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Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

Capacity

A
  • the volume of information/data which can be kept in any memory store at any one time
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2
Q

Coding

A
  • the way information is stored
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3
Q

Duration

A
  • the amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store
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4
Q

Coding in the STM is…

A

acoustic

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5
Q

Coding in the LTM is…

A

semantic

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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)

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7
Q

Capacity of the LTM is…

A

unlimited

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8
Q

Duration of the STM is…

A

18-30 seconds

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9
Q

Duration of the LTM is…

A

unlimited

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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16
Q

Duration of sensory register is…

A

less than a second

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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24
Q

Visuospatial Sketchpad

A
  • deals with visual and spatial information
  • acts as the inner eye
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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
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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
  1. Episodic
  2. Procedural
  3. 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
  1. Report everything
  2. Reinstate the context
  3. Reverse the order
  4. 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

Psychology (11 decks)

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