memory

Question 1

define encoding

Answer 1

converting infromation into a format that can be stored

Question 2

define storage

Answer 2

holding the information in memery until needed

Question 3

define retrieval

Answer 3

finding and accessing memory when it is needed

Question 4

what does cognitive psychology suggest about the brain

Answer 4

it works like a computer

Question 5

evaluate the computer analogy

Answer 5

+ can help determine an ordered process of thought simply

• not everyone is capable of these steps
• computers are more reliable at retrieving things and storing them
• machine reductionist

Question 6

what are the three types of encoding

Answer 6

imagery- pictures and images ( photographic memory)

procedural- information about how to do things

declaritive- memories we can desribe

Question 7

what does modality specific mean

Answer 7

memory is coded in the matter it exists

e.g. hearing –> acoustically

Question 8

what was the first memory model and who came up with it and year

Answer 8

The Multi-store model
Atkinson and Shiffrin ( 1968)

Question 9

who researched into duration of sensory memory

Answer 9

Sperling (1960)

used a tachiscope which flashed symbols to ppts for 1/20th of a second

When shown a grid of 12 symbols ppts could only recall 3-4 although they reported seeing more

sperling concludedt that the duration of sensory memory was 250 milliseconds

Question 10

what does sensory memory do

Answer 10

acts as a filter and any infomration that is not attended to is faded away through trace decay

Question 11

who investigated the duration of STM

Answer 11

peterson and peterson

they used the brown peterson effect using trigrams. participants were asked to remember a single trigram but had to count backwards in 3s to prevent rehearsal

Recall was good after 3 seconds but quickly dropped. average duration was between 18-30 seconds without maintanance rehearsal.

Question 12

who investigated the capacity of STM and how

Answer 12

Miller (1956)

he used the digit span technique and asked participants to repeat the digits immediately after them. Thier score was calculated by the number of digits they could correctly recall.

He found that most ppts could only recall 5-9 items hence millers magic 7

he also found that capcaticty could be increased by chunking

Question 13

who investigated duration of LTM and how

Answer 13

Bahrick et al

asked 392 ppts to put names to faces of their old high school yearbook and they found a 70% accuracy rate after 48 years

Question 14

what is the evidence to support the multistore memory model

Answer 14

Glanzer and Cunitz “serial position effect” - gave ppts a lost of words to learn and allowed them to recall in any order and they found that the first few words and the last few words on the list are the most recalled. This is because teh first few words are rehearsed adn in the LTM and the last few words and still in the STM.

Shallice and Warrington- reported the case of KF who had been in a motorcycle accident. He had servere damage to his STM whist his LTM remained intact indicating 2 seperate stores

Baddeley used brain scannin and found different patterns in brain activity when ppts were asked to recall items from STM and LTM

Question 15

evaluate the multi store model

Answer 15

+ very influenctial and caused more research to be done

+ provides a good understanding of the strcuture and processes of memory

• the simple “rehearsal” is problematic as there are different types and we dont know the amount of rehearsal is needed
• there are different types of LTM that arent showed on the model
• temporal validity
• it is a linear model but retrieval is backwards

Question 16

who proposed the Working Memory Model

Answer 16

Baddeley and Hitch

Question 17

what is the role of the central executive

Answer 17

it is a filter that monitors the operation of the other two components of the store

Question 18

what does the episodic buffer do

Answer 18

acts as a backup store which communicates with LTM and components of working memory

Question 19

what does the phonological loop consist of and what do they do

Answer 19

it consists of two subsystems

1. Articulatory control system: inner voice where a verbal rehearsal system
2. Phonological Store: inner ear where memory lasta 1.5-2 seconds if not refreshed by the articulatory control system.

Question 20

what is the role of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 20

holds both the visual and spacial information which can come from the sensory memory or the LTM

Question 21

evaluate the working memory model

Answer 21

+ improvement of the MSM
+ shows different types of STM
+ evidence from dual task research
+ evidence from case studies

_no reference to different LTM
_central executive role is unclear
_most reseach for it comes from brain damaged patients and therefore lacks generalisability

Question 22

what is trace decay

Answer 22

automatic dissapearance of the memort trace and this occurs very rapidly in the sensory memory

Question 23

what is displacement decay

Answer 23

when new information pushes the old information out of the memory

Question 24

what is interference and what are the 2 types

Answer 24

when similar memories interfere with each other

proactive- older memories interfering with new

retroactive- newer memories interfering with older ones

Question 25

who did research into interference and what did they do

Answer 25

Loess (1968)
- ppts were presented with a list of three words from a particluar category
- then they had to count backwards for 25 seconds to prevent rehearsal and then recall the three words
- this was then repeated 6 times
- the first list was well recalled the second less and so one as proactive interference had occured
- loess then changed the category and recall immediately increased as there was no interference

Question 26

evaluate research into interference

Answer 26

• individual differences
• demand characteristics
• lacks ecolological validity
• lacks temporal validity

+ controls the variables

Question 27

what is cue dependent retrieval and what is the research into it

Answer 27

retrival that only occurs when a cue is present to help

Tulving & Pearlstone
- one group were given words to memorise and recall the other group were given the categories as well
-the group given categories recalled more as the categories acted as retrieval cues

Question 28

what is context dependent retrieval

Answer 28

normally to do with a location or the correct context
for example when you cant recognise your dentist straight away because they are in nomal clothes

Question 29

what is the research into context-dependent retrieval

Answer 29

Godden and Baddeley

• got 4 groups of divers to memorise word lists
• the groups were:
  1. learn and recall on land
  2. learn and recall underwater
  3. learn on land and recall underwater
  4. learn and recall underwater

ppts had better recall when the recalled where they learnt the list

Question 30

what is state dependent retrieval

Answer 30

Refers to the psychological state. If you are in the same psychological state in which you learnt something you are more likely to remember it.

Question 31

what is the research into state dependent retrieval

Answer 31

Goodwin et al

University students to hide money and alcohol when they were drunk. When sober they couldnt find the stuff but once they were drunk again they could

Question 32

who researched the accuracy of eye witness testimony and how

Answer 32

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

• ppts were 45 students from the university
• they were each shown 7 filmclips of traffic accidents from driving education
• teh students were asked to write an account of the accident and asked to answer some specific questions about the speed of the car with a varying verb
• how quickly was the car going when it “smashed”, “collided” , “bumped” and “contacted”

findings:
- the phrasing of the question brougth about a change in speed estimate

Question 33

evaluate research into eye witness testimony

Answer 33

+ controlled variables
- demand characteristics
- ecological validity
+ reliable and scientific
+ practical applications of police interviews improving
- not generalisable as there was only 9 in each group with the verb

Question 34

who did research into weapon focus and how

Answer 34

Loftus et al ( 1987)
sample- 36 students from the university aged 18-31 recruieted by advertisments and paid $3.50 adn the others were psychology student particpating for extra credits

Method- shown 18 slides of a series of events in a restaurant . For both groups the slides were exactly the same except for one. For the control group the second person was handing the casheir a check and for the experimental group it was a gun.
The dependent variable was how well the person was recognized

Results- 38.9% of the control group identified correctly but only 11.1% of the experimental group did.
eye fixation data showed the gun group spent on average 1.28 seconds longer looking at the gun then the cheque
the ppts spent linger at the gun and therfore had more difficultly picking the suspect from the line up due to the Tunnel effect

Question 35

what is the tunnel effect

Answer 35

anxiety and weaponse focus narrow attention

Question 36

evaluate the weapon focus experiment

Answer 36

• lacks ecological validty
  + standardised and therefore reliable
  + practical apps like helpign us be aware of faulty testimonies
• not generalisabke as the sample is only American, men aged 18-31

Question 37

what is the contracting research to weapon focus

Answer 37

Yuille and Cutshall

sample- 13 wintnesses to a real crime
method- interviewed 4-5 months after the orignal interviews and asked to recall what happened. They were also asked to rate thir level of stress on a 7 point scale and if they had suffered any emotional issues

findings- the levels of accuracy was high and the more stressed the group were the more accurate 85% = whereas teh less stressful group were 75%

Question 38

evaluate Yuille and Cutshalls research

Answer 38

+ ecological validity
- small sample
- post event discussion
-Loftus research opposes
- could be considered unethical to ask them to relive it

Question 39

what is the Yerkes Dodson Law

Answer 39

the idea that stress improves our performance to a point and then our performances decreases

Question 40

what are the steps on the cognitive interview techinique

Answer 40

1. Report everything- encourages witnesses to report all detail that they can remember regardless of how trivial
2. Context reinstatement- recreate the scene of the incident in the mind of the witness modelling the senses and emotions
3. witnesses to recall events in different orders
4. recall from a different perspective- witnesses to view the scene as othes present may have seen it

Question 41

explain fisher an gieselmans lab test for the CIT

Answer 41

Procedure- 240 ppts watched a video of a store robbery. 120 were interviewed using standard policing techniwue and the other 120 using CIT

results- ppts interviewed by the CIT recalled 35% more facts

Question 42

explain fisher an gieselmans field test for the CIT

Answer 42

procedure- real witnesses and 16 detectives from a robbery. seven of the stectives were trained in the CIT. the interviews were recorded and analysed by a team at university salifornia who were blind to the conditions.

Findings- 63% more informtaion was obtained by the detectives trained in CI

Question 43

what are some supporting evidence for the CIT

Answer 43

fisher and gieselman lab and field experiment

Kohnken et al- meta analysis of 53 other studies and found that teh CI could elicit on avergae 34% more detial that the standard interview

Question 44

evaluate fisher and Giselmans field research into CIT

Answer 44

+ ecological validity
- small sample
- not reliable
- no control of variables

Question 45

Evaluate the CIT

Answer 45

• time consuming
  + supporting research
• young children arent suited to it
• Milne and Bull say only report everything and context reinstatement needs to be used