorded over a span of 60 years, then tested himself on how many he could remember
Outline the findings of Wagner
He found that he could remember a large number of the events that he had recorded (he had excellent recall) showing that the capacity of the LTM is limitless
Outline the procedure of Bahrick
He split participants into two groups and asked them to recall as many of their high-school year as possible, one group were asked to free recall and the other group were given pictures of the people from their year (the group consisted of people who had left high-school between 14 and 47 years ago)
Outline the findings of Bahrick
He found that participants had a good recall especially when shown pictures concluding that the duration of the LTM was up to a lifetime
Outline the findings of Baddeley of the LTM
Baddeley found that when participants were asked to recall the lists after 20 minutes, they struggled with the semantically similar words this was because of confusion of meaning, therefore the LTM codes mostly semantically
What are two examples that support the Multi-Store Model (MSM) ?
Baddeley
Glanzer and Cunitz
Outline the procedure of Glanzer and Cunitz
Participants were shown a list of words 20-30 words long and asked to immediately recall as many as they could
Outline the findings of Glanzer and Cunitz
They found that most participants could remember the first and last few words this is due to the primacy and recency effect
What is the primacy effect ?
The words at the start of the list are more easily remembered because they have had time to be rehearsed and moved into the LTM
What is the recency effect ?
The words at the end of the list were more easily remembered because they had not had time to decay, they were still in the STM
How do Glanzer and Cunitz support the MSM ?
The curve in the graph of their results shows that there must be at least 2 different memory store
If not we should be able to remember all the words.
Outline the case study of Clive Wearing ?
Clive Wearing suffered from amnesia causing him to lose his long term memory, however he could still remember information such as his wife’s name and how to play the piano
How does Clive Wearing support the MSM ?
He shows that the STM and the LTM are separate
Outline the case study of KF
After a motorcycle accident, KF suffered brain damage causing him to have difficulties with his STM
Which research method was used to study Clive Wearing and KF ?
Case Study
What is meant by a flashbulb memory ?
An emotional memory which is not processed in the same way as a normal memory, they are moved straight to the LTM
What is episodic memory ?
Personal memories which are time-stamped
e.g. first day of school
What is semantic memory ?
Memories which are general knowledge, they are not time-stamped
e.g. 4x4
What is procedural memory ?
Actions/skills which we know how to do, they are difficult to explain to other people
e.g. how to ride a bike
What are the 3 types of LTM ?
Episodic
Procedural
Semantic
How does Clive Wearing support the existence of different types of LTM ?
He still had procedural and semantic memories but no episodic memories.
How does Tulving support the existence of different types of LTM ?
He found that when participants were asked to try and recall different types of memory, different areas of the brain showed high levels of activity
What parts of the brain are associated with the different types of LTM ?
Episodic-Hippocampus and temporal lobes
Procedural-Cerebellum
Semantic-Temporal lobes
What is a real life application of the different types of LTM ?
Belville et al, older people with mild memory impediments can be trained to have a better recall of episodic memory
What is the Central Executive?
Master system that manages 3 slave systems. Allocates tasks and makes decisions.
What are the two studies that support the CE?
Baddeley
Braver
What was Baddeley’s study for CE?
Participants found it difficult to generate lists of random numbers while simultaneously pressing numbers and letters on a keyboard.
What is the conclusions on Baddeley’s study CE?
The CE has limited a capacity and can only cope with one type of information at a time.
What was Braver’s study?
Participants did a task that involved the CE while having a brain scan. It showed that activity in the prefrontal cortex increased as the task got harder.
What is the conclusions on Braver’s study?
This shows support because as demand on the CE increases, it has to work harder to fulfil its function.
What is the Phonological Loop?
A slave system that deals with auditory information, contains two subsystems.
What are the two subsystems of the PL called?
Phonological store
Articulatory process
What is the phonological store?
The ‘inner ear’, memory lasts 1.5-2 seconds.
What is the articulatory process?
The ‘inner voice’.
What studies support PL?
Case study-KF
Baddeley
Who was KF?
Motorcycle accident impaired his STM. He couldn’t process auditory information (PL) but could process visual information (VSS).
What is the conclusions of KF?
This supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic stores.
What was Baddeley’s study PL?
Word length affect, long length words were harder to remember than short length words.
What is the conclusions of Baddeley’s study PL?
That is because there is a limited space for rehearsal in the articulatory process.
What is the visual spatial sketchpad?
A slave system that holds and processes visual and spatial information.
What study supports the VSS?
Baddeley
What is Baddeley’s study VSS?
Showed participants two visual tasks. Participants struggles to do two visual tasks (describing an F whilst tracking light).
What are the conclusions of Baddeley’s study VSS?
This means there must be a separate slave system (VSS) that processes visual input.
What is the episodic buffer?
Added in 2000. It is a ‘backup store’ that communicates with the LTM.
What study support the episodic buffer?
Alkhalifa
What was Alkhalifa’s study?
Reported a patient with severely impaired LTM who demonstrated of up to 25 items.
What are the conclusions of Alkhalifa’s study?
25 items far exceed the capacity of both PL and the VSS.
What are the strengths of the WMM?
Represented a significant advance on our understanding of memory.
What are the weaknesses of the WMM?
The CE has no clarity.
Most evidence for the WMM comes from brain damaged patients, not a reliable source of evidence.
What are the two different types of interference?
Proactive
Retroactive.
What is proactive interference?
Old information interferes with your ability to understand/recall new information.
What is retroactive interference?
New information interferes with your ability to understand/recall new information.
What study’s support interference?
Underwood & Postman
Baddeley
What was Underwood & Postman’s study?
P’s divided into 2 groups. Group A asked to learn a list of word pair, they then asked to learn a second list of word pairs. Group B were asked to learn the list of first word pairs only. Both groups were then asked to recall the first list of word pairs.
What was the conclusion of Underwood & Postman’s study?
Group B was able to recall more than Group A. Retroactive interference affected Group A’s ability to recall.
What is retrieval failure?
You simply forget information.
What are the different types of retrieval failure?
Context-dependent
State-dependent
What is context-dependent retrieval failure?
External cues that we associate with said information is absent so we struggle to remember information.
What study supports context-dependent retrieval failure?
Godden and Baddeley
What was the procedure of Godden and Baddeley?
18 divers were asked to learn a list of 36 unrelated words.
There were four conditions.
They were then asked to correctly recall as many of the words learnt possible.
What were the four different conditions used in Godden and Baddeley’s study?
- Learn on beach, recall on beach
- Learn on beach, recall underwater
- Learn underwater, recall on beach
- Learn underwater, recall underwater
What were the findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study?
Mean recall for:
LB RB - 13.5
LUW RUW - 11.4
LB RUW - 8.6
LUW RB - 8.5
What were the conclusions of Godden and Baddeley’s study?
Environment can affect your ability to recall information correctly.
What are the strengths of Godden and Baddeley’s study?
High control of external variables such as the list of words used allows researchers to correctly identify what influenced retrieval failure.
What are the limitations of Godden and Baddeley’s study?
Not an everyday task so lacks ecological validity.
What is state-dependent retrieval failure?
When your mood or physiological state during recall is different to when you were learning so causes retrieval failure.
What study supports retrieval failure?
Goodwin
What was the procedure for Goodwin’s study?
48 male medical students split into 4 groups
Day 1 was a training session
Day 2 was testing
Intoxicated groups all had 100 ml of alcohol in their blood
There was an avoidance task, verbal task, word-association test, picture recognition test.
What were the 4 different groups in Goodwin’s study?
- SS - sober on both days
- AA - intoxicated on both days
- AS - intoxicated on day 1, sober on day 2
- SA - sober on day 1, intoxicated on day 2
What were the findings of Goodwin’s study?
More errors were made on day 2 in the AS and SA condition that AA and SS conditions
SS participants preformed best in all tasks
What was the conclusion for Goodwin’s study?
Supports state-dependent retrieval failure as it shows conditions that participants in the same state on both days did best in tasks.
What are strengths of Goodwin’s study?
High internal validity
Reliable
Informed consent
What are the limitations of Goodwin’s study?
Low ecological study
Protection from harm
Demand characteristics
What are the 3 factors affecting EWT?
Misleading information
Anxiety
Post-event discussion
What studies support the influence of misleading information over EWT?
Loftus & Palmer
What was Loftus & Palmers 1st experiment about?
45 student p’s shows short video clips
Split into 5 groups
All were asked how fast the cars were going when they _____ each other
Each group were given a different verb to fill the blank.
What were the verbs used in Loftus & Palmers 1st study?
Smashed
Collided
Bumped
Hit
Contacted
What was the research method used in Loftus & Palmers study?
Lab
What was the speed estimate given for the verb ‘smashed’.
41 Mph
What was the speed estimate given for the verb contacted?
32 Mph
What was the conclusion to Loftus and Palmers 1st study?
The verb used in questions does affect EWT.
What was was Loftus & Palmers 2nd study?
150 students shown multiple car accidents then asked questions about it
They were then splits into 3 group
One was a control group
One used the verb smashed
One used the verb hit
They were then asked a week later if they saw smashed glass on the clip
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmers 2nd study?
Smashed group gave 10 more yes’ than the control group and 9 more than the ‘hit’ group’
What are the strengths of Loftus & Palmers studies?
High internal validity
Easily replicable
What are the limitations of Loftus & Palmers studies?
Demand characteristics
Low ecological validity
What study does not support the influence of misleading information of EWT?
Yuille & Cutshaw
Describe the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall
They asked 13 eyewitnesses of an armed robbery leading questions in a follow up interview 4/5 months after the crime occurred
Describe the findings of Yuille and Cutshall
They found that even when asked leading questions the participants answers didn’t change
What did Yuille and Cutshall find about participants who had higher levels of anxiety ?
They found that participants with higher anxiety recalled 88% of information whereas participants with lower anxiety recalled 75%
What is meant by substitution ?
When a witness genuinely believes the memory that has been affected by the leading question rather than the previous memory
What is meant by response bias ?
Where the participant doesn’t believe what they are saying they remember but they say it to please the researcher
What study supports the influence of post-event discussion on EWT?
Gabbert
What was Gabbert’s procedure?
2 groups of p’s watched the same crime scene from different perspectives
P’s were then matched and able to discuss what they saw
What were the findings of Gabbert’s study?
71% of witnesses who had discussed the event reported at least one wrong detail acquired during discussion.
What are the weaknesses of Gabbert’s study?
No ecological validity
What are the strengths of Gabbert’s study?
Reliability
What study supports the influence of anxiety on EWT?
Loftus
Johnson and Scott
Yuille and Cutshall
What was the procedure of Johnson and Scott?
P’s were sat in a waiting room
2 conditions
1 - a man covered in blood with a knife
2 - a man covered in grease with a pen
What were the findings of Johnson and Scott?
Low anxiety had 49% accurate recall
High anxiety had 33% accurate recall
What was the procedure of Loftus?
2 conditions
1 - showed a picture of a man handing a cheque to a cashier
2 - showed a picture a man pointing a gun at a cashier
What were the findings of Loftus?
That the high anxiety recall was only 11%
The low anxiety recall was 38%
What are the weaknesses of the weapon focus affect?
Might not be relevant to the situation - Pickle
Mostly field studies, lack of control, post event discussion, informed consent
What was Pickles study?
Showed picture of a Hair dresser holding a gun, scissors or raw chicken.
P’s struggled to correctly recall the most on the chicken condition
Claims that its suprise that affects EWT not weapons
What are the strengths of the weapon focus affect?
There are no demand characteristics in supporting studies
What are the 4 components of a cognitive interview?
Context reinstatement
Report everything
Recall from a different perspective
Recall in a different order
What is context reinstatement?
Recreate the scene of the incident, may trigger more details forgotten about
What is report everything?
Encourages witnesses to report everything about they saw, so no information is discounted
What is recall from a different perspective?
They recall from the victim or perpetrator etc, may allow them to recall more details
What is recall in a different order?
Encourages witnesses to think through the timeline of the crime carefully
What study supports the efficiency of cognitive interviews?
Geiselman
Kohken
What was the procedure of Geiselman?
240 p’s watched a crime
Split into two conditions
One interviewed with CI
One interviewed without CI
What were the findings of Geiselman?
Interviewers that used the CI found 35% more information that interviewers that didn’t use CI
What was Kohen’s study?
Meta analysis on 53 studies
Found and average increase of 34% on interviews that used CI
