Memory

Question 1

What is encoding ?

Answer 1

A process in which information is translated into a form where it can be held in the brain

Question 2

What is storage ?

Answer 2

The process in which information is kept in you brain for a period of time possible even a lifetime

Question 3

What is retrieval ?

Answer 3

The process in which information is located and brought back out of your brain so that it can be recalled

Question 4

What are the 4 types of coding and their definitions ?

Answer 4

Visual encoding - memories stored visually
Acoustic encoding - memories stored via sound
Semantic encoding - memories stored via meaning
Other encoding

Question 5

What are the 3 types of retrieval and their definitions?

Answer 5

Recognition - doing multiple choice questions and you have to decide which is the correct answer (seeing and identifying)
Cued recall - trying to remember a piece of information with a clue
Free recall - when you retrieve information without any cues

Question 6

What are the 3 types of LTM ?

Answer 6

Episodic
Semantic
Procedural

Question 7

What is episodic memory ?

Answer 7

Your memory events from your life and experiences you’ve had and theses memories are time stamped

Question 8

What is semantic memory ?

Answer 8

Your encyclopaedia, the meaning of everything you know, it is knowledge shared with other people and these memories are conscious

Question 9

What is procedural memory ?

Answer 9

Your muscle memory, remembering how to do things, you recall these memories without conscious awareness and is non-declarative

Question 10

Strength of the theory that there are 3 types of LTM ?

Answer 10

There is evidence that supports the idea. For example Clive wearing, a patient with amnesia, is able to remember how to play the piano perfectly but cannot remember his musical education. This demonstrates that his procedural memory is intact, whereas his episodic was damaged. This supports the theory as it clearly indicated that there are different types if LTM

Question 11

Weakness of the theory that there are different types of LTM?

Answer 11

It can be difficult to distinguish between episodic and semantic memories. For example, sometimes we remember something we know (semantic) because of an event (episodic), such as knowledge of a band, comes from attending a gig. this implies that there is an overlap between types of long term memory which contradicts what the theory suggests

Question 12

What is coding ?

Answer 12

The formation in which information is stored

Question 13

What is capacity ?

Answer 13

The amount of information that can be held

Question 14

What is duration ?

Answer 14

The length of time information can be held for

Question 15

A01 of multi store mo9del of memory: Atkinson and shiffrin

Answer 15

The multi store model of memory describes how information flows through memory. It is a structural model stating that sensory, short term memory and long term memory are all seprate unitary store, and that information flows through the system in a linear way.
A stimulus from the environment will pass in to the sensory register. The coding for this store is modality specific, the information has a duration of less then a second and the capacity is very high.
If attention is paid information passes from the sensory register to the short term memory.
STM is a limited capacity store. The information is coded acoustically. The capacity is 5-9 items and the duration of information is 18-30 seconds unless it I rehearsed
If maintenance rehearsal occurs it can increase the length of time the information is held in STM. If the information is rehearsed it will pass into the LTM.
Long term memory has a capacity that is potentially unlimited, duration that could be up to a lifetime and it is coded semantically.
To recall information, it has to be transferred from STM to LTM in a process called retrieval.

Question 16

AO3 strength of the multi store model of memory

Answer 16

Research to support the multi store model of memory was conducted my Murdock. Participants listened to and then recalled words lists. Murdock found that there was more accurate recall for words at the beginning and ended of the list, whilst words in the middle were forgotten. This supports the multistore model of memory as it demonstrated the limited capacity of the STM and the importance of rehearsal in transferring memory to the LTM, as the model suggests.

Question 17

AO3 weakness of the multi store model of memory

Answer 17

A limitation of the multi store model of memory is the over emphasis of the role of rehearsal. The model suggests that information can only transfer to LTM via rehearsal; vivid and detailed memories can be transferred to LTM without rehearsal. This suggests that the multi store model is not a full explanation of memory.

Question 18

AO1 Murdock serial position curve study

Answer 18

Aim: Murdock intended to investigate wether memory words was affects by where words were located on a list. Particularly weather words at the beginning and the end would be recalled more accurately than words in the middle of the list.
Method: lab experiment, 103 students listened to 20 word lists, which varied in length from 10-40 offs. After each list the participants had to recall the words they had just heard.
Results: there was higher recall for the the first few words on the list than those in the middle of the list (the primacy effect). The final few words on the list had the highest recall (the recency effect)
Conclusion: the results demonstrated a serial position effect - the position of a word determined the likelihood of recall. Recency effects are the strongest.

Question 19

A03 strength of Murdock serial position curve study

Answer 19

There was high control of extraneous variables. The lab experiment used standardised procedures for example, the speed at which words were presented was controlled by using an electronic metronome. This allowed undock to establish cause and effect between the IV (the position of the word on the list) and the DV (the accuracy of recall) increasing the internal validity of the research

Question 20

AO3 weekends of Murdock serial position curve study

Answer 20

A weakness of Murdock’s serial position curve study was the use of an artificial task. Listening to and recalling lists of words is not an everyday task. Therefore it is difficult to generalise the finding to an everyday life which limits the use of research in understanding memory and how it works

Question 21

AO1 Bartlett’s war of the ghosts

Answer 21

Aim: to investigate how memory is reconstructed when individuals are asked to recall something repeatedly over a period to two weeks and months. The aim was to use a story from a different culture to see how cultural expectations effect memory
Method: Bartlett showed English participants a Native American legend called ‘war of the ghosts’ story the story contained words and ideas that would not appear in a west end story. Participants were asked to recall is shortly after 15 minutes and this version was then showed to other participants. This process was then repeated with further participants (serial production).
Results: it was found that with each retelling of the story participants changed sections of the story and phrases they didn’t understand, to fit their own culture. For example, details about ‘spirits’ were changed until the sporty made sense to them. Information that was less familiar was omitted.
Conclusion: the findings indicate we do not recall details, we remember fragments and then use our knowledge of social situations to reconstructs the memory. The reconstructed version of events is simpler to remember and become our memory of the event

Question 22

AO3 - 2 weaknesses of Bartlett’s war of the ghosts study/ research into reconstructive memory

Answer 22

One criticism of Bartlett’s research into reconstructive memory was the failure to use standardised procedures. For example, participants were not given standardised instructions or told that accurate recall was important, the lack of control could better explain the changes made to the story which reduces the internal validity of the study and suggests recall is =more accurate then Bartlett implied.

A further weakness of Bartlett’s research is that the story is unusual. Most of the time we use our memory to deal with everyday experiences. In these cases, out memory is not affected by cultural expectations and our recall is fairly accurate. As such the task is not reflective of how we use memory everyday and therefore the findings must me generalised with caution.

Question 23

AO1- theory of reconstructive memory (Bartlett)

Answer 23

The theory suggests that memory is an active rather than a passive process. People don’t just record everything that happens. The reconstructive theory suggests that people store fragments of information and build these fragments into a meaningful whole when they need to recall something. This means that memories may not be an accurate representation of what has happened because elements may be missing. The way we store the small pieces is related to our social and cultural expectations. These expectations influence the way we then later recombine and recall the information

Question 24

AO3 - strength of the theory of reconstructive memory

Answer 24

A strength is that the theory reflects how we use memory in our everyday lives. The research doesn’t use word lists or nonsense syllables (which aren’t like everyday memory) but instead uses a story. This makes the theory more relevant to real-life memory processes.

Question 25

AO3 - weakness of the theory of reconstructive memory

Answer 25

a weakness is that it is wrong to suggest that all memories are inaccurate or affected by social expectations. Studies have shown that memory can be very accurate. For example, in situations that are personally important or distinctive, we do remember considerable and accurate detail. In Bartlett’s study, participants often recalled ‘Something black came out of his mouth’ because it was quite a distinctive phrase. This shows that people do not always actively reconstruct memories and shows that some memories are accurate.

Question 26

What are the two types of interference and their definitions ?

Answer 26

Retroactive interference: when new recent information disrupts the recall of past information. For example, trying to recall your old phone number but you can only remember your new one

Proactive interference: when past information disrupts the recall of new recent information. For example trying to remember your new phone number but you can only remember you old one

Question 27

AO1: the effect on interference on the accuracy of memory

Answer 27

Interference occurs when two memories compete with each other. One memory prevents us accessing the other memory. A study was conducted by McGeoch and McDonald where participants learned a list of 10 words (list 1) and then studied another list (list 2). It was found that when participants were asked to recall the initial list of words (list 1), their memory was affected by list 2. The effect was strongest when the words in list 2 had similar meaning to the words in list 1. This shows that interference from a second set of information reduces the accuracy of memory. Interference is strongest when the two sets of information are similar. Research that supports interference theory has a high level of control, so it tests memory in an unbiased way. For example, McGeoch and McDonald used techniques such as counterbalancing to control order effects which would have acted as an extraneous variable and reduced the validity of the results. This gives the theory greater validity.

Question 28

AO3 - weakness of the theory of the effect of interference on the accuracy of memory

Answer 28

Another weakness with interference is that it may not be an explanation of forgetting. It may be that information is not forgotten but just cannot be accessed as an appropriate cue has not been given. Therefore, interference only appears to cause inaccurate memories.

Question 29

What is context ?

Answer 29

The situation in which something happens. It can act as a cue to recall information and therefor can increase the accuracy of memory.

Question 30

How can context affect the recall of memory ?

Answer 30

Recall is more accurate when information is encoded in the Same context. Recall is less accurate when information is encoded in one context and remove in another one

Question 31

AO1- how context affects the accuracy of memory

Answer 31

Godden and Baddeley investigated whether context affects recall. Divers had to listen to a list of words and were asked to recall them in the same or different settings: There were four groups. Two had the same context and learned on the beach or underwater and then recalled words in the same context. Two groups learned and recalled in different contexts, they learned words on the beach and recalled them underwater or vice versa.
Recall was highest when context was kept the same. When a person was in the same environment for learning and recall, their memories were more accurate. Context of learning acts as a trigger, and so improves the accuracy of memory.

Question 32

AO3 - 2 weaknesses of context affected the accuracy of memory

Answer 32

One weakness is that word lists were used to test memory, which is not a ‘natural’ way to investigate recall. This is a field experiment, so the environment is ‘natural’ but the task isn’t ‘natural’. This shows that the results can’t be applied to all situations.

Another weakness is that the study was unrealistic as participants recalled the words almost immediately. This does not relate to scenarios like exams where the gap between learning and recall is longer. Therefore, research only tells us about short-term recall.

Question 33

What are false memories ?

Answer 33

A memory for something that did not happened but feels as thought it is a true memory

Question 34

AO1- false memories affecting The accuracy of memory

Answer 34

Loftus and Pickrell gave participants four stories about childhood events of which three were true and one false (getting lost in a shopping mall was the false one). The story was created with the help of a relative so that it sounded realistic. Participants read each story and later they were interviewed about the stories and were asked to recall as much as they could. It was found that 68% of the true episodes were remembered. Six out of 24 (25%) of participants recalled the false story fully or partially. The rest had no memory of it. This shows imagining an event can implant a false memory in a person, reducing the accuracy of memory.

Question 35

AO3 - strength of theory of false memories affecting accuracy of memory

Answer 35

A strength is that this research has implications for eyewitness testimony (EWT). The results suggest that police questioning could accidentally implant false memories. Therefore, this research has been beneficial in explaining why EWT might be unreliable.

Question 36

AO3 - weakness of theory of false memories affecting accuracy of memory

Answer 36

weakness is that the research raises ethical concerns. Even though participants were debriefed, they may be left with implanted false memories which lingered after the study was finished. Therefore, the study may have caused psychological harm, an ethical issue.