Memory Flashcards
What are the three basic features of memory?
Coding- the format that the information is held, for example sound or images
Storage- keeping the information within the memory system
Retrieval- accessing the information when it is relevant
Describe the sensory memory?
Very large capacity ( everything in surroundings)
Can hold information for 1/4 to 2 seconds depending on which sense it is processed in
The coding is modality specific
Describe the short term memory?
Can hold 5-9 chunks of information for 18-30 seconds
Information has to be sounds
Describe the long term memory?
Can hold an unlimited amount of information for an unlimited amount of time but it has to be semantics ( things with meaning attached to them)
What is a strength of the msm ( clinical studies)?
Patients with Korakoff’s syndrome (affecting chronic alcoholics)
There was little affect on STM but lots of on LTM. They may be able to have a conversation but not remember the conversation.
KF had brain damage due to a motor cycle accident, it had no affect on LTM however he had poor performance on many STM tasks
What is a strength of the msm ( experimental support)
Glazner and Cutnitz showed that when given a list of words we are more likely to remember the first few words ( primacy effect) and the last few words (recency effect). This is because the first few words are already in our LTM and the last few words are still in our STM
Limitation of the MSM (unitary stores)
Tulving suggested that the LTM includes the episodic, semantic and procedural stores. Clive Wearing supports this as after a brain injury he retained the ability to play the piano, however he was unable to remember his wedding
Critism of the MSM ( too much emphasis on rehearsal)
We can see from our lives that we do not always have to rehearse information to remember it, for example memories with strong emotions attached to them
Criticisms of the MSM? Population validity
Most of the research into STM and LTM is done on people who have brain damage, therefore it is hard to generalise to the entire population
Research into the sensory register? (Capacity)
Sterling flashed a grid of 3X4 letters for 1/20th of a second and gave a sound so the participants would know which one to remember ( a high pitch would mean the first row)
Participants were generally able to remember their rows which suggests the information is originally there, which suggests that the SR capacity is quite large
Research into the sensory register (duration)
Treisman gave participants were given identical auditory message to both ears, however one would have a slight delay.
Participants could tell the messages were identical if the delay was two seconds or less, this shows that the duration of the sensory memory is two seconds or less
What are the strengths of the sensory register? (coding)
Crowder found that visual information can be stored for only a few milliseconds, whereas we can hold acoustic information for 2-3 seconds
Research into short term memory (capacity)
The participants were given a list of numbers, and had to immediately recall them in the correct order (serial recall), the list got longer by one digit each time. Most participants could remember 5 to nine items
Numbers: 9.3
Letters: 7.3
8 year olds 6.6
19 year olds 8.6
Research into short term memory (duration)
Peterson and Peterson presented nonsense trigrams to participants who repeated them back either 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds later. They were given a distraction task (counting back in threes from 999)
Maximum duration is 18 to 30 seconds
Research into STM (coding)
Baddely presented participants with list A, acoustically similar, and list B, acoustically dissimilar. They were then given the words jumbled up, and their task was to put them back in the correct order.
Participants with the acoustically similar list performed worse, their success rate was only 10%
Research into LTM (capacity)
None, therefore capacity is assumed limitless
Research into LTM (duration)
Bahrick showed 400 participants 17-74 pictures of their old classmates
90% success after 15 years
After 48 years
80% names
70% faces
Research into LTM (coding)
Baddely presented participants with either a semantically similar or a semantically dissimilar list. 20 minutes later, they were re given the list in the wrong order and had to put them back in the right order
Semantically similar performed worse (55%)
Evaluation of research into types of LTM (supporting research evidence)
Tulving found using PET scans that episodic memories were recalled in the pre-frontal cortex and semantic memories were recalled in the posterior region of the cortex.
Strength of research into LTM (real life application)
Can be used to help real people. Belleville et al (2006) used trained participants and untrained participants for an episodic memory test. When the trained participants performed better, he deduced that episodic memory can be improved in older people who have mild cognitive impairment
Evaluation of research into LTM (overlap)
Semantic and episodic memories are very similar as a lot of the facts we know are based on things we have learnt through personal experience, this makes them difficult to distinguish. This lowers the internal validity of the research
Evaluation of research into types of LTM (pop validity)
Uses small samples or case studies for example Clive Wearing, often uses people with brain damage, had to generalise to the entire population
Describe the CE (Central executive)
Cannot store data, can’t do many things at once, can code any information as it controls the other ‘salve’ components. Selects the most important information for the working memory to pay attention to.
Describe the phonological loop?
Codes information acoustically, limited to 2 seconds capacity
Primary Acoustic store - receives auditory information and remembers the sounds in the order they were presented
Articulatory process - speech production, used to prepare what you want to say through rehearsal
Describe the Visuo spatial sketch pad ?
Capacity of 3-4 objects which are coded visually
Duration: 1/4 of a second
Visual Cache - stores information about form and colour
Inner scribe - spatial relationships
Describe the episodic buffer?
Temporary, limited capacity of about four chunks, uses visual and auditory information to “create a scene” in your mind
Strengths of working memory model (Baddely)
Two visual tasks(tracking a light and describing the letter F) proved to be more difficult than one visual and one verbal. This shows the capacity of the different slave systems, which is strong evidence that they exist
Strengths of the working memory model (empirical evidence)
Cohen et al found that there was more activity in the Broca’s area when completing and auditory task (both associated with the phonological loop) and more in the occipital lobe when completing a visual task (associated with the VVSP)
Evaluation of the working memory model (oversimplification)
EVR performed well on reasoning tasks however had poor decision making skills, both of these tasks are associated with the central executive which suggests it is more complicated than previously imagined
Evaluation of working memory model (reductionist )
Does not account for musical memory
Proactive interference?
When previous information competes with new information
Retroactive interference?
When recent information competes with old information
Strengths of interference theory (research support for proactive interference)
Wickets gave participants four trials of remembering nonsense trigrams after a certain amount of time and a forth trial which was number based. On trials 1-3, success slowly deteriorated however on trial four it was almost 100%. Shows that similar information was interfering with the accuracy of recall
What is a limitation of interference theory- artificiality?
One limitation is that lots of research into interference theory used artificial tasks, for example Wicken’s study required participants to remember nonsense trigrams, which has low mundane realism and therefore low ecological validity. However, there has also been some research not interference in the real world (Baddely and Hitch’s study)
Strength of interference theory- research support for retroactive interference + evaluation of this
Baddely and Hitch interviewed rugby players, some who had missed games due to injury and some who hadn’t. Those who had played all games had the lowest rates of recall of the teams they had played against, due to more interference. Strength= it was a natural study. Weakness= individual differences such as memory ability were ignored
Strength of interference theory- real life application
Chandler found that students who study subjects with similar content perform worse due to interference, and should therefore not study similar subjects such as psychology and sociology on the same day. This is a strength as it means the study has good real life application
What is retrieval failure?
Retrieval failure is when information is forgotten due to lack of cues. At the time of encoding, associated cues are stored and if the are not present at the time of recall, information can be lost
What is encoding specificity principle?
Tulving and Thompson suggested that the context of encoding and recall has to be the same for memory to be stored effectively
What is context dependant forgetting?
The external cues at the time of encoding not being present at the time of recall
What is state dependant forgetting?
The internal cues at the time of encoding not being present at the time of recall
Describe the procedure of the Godden and Baddely(1975) study?
18 deep sea divers had to learn a list of 36 words and were asked to free recall- artificial task
The four conditions were (learn on land, recall on land, learn on land,recall underwater, learn underwater, recall on land, learn underwater recall underwater
Each diver took part in all four conditions, making it a repeated measures design
What were the findings of Godden and Badddely’s study?
LL: 13.5
LU: 8.6
UL: 8.5
UU:11.4
Conclusion of Godden and Baddely’s study?
External context cues help people to recall more effectively. When the context is different, retrieval failure is much more likely to happen
Describe the procedure in Goodwin et al’s study?
Male volunteers would learn a list of words either drunk or sober, those who were drunk would be three times over the UK drink driving limit. Some would recall the words after 24 hours sober, but others would have to get drunk again
What were the findings of Goodwin et al’s study?
Recall was higher when the internal state was the same at the time of encoding and recall e.g sober,sober, Drunk, drunk
Conclusion of Goodwin et al’s study?
When the state at the time of encoding and recall are different, we are not able to access these memories, which is known as retrieval failure. This supports the encoding specificity principle
Strength of context dependant forgetting- research support
The has been laboratory, field and natural studies as well as anecdotal evidence to support context dependent forgetting. For example, Carter and Cassidy had some participants take an anti histamine drug to make them slightly drowsy, they were then given a list of words to learn. They would have to recall either drowsy or alert, and it was found that when the internal state was consistent, recall rates were higher. Additionally, Eysanck argued that context dependant forgetting was the main cause of retrieval failure in the LTM, this is a strength as research evidence increases validity
Strength of context dependant forgetting- real world application
Research into context dependant forgetting has helped to create the cognitive interview, in which the police creates the same physical and psychological environment inside an eyewitnesses mind that was present at the crime. This has increased the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Another strength is that therapists can create the same internal and external conditions that were present at the time of a PTSD patient’s trauma, which will aid their recovery.
Limitation of context dependant forgetting- extreme differences required
In Godden and Baddely’s study, learning words on land and in water are extremely different environments, which is why there was a significant difference in rates of recall. However, if you learned some information in one room and recalled it in another, this is unlikely to make any difference to rates of recall. This means that real life application does not explain all forgetting
Limitation to context dependant forgetting-recognition versus recall
In another version of Godden and Baddely’s study when participant had to say whether they recognised a word of a word list, there was no difference as a result of different external states. This is a limitation as it shows context cues only have an effect on memory when we test them in a certain way
What is eyewitness testimony?
The evidence provided in court by someone who has witnessed a crime, this is usually in the form of an interview
What is a leading question?
A question which suggests which answer is desired and will influence the information that the eyewitness gives
What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Divided their participants into five groups and showed them all a video of a car crash
Asked them a series of specific questions questions including “what speed (mph) were the cars going at when they _ each other
The words were hit smashed bumped collided contacted
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Smashed: 40.8
Collided: 39.3
Bumped: 38.1
Hit: 34.0
Contacted:31.8
Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Strengths: generalisability how language affects perception, application to education?
Limitations: individual differences are ignored drivers/non drivers, vulnerability to influence through language
Mundane realism: video in classroom leads to lack of emotion which may affect some people’s answers
Conclusion of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Language can have a distorting effect on EWT, this information has been used to create the cognitive interview
What is post event discussion?
Any conversation after witnessing a crime which could influence an eyewitnesses recall of the event. With other witnesses memory conformity could happen, as participants may desire approval from other witnesses or believe the other witnesses are right. With friends and family leading questions could be asked, which may influence a witnesses perception of events.
What is source monitoring?
Alternative accounts are heard by eyewitnesses which distorts their memories
What was the procedure in Gabbert’s study?
Control group + experimental group both watched a simulated video of a robbery
Control group watched it on their own, experimental group were in pairs and watched it from different angles, they engaged in post event discussion afterwards
The researcher measured the number of correct items recalled by the participants
What were the findings of Gabbert’s study?
71% of the experimental group made mistakes
60% said the girl was guilty, even though they did not see her steal money
0% of the control group made mistakes
Conclusion of Gabbert’s study?
Witnesses go along with each other for social approval or the desire to be right, this can be applied to forensic psychology
Strength of research into misleading information- real world application
Can be used for eyewitness testimony, for example police now know not to ask leading questions and to do interviews straight after the crime scene in order to avoid PED. This is useful for not carrying out false convictions and not misguidedly using the death penalty in America
Limitation of research into misleading information- artificial tasks
Artificial tasks, since most of the research was laboratory research artificial tasks were used a lot. This means there is low mundane realism which means there may be low internal validity. There was a lack of emotion present as participants were watching videos which may affect the results. The participants also knew there was no consequences for providing incorrect information, which may lead to lower effort and therefore lower success rates
Strength of research into misleading information- reliability
Loftus has done lots of studies into misleading information, therefore there is a large amount of supporting evidence
As the studies are laboratory studies, they use a standardised procedure, which leads to high replicability which leads to high reliability
Limitation of research into misleading information - real life research
Yuille and Cutshall interviewed eyewitnesses of a real armed robbery of a gun shop in Canada, and found that they still had very accurate recall four months later even after being asked two misleading questions. This suggests in real life scenarios misleading information has little effect on EWT
How does anxiety affect recall?
Affects the original encoding of the information
If anxiety is too low, the person may not be paying attention to what is going on around them
If anxiety is too high, the person may be distracted and rates of recall may also be lower
What is weapons focus effect?
When a person sees a weapon, this takes up all of their attention, therefore other more trivial details may be lost at the point of encoding
What was the procedure of Johnson and Scott’s study?
IV1: the participants sat outside a room where two people were having a peaceful conversation about office equipment, a man emerged holding a pen with grease on his hands
IV2: The participant is sat outside a room where there is shouting arms they will hear glass shattering. A man emerged holding a knife covered in blood
In both situations the participant had to identify the man from 50 photos
Findings of Johnson and Scott’s study?
In the low anxiety setting, 49% were able to identify the man
In the high anxiety setting, 33% were able to
Conclusion of the Johnson and Scott study?
The heightened anxiety of seeing someone holding a weapon may have distracted the participant from the person holding it
Evaluation of Johnson and Scott’s study?
Deception- use of confederates, argument wasn’t real, were part of the study before they were aware they were
Lack of protection from harm- participants may have been distressed from the the confrontation they witnessed
The fact that less participants remembered the man’s face in the high anxiety setting is even more significant as more people will how looked up to see what was happening
Individual differences of participants were ignored- natural memory of faces, natural reaction to conflict, do they avoid or get involved with it
What was the procedure of Loftus and Burn’s study?
Independent groups, one group watched a non violent version of a robbery and another group watched a violent version where a boy got shot in the face
Findings of Loftus and Burn’s study?
In the violent version, significantly less details were remembered than in the non violent version
Conclusion of Loftus and Burn’s study?
Conflict had heightened arousal and therefore trivial details of before and after were lost, could also be due to weapons focus factor
Who created the curve that suggests recall is at its highest during times of medium anxiety?
Yerkes and Dodson
Evaluation of anxeity as a factor affecting EWT- ecological validity
Anxiety is usually measured in laboratory experiments, in which participants are watching videos of crimes. This will naturally generate a much lower level of anxiety than what would be present in a real crime.
Foster found that if participants thought they were watching a real life robbery and they were important to the trial then their identification of the robber was more accurate than if not
Evaluation of anxiety as a factor affecting EWT- surprise not anxeity
Pickle did a study where participants watched a robber walk into a hair salon and had to identify the person afterwards. The four conditions were a handgun (high surprise, high anxiety) a wallet (low surprise, low anxiety) a pair of scissors (low surprise, high anxiety) and a whole raw chicken (high surprise, low anxiety)
Found that recall accuracy was lower in the surprise conditions
Evaluation of anxiety as a factor affecting EWT- contradictory real life research
Christianson and Hubinett interviewed 110 eyewitnesses to 22 robbery’s and had found that witnesses who had been threatened (high anxiety ) had a much higher chance of being able to identify the robber than participants who hadn’t been threatened (lower anxiety). This shows that research into anxiety affecting EWT does not apply to real life
Evaluation of anxiety as a factor affecting EWT- ethical issues
In order to measure anxiety, participants must be shown some stimulus representing a crime, which is likely to be psychologically harmful to some participants. However, this is needed to give the results validity. Researchers must be subject to cost benefit analysis
What is the cognitive interview?
A police technique designed to mentally and psychically recreate the conditions of the crime for the victim in order to increase accuracy of recall
What is the context reinstatement technique and how does it work?
The interviewee is returned mentally to the environment (weather, lighting, distinctive smells, any people nearby) and how they were feeling. This means that the context of the crime and the interview are the same. The presence of internal and external cues should increase participants recall
What is the report everything technique and how does it work?
Recall every detail, including trivial details which may not seem relevant to the crime. This is important as it may trigger more important memories. It is the interviewers responsibility to decide what is important
What is recall from a changed perspective and how does it work?
Mentally recreate the crime from another witnesses or the victims point of view, and answer questions pretending to be them. This is effective as it distrusts schemas telling us what “should” happen, so the witness can focus on what actually happened
What is recall in reversed order and how does it work?
The eyewitness will recall the events of the crime backwards, it is effective as it prevents against the use of schemas
Evaluation of the cognitive interview- research support
Geisalman did a study where he showed participants police stimulated videos of a crime and asked them questions on it 48 hours later. He found that the cognitive interview produced the most accurate information, followed by hypnosis, followed by a standard police interview. This shows that the cognitive interview can be used to enhance recall
Evaluation of the cognitive interview-possibility with available resources
The cognitive interview takes longer, for example as the interviewer builds rapport with the interviewee. The cognitive interview also requires special training, this means that it is significantly more expensive than a standard police interview, so many police departments would not be able to afford it. However, in the long run there may be savings as no time and money is wasted on following false leads
Evaluation of the cognitive interview- different techniques have value
Milne and Bull found that each of the four components used individually still produced more accurate recall than a standard police interview. They also found that when context reinstatement and recall everything were used together, this produced more accurate results than any other combination. While some may argue that this shows that the value of recall from a changed perspective and recall in reversed order is limited, others argue that this shows the cognitive interview does not need to be used fully to be effective
Evaluation of the cognitive interview- quality not quantity
John Ken et al found that while there is an 89% increase in correct information when using the cognitive interview, there is also a 61% increase in incorrect information. This is a limitation as it could lead to false conviction
