memory

Question 1

multistore model

Answer 1

describes how information flows through the memory system - comprised of 3 stores, linked by processing

sensory register
- stimulus from environment passes into the SR
short term memory
- requires attention to pass into STM
long term memory
- requires maintenance rehearsal to pass into LTM

• retrieval is the process used to recall materials stored in LTM by tranferring it back to STM

Question 2

MSM
ao3

Answer 2

✘ evidence suggests more than 1 type of STM
- KF, a px w amnesia was studied
- his STM for digits was poor when read out loud to him but much better when read himself
- suggests there must be different STM stores to process visual and auditory info
- which contradicts the MSM which states there is only 1 type of STM
- WMM is a better explanation for this

✘ oversimplifies LTM
- lots of research evidence suggesting there are different stores (semantic, episodic + procedural)
- MSM doesn’t reflect these different types of LTM + so is limited

Question 3

sensory register

Answer 3

capacity: unknown but v large

duration: v limited (1-2 seconds)

coding: raw/unprocessed info (from all 5 senses)

Question 4

STM

Answer 4

capacity: limited (7 +/- 2 chunks of info)

duration: limited (20 seconds)

coding: acoustic

Question 5

LTM

Answer 5

capacity: unlimited

duration: lifetime

coding: semantic

Question 6

capacity of STM

Answer 6

JACOBS

• used a digit span test
• students asked to repeat back a string of numbers/letters
• on average, ppts could recall 7.3 letters and 9.3 words

Question 7

duration of STM

Answer 7

PETERSON & PETERSON

• students asked to recall 3-letter trigrams at different intervals (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds)
• to prevent rehearsal, they had to count backwards in 3s from a specific number until asked to recall the letters
• 80% of trigrams recalled correctly after 3s
• 10% of trigrams recalled correctly after 18s

Question 8

duration of LTM

Answer 8

BAHRICK:

• university graduates asked to match the names of former classmates w photographs from their high school yearbook
• 60% correct recall after 47 years

Question 9

types of LTM

Answer 9

episodic:
- stores events from our lives
eg psychology lesson
- have to make conscious effort to recall them

semantic:
- stores our knowledge of the world
eg meaning of words

procedural:
- stores memories for actions + skills
eg driving a car
- recalled w/o awareness or effort

Question 10

types of LTM
ao3

Answer 10

✔ research support - brain scan studies
- tulving et al had ppts perform various memory tasks while scanning their brains with a PET scanner
- episodic + semantic memories were in the prefrontal cortex
- semantic in the left side + episodic in the right
- this shows a physical reality in the brain that supports the existence of different types of LTM

✔ research support - case study evidence
- clinical studies of amnesia: HM & Clive Wearing
- showed both had difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts
- but their semantic memories were relatively unaffected
- so this suppots the view that there are different memory stores in LTM
- as one alone can be damaged but the others remain unaffected

✘ evidence based on case studies has low external validity
- unique + complex cases
- w serious lack of control over variables
- eg can’t control precise location of damage or personality variables
- low external validity
- difficult to generalise from these studies

Question 11

working memory model

Answer 11

a model of STM, explaining how it’s organised + how it functions
- an improvement to the MSM

Question 12

central executive

Answer 12

• attentional process which monitors incoming data
  + allocates slave systems to tasks
• very limited storage capacity

✘ lack of clarity over CE making it unsatisfactory
- too simplistic + vague
- should be more clearly specified rather than just being ‘attention’
- some psychologists believe it may consist of different components
- if this is true it means the WMM hasn’t been fully explained

Question 13

phonological loop

Answer 13

• temporarily retains auditory information

consists of
- phonological store - stores the words you hear
- articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal

✔ supporting evidence
- research has found that people find it more difficult to remember a list of long words rather than short words - this is the word length effect
- this is because there is limited space for rehearsal in the articulatory process
- the word length effect disappears when given an articulatory suppression task
- this is a strength of the model as it supports the function of the phonological loop

Question 14

visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 14

• stores visual and spatial information when required

consists of:
- visual cache - stores visual data
- inner scribe - records arrangement of objects in visual field

✔ research to support VSS
- researchers have carried out dual task performance studies
- found that people have more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks simultaneously rather than doing a visual task and verbal task at the same time.
- this difference can be explained by the fact that both visual tasks compete for the same limited resources
- whereas when doing a verbal and visual task there is no competition.
- this provides evidence for the existence of the VSS
- MSM cant explain this

Question 15

episodic buffer

Answer 15

• added in 2000
• temporary store for information
• facilitates communication between CE and LTM
• maintains sense of time sequencing

Question 16

KF case study

Answer 16

✔ case study of patient KF
- injured in motorcycle accident + acquired brain damage
- poor STM ability for verbal information
- but could process visual information normally
- suggests that just his phonological loop was damaged but other areas of memory were intact
- supports existence of separate visual and acoustic store
- isn’t supported by the MSM
- however this evidence may be unreliable as it concerns a patient who had also suffered a traumatic experience
therefore findings cannot be generalised

Question 17

forgetting
interference theory

Answer 17

• an explanation for forgetting
• occurs when 2 pieces of info are in conflict
• proactive interference: when an older memory disrupts a newer one
• retroactive interference: when a newer memory disrupts an older one
• worse when memories are similar

Question 18

interference theory
baddeley & hitch

Answer 18

✔ research support

• investigated retroactive interference
• asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against so far that season, some of which who had missed some games due to injuries
• accurate recall didn’t depend on how long ago the match took place but the no of matches played in the meantime
• concluded that this was the result of retroactive interference as the learning of new team names interfered w the memory of earlier ones
• shows that interference can apply to everyday situations
• high ecological validity

Question 19

interference
ao3

Answer 19

✘ lack of control over extraneous/ppt variables
* not controlled (opposite of lab study)
* we don’t know what other events have occurred in each of the players’ lives that might effect their memory
* low internal validity

Question 20

forgetting
retrieval failure

Answer 20

• an explanation for forgetting
• occurs due to absence of retrieval cues
• context-dependent forgetting: memory retrieval dependent on an external/environmental cue (eg the weather or a place)
• state-dependent forgetting: memeory retrieval dependent on an internal cue / state of mind (eg feeling upset or being drunk)

Question 21

retrieval failure
godden & baddeley

Answer 21

✔ research support
* 18 scuba divers were split into 4 different conditions where they either learned words on land or underwater and then recalled them either on land or underwater
* words learned underwater were better recalled underwater + words learned on land were better recalled on land
* retrieval failure had occured when in a different environment, due to an absence of environmental cues
* demonstrates context-dependent forgetting

Question 22

retrieval failure
ao3

Answer 22

✘ low ecological validity?
- differences in env/contexts would have to be v different for an effect to be seen
- underwater vs land - can’t apply this to real life situatuons

Question 23

eyewitness testimony
leading questions

Answer 23

• response-bias explanation: suggests wording of the question has no real effect on ppts’ memories but influences how they decide to answer
• substitution explanation: suggests that the wording of a question actually changes the ppts’ memories of an incident

Question 24

leading questions
loftus & palmer

Answer 24

• 45 american students made to watch clips of a car accident
• divided into 5 groups, each given a different verb in the critical question: “about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
• different verbs being: hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed
• the verb “contacted” produced a mean estimate speed of 31.8mph
• the verb “smashed” produced a mean estimate speed of 40.5mph
• suggests EWT is affected by the wording of a question

Question 25

eyewitness testimony post-event discussion

Answer 25

* **memory contamination:** when witnesses discuss a crime + mix misinformation from other witnesses w their own memories * **memory conformity:** when witnesses go along w each other to win social approval bcause they believe the other witnesses are right

Question 26

post-event discussion gabbert et al

Answer 26

* pairs of ppt made to watch a clip of the same crime but from different visual angles, giving some a clearer view of the crime than others * both ppts discussed w each other what they had seen before being individually questioned * 70% of the ppts mistakenly recalled aspects of the events they had not seen in the clip, but picked up in the PED * in a control group, where there was no discussion, there were no errors * ppts' memories can be altered significantly by PEDs

Question 27

leading qs & PEDs ao3

Answer 27

✘ **use of artificial materials** - ppts were watching clips of an accident, which is v different from witnessing a real life accident - not true to real life - less stressful - tells us little about the effect of leading questions/PEDs on EWT in real crimes and accidents - lacks ecological validity ✘ **demand characteristics** - ppts aware they're being studied - may work out aim of investigation - in an attempt to be helpful, if they don't know the answer to a question, they may just say whatever they think the researcher wants to hear - means their answers may not actually reflect their true memories - this challenges the validity of EWT research

Question 28

eyewitness testimony anxiety johnson & scott (negative effect)

Answer 28

* ppts sat in waiting room were made to hear an argument in the next room + exposed to either: * a man walking past holding a pen (low-anxiety) * or the sound of breaking glass + a man walking past holding a paper-knife (high-anxiety) * ppts then had to identify the man from 50 photos * those in the low-anxiety condition, were correct 49% of the time * those in the high-anxiety condition were correct 33% of the time * tunnel theory of memory suggests witness's attention is on the weapon (weapon focus) - source of anxiety

Question 29

anxiety johnson & scott ao3

Answer 29

✘ **may test surprise instead of anxiety** - ppts may focus on weapon because they're surprised rather than because they're scared - similar research has been carried out, using unusual items instead, eg raw chicken - EWT accuracy was found to be poorer for higher unusualness - so weapon focus effect isn't entirely due to anxiety - thus doesn't tell us specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT

Question 30

eyewitness testimony anxiety yuille & cutshaw (positive effect)

Answer 30

* conducted a study of a real-life shooting where 13 witnesses agreed to be interviewed 4-5 months after the shooting + were additionally asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the incident * findings showed that those who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate

Question 31

anxiety yuille & cutshaw ao3

Answer 31

✘ **lack control of variables** - witnesses interviewed 4-5 months after the event - many things happen to them in this time that can't be controlled by the researchers - eg PEDs - these extraneous variables may be responsible for accuracy of recall, instead of anxiety - low internal validity

Question 32

yerkes-dodson law

Answer 32

* argue that the relationship between stress and accuracy is *curvilinear* rather than linear * **inverted U theory** states accuracy will increase w stress but only to a certain point, after which it decreases dramatically

Question 33

anxiety ao3

Answer 33

✘ **demand characteristics** - ppts aware they're being studied - may work out the aim of the investigation - may answer according to what they believe will be most helpful to the researcher, instead of what's true to their memory - thus, research is not measuring the effect of anxiety on accuracy of EWT - low internal validity

Question 34

cognitive interview

Answer 34

* report everything * context reinsatatemnt * reverse order * change perspective

Question 35

report everything

Answer 35

* encouraged to include every detail, even if it seems irrelevant * seemingly trivial details may be important or may trigger other memories

Question 36

context reinstatement

Answer 36

* witness returns to og crime scene in their mind and imagines the environment + their emotions * based on concept of context-dependent forgetting * cues from the context may trigger recall

Question 37

reverse order

Answer 37

* prevents the influence of schema/expectations * also prevents dishonesty (harder to lie)

Question 38

change perspective

Answer 38

* witness recalls incident from another person’s perspective * prevents influence of schema/expectations on recall

Question 39

enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 39

* fisher et al developed additional elements of CI * includes focus on social dynamics of interaction (eg eye contact) * includes reducing eyewitness's anxiety, minimising distractions + asking open-ended qs

Question 40

cognitive interview ao3

Answer 40

✔ ✘ **time consuming** - police reluctant to use CI because it takes much more time than standard police interview - more time needed to establish rapport w witnesses to allow them to relax - requires special training - thus unlikely that proper version of CI is actually used, so full affects are not exhibited