Memory 3 Flashcards
Describe Ebbinghaus view on memory
-‘Method of savings’ - when you learn a list it becomes easer to learn it again
-Implicit and indirect memory test
-Conducted first studies into LTM and found it was complex
What is the fundamental law of human memory?
-You forget info quickly initially but you never fully forget it
What are the 3 studies that researched into the duration of LTM
-Wixted (1990,1997)
-Bahrick (1984)
-Standing (1973)
Describe research conducted by Wixted (1990, 1997)
-Analysed wide range of forgetting functions from Ebbinghaus onwards
-Concluded that they are well described as power function
-Idea that memory performance can reduce power function over time suggesting that initial forgetting is quite rapid, but is never completely degraded
Describe research conducted by Bahrick (1984)
-Tested 733 people’s memory for Spanish that has been taught at school up to 50 years ago
-Performance was closely related to initial learning 50 years later
-Found that memory decayed rapidly over first few years, but then levelled off and was still way above chance 50 years later
-All show basic power function, as forget quickly over first 3 years and then show substantial savings
Describe research conducted by Standing (1973)
-Looked at testing capacity of LTS
-Ppts watched slides for 5 seconds
-Had recognition test 5 days later
-Even when there was 10,000 items, performance was at 83% on a subsequent recognition test
-Performance better with ‘vivid’ images compared to words
-20 words = 99% correct recognition
-4000 words = 81.1% correct recognition
-10,000 words = 83% correct recognition
Describe Horowitz and Wolfe (1998) study
-“Visual search has no memory”
-Attempting to spot a T within jumbled L’s
-Masking frames appear that may interrupt search and so the T may appear somewhere you have already checked
-Found that then the target moves, it isn’t much harder to find it compared to when it doesn’t
-Shows we don’t pay attention to where we look
-Search slope is unchanged even when stimuli are randomly interchanged every 83.33 ms
Describe Konkle, Brady, Alvarez and Aude (2010) research
-Visual LTS
-Results depend more on conceptual similarity of objects rather than perceptual similarity
-Tend to store the whole gist of pictures rather than the fine details
-Novel foil = 93% correct
-Exemplar foil = 89% correct
What is the idea of distinctiveness?
-Distinctiveness ratings gathered for 200 objects of categories along 3 dimensions;
-Conceptual (are there few or different kinds)
-Shape (how similar/distinctive are the shapes)
-Colour (how similar/distinctive is the colour)
What are the 2 pieces of research that looked into ‘forgetting faces’?
-Bahrick (1984)
-Young, Hay and Ellis (1995)
Describe the research by Bahrick et al (1984)
-Cued recall task
-Tested ability of college teachers to recognise and identify previous students
-Had to state name when shown a photo
-Found that 8 years on, there was evidence of recognition but lack of identification
Describe the research by Young, Hay and Ellis (1995)
-22 ppts kept a diary for 8 weeks
-Noted down all errors made in facial recognition and identification
-1008 errors made
-114 = failure to recognise a person
-314 = mistakenly identifying a person
-233 = recognising but failing to identify
-190 = failing to recall a name
Describe Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (19900 research
-Can you improve face memory by carefully describing what faces you see
-Found that NO you can’t, as giving a verbal description seems to impair memory in a recognition test
-Verbal overshadowing occurs, turning visual memory into verbal info which impairs memory
-Important implications for EWT
Describe Melcher and Chooler (1996) research
-Misremembering of wines past
-Found that value of verbalisation depended on their expertise
-Novice wine drinkers have their memories enhanced by verbalisation
-Intermediate wine drinkers have their memory completely removed by verbalisation
-Expert wine drinkers have their memory unaffected and so memory is as accurate when both verbal and non-verbal
