Memory

Question 1

Whats coding

Answer 1

The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.

Question 2

What’s 1) capacity and 2) duration

Answer 2

1) the amount of info that can be held in a memory store
2) the length of time information can be held in memory

Question 3

What’s short term memory and studies

Answer 3

Limited capacity store
Coded - acoustically (sounds) Bradley
Capacity - 5 to 9 items (7+-2 jacobs digit span)
Duration - 18 to 30 seconds Peterson of peterson

Question 4

What’s long term memory and studies

Answer 4

Permanent memory store
Coding- semantic (meaning) bradley
Capacity - unlimited (wagenaar)
Duration - unlimited (barick)

Question 5

Coding research

Answer 5

Beddeley gave lists of words to four groups of ps to remember
Group 1 : acoustically similar
Group 2: acoustically different
Group 3: semantically similar
Group 4: semantically different
Short term memory - when asked to recall words straight away, Group 1 had the worst recall. This suggests that information is encoded acoustically in STM. This is because STM gets confused with words acoustically similar and muddles them up, resulting in fewer being remembered
Long term memory - when asked to recall words after 20 minutes, Group 3 had the words recall this suggests info is encoded semantically in LTM, the LTM gets confused by similar meanings the same waythe STM gets confused by similar sounds

Question 6

Evaluation on coding baddeley

Answer 6

Research often conducted in controlled laboratory conditions. Eg baddeley study. Strength as we can be confident that coding in STM is acoustic and semantic in LTM . High internal validity
Negative - not clear how long we need to wait to test for LTM. Weakness as perhaps we should’ve waited longer than this amount of time to measure long term memory as there are much longer gaps between learning and recall in real life, is coding in ltm really semantic?

Question 7

Capacity research a01 for short term memory

Answer 7

Short term memory- Joseph Jackson developed a technique to measure digit span.
Procedure- researcher read out 4 digits p tried to recall numbers outloudin order. The number of digits increase until they stop getting it right
Findings - the mean digit span was 9.3 items. This decreased to 7.3 when letters were used instead of numbers
Miller suggested that capacity is about 7+-2 but noted that people expand capacity by chunking.
Information kept in stm is in fragile state, will dissappear if not rehearsed. Maintainance rehearsal occurs when we repea5

Question 8

Ao1 capacity long term memory

Answer 8

Wagenaar.
Created diary of 2400 events over 6 years and tested himself on recall of events rather than dates. He found he had excellent recall, suggesting the capacity of ltm is extremely large

Question 9

Evaluation of short term memory’s CAPACITY research a03

Answer 9

The effects of age are acknowledged. Jacob tested individuals of ranging ages and found that digit span increases with age as memory becomes more complex. This is a strength as the estimate of the capacity of Stm accounts for people of all ages.
(Individual differences)

Question 10

Evaluation of long term memory capacity a03

Answer 10

Results are often based on case studies. For eg, wagenaar used hid own memories to measure his long term memory. Weakness as memories not representative of general population, subjective and hard to app,y to others

Question 11

Duration research stm A01

Answer 11

Procedure- peterson and peterson
24 participants took part in 8 trials. Student given triagram and 3 digit num to remember, and count backwards from it to prevent rehearsal. Percentage correct decreased as retention interval increased
Conclusion- If rehearsal prevented- stm has limited duration

Question 12

Duration for ltm research a01

Answer 12

BAHRIK Studied 392 ps from America who were aged between 17 and 74. Recall was tested 2 ways
Photo recognition test - name as may of individuals as you can from 50 yearbook photos
Free recall test- recall all the names from the individuals in the yearbook without any cues,
Found that photo recognition was 90% accurate after 15 years and 70% accurate after 48 years

Question 13

A03 - long term memory fo DURATION and short term memory

Answer 13

Used meaningful memories as stimuli. Bahrik asked to recall yearbook photos of people they saw and went to school with everyday. This is astrengj as everyday memories where presented, so high external validity and can be generalised to every day memories
Short term memory
One WEAKNESS is that it makes uses of artifical stimuli. For eg, peterson and peterson asked participants to remember nonsense triagrams
Weakness as lacked external validity as it didn’t represent real life memory activities

Question 14

What’s the multi store model of memory

Answer 14

Atkinson and shiffrins model was the first cognitive explanation of memory. Argues that memory’s made up of 3 seprate unitary stores. Sensory register, stm, and ltm
For info to be retained as memory, the process of attention and rehearsal are required

Question 15

A03 evaluati9n for multi store model of memory

Answer 15

Strength is that its well supported by a range of research evidence
Eg glazner and cunitz provide clear support for existence of stm and ltm as distinct memory stores.
Procedure - ps heard list of words and Had to recall immediately.
Findings.]- participants had good recall for part of the list (primary affect) and th3 last part of the list(recency affect) words in the middle of the list had poorest revall
Supports msm as it suggests stm and ltm are separate memory stores.
Weakness is that its too simplistic. States that stm is a unitary store, in other words only one type of short term memory. However, evidence from people suffering from amnesia show that this can’t be true. Shallice and Warrington studied patient with amnesia known as kf. Memory for verbal material was poor but visual was unaffected. Suggests that there may be more than one store for stm . This is a serious limitation of msm as its another finding that can’t be explained by the model

Question 16

Who was the working model of memory made by

Answer 16

Baddely and hitch

Question 17

What’s the visuopatial sketchpad

Answer 17

Stores and manipulates visual information from the eyes or long term memory.
The vss can access ltm and receive visuopatial info
Subdivided by loggie
Can be subdivided into
Visual cache: stores information about shape and colour(how it looks like)
The inner stribe-deals with spatial and movement info (where something is)

Coding - visual
Capacity- 3-4 objects

Question 18

What’s the phonological loop

Answer 18

Deals with auditory information, spoken or written material and preserves order in which info arrives
Cod8ng - aciustic
Baddely divided phonological loop into 2 parts -
Phonological store (inner ear) holds speech based info eg words we hear for 1-2 secs
Articulatory control process (inner voice) silently repeats the words from the Ps on a loop to prevent them from decaying

Question 19

What’s the central executive

Answer 19

Main component of the working model of memory. Decides water we pay attention to, makes decisions and allocates tasks to slave systems.
No storage capacity
Can only pay attention to a limited number of stimuli

Question 20

What’s the episodic buffer

Answer 20

Integrating visual, spatial and verbal, information from the different slave systems into a single unit of information
Capacity- limit3d of about 4 chunks

Question 21

What happened to KF causing brain damage and what type of memory was affected

Answer 21

Fell from motorbike, he could see but he couldn’t speak. This suggests there’s multiple slave systems. His visual spatial sketchpad was unaffected but his phonological loop was.
Criticism to the msm
Shallice and Warrington studes this

Question 22

Whas a weakness of the working memory model A03

Answer 22

Central executive is too vague. Eslinger and damasio argue that there are probably several components within the central executive . Eg Evr he performed well on reasoning but showed poor judgement. This implies that central executive is not unitary and its explanations too simplistic

Question 23

What’s the sensory registor

Answer 23

Receives information from 5 senses
Coding: iconic for visually material and echoic for acoustic material
Duration: only 1-2 seconds
Capacity- large s it incudes material from 5 seconds

Question 24

Evaluation of multi store model

Answer 24

Well supported by a range of research evidence
Glazner and cruise provide clear evidence for existence of the stm and ltm as distinct memory stores. Procedure- participants heard list of words and Had to recall them in any order. Findings- participants had good recall forthe first part of the list primary affect and last part, recency affec
This suggests the msm as it suggests the stm and ktm are distinct memory stores
TOO SIMPLISTIX
msm states that stm is a unitary stores however evidence from people suffering from amnesia show that this can’t be true. For eg Warrington and shallice studied a patient with amnesia known as kf. Verbal was poor but visual was unaffected
Suggests that there may be more than one store of stm. Serious limitation
Overemphasises importance of rehearsal. According to msm, the more you rehearse information the more likely you’re to transfer it to the ltm. However this isn’t always the case. Very often we are able to recall information that we haven’t rehearsed such as swimming and yet we are unable to rehearse info such as reading notes

Question 25

Types of long term memory

Answer 25

Episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory

Question 26

What’s episodic memory?

Answer 26

Personal memories of events. They’re time stamped. They require conscious effort to recall. They’re declarative .

Question 27

What are semantic memories?

Answer 27

Knowledge of world, eg Facts and is likened to a dictionary or encyclopedia
There not times stamped and require conscious effort to recall
They’re declarative eg cities

Question 28

What’s procedural memory

Answer 28

Memory of how to perform motor actions
Eg riding bike
Not time stamped but require lots of repetition and practice
No conscious effort to recall- they occur automatically
They’re non declarative

Question 29

Strength of theory of long term memory typesA03

Answer 29

Comes in clinical case studies.
The case of Clive wearing supports the 3 types of long term memory as his episodic memory was affected as he couldn’t remember that he had siblings. However, his procedural was unaffected as he could play piano and his semantic was unaffected as he could read.
This supports tulvings views that there’s different stores in ltm
Therefore this increases the internal validity

Another strength is the theory of the types of long term memory comes in evidence from neuroimaging techniques. Brain studies provide evidence that different types of memories are stored I different parts of the brain. Tulving got their ps to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a pet scanner. They found that episodic and semantic memories were recalled from the prefrontal cortex in the brain. Additional evidence found that procedural memory is linked in the cerebellum, which is involved in control of motor movement. Increases scientific validity for the explaination of different stores in the ltm

Question 30

Reason for why we forget

Answer 30

Availability
Problems of accessibility

Question 31

What’s interference

Answer 31

2 pieces of info conflict eachother resulting in forgetting one or both of them
Explanation for forgetting in LTM

Question 32

What’s proactive interference

Answer 32

Older memory affects the recall of a new memory
(Old memory affects recall of new memory
Forget new info)

Question 33

What’s retroactive interference

Answer 33

This occurs when a newer memory affects the recall of an older memory
(Forget old info
Newer info interferes with ability to remember old info)

Question 34

What’s retrieval failure

Answer 34

Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory
When we initially store a memory, some associated cues are stored with it

Question 35

What did tulving suggest

Answer 35

That there are 3 ltm stores
Tulving was one of the first cognitive psychology to realise that the msms view of ltm was too simplistic

Question 36

Disadvantage of the theory of the types of long term memories a03

Answer 36

Cohen and squire disagree with tulvings division of ltm
They argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one store they call declarative memory. In contrast, procedural memories are non declarative. This reduces the validity of tulvings theory that there are 3 stores in lgm and suggests there are 2 instead

Question 37

A03 of working memory model

Answer 37

Supported by clinical evidence. People suffering from amnesia can prove.Shallice and Warrington studied the case of KF, whose brain was damaged in motorbike accident. They found that he could see but couldn’t speak. This can be explained by damage to the phonological loop but the visiopatial sketchpad still intact. Supports stm more than 1 component in real life situations

Central executive is too vague. Eslinger and damasio argue that there are probably several components within the central executive . Eg Evr he performed well on reasoning but showed poor judgement. This implies that central executive is not unitary and its explanations too sim&plistic

Has positive practical applications. Wmm is used to help children who have an impaired working memory. Eg alloway developed several methods to improve the wm of children with adhd. These including breaking instructions down to into individual steps and asking the child to repeat instructions. These applications strengthen wmm in its validity in relation to the real world

Question 38

What are the theories of forgetting

Answer 38

Proactive and retroactive interference, and retrieval failure

Question 39

Evaluation of interference A03

Answer 39

Lots of supporting evidence. Interference in memory is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings in psychology. Mcgeoch and McDonald’s research (where ps had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learnt a new list. There were 10 groups who had to learn different types of lists eg words with sim meanings to originals and opposite to original. Found that when ps recalled original list, performance depended on the nature of the second list. This supports theory that interference is strongest when memories are similar) this is a strength bc lab experiments no extraneous. So valid explanation for forgetting

Weakness is that materials used in research into interference theory are artificial. There’s much greater chance that interference will be demonstrated in the lab than in real life situations, bc they typically involve using lists of words which don’t represent real life memory tasks such as your friends birthday. Additionally, another diasdv is that research conducted in a lab is that the tasks given to ps occur in a short period of time. In real world learning of material is more spaced out. Limitation as such research can’t be generalised to forgetting in real life situations

However, not all studies conducted on interference take place in a lab. Eg baddeley and hitch looked at the effects of interference in an everyday situation. Procedure- rugby players were asked to remember the names of the teams they had played in the season week by week, bc most players had missed games for some the last team they mightve been long ago. Findings- accurate recall didn’t depend on how long the matches took place, more important was the num of games they played. This is a strength as it shows interference can apply to atleast some everyday situations

Question 40

What’s encoding specificity principle

Answer 40

Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a pattern to findings, this states that if a cue is to help us to recall info, then it must be present after the encoding and retrieval.
If cues available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting

Question 41

What’s context dependent forgetting

Answer 41

The context in which we experience or learn something in is crucial. Provided with right external cues, we can quickly recover memories demonstrated by many experimental studies

Question 42

What was godden and baddeleys research

Answer 42

Procedure - divers were required to learn a list of words and then recall them either underwater or on land. 4 bonds
1) learn on land recall, on land
2) learn on land recall underwater
3) learn underwater recall on land
4) learn underwater recall underwater
Findings ps recalled the words better in the place they originally learnt the list of words. Demonstrates the usefulness of env cues

Question 43

What state dependent forgetting

Answer 43

Recall is impaired if we try to remember something when we are in a different physical or mental state.
Have difficulty recalling in diff states. Goodwin found that people who drank a lot forgot where they had put items when they were sober. However, they could recall the locations when they were drunk again. Ppl who learned a list of words while exercising on bike recalled more words when exercising rather than rest
Miles and handman

Question 44

Retrieval failure A03

Answer 44

A strength of this theory is supporting evidence. An impressive range of research supports the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting, additionally a researcher eysenck argued that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting in ltm. This increases the validity of the explanation. Shows it occurs in real life situations

However, limitation of theory is that it may be limited as evidence suggests that context only affects memory when it’s very different at recall. Different contexts mist be very different before effect is seen, eg hard to find environment as diff as land and underwater (godden and baddely) in contrast learning something in one classroom and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting bc contexts not diff enough. Limitation as presence or absence of cue only affects memory when you test it in a certain way
The effect of context on recall may be related to the kind of memory being tested. Godden and baddely replicated their underwater explanation but used a recognition test instead of recall, ps had to say whether they recognised a word read to the, from the list instead of retrieving it themselves . When recognition was tested, context didn’t have any effect on performance. Further limitation of context dependent forgetting bc it means that the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way

Question 45

whats eyewitness testimony

Answer 45

statement given to a court of law by an eyewitness who was at scene of the crime under oath. includes identification of perpetrators details of crime scene and any other relevant details

Question 46

research into leading questions

Answer 46

loftus and palmer investigated the effect of leading questions on ewt using students
procedure. ps watched film clips of car accidents and were then asked various question about what they had seen
in critical Q- how fast were the cars going when hit. leading q due to hit
5 groups of ps, each given a different verb in the critical question
conclusion- study suggests the wording of the Q calter the recall of memories from the Ps

Question 47

why do leading questions affect eye witness testimony

Answer 47

response bias- suggests that the wording of the question has no real affect on the ps memories but just influences how they decide to answer. when a p gets a leading question using the word smashed this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate
memory is altered: the wording of the leading question, eg smashed changes the persons memory of the film clips. therefore those asked the critical question with the verb smashed will remember the incident as more serious than someone asked the same question with the verb hit being used

Question 48

whatre the several psychological factors that are thought to affect the reliability of ewt

Answer 48

leading questions, post event discussions, anxiety/stress, weapon focus

Question 49

Whats post event discussion

Answer 49

Form of misleading information that can lower reliability of ewt. Can often occur when several eyewitnesses discuss the crime with eachother. this can cause the eyewitnesses to combine incorrect information from other witnesses with their own memories. research by fiona gabbert has demonstrated how this happens

Question 50

procedure findings of research into post event discussion

Answer 50

research by fiona gabbert
procedure - ps were paired up and then watched a video of the same crime but from different viewpoints. meant that ps could only see elements in the event that others couldnt
both ps then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall
findings- gabbert found that 71% of the ps mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didnt see in the video but picked up in the discussion. in comparison none of the ps in control group with no discussion made the same mistake
suggests that ped reduces reliability of the ewt because witnesses often go along with eachother in other to win social approval bc they believe other witnesses are right and theyre wrong. she called this memory conformity

Question 51

evalutation of misleading information A03

Answer 51

Practical applications- Strength of research into misleading information is that it had hugely practical uses in the real world. Psychologists are sometimes used to act as expert witnesses in court trial and explain the limitated ewt to juries. Possible applications could be adopted by the legal profession from this research for example in the development of the cognitive interview. loftus claimed leading questions can distort memory and therefore police are careful in the phrasing of their questions. research into ewt is one area in which psychologists believe they can make an important positive difference by improving the way the legal system works.
A limitation of research into misleading information is that research used artifical tasks. for eg in loftus and palmers study, their ps watched film clips of car accidents rather than witnessing real accidents. this id a limitation because studies that use such artificial tasks may tell us very little about how leading qs affect ewt in real life accidents or crimes. it has been suggested that many answers ps give in lab studies of ewt are result of demand characteristics and therefore lowers the validity of research into misleading information
A limitation to this explanation is that individual differences are ignored. There is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving eyewitness reports. Anstasi&rhodes found that people aged 18-45 were more accurate than people aged 55-78. This is a limitation as evidence fails to acknowledge such age differences and also tends to use younger people in their sample. this may mean that resrarch findings shouldnt be generalised to older people thus lowering the validity of the research

Question 52

anxiety in ewt ao1

Answer 52

anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects but is not clear wether these effects make eyewitness recall better or worse. research to support both possibilities

Question 53

How does Anxiety have a NEGATIVE Effect on EWT

Answer 53

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention
to important cue, thus worsening recall. Johnson and Scott (1976) studied the effect
of weapons (which create anxiety) on accuracy of recall of the witness.
Procedure: Participants were led to believe that they were going to take part in a lab
study. While seated in a waiting room, the participants heard a heated argument in
the next room, followed by a man walking through the waiting area.
• In the ‘low-anxiety’ condition, the man who walked through the waiting area was carrying a pen and had grease on his hands
• In the ‘high-anxiety’condition, the man was holding a knife that was covered in blood.
Weapon-Focus
Findings: 49% of Ps who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him compared to only 33% who had seen the man holding the knife.
Conclusion: This study suggests that anxiety can reduce the reliability of EWT. Loftus claimed that the participants who saw
the knife were less accurate because they focused their attention on the weapon (known as weapon focus effect) rather than on the surrounding events.

Question 54

How does Anxiety have a Positive Effect on EWT

Answer 54

Anxiety is thought to increase the accuracy of an eyewitness because the stress of witnessing a crime or accident triggers the fight-or-flight response. This response increases our alertess, which makes us more aware of what is happening in the situation.
Procedure: Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of a real-life shooting in
Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. 13 witnesses to the event agreed to take
part in the study. Participants were interveiwed 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared to the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the incident.
Findings: The witnesses proved to be
very accurate in their accounts.
Interestingly those Ps who reported the
highest levels of stress where the most
accurate (88% compared to 75% for the
less-stressed group)
Conclusion: This study suggests anxiety can improve memory for EWT

Question 55

Evaluate anxiety to ewt

Answer 55

Problems with the inverted U theory-Although the inverted U appears to be a reasonable explanation of the contradictory findings regarding both the positive and negative effects of anxiety on recall it only focuses on physical arousal.This is an issue as it ignores the fact that anxiety presents in many different forms. For example, it can also be cognitive .This matters because by using the inverted U theory we are oversimplifying the relationship between anxiety accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Weapon Focus Effect is Invalid
The participants who saw the knife in Johnson and Scott’s study may have had poorer recall because they were surprised rather than scared or anxious.In a study by Pickel (1988) participants were shown a video clip of a man walking up to a hairdresser’s receptionist with either a pair of scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken. Eyewitness accuracy was
significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (such as the chicken and
the gun).This suggests that weapon focus is due to the unusualness of the object in the situation (you would not expect someone to hold up a hairdressers!) rather than anxiety/threat. Therefore this suggests that weapon focus is an invalid explanation of eyewitness recall.
Field Studies lack Control
A weakness of this explanation is the methodology of the supporting research.
Field studies, such as that performed by Yuille & Cutshall, involve interviewing real-life eyewitnesses after an event. All sorts of things could have happened to the participants before the interview that the
researcher has no control over. For example, they may have seen a report of the event on TV.This is a limitation because it is possible that these participant variables may be responsible for the accuracy of recall, thus reducing the validity of field research. HOWEVER, one benefit of conducting field research is that it is more ETHICAL than Lab based research, where participants are deliberately made anxious. This suggests that the ethical benefits of field research may outweigh the issues of control that are outlined above.

Question 56

Whats cognitive interview?

Answer 56

Devised by fisher and gieselman, they thought the standard police interview could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. standard interview procedure involves a period of free recall about an event, followed by specific questions
the cognitive interview is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. it used 4 main techniques
report everything, reinstate the context, report in reverse order, report in changed perspective

Question 57

summarise the 4 techniques used in the cognitive interview

Answer 57

1. Report Everything
   Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it
   may seem irrelevant. can trigger external cues
2. Reinstate the context
   The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment (such as what the weather was like, what they could see) and their emotions (such as what they were their feelings).
3. Reverse the order
   Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original
   sequence,This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event might have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonestly as it is harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it.
4. Change perspective
   Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. This is done to prevent witnesses being affected by their
   expectations rather than what they actually saw. For example, if you failed to get a clear view of the purse-snatcher above, you may have presumed they were male, which of course may be incorrect!

Question 58

Evaluate cognitive interviews AO3

Answer 58

A strength of the cognitive interview is that it is well supported by psychological research.
For example Geiselman (1985) showed participants a film of a violent crime. They were later interviewed using a cognitive or standard police interview. Geiselman found that Cl led to better memory for events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared to the standard interview. This breadth of data suggests that the Cl offers real practical benefits to thepolice, especially when the enhanced version is used. These improvements to the way
police interview witnesses will result in more criminals being caught and charged; benefitting society.
The Cl is time-consuming
A limitation to the Cl is that it is time-consuming.
Police may be reluctant to use the Cl because it takes much longer than a standard police interview More time is needed to establish a relationship with the witness and to allow them to relax. Additionally the Cl requires special training and many police forces do not have the funds to provide the necessary training.This is a problem because the proper version is less likely to be used and the specialist training causes an increased cost to the economy
A final weakness of the Cl is that it doesn’t improve recall in all cases. For example, Geiselman (1999) reviewed many cases and found that in children under 6, recall of events was slightly less accurate possibly due to the
complexity of the instructions provided as part of the Cognitive Interview. This is a weakness because it shows that the cognitive interview is not effective at improving testimony in all situations.