Memory Flashcards
Who made the multi story model of memory
Atkinson and Shrifgij (1968)
What were the 3 separate memory stores called in the multi store model of memory
Sensory
Short term
Long term
What are the 3 features in the 3 separate memory stores called and define them
Coding- transformation of a sensory input into a form or code which allows it to be stored in memory
This is either acoustic or visual
Capacity- memory may be measured in terms of the number of bits of information that can be held in a memory store
Duration- information is held for differing lengths of time
What are the 3 things that can happen to the information in the STM
1)Rehearsal helps keep the information in short term memory
2)The information is rehearsed and goes into long term memory.
3)The information is not rehearsed and is forgotten
Talk about the capacity and duration of each of the memory stores
Sensory register- extremely large capacity but duration is half a second
Short term memory- capacity about 7-+2 chunks and duration about 18 seconds
Long term memory- limitless capacity and almost a lifetime duration
What is the coding for short term memory
Acoustic
What is the coding for long term memory
Semantic
How does information enter the sensory register
Everything we hear, see, touch, taste, smell enters the sensory register
Describe the process of Sperling (1960)
Displayed to his participants visual arrays containing three rows containing 4 letters and wanted to find how many letters participants could recall in 50 milliseconds
What are the findings of Sperling 1960
Participants could recall four or five of the letters from the 50 milliseconds array
Describe the procedure of Sperling’s partial report procedure
He trained participants to recognise 3 tones:
A high tone indicating the top row of the display
A medium tone for the middle row
Low tone for the bottom row
Then Sperling presented them again with a series of displays for 50 milliseconds each, and sounded a tone quickly afterwards to tell them which row of letter to write
What did Sperling find in the partial report procedure
Participants recalled on average 75% of the letters in the cued row. This suggests a large amount of capacity in the sensory register but duration is very short
Describe Miller (1956)
Noticed many every day things ( days of week, musical note on scale) come in sevens, and produced the chunking theory. This suggest that we can hold 7+- chunks of information in STM .
Describe Peterson and Peterson (1959)
investigated the duration of short term by investigating whether trigrams can be recalled following an interference task of varying length.
Participants briefly shown a trigram and asked to recall it after a period of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. They Were given an interference task of counting backwards in 3’s between the initial presentation of the trigram and recall. This was to prevent rehearsal.
The procedure was repeated several times with each participant using different trigrams each time
What are the finding of Peterson and Peterson (1959)
As the time between the presentation and recall increased, successful recall decreased.
After 3 seconds participants recalled 80% of trigrams. After 6 seconds there was 40% recalls. After 18 seconds there was only 10% recall
What are the procedures for Baddkey (1966)
Investigated the main form of coding in STM by identifying errors in the recall of lists of similar sounding word and similar meaning words.
Participants were shown various lists of words and asked to recall them in the correct order
What were the findings of Baddley (1966)
When tested immediately after presentation it was found that more mistakes came from mixing up words that were acoustically similar rather than words that were semantically similar
Evaluate the research into short term memory
Highly controlled lab condition.
Standardised procedure means the research can be replicated easily
Controlled lab environment means participants were in highly artificial environment.
The research therefore lacks external validity as some of the tasks were also artificial.
What did Bahrick (1975) aim to investigate
The duration of long term memory by identifying whether or not people can still remember the names and faces of their classmates many years after they left school.
What was the procedure to Bahrick 1975
Cross section study using 392 ex high school students aged 17-74.
For the free recall participants had to free call the names of their classmates.
For the photo recognition participants had to sort 50 photos into those that were or were not in their class
What are the findings of Bahrick 1975
Results after 15 years of leaving: 60% accuracy in free recall, 90% accuracy in photo recognition
Results after 48 years of leaving 30% accuracy in free recall, 60% accuracy in photo recognition
Evaluation of Bahrick’s study 1975
Only 1 type of long term Morty was being investigated -> recognition of classmates faces.
Study tells us nothing about duration of semantic memories
High external validity asking participants to recall class mates test is a real life memory
How does Clive wearing support the multi store model
Suffered brain damage as a result of a virus. He is unable to lay down new long term memories but can hold a brief conversation and has some short term memory. Thus supports the multi store model as it suggests there are separate short and long term stores.
What does Clive wearing study show about long term memory
He was able to play the piano but unable to recognise photographs. This suggests distinction between procedural memories (how to do things) and declarative memories (memories of things and events)
What does KF study show about short term memory
He suffered from a motorcycle accident.
His STM was reduced to only 2 digits but he could still for new long term memories. This supports the distinction between STM and LTM.
However the model can not explain how KF could form new LTM’s even without a normal STM, as it assumes information should flow through short term memory to reach long term. This evidence challenge MSM.
Some parts of KF’s short term memory still function such as visual info which suggests the STM is not a unitary story but there must be at least 2 separate STM stores
What does HM study show about Long term memory?
Had an operation to treat epilepsy which removed the hippocampus.
After this he was unable to form any new long term memories, although he recalls events prior to the operation.
He is happy to read the same magazine many times. He performed well on the test of digit span showing good STM. This shows support to the MSM as HM had damaged to LTM but not STM suggesting stores are separate.
However HM was able to develop new skills showing that LTM is not a single unitary store which goes against the MSM.
The MSM ignores the role of incident learning such as gossip and puts too much emphasis on rehearsal.
Incident learning suggesting information can pass straight to the LTM
Who created the working memory model of memory 1974
Baddley and Hitch
Define central executive in the working memory model
Important part of the model which has a supervisory role and directs attention to particular tasks. It does this by allocating tasks to various subsystems.
Very limited capacity and so can attend to a limited number of things at any time but can code information from any type of source
Define the phonological loop in the working memory model
Very limited capacity. Stores a limited number of speech based sounds(acoustic coding) for brief periods (2 seconds).
This component divides into the phonological store- holds the words you hear like an inner ear and an articulatory process- silently repeating words you hear like an inner ear
Define the visual spatial sketch pad in the working memory model
When you have to visualise a spatial task. Holding visual and spatial information (visual coding) and capacity is limited to about 4 objects.
Define the episodic buffer in the working memory model
Introduced by Baddley in 2000.
Enables the central executive to access information in the LTM and integrate it with information in the other systems.
Capacity is limited to about 4 chunks and coding is modality free
What was the procedure with Baddley dual task performance
Tracking a moving light with a pointer and another task which was either:
1)Imagining a hollow letter F and going round it saying whether each of the angels were inside or outside the shape
Or
2)Repeating words
What were the findings of Baddley dual task performance
Task 1 had impaired performance on the pointer task but Task 2 did not
So if we attempt to use the same subsystem for 2 tasks at once they will be in competition for its limited capacity and performance will be impaired
Strengths for Working memory model
Support of WMM comes from dual task experiment which shows that there must be separate subsystems that process visual and sound based information.
The case study of KD had very poor STM for sound based information but normal STM for visual info. This supports the idea of separate parts of STM
Weakness of the Working Memory Model
Central executive doesn’t give enough information on how it allocates resources. Some psychologists believe it’s too vague to suggest its attention.
Define Eposidic memory a type of long term memory
Memories of events that have happened in our lives.
Time stamped- remember when they happened
Not taught to us
Define semantic memory as a type of long term memory
Knowledge of facts about the world and meaning of words.
Not time stamped
Does require effort to recall
May be taught to us
Define procedural memory as a type of long term memory
Memory for actions or skills
How to do things (driving a car)
Usually recalled without conscious effort
Not time stamped
May be taught to us
What are evidence that there are different types of long term memory
Clive wearing and KF showed episodic memory was severely impaired, both men retained their procedural memory. They both knew how it walk talk etc.
Brain scans have shown that episodic memories involve activity on the right side of the prefrontal cortex whereas semantic memories involve the left side of the prefrontal cortex
Explain why interference is an explanation for forgetting
Proactive interference: when old memories interfere with newer ones.
Eg putting a key in a different position and you keep going to old position
Retroactive interference: when new memory interferes with older ones. Eg once you have learned your new postcode you may find it hard to recall the one from your old adress
Study on interference for explanations of forgetting
Baddley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall the teams they had played against that season. They found that recall for games played a few weeks ago was better if players had missed one or more games since then. This suggests that interference is the reason that the more regular players performed worse on recall. This demonstrates that interference can explain forgetting in real life situations as well as in the more artificial laboratory environment.
However the degree of similarity in the names is unclear and there could be many confounding variables.
Explain why retrieval failure is an explanation of forgetting
We need cues which are triggers that allow us to access information and they are often coded at the time of learning. Internal cues are mood and external cues are physical location.
Define context dependent forgetting
When we try (and fail) to recall information in a very different environment (context) to that in which it was learned
Describe the procedures of Godden and Baddley study of retrieval failure
Asked divers to learn a list of words either on the beach or whilst they were underwater. Half of each group were then tested on land and half underwater.
Divers who learned and were tested in the same environment recalled 40% more words that those tested in a different environment which they learned the words.
This is because the external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure
Define state dependent forgetting
When we try to recall information in a different internal state to the one we were in when we learned it
Describe Carter and Cassaday study on context dependent forgetting
Participants asked to learn words either with or without taking a mild sedative beforehand.
Those who learned and were tested in different states did significant worse on recall that those who learned And were tested in the same state.
When internal cues that were there on learning are absent on recall we are more likely to forget
Evaluation of Carter and Cassiaday
The study is a highly controlled laboratory study which would be easily replicated.
Artificial and learning word lists may not reflect forgetting in everyday life suggesting that other factors may be involved in forgetting
Artificial setting may have led to demand characteristic
Evaluation of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting
Godden and Baddley and Carter and Cassiaday are good evidence that forgetting can be due to retrieval failure, argued that this could be the main reason to forgetting in LTM
Research supporting may lack ecological validity because a great difference between context and state must be very rare.
Define eye witness testimony
Refers to the description given by people of an event they have experienced
Describe the study to show anxiety as a factor affecting accuracy of Eye witness testimony
Johnson and Scott (1976) made two conditions:
1) participants overheard a causal conversation in the next room and about and equipment failure. A person then emerged from the room holding a pen and with greasy on his lands ( low anxiety condition)
2) participants overheard a heated and hostile exchange between people in the next room. After the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs a man emerged from the room holding a knife covered in blood ( high anxiety condition)
What are the findings of Johnson and Scott (1976)
Participants who had witnessed the man holding the pen accurately identified the person 49% of the time.
Participant who had witness the man with the knife were successful only 33% of the time. This suggests anxiety makes EWT less accurate.
Describe the study to show misleading information as a factor of accuracy for EWT
Loftus and palmer (1974) investigated the effects of participants hearing different words when asked about their memory of a car crash.
Participants were shown a 30 second videotape of 2 cars colliding. Then asked a question about the speed that the cars were travelling.
All 45 participants had the same critical question “about how fast were the cars going when they -> hit,smashed,collided,contacted
A week later they got asked if the glass shattered
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer
Participants that got the word smashed had a mean estimation speed of 40.5 mph and 32% said test to broken glass
Hit 34mph and 14% yes
Contacted has 31.8mph and 7% yes
This shows that the wording or the question can influence the answer participants give but may not actually alter their memories
Describe the study for post event discussion as a factor affecting the accuracy of EWT
Gabert et al (2003) asked pairs of participants to watch videos of the same crime, but filmed in different view points, showing slightly different details of the crime. They then discussed together what they had seen before individually completing recall tests.
What did the researcher find in Gabert et al study
71% of participants recalled events they had not seen in the video but had picked up from the discussion. The group which did not have a chance to discuss, none recalled events that were not in the video they had watched.
Criticism of research into eye witness testimony
Laboratory experiments have the advantage that they allow us to draw conclusions about caused and effect but the lacy external validity.
Identify the 4 components of the cognitive interview
Report everything- interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail even this detail which may seem irrelevant
Mental reinstatement of the original context- interviewer encourages the participant to mentally recreate the scene in their mind. They ask about smell, sound, weather conditions so that cues recall reducing risk of content dependent forgetting.
Changing the order when recalling- interviewer may try alternative ways through timeline incident to avoid use schema which may create inaccuracies based on what we think makes sense
Changing the perspective- interviewer asks to recall incident from different perspectives, this disrupts them reporting their expectations of what would have happened rather than genuine memories
