Memory Flashcards
Definitions
Research on coding
Research into capacity STM
Research on duration STM
Research duration LTM
Evaluation
Multi store model MSM Atkinsonand shiffiren 68
Sensory register- receives environmental stimuli from sensory memory remains from split second capacity is unlimited coding specific to scenes, if attention paid info transferred to STM otherwise gone .
STM- info here Darcy quickly 18-30 sec if not rehearsed has a limited capacity 7+-2 will go to LTM if rehearsed
LTM- rehearsal of information allow to be transferred to LYM more rehersed better remembered once in LTm can be retrieved coded mostly semantically bahrick et al found most participants able to erefognise name and faces after 50 yrs of graduation so capacity = unlimited , retrieval = info STM-LTM-STM to be recalled
Evaluation
Types of LTM
- Tulving 85 first to realise MSM view of LRM is too simplistic he said there are 3 LTM stores which have different types of information
-episodic semantic procedural
Episodic memory
Long term memories of your personal experiences and the time conetext and emotion surrounding events which happened in past e.g 1st day of school they require conscious effort
Semantic memory
Lt mememory of knowledge of factual information which is not personal to you it is shared by many people .eg capital of Pakistan - Islamabad
Has factual knowledge but also knowledge oof properties of objects e.g chille is hot rules of social behaviour they also require conscious effort to be remembered
Procedural memory
Memories of how we do things e.g ride a bike comes through learning relation patactsie are uncousniousss effort and automatic we don’t need to think consiuolly of how to swim or walk
Evaluation of types of LTM
Strengths - evidence from case studies HM and Clive wearing episodic memmeory in both was impaired due to Brian damage but semantic was unaffected still understood meant of words e.g couldn’t recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier but did not have to have the concept of dog explained to him. Procedural money was also intact both still knew how to speck and walk wearing a musician knew how to read music sing play piano supports view there are different LTm one store damaged other ok
Counterpoint - studying people with brain injuries can help reaserchers understand how memeory is supposed to work normally but clininical studies not perfect major limitation they lack control of variables brain injuries experienced by participants usually unexpected reasearcher had no way of controlling what happened to participant before or during injury he had no knowledge of the persons memory from the damage so it is difficult to judge exactly how bad it was after this lack of control limits what clinical studies can tell us about different types of LTm
Strength - Evidnec form Brian scans Research with brain scans has found that different brain areas are associated with the 3 types of LT memory.
• Episodic memories occur in the hippocampus and other portions of the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe.
Semantic memory is associated with the temporal lobe.
Procedural memories occur in the cerebellum, basal ganglia and limbic system. The cerebellum is also associated with motor skills: i.e. skills to do with movement.
Strength - real life application = understanding. Types of LTM allows psyclogysist to help people with memory problems e.g as people old experience memory loss but research shown this seems to be specific to episodic memories it becomes harder to recall memories of personal events and experiences that happened recently though past episodic memories remain intact Belleville et al 2006 devised an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people trained participants performed better on test of episodic memeory after training than a control group showed that distinguishing between types of LTm enables sepcific treatments to be developed .
Limitations - conflicting neuroimaging evidence linking to loactiosn of types of LTM e.g Buckner and Petersen 66 reviewed evidence regarding location of semantic and episodic memeory concluded semantic located in left of prefrontal cortex episodic on right but other raeserch links left prefrontal cortex with episodic right with semantic challenges any neurophysiological evidnece to uspooort types of memories as there is poor agreement on where each type of memory might be located
Working memory model
Baddely hitch 74
- explanation of one aspect of memory STM is organised how it functions concerned with mental space that is active when we are temporarily storing manipulating info e.g when working on a maths problem play8ing chess model consists of 4 main components they are difffrentin terms of coding and capacity .
Central executive
Supervisory system
Info comes from Senes of LTM and. It decides which of the slave systems are needed to deal with it
Deals with number of tasks e.g attention starting attention between tasks and other higher mental process such as decisions aiming and problem solving has a limited processing capacity doesn’t store info
Phonological loop
Deals with auditory acoustic info has united capacity subdivided into phonological store the inner ear retains words we hear for 1-2 sec the articultlatory process inner voice retains info we hear or see by silently reap eating it looped like a inner voice .
Visuo spatial sketchpad
The inner eye hold visual how things look and spatial the relationship between things information
Manipulates mental imagery perceives movement and recognises patterns limited capacity baddely 2003 3 4 objects the visual cache = stores visual data inner scribe = reactors the order of beats in the visual field
Episodic buffer
Temporary storage area which combines and brings together info received from all stores name them .
Evaluation
Strengths
The WMM provides an explanation for parallel processing (i.e. where processes involved in a cognitive task occur at once), unlike Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM.
A Shallice and Warrington (1974) case study reported that brain-damaged patient KF could recall verbal but not visual information immediately after its presentation, which supports the WMM’s claim that separate short-term stores manage short-term phonological and visual memories.
The model was developed based on evidence from laboratory experiments, so confounding variables could be carefully controlled to produce reliable results (that can be replicated).
Weaknesses
Despite providing more detail of STM than the multi-store model, the WMM has been criticized for being too simplistic and vague, e.g. it is unclear what the central executive is, or its exact role in attention.
Results from laboratory experiments researching the WMM will often have low ecological validity (i.e. may not relate to real life), as tasks such as repeating ‘the the the’ are arguably not representative of our everyday activities.
Explanations for forgetting : interference
Types of interference
Proactive = older memories already stored disrupt recal of newer memories the degree of forgetting is greater when mememorires are smaller e.g learned so many names in the past forgot the current ones .
Evidence - muller gave participants list of nonsense sylybbles HVB asked to learn in 6 min after a interval asked them to recall these sylyybles 1 group of subjects we’re given noting to do in the interval other were asked to study and describe 3 paintings those in 2nd conditions showed poorer recall
Retroactive = newer memories interfere in older already stored degree of forgetting is greater when
memeorirs are similar . E.g learned so many names now can’t remember brfro .
Evidence - underwood found that when given a list os words better memeory of words at the beginning f the list compared to the words towards end of list showed earlier info interfraering .
Effects of similarity
In both proactive and retro active interference worst when material is similar .
- mcgeoah and McDonald 31 studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials . Participants had to learn list of 10 words still could rememmeber 100% then learned new list, there were 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of new lists
- G1= synonyms what is it similar meaning
- G2= antonyms opposite meaning
G3= words unrelated to original
G4= constant syllables
G5= 3 digit numbers
G6= no new list just rested control conditions
- findings = when asked to recall original list of words most similar material synonyms had worst recall showed interferance strongest when memories are similar
- reason similarity effects recall is pro active and retro active .
Evaluation for interference
Explanations for forgetting : retrieval failure
Retrieval failure theories argue forgetting fromLTM is caused by failing to access the memory due to insufficient clues or cues to aid recall rather than it being unavailable.
cues act as markers to aid recall and without these, the mind is unable to locate the correct memory. A cues effectiveness depends on the number of items associated with it with fewer items leading to a more effective cue.
Tulving (1973) called this the encoding-specificity principle; where recollection is affected if the context of recall is different from what it was when the memory was coded. He suggested memory recall is most effective when information which was present at the time of encoding is available during retrieval.
two main types of cue-dependent forgetting
- context-dependent failure + state-dependent failure. - Context-dependent failure = may rely on external environmental retrieval cues being similar to when the information was encoded to aid recall, e.g. being in the same room where you learnt the answers to a test and then taking the test in this room. This would result in greater recall than being in a different room.
- support = Abernethy (1940) found that after participants had learnt various material, they showed greater difficulty with recall when they were tested by an unfamiliar teacher in an unfamiliar room compared to a familiar teacher and familiar room. This shows support for the importance of context aiding the memory retrieval process.
State-dependent failure would occur when the internal state of the person is different from when the information was encoded. This may be down to feeling a different emotion for example and trying to remember something when you were happy while you are feeling sad. Therefore internal states can also act as retrieval cues. - Environmental context such as being at a particular place can trigger retrieval as can particular sights or sounds if they are experienced strongly enough during encoding
Support = Support for state-dependent failure comes from a study by Overton (1972). Participants learnt material either drunk or sober and found participants struggled with recall more when trying to retrieve the information in a state that is different from the time of encoding. For example, trying to recall information sober when it was learnt drunk (and vice versa). This provides support for state-dependent failure as an explanation for forgetting.
Evaluation
Many studies into retrieval failure due to cue dependent forgetting are based in the laboratory lack ecological validity and mundane realism as they are not indicative of real-world environments or situations of forgetting. such explanations are not able to explain why retrieval failure cannot be explained with cue dependent forgetting for activities such as riding a bike, suggesting retrieval failure as a theory for forgetting is oversimplified and incomplete.
- Research into retrieval failure and cue dependent forgetting has real-world applications particularly in the search for missing people and reconstructing the last known whereabouts. This was used to aid in the conviction of Danielle Jones killer as a reconstruction in 2001 prompted witnesses to recall her arguing with a man which later led to the conviction of her uncle through witness testimony. This has also helped in cognitive interviews to help people recall information for witness testimonies. Therefore understanding how cues affect recall can help us develop ways to improve memory for the benefit of society.
- Support for retrieval failure having more validity than interference theory comes from Tulving and Psotka (1971). They showed how interference effects occurred due to the absence of any cues to aid retrieval. Participants were given word lists to remember with one condition having category headings and another without. In conditions without category headings, fewer words were recalled than when headings were present showing the information was available but simply unable to be accessed due to the absence of cues.
- Research into state-dependent failure such as Overtons (1972) study raises ethical concerns as they encouraging people to become drunk and under the influence of substances which can lead to injury or even death even by accident. Also the level of engagement from participants when under the influence of alcohol may not necessarily be genuine due to the way it affects peoples willingness to give honest responses. Some participants may have deliberately done poorly in some situations or try harder in others due to how alcohol affects people in unpredictable ways.
- Baddeley (1997) criticised the encoding specificity principle as impossible to test and verify for certain making it unscientific. If a cue aids retrieval then it could be argued to have been encoded in the memory however if it does not then it could be argued that it wasn’t encoded in memory as a cue. The fact that it is impossible to test for an item as having been encoded or not means we cannot fully test the encoding specificity principle.
- Baddeley’s (1975) study did find supporting evidence for cue dependent learning and how context cues aided retrieval. Divers tasked with learning material either on dry land or while underwater were found to have poorer recall when they were tested on retrieval in a context that differed from where encoding and learning happened. For example, testing them for the material they learnt underwater while on land resulted in poorer retrieval than if they were tested while still underwater. The same was true vice versa too with better recall shown when the learning context remained the same as encoding. This supported cue- dependent failure, however, this was during free recall only. When given a recognition test and asked to say whether the item on the list was in the learning list or not, context-based failure effects were not observed showing how cue dependency can not explain all forms of forgetting.
Factors effecting eyewitness testimony
Leading questions , post event discussion , anxiety
Leading questions
Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiments measuring how leading information affected recall and is the primary research study you need to know as part of your revision.
In their key study, 45 students were shown several films of road traffic incidents and then given a questionnaire to describe the accident and answer a series of questions about their observation. One critical question varied between conditions with one group asked how fast the vehicles were going when they “hit” each other while other groups had verbs implying different degree’s of a collision such as “bumped, smashed, contacted, collided”.
Results found the words that implied a stronger collision resulted in greater average estimates of speeds from participants.
Those exposed to “smashed” gave the highest estimates (41mph) while “contacted” resulted in the lowest speed estimate (30mph), demonstrating how leading questions could influence memory recall.
The experiment was recreated with another group with the verbs “smashed” and “hit” while a control group was not exposed to such leading questions. They were questioned 1 week later and asked a series of questions with one critical question being whether they witnessed any broken glass.
There was no broken glass in the film however results found that those who were exposed to the “smashed” condition and thus led to believe the car was travelling faster were more likely to report seeing broken glass with the control group being least likely. This highlighted how misleading information post-event can change the way information is stored or recalled.
Post event discussions
The way an event is remembered can also be altered or contaminated by discussing events with others and/or being questioned repeatedly.
In another study, Loftus & Pickrell (1995) investigated how misleading information could create false memories in individuals. 24 participants ranging in age from 18-53 were given four stories about their childhood gathered from relatives.
3 of the stories were true while one was false and it included being lost in a department store when aged 5 and an elderly lady rescuing them. Participants then asked questions on whether they recalled these stories and results found 29% of the fake stories were recalled by participants believing them to be true. 68% of the true stories were recalled correctly also. This highlighted how false memories could be created from suggestion and misleading information.
Other research has found a ‘conformity effect’ occurs when co-witnesses reach a consensus view of what they think happened from discussing. Gabbert et al (2003) conducted a study where participants were paired up and each partner watched a different video of the same event so that they had each viewed unique items.
Pairs in one condition were encouraged to discuss the event before each partner recalled the event they watched.
The results found that 71% of witnesses who had discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall items acquired during their discussion.
This highlights clearly how post-event discussion can cause people to mistakenly recall incorrect information.
Evualtion
The weakness with research into misleading information and post-even discussion is that such studies are laboratory studies and therefore lack ecological validity and realism. Due to this, results gained in such settings may lack external validity and wider generalisation.
The strength of the study, however, is the laboratory condition allowed researchers to control for extraneous confounding variables and clearly see the link between leading questions and recall. The laboratory setting has also made it easier to verify results for reliability through replication and establish cause and effect relationships between leading questions and memory recall which would be difficult to do in real-world settings. Repeat studies have concluded similar findings leading researchers to conclude leading questions and misinformation can affect recall.
However, the use of students may have been a confounding variable in itself rather than leading questions as they are not representative of the range of ages in the normal population and therefore the sample lacks population validity also. Also, research suggests age may be a confounding variable in itself when it comes to leading questions with Warren et al finding younger children were more susceptible to influence to misleading information than older. Therefore this study may lack internal validity as it may be more of a measure on how leading questions affects one particular age group (students) rather than the wider population.
The use of questionnaires is also another possible weakness as questions can be easily misunderstood by participants or misinterpreted without clarification. Peoples responses may also be misunderstood by researchers. More interestingly real-life studies outside the laboratory setting by Yuille and Cutshall have found that witnesses to real events tended to have accurate recall even many months after witnessing events with misleading questions having little effect suggesting previous findings by Loftus into leading questions may possibly be limited to laboratory settings. This may be explained due to highly motivated participants displaying demand characteristics that may not be indicative of real witnesses.
In real situations arousal, stress, anxiety or concentration may be a stronger factor in recall than leading questions. Forster et al found supporting evidence for this in one study where participants who thought they were watching a real-life robbery and believed their responses would have an impact on an upcoming trial actually be more accurate in their recall. Although ethical issues are raised due to the participants being deceived into thinking what they were watching was real; the findings suggest leading questions may have some impact in laboratory settings but in real life, other factors (such as arousal, stress, concentration or motivation) may mitigate for this and override their effects.
Anxiety
- Deffenbacher looked at 21 studies and found that the relationship between stress and performance follows the inverted U shape of the Yerkes-Dodson Curve. the accuracy of eyewitness testimony is affected by how stressed someone is. When stress levels are either very low or very high, people’s recall is worse. However, when stress is at a moderate level, their memory and performance are at their best.
- The practical takeaway is that understanding how anxious an eyewitness was can be crucial for evaluating their testimony in court. However, figuring out someone’s level of anxiety can be tricky and often relies on subjective judgment.
- Loftus et al found similar findings when two groups in different conditions observed a violent and non-violent event. In condition 1 a man exited a discussion holding a pen while condition 2 saw a man exiting holding a paper-knife covered in blood after a loud altercation. The group who observed the pen were more accurate (49%) than the group observing the violent situation (33%). A possible explanation is the weapon may have distracted their attention from everything else happening and may explain why some witnesses struggle for other details in violent crimes as their focus switches to the weapon itself
- Clifford and Scott found people who saw a film of a violent attack remembered less than people in a control group who saw a less stressful version. concluded witnessing stressful situations in real life far more stressful than observing a film memory accuracy may well be more affected in real life with poorer recall. However Christianson (1993) et al found contradicting evidence. When witnesses to real bank robberies tested on recall, found increased anxiety led to improvements in the accuracy of recall. suggests high levels of anxiety in situations do not always divert attention away from what is happening.
Evaluation
- Criticisms of research into how anxiety affects eyewitness testimony point to the fact that studies have been conducted in laboratory settings and therefore lack ecological validity due to their controlled nature. Participants are usually motivated and eager to engage in the study which may be unrealistic of real-life witnesses and motivation in itself may, therefore, be a confounding variable. Therefore the possibility of demand characteristics is very possible with such laboratory studies.
- benefit of these key studies being conducted in the laboratory, however, was that such experiments can be easily replicated for validity and reliability checking as well as limiting confounding and extraneous variables to establish cause and effect relationships between anxiety and eyewitness testimony.
- Due to the ease of replication other studies have found similar findings showing the findings of Deffenbacher and Loftus are reliable. However again the replicated studies tend to be within artificial settings which could be affecting results and lack external validity and wider generalisation to real-world situations which is again limited.
- Yuille & Cutshall’s study contradicts laboratory findings highlighting the importance of stress in eyewitness testimony. Witnesses to a real-life violent crime such as a gun shooting were found to have remarkable memories of the stressful situation even after observing the gunman be killed. Even those re-interviewed 5 months later were found to have accurate recall with even misleading questions which were inserted into the questioning having no effect. One thing to note however was the witnesses who experienced the most stress were closest to the event and this may have aided their accurate recall. Therefore proximity to events itself may be a confounding variable in such research studies. This study illustrated that in instances of real-life stressful situations recall may be accurate even months later. Also, misleading questions, as illustrated, tended to have less of an effect in real-life situations compared to Loftus & Palmer’s laboratory study on misleading questions and stress may be a stronger mitigating factor in recall.
- Studies that have subsequently found stress/anxiety to aid recall were likely to have experienced the first increasing levels of stress in the Yerkes-Dodson curve while those suffering from poor recall may be due to them being within the second part with over-arousal resulting in poor recall performance. Such studies involving violence (Loftus/ Clifford) to heighten anxiety levels also raise ethical concerns due to the possible psychological harm they can cause from observing such events. Other research suggests age is also a mitigating factor which could be a confounding variable beyond simply anxiety and this needs to be considered also.
- There is also research evidence to suggest the Yerkes-Dodson curve is far too simplified to explain how anxiety affects eyewitness accounts. Fazey & Hardy (1988) proposed Catastrophe theory which may better explain the conflicting findings of how anxiety affects EWT on a 3- dimensional scale. This includes performance, physiological arousal and also cognitive anxiety too. This model proposes that as physiological arousal increases beyond the moderate optimum level, unlike the Yerkes-Dodson curve where there is a steady decline, they observed a drastic drop in performance which they proposed is caused by increased mental anxiety and worry. However, trying to distinguish whether a person felt anxiety or stress in itself would be difficult and subjective.
Cognitive interview
- method used primarily by the police to aid eyewitnesses in recalling information more accurately.
- witness is encouraged to:
- Report every detail regardless of how trivial it may seem. This is because the recollection of one small memory may act as a retrieval cue for other important memories.
- Recreate the context of the event itself with the witness encouraged to mentally recreate the environment or contacts they may have had as well as their own psychological state. Doing this may help trigger contextual or emotional cues which aid recall.
- Recall the event in different orders such as in reverse order or at different stages. This reduces the chance of expectations or existing “schemas” of how an event unfolds influencing recall.
- Recall the event from different points of view or perspectives of what others may have seen again to reduce the influence of an individuals schema on recall.
- The interviewer may also try to ensure they reduce the anxiety of the witness, minimise distractions, allow them to take their time in their recall and avoid interruptions or leading questions while the interview occurs.
Cognitive interview
- method used primarily by the police to aid eyewitnesses in recalling information more accurately.
- witness is encouraged to:
- Report every detail regardless of how trivial it may seem. This is because the recollection of one small memory may act as a retrieval cue for other important memories.
- Recreate the context of the event itself with the witness encouraged to mentally recreate the environment or contacts they may have had as well as their own psychological state. Doing this may help trigger contextual or emotional cues which aid recall.
- Recall the event in different orders such as in reverse order or at different stages. This reduces the chance of expectations or existing “schemas” of how an event unfolds influencing recall.
- Recall the event from different points of view or perspectives of what others may have seen again to reduce the influence of an individuals schema on recall.
- The interviewer may also try to ensure they reduce the anxiety of the witness, minimise distractions, allow them to take their time in their recall and avoid interruptions or leading questions while the interview occurs.
Evaluation
Strengths
- Fisher et al. (1990) found that witnesses reported greater detail in their accounts of crimes when American detectives had been trained to use the technique.
- The technique is more structured than the standard technique, and it seems appropriate for crime-related interviews to be very thorough in order to gather the detail required for a useful testimony.
Weaknesses
- Koehnken et al. (1999) found that witnesses recalled more incorrect information when interviewed with the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview technique, perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chances of making mistakes.
- The interview is far more time-consuming than the standard interview.
