Memory

Question 1

Coding, capacity and duration of memory: Define Short-term memory (STM)

Answer 1

The limited-capacity memory store. In STM, coding is mainly acoustic (sounds), capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is about 18 seconds.

Question 2

Coding, capacity and duration of memory: Define Long-term memory (LTM)

Answer 2

The permanent memory store. In LTM, coding is mainly semantic (meaning), it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime.

Question 3

Coding, capacity and duration of memory: Define Coding

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Coding, capacity and duration of memory: Define Capacity

Answer 4

The amount information that can be held in a memory store.

Question 5

Coding, capacity and duration of memory: Define Duration

Answer 5

The length of time information can be held in memory.

Question 6

Research on coding- STM and LTM

Answer 6

Baddeley (1966a, 1966b) gave different list of words to 4 groups of participants to remember. These contain words that are acoustically similar and dissimilar and semantically similar and dissimilar.

Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order. When they did this task immediately, recalling from short-term memory (STM), they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. When they recalled the word list after a time interval of 20 minutes, recalling from long-term memory (LTM), they did worse with the semantically similar words.
These findings suggest that information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM.

Question 7

Research on coding (Evaluation: Separate memory stores)

Answer 7

One strength of Baddeley’s study is that it identified a clear difference between two memory stores.
Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley’s findings. But the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly sematic has stood the test of time.
This was an important step in our understanding of the memory system, which led to the multi-store model.

Question 8

Research on coding (Evaluation: Artificial stimuli)

Answer 8

One limitation of Baddeley’s study was that it used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material.
For example, the word lists had no personal meaning to participants. So Baddeley’s findings may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, especially in everyday life. When processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks.
This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application.

Question 9

Research on capacity (Digit span)-STM

Answer 9

Jacobs (1887) found out by measuring digit span. For example, the researcher reads out 4 digits and the participant recalls these out loud in the correct order. If this is correct the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. This indicates the individual’s digit span.
Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items. The mean span for letters was 7.3.

Question 10

Research on capacity (Digit span)-STM (Evaluation: A valid study)

Answer 10

One strength of Jacobs’ study is that it has been replicated.
The study is a very old one and early research in psychology often lacked adequate controls. For example, some participants’ digit spans might have been underestimated because they were distracted during testing (confounding variable). Despite this, Jacobs’ findings have been confirmed by other, better controlled studies since (e.g. Bopp and Verhaeghen 2005).
This suggests that Jacobs’ study is a valid test of digit span in STM.

Question 11

Research on capacity (Span of memory and chunking)-STM

Answer 11

Miller (1956) made observations of everyday practice. For example, he noted that things come in sevens: seven notes on the musical scale, seven days of the week, seven deadly sins, etc. Miller thought that the span (i.e. capacity) of STM is about 7 items, plus or minus 2. But he also noted that people can recall 5 words as easily as they can recall 5 letters. We do this by chunking- grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks.

Question 12

Research on capacity (Span of memory and chunking)-STM (Evaluation: Not so many chunks)

Answer 12

One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated STM capacity.
Cowman (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only about 4 (plus or minus 1) chunks.
This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (5 items) is more appropriate than 7 items.

Question 13

Research on duration (Duration of STM)

Answer 13

Peterson and Peterson (1959) tested 24 students in 8 trials each. On each trial the student was given a consonant syllable to remember. They were also given a 3-digit number. The student counted backwards from this number until told to stop. The counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable.
On each trial they were told to stop after varying periods of time: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds (the retention interval). After 3 seconds, average recall was about 80%, after 18 seconds it was about 3%. Peterson and Peterson’s findings suggested that STM duration may be about 18 seconds, unless we repeat the information over and over (i.e. verbal rehearsal).

Question 14

Research on duration (Duration of STM) (Evaluation: Meaningless stimuli in STM study)

Answer 14

One limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study is that the stimulus material was artificial.
The study is not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material (e.g. phone number). Even so, recalling consonant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful.
This means the study lacked external validity.

Question 15

Research on duration (Duration of LTM)

Answer 15

Bahrick et al. (1975) studied 392 American participants aged between 17 and 74. High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or directly from other schools. Recall was tested in various ways, including:
(1) photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos, some from the participants’ high school yearbooks
(2) free recall test where participants recalled all the names of their graduating class.
Participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition. Free recall was less accurate than recognition- about 60% after 15 years, dropping to 30% after 48 years.
This shows that LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material.

Question 16

Research on duration (Duration of LTM)
(Evaluation: High external validity)

Answer 16

One strength of Bahrick et al.’s study is that it has high external validity.
This is because the researchers investigated meaningful memories (i.e. of people’s names and faces). When studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower (e.g. Shepard 1967).
This suggests that Bahrick et al.’s findings reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of the duration of LTM).

Question 17

The multi-store model of memory: Define Multi-store model (MSM)

Answer 17

A representation of how memory works in terms of 3 stores called the sensory register, STM and LTM. It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, what makes some memories last and what makes some memories disappear.

Question 18

The multi-store model of memory: Define Sensory register

Answer 18

The memory stores for each of the 5 senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store). Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is the acoustic (sounds). The capacity of sensory registers is huge (millions of receptors) and information lasts for a very short time (less than half a second).

Question 19

The multi-store model of memory intro

Answer 19

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM describes how information flows through the memory system. The model suggests that memory is made up of 3 stores linked by processing.

Question 20

The multi-store model of memory: (1) Sensory register

Answer 20

All stimuli from the environment (e.g. the sound of someone talking) pass into the sensory register (SR). This part of memory comprises several registers (sensory memory stores), one for each of our 5 senses. Coding in each store is modality-specific (i.e. it depends on the sense). For example, the store coding for visual information is iconic memory and the store coding acoustically (i.e. for sound) is echoic memory. There are other sensory stores for touch, taste and smell information.
Duration of material in the SRs is very brief- less than half a second. The SRs have a very high capacity, for example over 100 million cells in one eye, each storing data.
Information passes further into the memory system only if you pay attention to it (so attention is the key process).

Question 21

The multi-store model of memory: (2) STM

Answer 21

Information in STM is coded mainly acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed, so STM is more of a temporary store. STM is a limited-capacity store, because it can only contain a certain number of ‘things’ before forgetting occurs. Capacity of STM is between 5 and 9 items of information, through Cowan’s research suggests it might be more like 5 rather than 9.
Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again. We can keep the information in our STMs as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it long enough, it passes into LTM.

Question 22

The multi-store model of memory: (3) LTM

Answer 22

This is the potentially permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. LTMs are coded mostly semantically (i.e. in terms of meaning). Psychologists believe that its duration may be up to a lifetime. For example, Bahrick et al. (1975) found that many of their participants were able to recognise the names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating. The capacity of LTM is thought to be practically unlimited.
According to the MSM, when we want to recall information from LTM, it has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval.

Question 23

The multi-store model of memory: (Evaluation: Research support)

Answer 23

One strength of the MSM is support from studies showing that STM and LTM are different.
For example, Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound familiar when we are using our STM’s. But we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTM’s. Further support comes from the studies of capacity and duration.
These studies clearly show that STM and LTM are separate and independent memory stores, as claimed by the MSM.

Question 24

The multi-store model of memory: (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Research support)

Answer 24

Despite such apparent support, in everyday life we form memories, related to all sorts of useful things- people’s faces, their names, facts, places, etc. But many of the studies that support the MSM used none of these materials. Instead, they used digits, letters (Jacobs), and sometimes words (Baddeley). They even used what are known as consonant syllables that have no meaning (Peterson and Peterson).
This means that the MSM may not be a valid model of how memory works in our everyday lives where we have to remember much more meaningful information.

Question 25

The multi-store model of memory: (Evaluation: More than one STM store)

Answer 25

One limitation of the MSM is evidence of more than one STM store.
Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a client they referred to as FK who had a clinical memory disorder called amnesia. KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they were read out loud to him. But his recall was much better when he read the digits to himself. Further studies of FK (and others) showed that there could even be another short-term store for non-verbal sounds (e.g. noises).
This evidence suggests that the MSM is wrong in claiming that there is just one STM store processing different types of information (e.g. visual, auditory etc.).

Question 26

Types of LTM: Define Episodic memory

Answer 26

A LTM store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort.

Question 27

Types of LTM: Define Semantic memory

Answer 27

A LTM store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately.

Question 28

Types of LTM: Define Procedural memory

Answer 28

A LTM store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Question 29

Types of LTM: intro

Answer 29

Tulving was one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise that the multi-store model’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible. Tulving proposed that there are in fact 3 LTM stores, containing quite different types of information.

Question 30

Types of LTM: Episodic memory info

Answer 30

Episodic memory refers to our ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives e.g. the breakfast you ate this morning.

First of all, they are ‘time-stamped’- in other words you remember when they happened as well as what happened. Episodic memories also store information about how events relate to each other in time.

second, your memory of a single episode will include several elements, such as people and places, objects and behaviours. All of these memories are interwoven to produce a single memory.

Third, you have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories. You do this quickly, but you are still aware that you are searching for your memory of what happened when you went to the dentist.

Question 31

Types of LTM: Semantic memory info

Answer 31

This store contains our shared knowledge of the world. It includes knowledge of things such as how orange juice tastes like and the meanings of words. Your semantic memory contains your knowledge of an impressive number of concepts such as ‘animals or ‘love’.
These memories are not ‘time-stamped’, for example We don’t usually remember when we first heard about the new ‘Frozen’ film. Semantic knowledge is less personal and more about facts we all share. It contains an immerse collection of material which, given its nature, is constantly being added to.
According to Tulving, it is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory.

Question 32

Types of LTM: Procedural memory info

Answer 32

This is our memory for actions and skills, or basically how we do things. We can recall these memories without conscious awareness or much effort. A good example is driving a car. Our ability to do this becomes automatic through practice. We change gear without having to recall how. We indicate left or right without realising we’ve done so.
These are sorts of skills we might even quite find hard to explain to someone else. If you do try to describe what you are doing as you drive the car, the task may well become more difficult.

Question 33

Types of LTM: (Evaluation: Clinical evidence)

Answer 33

One strength is evidence from the famous case studies of HM and Clive Wearing.
Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to brain damage (caused by an operation and infection). But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. They still understood the meaning of words. For example, HM could not recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier, but he did not need to have the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him. Their procedural memories were also intact.
They both still knew how to walk and speak, and Clive Wearing (a professional musician) knew how to read music, sing and play the piano.
This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM- one store can be damaged but other stores are unaffected.

Question 34

Types of LTM: (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Clinical evidence)

Answer 34

Studying people with brain injuries can help researchers to understand how memory is supposed to work normally. But clinical studies are not perfect. A major limitation is that they lack control of variables. The brain injuries experienced by participants were usually unexpected. The researcher had no way of controlling what happened to the participant before or during the injury. The researcher had no knowledge of the individual’s memory before the damage. Without this, it’s difficult to judge exactly how much worse it is afterwards.
This lack of control limits what clinical studies can tell us about different types of LTM.

Question 35

Types of LTM: (Evaluation: Conflicting neuroimaging choices)

Answer 35

One limitation is that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain.
For example, Buckner and Petersen (1996) reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory. They concluded that semantic memory is located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right. However, other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episodic retrieval (Tulving et al. 1994).
This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement on where each type might be located.

Question 36

The Working Memory Model: Define WMM

Answer 36

A representation of short-term memory (STM). It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using Subunits co-ordinated by a central decision-making system.

Question 37

The Working Memory Model: Define Central executive (CE)

Answer 37

The component of the WMM that that co-ordinated the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.

Question 38

The Working Memory Model: Define Phonological loop (PL)

Answer 38

The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process.

Question 39

The Working Memory Model: Define Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

Answer 39

The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’.

Question 40

The Working Memory Model: Define Episodic buffer (EB)

Answer 40

The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and LTM.

Question 41

The Working Memory Model: intro

Answer 41

The WMM (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974) is an explanation of how one aspect of memory (STM) is organised and how it functions.
The WMM is concerned with the ‘mental space’ that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information, for example when working on an arithmetic problem or playing chess or comprehending language etc.
The model consists of 4 main components, each of which is qualitatively different especially in terms of coding and capacity.

Question 42

The Working Memory Model: Central executive

Answer 42

The central executive (CE) has a ‘supervisory’ role. It monitors incoming data, focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates subsystems to tasks. The CE has a very limited processing capacity and does not store information.

Question 43

The Working Memory Model: (1) Phonological loop

Answer 43

One of the subsystems is the PL. It deals with auditory information (i.e. coding is acoustic) and preserves the order in which the information arrives. The PL is subdivided into:
-The phonological store, which stores the words you hear
-The articulatory process, which allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a ‘loop’ to keep them in working memory while they are needed). The capacity of this ‘loop’ is believed to be 2 seconds’ worth of what you can say.

Question 44

The Working Memory Model: (2) Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 44

The second subsystem is the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS). The VSS stores visual and/or spatial information when required. For example, if you are asked to work out how many windows there are on your house you visualise it. It also has a limited capacity, which according to Baddeley (2003) is about 3 or 4 objects. Logie (1995) subdivided the VSS into:

-The visual cache, which stores visual data.

-The inner scribe, which records the arrangement of objects in the visual filed.

Question 45

The Working Memory Model: Episodic buffer

Answer 45

The third subsystem is the EB. This was added to the model by Baddeley in 2000. It is a temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing. - basically, recording events (episodes) that are happening. It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about 4 chunks (Baddeley 2012). The episodic buffer links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.

Question 46

The Working Memory Model: (Evaluation: Clinical evidence)

Answer 46

One strength is support from Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study of patient KF.
After his brain injury, KF had poor STM ability for auditory (sound) information but could process visual information normally. For instance, his immediate recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual) then when they were read to him (acoustic). KF’s phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketchpad was intact.
This finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores.

Question 47

The Working Memory Model: (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Clinical evidence)

Answer 47

However, it is unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments (apart from damage to his phonological loop) which might have affected his performance on memory tasks. For example, his injury was caused by a motorcycle accident. The trauma involved may have affected his cognitive performance quite apart from any brain injury.
This challenges evidence that comes from clinical studies of people with brain injuries that may have affected many different systems.

Question 48

The Working Memory Model: (Evaluation: Name of the central executive)

Answer 48

One limitation is that there is a lack of clarity over the nature of the CE.
Baddeley (2003) himself recognised this when he said, ‘The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory’. The CE needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attention’. For example, some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate subcomponents.
This means that the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the WMM.

Question 49

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: Define Interference

Answer 49

Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.

Question 50

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: Define Proactive interference (PI)

Answer 50

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stores, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
For example, your teacher has learned so many names in the past that she has difficulty remembering the names of her current.

Question 51

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: Define Retroactive interference (RI)

Answer 51

Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar.
For example, your teacher has learned so many names in the past that she has difficulty remembering the names of her current class.

Question 52

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: Research on effects of similarity

Answer 52

McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list. There were six groups of participants who had to learn different types of new lists: synonyms, antonyms, words unrelated to the original ones, Consonant syllables, three-digit numbers and no new list.

Findings:

When the participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the most similar material (Synonyms) produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 53

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: Explanation of the effects of similarity

Answer 53

The reason similarity affects recall may be for one of 2 reasons. It could be due to PI- previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store. Or it could be due to RI- new information overwrites previous similar memories because of the similarity.

Question 54

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: (Evaluation: Real-world interference)

Answer 54

One strength is that there is evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations.
Baddeley and Hitch (1977) asked rugby players all played for the same time interval (over one season) but the number of intervening games varied because some players missed matches due to injury. Players who played the most games (most interference for memory) had the poorest recall.
This study shows that interference can operate in at least some real-world situations, increasing the validity of the theory.

Question 55

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Real-world interference)

Answer 55

Interference may cause some forgetting in everyday situations, but it is unusual. This is because the conditions necessary for interference to occur are relatively rare. This is very unlike lab studies, where the high degree of control means a researcher can create ideal conditions for interference. For instance, 2 memories (or sets of learning) have to be fairly similar in order to interfere with each other. This may happen occasionally in everyday life (e.g. if you were to revise similar subjects close in time), but not often.
This suggests that most forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to a lack of cues.

Question 56

Explanations for forgetting-Interference: (Evaluation: Interference and cues)

Answer 56

One limitation is that interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues (hints or cues to help us remember something).
Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time (participants were not told what the categories were). Recall averaged about 70% for the first list, but became progressively worse as participants learned each additional list (interference). At the end of the procedure the participants were given a cued recall test- they were told the names of the categories. Recall rose again to about 70%. This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to material that is still in LTM, a finding not predicted by interference theory.

Question 57

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure: Define Retrieval failure

Answer 57

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 58

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure: Define Cue

Answer 58

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. Indirect cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness).

Question 59

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure: Research on context-dependent forgetting

Answer 59

Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep-sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater. The drivers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.
This created 4 conditions:
-Learn on land- recall on land
-Learn on land- recall underwater
-Learn underwater- recall on land
-Learn underwater- recall underwater

Findings and conclusions:

In 2 of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas on the other 2 they did not. Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions. They concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure.

Question 60

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure:(Evaluation: Research support)

Answer 60

One strength is the impressive range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation.
The studies of Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday are just two examples because they show that a lack of relecant cues at recall can lead to context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting in everyday life. Memory rsearchers Eyseneck and Keane (2010) argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM.
This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab.

Question 61

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure:(Evaluation: Counterpoint for Research support)

Answer 61

Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are acctually not very strong , especially in everyday life. Different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen. For example, it would be hard to find an environment as diferent from land as underwater (Godden and Baddeley). In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough.
This means that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting.

Question 62

Explanations for forgetting-Retrieval failure:(Evaluation Recall versus recognition)

Answer 62

One limitation is that conext effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being tested.
Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment that used a recognition test instead of recall- Participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from a list, instead of retrieving it for themselves. When recognition was tested there was no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all 4 conditions.
This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it.

Question 63

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Define Eyewitness testimony (EWT)

Answer 63

The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information and anxiety.

Question 64

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Define Misleading Information

Answer 64

Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event. It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people.

Question 65

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Define Leading question

Answer 65

A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer. For example ‘Was the knife in his left hand?’ leads a person to think that’s where the knife was.

Question 66

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Define Post-event discussion (PED)

Answer 66

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

Question 67

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Research on leading questions

Answer 67

Loftus and Palmer (1974) arranged for 45 participants (students) to watch film clips of car accidents and then asked them questions about the accident. In the critical question (a leading question or also called misleading information) participants were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling: ;About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
There were 5 groups of participants and each group was given a different verb in the critical question. One group had the verb hit, the others had contacted, bumped, collided and smashed.

Findings: The mean estimated speed was calculated for each participant group. The verb contacted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph. For the verb smashed, the mean was 40.5 mph. The leading question biased the eyewitness’s recall of an event.

Question 68

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Research on post-event discussion-Why do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 68

The response-bias explanation suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participant’s memories, but just influences how they decide to answer. When a participant gets a leading question using the word smashed, this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted a second experiment that supposed the substitution explanation, which proposes that the wording of a leading question changes the participant’s memory of the film clip. This was shown because participants who originally heard smashed were later more likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard hit. The critical verb altered their memory of the accident.

Question 69

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Research on post-event discussion

Answer 69

Gabbert et al. (2003) studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. This meant that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. For example, only one of the participants could see the title of a book being carrried by a young women.
Both participants tehn discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall.

Findings: The researchers found that 71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. The corresponding figure in a control group, where there was no discussion, was 0%. This was evidence of memory conformity.

Question 70

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : Research on post-event discussion- Why does post-event discussion affect EWT?

Answer 70

One explanation is memory contamination. When co-witness to a crime discuss it with each other, thier eyewitness testimonies may become altered or distorted. This is because they combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories.
Another explanation is memory conformity. Gabbert et al. concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong. Unlike with memory contamination, the actual memory is unchanged.

Question 71

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : (Evaluation: Real-world application)

Answer 71

One strength of research into misleading information is that it has important practical uses in the criminal justice system.
The consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. Loftus (1975) believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. Psychologists are sometimes asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries.
This shows that psychologists can help to improve the way the legal system works, especially by protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT.

Question 72

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Real-world application)

Answer 72

However, the practical applications of EWT may be affected by issues with research. For instance, Loftus and Palmer’s participants wated film clips in a lab, a very different experience from witnessing a real event (e.g. less stressful). Also, Foster et al. (1994) point out that what eyewitnesses remember has important consequences in the real world, but participants’ responses in research do not matter in the same way (so research participants are less motivated to be accurate).
This suggests that rsearchers such as Loftus are too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information- EWT may be more dependable than many studies suggest.

Question 73

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Misleading information : (Evaluation: Evidence against substitution)

Answer 73

One limitation of the substitution explanation is that EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others.
For example, Researchers showed participants a video clip. When participants were later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones. Presumable the participants’ attention was focused on central features of the event and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information.
This suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, an outcome that is not predicted by the substitution explanation.

Question 74

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : Define Anxiety

Answer 74

A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations, but it can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony.

Question 75

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : The effects of anxiety- Anxiety has a negative effect on recall (weapon recall)

Answer 75

Johnson and Scott (1976) did research on this. Their participants believed they were taking part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants in the low-anxiety condition heard a casual conversation in the next room and then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen and with grease on his hands. Other participants overheard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room, holding a knife covered in blood. This was the high-anxiety condition.

Findings and conclusion:

The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. The corresponding figure for the participants who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife was 33%. The tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events. Weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect.

Question 76

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : The effects of anxiety- Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 76

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses- 13 took part in the study. They were interviewed 4 to 5 months after the incident and these interviews were compared with the original police interviews at the time of the shooting. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident (on a 7-point scale) and whether they had any emotional problems sence the event (e.g. sleeplesness).

Findings and conclusion:

The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little charge in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months-though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of the colour of items and age/height/weight estimates. Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group). This suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in a real-world context and may even enhance it.

Question 77

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : The effects of anxiety (Evaluation- Unusualness not anxiety)

Answer 77

Onle limitation of the study by Johnson and Scott is that it may not have tested anxiety.
The reason participants focused on the weapon may be because they were suprised at what they saw rather than scared. Pickel (1998) conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video (where scissors would be high anxiety, low unusualness). Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun).
This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Question 78

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : The effects of anxiety (Evaluation- Support for positive effects)

Answer 78

One strength is evidence showing that anxiety can have positive effects on the accuracy of recall.
Christianson and Hubinette (1993) interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden. Some of the witnesses were directly involved (e.g. bank workers) and some were indirectly involved (e.g. bystanders). The researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience the most anxiety. It was found that recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses. The direct victims (most anxious) were even more accurate.
These findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety does not reduce the accuracy of recall for eyewitnesses and may even enhance it.

Question 79

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Anxiety : The effects of anxiety (Evaluation-Counterpoint for Support for positive effects)

Answer 79

Christianson and Hubinette interviewed their participants several months after the event (4 to 15 months). The researchers therefore had no control over what happened to their participants in the intervening time (e.g. post-event discussions). The effects of anxiety may have been overwhelmed by these other factors and impossible to assess by the time the participants were interviewed.
Therefore it is possible that a lack of control over confounding variables may be responsible for these findings, invalidating their support.

Question 80

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : Define Cognitive Interview (CI)

Answer 80

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses 4 main techniques, all based on evidence-based psychological knowledge of human memory-report everything reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.

Question 81

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : intro

Answer 81

Fisher and Geiselman (1992) argued that eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. Fisher and Geiselman recommended that such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and called these techniques collectively the cognitive interview (CI) to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology.

Question 82

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (1) Report everything

Answer 82

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories.

Question 83

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (2) Reinstate the context

Answer 83

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 weather they were happy or bored). This is related to context-dependent forgetting.

Question 84

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (3) Reverse the order

Answer 84

Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning.
This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (its harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it).

Question 85

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (4) Change perspective

Answer 85

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 again is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect of schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting (such as going to the shop) generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

Question 86

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)

Answer 86

Fisher et al. (1987) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

Question 87

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (Evaluation: Support for the effectiveness of the CI)

Answer 87

One strength of the cognitive interview is evidence that it works. For example, a meta-analysis by Kohnken et al. (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI (and the ECI) with the standard police interview. The CI gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview. Only 4 studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interview.
This shows that the CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not immediately accessible.

Question 88

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (Evaluation: Counterpoint for Support for the effectiveness of the CI)

Answer 88

Kohnken et al. also found that an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants. This was a particular issue in the ECI, which produced more incorrect details than the CL. Cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT (i.e. accuracy) in favour of quantity (amount of details).
This means that police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from CIs/ECIs with caution.

Question 89

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview : (Evaluation: The CI is time-consuming)

Answer 89

Another limitation is that police officers may be reluctant to use the CI because it takes more time and training than the standard police interview.
For example, more time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax. The CI also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997).
This suggests that the complete CI as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements.