Memory Flashcards
what’s short term memory
limited capacity memory store
what’s long term memory
permanent memory store
what’s duration
the length of time the information can be held in memory
duration of STM
approximately 18 seconds
who looking into duration of STM?
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Peterson and Peterson sample
24 students
Peterson and Peterson procedure
student took part in eight trials, one trial group the participants were given consonant syllable and a 3 digit number. asked to count backwards from the 3 digit number, to prevent the mental rehearsal. The participants would have to count backwards for different durations (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18).
Peterson and Peterson findings
90% recalled the trigram after the 3 seconds and only 2% remembered after 18 seconds.
capacity of STM
7+/- 2 items
Who looked into capacity of STM?
Joseph Jacobs (1887)
Jacobs procedure
ask participants to remember 4 digits and if successful move on to 5. This would continue to increase until the participant could no longer hold anymore.
Jacobs findings
mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items and the mean for letters was 7.3
coding of STM
acoustically
duration of LTM
up to a lifetime
Who looked into duration of LTM?
Henry Bahrick et al (1975)
Bahrick et al sample
392 participants from Ohio America.
Bahrick et al procedure
Recall was tested in various ways: photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos and free recall in which participants recalled all the names of their graduating class.
Bahrick et al findings
that within 15 years of graduation there was 90% accuracy in photo recognition. After 48 years recall was at 70% for photo recognition
capacity of LTM
unlimited
Who looked into capacity of LTM?
George Miller (1956)
Miller procedure
made observations by everyday practice
Miller findings
someone could remember 7+/-2 things. Miller also noticed that individual could chunk together items (chunking)
coding of LTM
semantically
what’s capacity
the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
Who looked into coding?
Alan Baddeley
Baddeley procedure
illustrated how coding worked by giving a different list of words to four groups of participants to remember:
What where the four groups of Baddeley’s study?
- Group 1 Words that acoustically sound the same
- Group 2 Words that sound acoustically similar
- Group 3 Words that semantically mean the same
- Group 4 Words that semantically mean different
Baddeley findings
found that participants found it harder to code the acoustically similar words in the STM. If the participants were asked to recall the words after 20 mins (LTM) they did worse on semantically similar.
how could we support STM capacity
Millers theory of chunking
where’s Clive Wearing from
UK
how did Clive Wearing get amnesia
developed HSVE
What’s retrograde amnesia?
the inability to recall memories from the past which is linked to damage from the frontal lobe
What’s anterograde amnesia?
the inability to form any new memories which is linked to damage in the hippocampus
why is anterograde amnesia more rarer than retrograde amnesia
linked to damage in the hippocampus which is in the centre of the brain so harder to damage
What’s a coding?
the format in which information is stored in various memory stores
what are the 3 ways can we code information
visual, auditory and semantic
whats visual coding
by the us of images or what we see
whats auditory coding
by the use of auditory information (sound) and what we hear
whats semantic coding
by the meaning of the information
who developed the multistore model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
whats attention
the ability to focus selectively on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and shifting it at will
whats rehearsal
cognitive process in which information is repeated over and over as a possible way of learning and remembering it
What’s retrieval?
the process of recovering or locating information stored in memory
What’s long term memory?
permanent memory store
What’s the sensory register?
contains a store for each of the 5 senses
what are the types of memory in sensory
iconic memory
echoic memory
What’s iconic memory?
visual information
what’s echoic information
auditory
whats the working memory model
a representation of the STM that suggests that its a a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units co-ordinated by the central decision making system
who developed the working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
whats the central executive
the component of memory that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory that holds a supervisory role, monitoring incoming data and allocates it to different slave systems in STM
what’s the visuo-spacial sketchpad
the component of the working memory model that processes visual and spacial info in a mental space often referred to as the inner eye
Who subdivided the VSS?
Logie (1995)
Visual cache
visual data
Inner scribe
arrangement of objects in the visual field
episodic buffer
The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.
phonological loop
the component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. Includes both written and spoken material. Further divided into the phonological store and articulatory process.
phonological store
stores words heard
Articulatory process
What we can see and allows maintenance rehearsal
what are the parts of the working memory model
central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop, visuo-spacial sketchpad, LTM
what’s the primary effect
remembering words from the start of the list as first words are rehearsed most and therefore go into the LTM
what’s the recency effect
remembering words from the end of the list as last words are still being held in STM
what are the 3 types of long term memory
semantic, procedural, episodic
What’s semantic memory?
memory of facts, names or general knowledge
What’s procedural memory?
responsible for motor skills
What’s episodic memory?
memories of events, places and people
What’s interference?
forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten
what does interference explain
forgetting in our LTM
what are the two types of interference
retroactive and proactive interference
what’s retroactive interference
new memory interferes with old memory
What’s proactive interference?
old memory interferes with new memory
Who studied retroactive interference?
Mcgeoch and McDonald (1931)
Where was Mcgeoch and McDonalds study conducted?
A lab
McGeoch and McDonald procedure
participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy.
After learning 100% a new list of words would be learnt. Six groups of participants had to learn different types of words
what are the six groups of McGeoch and McDonalds study?
- Synonyms – same meaning as originals
- Antonyms – Words with opposite meaning to original
- Words unrelated to the originals
- Nonsense syllables
- Three digit numbers
- No new list
McGeoch and McDonald findings
when participants recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list. Similar material (synonyms) had worst recall, therefore showing that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
What’s retrieval failure?
a form of forgetting that occurs when we dont have the necessary cues to access memory
What are cues?
a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory and they may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning
what are the two types of meaningful cues that Tulving outlined
context dependent forgetting and state dependent forgetting
What’s context dependent forgetting?
recall depending on an external cue
Who studied context-dependent forgetting?
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
Godden and Baddeley procedure
carried out a study of seep sea divers working underwater.
Godden and Baddeley had the divers learn a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either under water or on land. This therefore created 4 conditions
Godden and Baddeley’s conditions
- Learn on land and recall on land
- Learn on land and recall underwater
- Learn underwater and recall on land
- Learn underwater and recall underwater
Godden and Baddeley findings
found that recall was 40% lower in no matching conditions. The external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure.
How is Godden and Baddeley’s research flawed?
done in lab and therefore used artificial material the research was not representative of real
What’s state dependent forgetting?
recall depends on internal cues
Who studied state-dependent forgetting?
Carter and Cassaday (1998)
carter and cassady procedure
gave anti histamine drugs (treating hayfever) to their participants. The anti-histamines had a mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy.
This created a physiological state different from the “normal” state of being awake and alert. 4 conditions of learning
Carter and Cassady conditions
- Learn on drug – recall when on drug
- Learn on drug – recall when not on drugs
- Learn when not on drugs – recall when not on drugs
- Learn not on drugs – recall when on drugs
Carter and Cassady findings
where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse. So when the cues are absent then there is more forgetting.
what’s eye witness testimony
the ability of people to accurately remember the details of events which they observed
what are the factors effecting eye witness testimony
misleading information and anxiety
What’s misleading information?
any incorrect information given to an eye witness
what are the two types of misleading information
Leading questions and post event discussion
What are leading questions?
A question which because of the way it has been phrased suggests a certain answer.
Who looked into leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Loftus and Palmer Producer
arranged for participants who were students to watch several film clips of car accidents and then gave them questions about the accident.
what was the critical question participants were asked?
participants were asked was to describe how fast the car was travelling. “About how fast were the cars going when they ………. Each other?”
What verbs were used in the study?
hit”, “smashed”, “contacted”, “collided”, “bumped”
Loftus and Palmer findings
found that the mean estimate speed was calculated for each participant group. The average for “contacted” was 31.8mph and 40.5mph for smashed.
Post-event discussion
When co-witnesses to a crime discuss the crime with one another, their eyewitness testimonies may become contaminated and affect the recall accuracy of the event. This is because they combine information from other witnesses with their own memories
Who studied Post-event discussion?
Gabbert et al (2003)
Gabbert et al procedure
studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view.
. Therefore each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not.
. Participants then discussed what they had seen. The view was of a girl stealing.
Gabbert et al findings
They found 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see and 60% said the girl was guilty when she wasn’t.
In a control group there was 0% inaccuracy.
whats anxiety as a factor effecting eye witness testimony
a state of emotional and physical arousal
what does anxiety effect in eye witness testimonies
physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues
Who studies the negative affects of anxiety on eye witness testimony?
Johnson and Scott (1976)
Johnson and Scott procedure
They had participants believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participant’s heard an argument in the next room.
low anxiety condition
a man then walked through the waiting room, carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
High anxiety condition
the sound of breaking glass could be heard. A man walked out of the room, holding a paper knife that was covered in blood.
Johnson and Scott findings
Participants latter had to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos; 49% of the participants who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. In the corresponding study on 33% of the people seeing the knife picked out the individual correctly.
Who studies the positive affects of anxiety on eye witness testimony?
Yulle and Cutshall (1986)
Yulle and Cutshall Sample
There were 21 witnesses – 13 agreed to take part in the study.
Yulle and Cutshall procedure
conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead.
The interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and then were compared with the original police interviews
Yulle and Cutshall findings
The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after 5 months
what’s cognitive interview
a method of interviewing eye witnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories
who developed cognitive interview
Fisher and Geiseiman (1992)
techniques in the cognitive interview
technique 1 = report everything
technique 2 = reinstate the context
technique 3 = reverse the order
technique 4 = change perspective
what’s report everything in cognitive interview
witnesses need to include every single detail of event, despite irrelevance or inconfidence as trivial details may be important or could trigger other memories
what’s reinstate the context in cognitive interview
witness will return to the crime scene in their minds and image environment and emotions which is related to context dependent forgetting
what’s reverse the order in cognitive interview
events should be recalled in a different chronological order to original sequence
what’s change perspective in cognitive interview
explain how it would appear to the perpetrator or another witnesses schema is recalled rather than what actually happened
who developed enhanced cognitive interview
Fisher (1987)
why do the use of open ended questions technique in enhanced cognitive interviewing
avoids leading questions
why would you minimalise distractions in enhanced cognitive interviewing
avoids limiting accurate recall
why use the eye contact technique in enhanced cognitive interviewing
allows them to build rapport
why would you get the person to talk slowly in enhanced cognitive interviewing
avoids missing any important information out
why would you use the reducing anxiety technique in enhanced cognitive interviewing
to improve recall
