Memory Flashcards
What is coding?
The type of information which is stored in each store. Acoustic in STM and semantic in LTM. This is shown by Baddeley
What is Capacity?
The volume of information that can be kept in any memory store at one time. STM= 7 +/- 2 items, LTM= unlimited. Based on Miller
What is Duration?
The amount of time information can be stored in each memory store. STM= 18-30 second demonstrated by Peterson et al. LTM= unlimited shown by Bahrick et al
What is the multi store memory model?
Represents how memory is stored, transferred, retrieved and forgotten
What are the three stores in the MSM?
Sensory register, short term memory and long term memory
What is the sensory register?
Contains one sub store for each of the 5 senses. Has a big capacity, duration of 1/2 a second
What is the short term memory?
Acoustically encoded, capacity 7 +/- 2 items, duration of 30 seconds
What is the long term memory?
Semantically encoded, unlimited capacity and long duration
How does information enter the short term memory from the SM?
Through attention
How does info enter the LTM from the STM?
Through rehearsal
How does I for move from the LTM back to the STM?
By retrieval
How do you maintain info in the STM?
Maintenance rehearsal
The MSM suggests the amount of maintenance rehearsal determines the likelihood that the info will pass into the LTM
Whereas Craik and Watkins suggest that it is the type of rehearsal which is more important. They suggest that elaboration rehearsal, instead of prolonged rehearsal is needed to transfer info from the STM into the LTM by making links with existing knowledge
The MSM acknowledges the qualitative differences between the STM and LTM
By representing them as separate stores. For example, STM is encoded acoustically whilst LTM is encoded semantically and has a much longer duration. Therefore the MSM portrays an accurate view of the differences between the two types of memory as supported by Baddeley and Miller.
The MSM incorrectly represents STM as a single unitary store
For example, Shallice and Warrington found that their amnesiac patient KF had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but increasingly accurate recall for visual stimuli. This alongside KF being able to differentiate and recall both verbal and non verbal sounds, suggests that there may be multiple types of STM
A key issue with historical psychological research, particularly Jacob’s is the lack of standardisation and appreciation of scientific methods
For example, the current lab experiment methodology produces highly reliable and valid data through controlling and so removing the effects of extraneous and confounding variables. The same is unlikely to be said of Jacob’s where confounding variable such as a noisy room or difficult word lists, may have has a greater influence on accuracy or recall, leading to unreliable results.
A particular strength of Bahrick et Al’s study is the use of meaningful stimuli
And a methodology which is high in mundane realism. This suggests that the findings have high ecological validity because they can be easily generalised to real life, due to the stimuli reflecting those which we would often try to learn and recall in our day to day lives, info with personal and meaningful value.
More recent research has suggested that Miller may have over exaggerated the capacity of STM
And the capacity is more similar to 4 chunks as opposed to the original 5-9 limit. This may reflect the outdated methodologies adopted by Miller and the lack of control over confounding variables which may have contributed to this inaccurate estimate.
What are the types of long term memory?
Episodic, semantic and procedural
What is the episodic memory?
Memories which have some kind of personal meaning, alongside details as to when and how these events occurs, as well as the associated people and places
What are semantic memories?
Our memories of the world and the associated knowledge
What are procedural memories?
Our memories of learned skills
Consciously or unconsciously recalled?
Episodic and semantic= consciously recalled
Procedural= unconsciously recalled
Peterson et al demonstrated that semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex
Whilst episodic memories recalled from the right prefrontal cortex. This supports not only the idea that there are different types of LTM but shows that they each have a different neurological basis because they are recalled from different parts of the brain
There is practical application in being able to differentiate between different types of LTM
For example, Belleville et al notes that mild cognitive impairments most commonly affect episodic memories and so an increased understanding of episodic memory, alongside the differences between different types of LTM, may lead to improved, increasingly targeted treatments for mild cognitive impairments
Cohen and Squire drew a distinction between declarative and non declarative memories.
Declarative memories must be recalled consciously whilst non-declarative memories may be recalled unconsciously. However, this is a different classification and organisation system as the one used by Tulving, suggesting that his depiction of LTM is not entirely accurate.
What is the STM made up of?
The central executive, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketch pad and the episodic buffer
What is the central executive?
Described as an attentional process with a limited processing capacity and role is to allocate tasks to the 3 slave systems
What is the phonological loop?
Processes auditory info and allows for maintenance rehearsal by being made up of the articulatory process and the phonological loop.
What is the visuospatial sketch pad?
Combines the visual and spatial information processed by other stores, giving us a complete picture. Divided into the inner scribe and visual cache. The capacity is around 4-5 chunks
What is the episodic buffer?
Integrates all types of data processed by the other stores and is described as the storage component of the central executive as well as being crucial for linking STM to LTM.
The central executive has not been precisely defined.
For example, the term process is vague, and the central executive may be made up of several sub components or even be part of a larger component itself in working memory. This lack of a comprehensive explanation for each component of WMM draws doubts about the accuracy of its depiction of working memory.
Shallice and Warrington’s study of KF provides support for the WMM because their findings show that KF had very poor STM recall for auditory stimuli
But increased StM recall for visual stimuli. This suggests that the components of memory which process auditory and visual stimuli are separate as described in the WMM phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad
Studies of dual task performance.
Where each ppt must undertake a visual and verbal task simultaneously, shows decreased performance for such tasks and so supports the idea that the central executive has a very limited processing capacity and that the slave systems are in competition with each other for these tasks and resources.
What is interference?
Interference occurs when the recall of one memory blocks the recall of another causing forgetting.
What is retroactive interference?
New memories block the recollection of old memories
What is proactive interference?
Old memories block the recollection of new memories
How was retroactive interference demonstrated?
By McGeoch and McDonald who found that when participants were divided into 6 groups to recall different lists of words (synonyms, antonyms, words unrelated to the original list, 3 digit numbers, consonant syllables) or no new list (control group), those who’d learnt the synonyms list experienced an average of 3.1 fewer correct items recalled compared to the control group.
What does McGeoch and McDonald show?
The extent of forgetting is larger when the two memories or materials are very similar
Limitation of interference
The artificial stimuli used in theses tasks, such as learning lists of random words with no personal meaning to the Ppts, means the findings of interference studies are likely to have low mundane realism. This is because in real life, we are likely to learn lists of meaningful information, such as revision topics for psychology, which we draw links upon and also have personal meaning to us. These factors may also influence the extent of forgetting rather than influence.
Strength of interference
Interference has been consistently demonstrated in several studies but particularly in lab experiments. This increases the validity of the theory, due to the use of highly controlled conditions in lab experiments, standardised instructions alongside the removal of the biasing effects of extraneous variables and confounding variables.
Strength of interference
Baddeley and Hitch found that, in a group of rugby players who had to recall their last game and the number of games they’d played that season, the number of games they’d played since was more important than the total times they’d been playing for. This can be explained in terms of interference, where the more games each player had played, the more likely the memories of these newer games would interfere or block the recall of older games.
What is retrieval failure?
Forgetting occurs when the cues present at the time of encoding the info are not present at the time of recall. This describes Tulving’s encoding specificity principle.
What are the two types of forgetting?
Context dependent and state dependent
What is context dependent forgetting?
Occurs when our external cues at the time of encoding do not match the present at recall
Who demonstrated context dependent forgetting?
Godden and Baddeley: found that with deep water divers, recall at the matching conditions was significantly larger than the non matching conditions. Therefore there were 4 conditions in total, involving underwater and on land encoding and recall.
What is state dependent forgetting?
Occurs when our internal cues at the time of encoding do not match those present at recall.
Who demonstrated state dependent forgetting?
Carter and Cassaday: with anti histamines to change the internal cues at the time of encoding and recall. 40% higher rates of accurate recall in the matching conditions compared the the non matching conditions
Strength of retrieval failure
Eysenck has suggested that retrieval failure may be one of the main reasons that we forget info from the LTM. This, alongside the strictly controlled conditions of a lab experiments, increases the validity of retrieval as an explanation for forgetting, due to more confidence being placed in these conclusions on the basis of such experimental designs.
Limitation of retrieval failure
The findings from studies of retrieval failure may lack ecological validity. This is because Baddeley argued that it is difficult to find conditions in real life which are as polar as water and land, for example, and thus questioned the existence of context wpeffects in normal life. This suggests that retrieval failure may be best suited to explaining cases of forgetting where the cues associated with encoding and retrieval are uncommonly distinct, thus not providing an accurate depiction of forgetting in day to day life.
Limitation of retrieval failure
The encoding specificity principle suffers from cyclical reasoning due to its over reliance on assumptions. For example, it may not always be the case that differences between cues at the time of encoding and recall causes retrieval failure, but the cyclical nature of the ESP suggests that it is so.
What is eye witness testimony?
The info recalled about a crime by an eyewitness. The accuracy can be reduced through misleading information or leading questions.
Who studied leading questions?
Lotus and Palmer: Ppts watched a film clip of a car crash and then gave speed estimates of the cars based on the leading question. Those exposed to the verb smashed gave a speed estimate 8.7 mph greater than those who’d heard contacted.
What does loftus and palmer’s study support?
The substitution explanation as those who’s heard the word smashed were more likely to report having seen broken 2 weeks after the crime compared to those who’d heard the word contacted.
What are post event discussions?
The discussions that take place between the co-witnesses after the crime has taken place and is subject to the influence of media and TV reports on the crime and the Ppts pre conceived expectations of how they would imagine the crime.
Who studied post event discussions?
Gabbert et al used a matched pairs design, showed Ppts a film clip of the same crime serene but with different details for each member. After post event discussions with the other member and completing a test of r recall, the researchers found 71% inaccuracy rates of information gained compared to 0% in a control group
Limitation of EWT
A key methodological criticism for studies of EWT is that they often use the same young target to identify. This may be affected by own age bias which describes the tendency to recall others from your own age groups with a high degree of accuracy with a lower accuracy rate for those from other age groups. This means that Ppts aged 55-78 may be inaccurately represented as having a lower accuracy of EWT due to the frequent use of young targets.
2nd limitation of EWT
Demand characteristics may also reduce the reliability of the findings as argued by Zaragosa and am a low-key who suggests that Ppts often want to be as helpful and attentive as possible. This means that through the mechanism of social desirability bias and the please you effect, when in doubt over their answer to a question, they are likely to give an answer which seems most beneficial or expected of the researcher, thus biasing the results and reducing the likelihood that the same results will be demonstrated again.
3rd limitation of EWT
The artificial tasks and stimuli used by both loftus and palmer alongside Gabbert reduces the ecological validity of the findings and the mundane realism of the methodology. For example, the film clips of the care crashes do not expose Ppts to the anxiety of experiencing a real life car crash. This anxiety may either have a negative (Johnson and Scott) or positive (yuille and cutshall) effect on the accuracy of EWT thus biasing the findings.
What is anxiety?
A physiological response to external pressures. Anxiety can weather have a positive or negative effect on the accuracy of EWT
Who demonstrated the negative effect of anxiety on EWT?
Johnson and Scott: high anxiety condition overheard a heated argument in the neighbouring room with the sound of smashing glass and man man walking through with a bloody knife as opposed to a greasy pen in the low anxiety condition. When asked to identify the man, Ppts experienced a 16% lower rate of accurate recall compared to the low anxiety condition. This can be explained by the tunnel theory of memory and the weapon focus effect.
Who studied the positive effect of anxiety on EWT?
Yuille and Cutshall: followed up 13 eyewitnesses who ranked their anxiety as high at the time of ethe shooting and using a 7-point anxiety scale. There were small discrepancies over estimates of height, weight and clothing. This shows anxiety draws our attention to external cues through the fight or flight response.
1st limitation of anxiety on EWT
The Yerkes Dodson law suggests that there is an inverted U relationship between increasing arousal and increasing performance with moderate arousal yielding the highest levels of performance. However this can be considered as an overly simplified explanation of anxiety because it does not take into account the multiple factors which make up arousal.
2nd limitation of anxiety on EWT
The weapon focus effect may be testing for the effects of surprise rather than anxiety. For example, Pickel found that the highest levels of accuracy of EWT were experienced in the condition with high unusualness. This suggests that the weapon focus effect can only be used to explain certain influences on the accuracy of EWT.
3rd limitation of anxiety on EWT
There are significant ethical issues associated with exposing Ppts to distressing images of a car crash and forcing them to recall traumatic crimes which have occurred in the past. This breaches the BPS guideline of the right of the ppt to be protected from psychological harm, thus meaning that a cost benefit analysis would be needed to compare the associated ethical costs with the benefits of increased knowledge of the effects of anxiety on the accuracy on EWT.
What is the cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses which is thought to be particularly effective in increasing the rates of accurate recall by considering the theories.
What is stage 1 of the cognitive interview?
Report everything= even seemingly insignificant details may be important or trigger the recall of larger events by acting as a cue.
What is stage 2 of the cognitive interview?
Reinstate the context= recalling the weather, location and mood of the day prevents context dependent forgetting by reminding the eyewitness of their external cues at the time.
What is stage 3 of the cognitive interview?
Change the perspective= recalling events from the perspective of the victim or persecutor prevents the eyewitness’ account from being affected by their own schemes or pre conceived perceptions of how the crime in their opinion happened.
What is stage 4 of the cognitive interview?
Reverse the order= recalling events in a different order, other than chronological, reduces the ability of the eyewitness to lie and also reduces the impact of schemas on their perception of events.
Who devised the cognitive interview?
Fisher et al and focuses on the social dynamics of the interactions between the eyewitness and the interviewer
1st limitation of the cognitive interview
The cognitive interview may have little practical value due to being too time consuming and requiring specialist skills. For example, Kebbel and Wagstaff argued that only a few hours of training, as is possible for many police forces, is insufficient to adequately train interviews, especially for the enhanced social understanding required for the enhanced cognitive interview. Therefore this lack of time and training may explain why some forces may be unimpressed with the CI.
2nd limitation of the cognitive interview
The CI does not only increase the recall of correct info by 81% but also increases the recall of incorrect info by 61% as suggested by Kohnken et al. This appears counterintuitive when considering that the chief aim of the CI was to improve the accuracy of recall of correct info and so increases the reliability of eyewitness testimonies as a whole.
1st strength of the cognitive interview
The entire CI need not be used to real the benefits, as Milne and Bull suggested, where context reinstatement and report everything produced the greatest accuracy of recall of correct info as compared to any other combinations of steps. This means that even if police forces do not have enough time to train the entire force for all of the 4 steps involved in the CI, even gradual changes from the standard police interview can increase the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness testimony.
