memory

Question 1

Capacity

Answer 1

The amount of information that can be held in your memory

Question 2

Encoding

Answer 2

How sensory input is changed into a format for use in memory.
sound , vision and meaning are all encoded differently

Question 3

Duration

Answer 3

Length of time information remains in your memory

Question 4

Short-term memory

Answer 4

Duration - 18 to 30 seconds
Capacity – 5 to 9 items
Encoding - mainly acoustic

Question 5

Long-term memory

Answer 5

Duration – unlimited
Encoding - semantic
Capacity – unlimited

Question 6

Long-term memory

Answer 6

Duration – unlimited
Encoding - semantic
Capacity – unlimited

Question 7

Research on duration of the long-term memory - Bahrick

Answer 7

Bahrick et al
329 us ppts —> 17-74 years old
1) photo recognition from yearbooks with 50 photos
2) free recall test where participants to recall all the names of their graduating class

Question 8

Findings of research on duration (LTM) after 15 years

Answer 8

90% photo recognition

Question 9

Findings of research on duration long-term memory after 48 years

Answer 9

70% photo recognition
30% free recall
Shows that long-term memory may last up to a lifetime for some material

Question 10

Research on duration for the short-term memory

Answer 10

Peterson and Peterson
24 students
Used trigrams like BNT
Had to count backwards to prevent rehearsal

Question 11

Research on duration for the short-term memory

Answer 11

Peterson and Peterson
24 students
Used trigrams like BNT
Had to count backwards to prevent rehearsal

Question 12

Findings on research of duration (STM)

Answer 12

After 3 seconds recall was 80%
After 18 seconds recall was 3%
This shows that short-term duration is 18 seconds unless we repeat or rehearse the information

Question 13

Research on coding

Answer 13

Baddely
Gave different lists of word to 4 groups of ppts to remember
Group 1- acoustically similar
Group 2- acoustically dissimilar
Group 3- semantically similar
Group 4 - semanically dissimilar
Participants were shown the original words and asked to record them in the right order

Question 14

Findings of the research on codingf

Answer 14

Tended to do worst on acoustically similar
They tended to do worst recalling from their long-term memory after the interval of 20 minutes for the semantically similar words
This suggests that information is
coded acoustically in stm
Coded semantically in LTM

Question 15

Research on capacity

Answer 15

Jacobs
Measured digit span
The researcher reads out 4 digits which participants recall in the right order then the researcher reads out 5 digits then 6 digits to be recalled until it cannot be recalled correctly

Question 16

Research on capacity findings

Answer 16

Mean span for digits – 9.3 items
Means span for letters - 7.3 items

Question 17

Research on capacity

Answer 17

Miller
Made observations of every day practice
He noted things come in sevens e.g days of the week and deadly sins
So he thought STM capacity is 7+/-2
We recall 5 words/letters easier because we chunk this into groups

Question 18

Evaluation on coding

Answer 18

Strength – baddeleys study identifies a clear difference between both memory stores , Led to msm

Weakness – lacks mundane realism as they use artificial stimuli with no real meaning to participants
Don’t relate to every day life so limited application
So if it was meaningful participants may use semantic coding even for simple tasks

Question 19

Evaluation on capacity

Answer 19

Jacob’s study strength - can be replicated easy but however as it is an old study it can be critiqued for lacking adequate controls
So participants could’ve been underestimated due to extraneous variables from distractions

Counterpoint – better controlled studies have replicated Jacob study and got similar results so Jacob study is a valid test

Question 20

Evaluation coding miller

Answer 20

Weakness - Overestimated short-term memory capacity
(Cowan 2001) found capacity of short-term memory is around 4+ or - 1

This suggest the lower end of the Millers Estimate of 5 items more appropriate

Question 21

Evaluation of duration of STM

Answer 21

Peterson and Peterson
Weakness – artificial stimuli of trigrams we don’t study every day
Counterpoint -Not completely irrelevant as we do sometimes try to remember meaningless material
Lacks external validity as it doesn’t reflect every day memory

Question 22

Evaluation of duration study -LTM

Answer 22

Bahrick study

Strength – high external validity as they investigated meaningful memories it doesn’t have a limited application
When studies conducted on long-term memory with meaningless pictures recall rates lowered ( Shepherd 1967)
His study reflects the real estimate of LTM‘s duration

Question 23

Who discovered types of LTM

Answer 23

Tulving 1985

Question 24

Implicit / declarative memory

Answer 24

People are not aware of these memories
Procedural

Question 25

Explicit / declarative memories

Answer 25

Memories people are aware of Semantic and episodic

Question 26

Episodic memory

Answer 26

Our ability to recall events and episodes from our life We recall memories such as events /people /objects to do with our life and we remember when they occurred Hippocampus

Question 27

Semantic memory

Answer 27

Our library / dictionary Our knowledge of the world Includes facts and knowledge of what words and concepts mean Less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting Less personal Temporal lobe

Question 28

Procedural memory

Answer 28

Knowledge of how to do things Includes our memories of learned skills We usually recall these memories without making a conscious effort Cerebellum

Question 29

Procedural memory

Answer 29

Knowledge of how to do things Includes our memories of learned skills We usually recall these memories without making a conscious effort Cerebellum

Question 30

Strength of types of LTM - clinical evidnce

Answer 30

Clive wearing / HM Episodic memory —> severely damaged Semantic memory —]relatively intact Both patients still knew how to speak / play piano / walk/ what a dog was etc Supports Tulvings view that there are different memory stores One store can be damaged , whereas the others are unaffected

Question 31

Counterpoint to clinical evidence for types of LTM

Answer 31

Case studies unique to a small amount of people send its hard to replicate the findings and control variables As researcher can’t control how they’re memory was like before the injury and not everyone has the same brain injury as HM and Clive therefore failing to generalise the findings to the population Ideographic research

Question 32

Conflicting neuroimaging evidence for types of LTM Weakness

Answer 32

Buckner and petersen Reviewed evidence regarding location of semantic and episodic memory They found semantic memory is located LEFT SIDE OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX And episodic memory on THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX However other research swaps the types of LTM with the sides of the prefrontal cortex

Question 33

Working memory

Answer 33

The part of your memory you are using when u are working on something

Question 34

What are the 4 components of the WMM by Baddeley and Hitch .

Answer 34

Central executive Phonological loop Visuo- spatial sketchpad Episodic buffer

Question 35

Central executive and its functions

Answer 35

Drives the system Key component of the WMM Decides how attention of working memory is directed Allocates the sub systems Modality free Limited capacity Functions : reasoning and decision making

Question 36

Phonological loop

Answer 36

Deals with auditory information and perseveres its order Divided into 2 components

Question 37

What are the names for the 2 components of the phonological loop?

Answer 37

Phonological store & articuatory control system

Question 38

Phonological store

Answer 38

Holds words u can hear Holds info in speech for 1-2 seconds

Question 39

Articulatory control system

Answer 39

Holds words that heard / seen and are silently repeated ,looped like an inner voice Used to rehearse verbal info from phonological store

Question 40

Study support for phonological loop

Answer 40

Baddeley , Thompson , Buchanan 1975 They found people cope better with short words than longer words in working memory STM

Question 41

Episodic buffer

Answer 41

Added in 2000 As Baddeley realised the model needed a more general store 4 temporary storage for information received by the central executive Limited capacity Buffer extra storage system but with limited capacity Intergrates information from all other areas

Question 42

Episodic buffer

Answer 42

Added in 2000

Question 43

Visuo- spatial sketchpad

Answer 43

Capacity = 3-4 objects (limited) Coding = visual Stores and manipulates visiual information Holds visual and spatial information for a very short time

Question 44

What 2 components of visiual sketchpad code information in a visual form?

Answer 44

VISIUAL CACHE : a passive temporary store e.g about colour/form INNER SCRIBE : an active rehearsal mechanism records arrangements of objects LOGIE 1995

Question 45

Working memory model - strength of research support baddeley 1975

Answer 45

-Participants were asked to perform two visual tasks or a visual and verbal task Findings: Performance was better when the tasks were not using the same processing this suggests that the VSS and the PL are separate systems and the capacity of the VSS can be overwhelmed

Question 46

Working memory model - STRENGTH CASE STUDY OF KF - SHALLICE AND WARINGTON

Answer 46

They found KF has selective impairment to his verbal short-term memory caused by a brain injury however his visual short-term memory was not affected Therefore, suggestion that there is two separate stores CONTERPOINT: case studies we cannot generalise and brain injury is different for everyone

Question 47

Weakness of the working memory model Low validity

Answer 47

Central executive has been criticised by other psychologists as a vague concept without a full explanation of its function Baddeley admit the concept is vague and needs development

Question 48

Explanations for forgetting : pro active interference

Answer 48

Remembering old information Prophecy learn information interferes with the new information you’re trying to store

Question 49

Explanations for forgetting: retroactive interference

Answer 49

Remembering the new stuff A new memory interferes with the old one

Question 50

What makes interference more likely?

Answer 50

Similarity

Question 51

Research on the effects of similarity - McGeoch and mcondald

Answer 51

aimed to investigate retroactive interference METHOD : six groups of participants each group learnt the same list of words, two syllable adjectives until 100% accuracy Groups had to then learn a different second list FINDINGS: most similar words produced the worst recalls Suggested interference the strongest when the memories are similar

Question 52

Proactive interference research support - GREENBERG AND UNDERWOOD

Answer 52

GREENBERG AND UNDERWOOD The number of correctly recall words pairs decrease the more of the word pairs have been previously Therefore, provides evidence as the previous learnt wordlist had caused confusion in the coding of later words

Question 53

Proactive interference research support

Answer 53

GREENBERG AND UNDERWOOD The number of correctly recall words pairs decrease the more of the word pairs have been previously Therefore, provides evidence as the previous learnt wordlist had caused confusion in the coding of later words

Question 54

Two weaknesses of interference

Answer 54

Low external validity Much of the evidence and interference one from artificial laboratory experience Participants shown demand characteristics for lowers confidence in interference as an explanation of forgetting Interference only explains forgetting when two set of information are similar and often when learnt close together and they are time sensitive The theory struggles to explain many day-to-day examples of forgetting

Question 55

Retrieve failure as an explanation of forgetting

Answer 55

explanation of forgetting based on the idea that we don’t have the necessary cues to access that memory

Question 56

What are the two types of retrieval failure cues?

Answer 56

Internal cues : state dependent forgetting external cues : context dependent forgetting

Question 57

Encoding Specificity principle

Answer 57

TULVING Research and discovered that if a queue is to help us recall information, it needs to be present at encoding when we learn the material and at retrieval

Question 58

Research on context dependent forgetting

Answer 58

GODDEN AND BADDELEY Studied divers who learned and recalled a group of words either underwater or on land 4 conditions 40% better recall on the same conditions where they had recalled and learnt words due to the same external cues

Question 59

Research on the state dependent forgetting

Answer 59

CARTER AND CASSADAY 1998 gave antihistamine drugs to ppts which made them slightly drowsy Participants who had learnt the words and recalled on the drug performed better And participants who didn’t use a drug on recall and learning performed better

Question 60

Strength of context cues

Answer 60

Psychological research into how forgetting works has a practical real world application E.G students developing effective revision strategies and theories and police force using cognitive interview which has been developed based on this research

Question 61

Factors affecting EWT - MISLEADING INFORMATION RESEARCH

Answer 61

LOFTUS AND PALMER aim - effect of leading questions on a person recall Procedure- 45 students Sharon the same clip of a car crash and series of questions about the accident. Leading question had the verb changed HOW FAST WAS THE CARS GOING WHRN THEY HIT/SMASHED INTO EACH OTHER? Findings The smashed verb Resulted in participants recalling a mean speed of 40.8MPH the hit verb resulted in participants calling a main speed of 34 mph Conclusion Leading question biased that eyewitness testimony of the event

Question 62

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 62

A legal term referring to the use of eyewitnesses to give evidence in court Probably the most valuable application of our memory to our everyday life, however there are a number of inaccuracies

Question 63

What affects the leading questions of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 63

Response bias And substitution explanation

Question 64

Response bias

Answer 64

The wording of questions has no rule effects on participants memories but just influences how they answer

Question 65

Substitution explanation

Answer 65

The wording of a leading question actually changes the participants memory

Question 66

Post event discussion

Answer 66

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with eyewitnesses or other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event.

Question 67

Post event discussion research

Answer 67

GABBERT 2003 Procedure: study participants in pairs and watch the same crime film from different point of view Meaning that participants could see an elements of the crime that the others couldn’t Then both participants, then discussed what they had seen individually before completing a recall test Findings Found 71% of participants mistakenly record the aspects of events they did not watch but picked up on in discussion Control group is no discussion there was 0% Evidence of memory conformity

Question 68

Why does the post event discussion affect eye witness testimonies?

Answer 68

MEMORY CONTAMINATION- Participants combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories MEMORY CONFORMITY - gabbert et al concluded that witnesses go along with each other either to win social approval because they believe the other witnesses are right they are wrong Unlike memory contamination the actual memory is unchanged

Question 69

Anxiety

Answer 69

State of emotional and physical arousal emotions include : worried, faults and feelings of tension Physical changes include : increased heart rate and sweatiness

Question 70

Negative effects of anxiety - (Johnson and Scott)

Answer 70

Naive participants outside the lab listen to conversations Low anxiety condition - normal conversation about equipment and then a man walks out with greasy hands and a pen High anxiety condition - hostile conversation breaking glass , furniture was knocked over when a man walks out with bloody hands and a knife Then asked to identify the man out of 50 photos 49% recalled the man with the pen 33% recalled the man with the knife Conclusion: Anxiety caused by knife increased focus more on the weapon then face (weapon focus)

Question 71

Positive Effect of anxiety - (Yuille and Cutshall)

Answer 71

Interviewed witnesses of a deadly shooting 4 months after the event Findings : witnesses resisted misleading information and those with the most stress (closest to shooter) produced most accurate EWT Conclusion : Misleading information and anxiety may not be a significant problem for the eyewitness testimony in the real world

Question 72

Yerks - Donson law of arousal

Answer 72

EWT accuracy increases as anxiety raises as witnesses become more however at a point anxiety becomes too high and more stress/distraction results in lower accuracy

Question 73

Evaluation for Anxiety of EWT - Pickel

Answer 73

Did experiment to test this using surprising items in a hairdresser salon e.g raw chicken and handgun Eyewitness testimony accuracy was significantly poor in high unusual situations Suggest that weapon focus effect is due to participants being surprised at what they say rather than being scared and anxious

Question 74

Studies on anxiety for eyewitness testimony accuracy - ethical issues

Answer 74

Raised by the Johnson and Scott study e.g protection from psychological harm the experiment made participants feel anxious. This is unethical.

Question 75

Studies on anxiety for eyewitness testimony accuracy - weakness of controls

Answer 75

Between the interview and the real life eyewitnesses may of experience many things that the research’s cannot control e.g PED These extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy of recall

Question 76

What are the four stages of a cognitive interview?

Answer 76

1. Report everything - encourages witness report all details about the event, even if these details may seem irrelevant. 2. Reinstate the context– trying to mentally re-create an image of the situation including details of the environment and the individuals emotional state. 3. Change the order - the witnesses also describe the scene in a different chronological order 4. Change Perspective. - trying to mentally re-create the situation from a different point of view

Question 77

Enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 77

Encourages the witness to relax and speak slowly – reduction in anxiety may enhance recall Offer comments to help clarify witnesses statements – may improve detail of statement Encourage witness to speak slowly And engage in eye contact

Question 78

Weakness of cognitive interview – kebbell and wagsstaff

Answer 78

Police interviewers have to be trained which can be expensive and time consuming

Question 79

Weakness for cognitive interview - thames Valley police

Answer 79

Found that when they used a combination of report everything and reinstate in the context participants recall was significantly higher Meaning that some parts of the progressive interview maybe more reliable than others

Question 80

Supporting research for cognitive interview - Kohnken et al

Answer 80

Meta analysis of 53 studies and found 41% in amount of correct information generated COUNTERPOINT : however there is also an increase of inaccurate information