Memory Flashcards
1
Q
Capacity
A
- the volume of information/data which can be kept in any memory store at any one time
2
Q
Coding
A
- the way information is stored
3
Q
Duration
A
- the amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store
4
Q
Coding in the STM is…
A
acoustic
5
Q
Coding in the LTM is…
A
semantic
6
Q
Capacity of the STM is…
A
7+/-2 items
- based on Miller’s idea that things come in groups of 7 (eg. days of the week)
7
Q
Capacity of the LTM is…
A
unlimited
8
Q
Duration of the STM is…
A
18-30 seconds
9
Q
Duration of the LTM is…
A
unlimited
10
Q
Jacobs (1887) - Digit Span test
A
- 443 female students had to repeat back a string of numbers of letters in the same order, and the number of digits was gradually increased until the ppt could no longer recall the sequence
- the students had an average span of 7.3 letters and 9.3 digits
11
Q
AO3 Capacity - Jacobs sample issues
A
- all female ppts from the same school
- cannot be generalised to males, let alone people from different schools
- low population validity
12
Q
Peterson and Peterson - Duration of STM
A
- 24 psychology students had to recall trigrams, eg. BHS
- they had to recall the trigram after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds
- after hearing the trigram, the ppts had to count backwards in intervals to prevent rehearsal
- the longer each student had to count backwards, the less well they could recall the trigram
- after 18 seconds, less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly
13
Q
AO3 Duration - Peterson and Peterson
A
- task was artificial and lacked mundane realism
- the trigrams had no relevance to the ppts, and didn’t reflect real everyday learning experiences
- limited generalisability of the findings
14
Q
Baddeley (1966) - Encoding
A
- aimed to investigate whether LTM encodes acoustically or semantically
- 72 male and female university students
- gave ppts a word list that either sound similar or mean similar things
- 4 conditions where words were acoustically similar or dissimilar and
- words had 1 syllable as a control
- immediate recall was worst with acoustically similar words –> STM is acoustically coded
- recall after 20 mins was worst with semantically similar words –> LTM is semantically coded
15
Q
Multi-story model of memory
A
- proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin
- memory is made up of three components: sensory register, STM and LTM
- memories are formed sequently and information passes from one component to the next, in a linear fashion (like a computer)
16
Q
Duration of sensory register is…
A
less than a second
17
Q
AO3 MSM - Clive Wearing
A
- contracted a virus that caused severe amnesia
- could only remember information for 20-30 seconds but could recall information from his past, eg. his wife’s name
- was unable to transfer information from his STM to his LTM, but he was able to retrieve some information successfully
- supports the idea that memories are formed by passing information from one store to the next, in a linear fashion, and that damage to any part of the MSM can cause memory impairment
18
Q
AO3 MSM - KF
A
- KF was injured in a motorcycle accident
- could recall stored information from his LTM however he had issues with his STM
- able to remember visual images, including faces, but was unable to remember sounds
- suggests that there are at least two components within STM, one component for visual information and one for acoustic information
- MSM may be too simplified
19
Q
AO3 MSM - Research support
A
- lots of research to support theories on the MSM
- however, the experiments lack ecological validity
- however, the artificial nature of lab experiments is necessary to ensure variables are controlled
20
Q
AO3 MSM - Brain scans
A
- brain scans have found that there is a difference between STM and LTM
- the prefrontal cortex is active during STM but not LTM tasks
- the hippocampus is active when LTM is engaged.
- supports the separate stores of the MSM
21
Q
Baddeley and Hitch (1976) - WMM dual tasks
A
- ppts were asked to perform two tasks at the same time: a digit span task which required them to repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false to various questions
- as the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, ppts could still easily answer the verbal reasoning questions
- the two tasks made use of different parts of the WMM
22
Q
Working Memory Model
A
- proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974 and suggested that the STM has multiple components (update to the overly-simplistic MSM)
- made up of the central executive, visuospatial-sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer
23
Q
Central executive
A
- although little is known about how it works, the CE is the most important part of the WMM
- it controls attentional processes and directs information to other stores of the WMM
24
Q
Visuospatial Sketchpad
A
- deals with visual and spatial information
- acts as the inner eye
25
Q
Phonological Loop
A
- deals with spoken and written material
- made up of the phonological store and articulatory control process
- the ACP acts as an inner voice and rehearses info from the phonological store
- the phonological store acts as an inner ear
26
Q
Episodic buffer
A
- was added in 2000
- integrates information from other components and maintains a sense of time
27
Q
AO3 WMM - KF
A
- KF was injured in a motorcycle accident
- could recall stored information from his LTM however he had issues with his STM
- able to remember visual images, including faces, but was unable to remember sounds
- supports the idea that the WMM has separate components for visual and verbal information
28
Q
AO3 WMM - Lieberman, Blind people
A
- the visuospatial sketchpad implies that all spatial information was first visual
- however, Lieberman points out that blind people have excellent spatial awareness, although they have never had any visual information
- he argues that the VSS should be separated into two different components: one for visual information and one for spatial
29
Q
AO3 WMM - Lack of clarity over CE
A
- the central executive doesn’t really explain anything
- Baddeley said the central executive is the most important but least understood component of working memory
- the central executive needs to be clearly specified, some psychologists claim that it may consist of separate components.
- the WMM hasn’t been fully explained
30
Q
AO3 Case studies (KF and Clive Wearing)
A
- process of brain injury is traumatic, which may in itself change behaviour
- such individuals may have other difficulties such as difficulties paying attention and therefore underperform on certain tasks.
- case studies are of individuals and cannot be generalised to the population (idiographic rather nomothetic)
31
Q
What are the three types of long-term memory?
A
- Episodic
- Procedural
- Semantic
32
Q
Episodic
A
- involves remembering specific events, experiences, and personal details
- recalled consciously
33
Q
Procedural
A
- involves remembering how to perform certain actions, skills, and tasks
- often described as muscle memory
- recalled unconsciously
34
Q
Semantic
A
- involves remembering general knowledge, concepts, and facts that are not tied to a specific
personal experience - recalled consciously
35
Q
AO3 Types of long term memory - Brain scans
A
- brain scans have indicated that the 3 types of memory are found in different part of the brain and are separate
- episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus
- semantic memory relies on the temporal lobe
- procedural memory is associated with the cerebellum
36
Q
Interference
A
- when recall of one memory blocks the recall of another
- more likely to happen if the information is similar
37
Q
Proactive interference
A
- when old information affects the recall of new information
- for example, getting your new phone number getting confused with your old one
38
Q
Retroactive interference
A
- when new information affects the recall of old information
- not being able to remember the number plate of your first car, only the current plate
39
Q
AO3 Interference - Street names
A
- 211 participants, aged 11-79 years and were given a map of the neighborhood where they had gone to school with all street names replaced with numbers and asked to remember as many of them as possible
- they found that the more times the ppts had moved house, the less street names they could recall
- supports retroactive interference
- all ppts. were from the same neighbourhood so low population validity
- some of the ppts were old (up to 79 years) so their memory could be impaired due to age (interference explanation doesn’t account for individual differences)
40
Q
AO3 Interference - Rugby players
A
- Baddeley and Hitch wanted to see if interference was a better explanation for forgetting than the passage of time
- asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played in that season so far every week
- some players had missed games so had less names to recall
- found that recall didn’t depend on how long ago the games took place but the number of games they had played
- supports the interference explanation
- high ecological validity.
41
Q
Retrieval failure
A
- forgetting happens when the necessary cues to access memory aren’t present
- the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
42
Q
Encoding specificity principle
A
- if a cue is present at encoding, it has to be present at retrieval too
43
Q
Context dependent cues
A
- context-dependent forgetting can occur when the environment during recall is different from the environment you were in when you were learning
- eg. revising at home and not being able to recall in the exam hall
44
Q
State-dependent cues
A
- state-dependent forgetting occurs when your mood or physiological state during recall is different from the mood you were in when you were learning
- eg. learning while sober and not being able to recall when drunk
45
Q
AO3 Retrieval failure - Godden and Baddeley’s divers
A
- 4 conditions
- divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land and then had to recall these words either underwater or on land
- recall was better when done in the same context as the information was learnt
- supports context-dependent cues
- low ecological validity
46
Q
AO3 Retrieval cues - Tulving and Pearlstone
A
- asked ppts to learn lists of words belonging to different categories, for example names of animals, clothing and sports
- ppts were then asked to recall the words
- when given the category names, they recalled substantially more words than those who were not
- supports the role of cues in recall
47
Q
AO3 State-dependent cues - Goodwin et Al
A
- investigated the effect of alcohol on state-dependent retrieval
- found that when people encoded information when drunk, they were more likely to recall it in the same state
- eg. when they hid money and alcohol when drunk, they were unlikely to find them when sober
- when they were drunk again, they often discovered the hiding place
- variations found the same results with participants given weed
48
Q
AO3 Interference - Real life application in advertising
A
- Danaher found that when people are exposed to rival brand’s adverts in a short space of time they confuse the messages from each brands
- this can be bad for brands as advertising is very expensive and it is a waste just for their message to get confused with a rival brand
- the interference theory has been put in place in real life by running ads on specific days and ensuring they are sufficiently spaced from rivals brands
49
Q
Eyewitness testimony
A
- the information recalled about a crime by an eyewitness
- can be affected by misleading information and anxiety
50
Q
Post-event discussion
A
- discussions that take place between witnesses after the crime has taken place
- often subject to the influence of media and TV reports on the crime, as well as participants’ pre-conceived expectations of how they would imagine the crime
51
Q
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
A
- participants watched a film clip of a car crash and then gave speed estimates of the cars based on the leading question of “About how fast were the cars going when they x into each other?”, with each group being exposed to a different critical verb.
- those exposed to verb “smashed” gave a speed estimate 8.7 mph greater than those who’d heard “contacted”
- questionnable ecological validity
- low population validity (all students) and not experienced drivers so might not have completed the task as well as someone older
52
Q
Post-event discussion - Fiona Gabbert
A
- ppts watched a video of a girl stealing money
- participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video; however, they had in fact seen different perspectives
- 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had not seen
- 60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact that they had not seen her commit a crime
- high population as used both students and older ppts
53
Q
AO3 Misleading information - Real life application (Ronald Cotton)
A
- Cotton was wrongfully convicted of rape after Jennifer Thompson identified him in a line up
- she was sure in her decision, especially after investigators confirmed her response, encouraging her
- DNA testing found that he was not actually guilty after he spent 11 years in prison
- understanding factors affecting eyewitness testimony has real life application in the law and can prevent wrongful convictions
54
Q
AO3 Misleading information - Real life application (Steven Avery)
A
- similar to Ronald Cotton, he was wrongfully convicted of rape based only on eyewitness testimony
- led to the police department that convicted him to change their procedure when it came to eyewitness testimony
55
Q
How does anxiety affect eyewitness testimony?
A
- relationship between accuracy of eyewitness testimony and anxiety is curvilinear (an inverted U relationship)
- lower levels of anxiety produced lower levels of recall accuracy
- recall accuracy increases with anxiety up to an optimal point
- a drastic decline in accuracy is seen when an eyewitness experiences more anxiety than the optimal point
56
Q
Effects on anxiety on EWT - Johnson and Scott
A
- invited ppts to a lab where they were told to wait in the reception area
- in the ‘no-weapon’ condition, participants overheard a conversation about equipment failure
- someone then walked out holding a greasy pen
- in the ‘weapon’ condition, participants overheard a heated exchange and the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs
- someone then ran into the reception with a bloody tool
- ppts then had to identify the person that ran out
- the no-weapon condition correctly identified the target 49% of the time, whereas in the weapon condition accuracy dropped to 33%
- deceived ppts, could have caused distress
- low ecological validity as in a lab/ high internal validity
57
Q
Weapon focus effect
A
the decreased ability to give an accurate description of the perpetrator of a crime by an eyewitness because of attention to a weapon present during that crime
58
Q
Effects on anxiety on EWT - Yuille and Cutshall
A
- investigated the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting, in which one person was killed and another person seriously wounded
- 13 witnesses agreed to take part in their follow-up research interview, 4-5 months later
- found that the 13 witnesses who took part in the follow-up interview were accurate in their eyewitness accounts 5 month later and little change found in their testimonies
- the anxiety experienced at the time of the event had little or no effect on their subsequent memory for the event
- refutes the weapon focus effect and shows that in real life cases of extreme anxiety, the accuracy of EWT is not affected
- field study –> high ecological validity
- could have been traumatic for them to relive the events
59
Q
Support for Yuille and Cutshall (anxiety increases accuracy)
A
- Christianson et al (1993)
- questioned 110 witnesses to 22 real bank robberies and found that those who had been threatened during the raids had a more accurate recall of events
- those who were in higher anxiety condition, were able to have more accurate EWT
- also refutes weapon focus effect
60
Q
Cognitive interview
A
- Report everything
- Reinstate the context
- Reverse the order
- Change the perspective
61
Q
AO3 Cognitive interview - Time consuming and expensive
A
- very expensive and time consuming to adequately train large numbers of police offers
- may not be worth the trouble, especially with the increase of false positive info created
62
Q
AO3 Cognitive interview - Supporting research
A
- meta-analysis of 53 studies found, on average, an increase of 34% in amount of correct information generated in the Cl compared w standard interviewing techniques (Köhnken et al.,1999)
63
Q
AO3 Cognitive interview - False positive
A
- although the CI leads to an increase in correct information, there is also an increase of 61% in incorrect information
- quantity may increase but quality suffers
- all info yielded from the CI needs to be treated with caution
64
Q
AO3 Cognitive interview - Older eyewitnesses
A
- the CI can be an especially useful technique when interviewing older people that are typically stereotyped as having a declining memory
- a study found that CI increases info yield in both younger and older eyewitnesses, but especially in older ones
