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Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the sensory memory

A

storage system that holds info in unprocessed form

iconic memory

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2
Q

SM stands for

A

Sensory memory

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3
Q

STM stands for

A

Short term memory

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4
Q

What is short term memory

A

A system for storing information for brief periods of time.
Temporary storage deposit for incoming info
‘Working memory’

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5
Q

LTM stands for

A

Long term memory

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6
Q

What is Long term memory

A

Semantic memory

Relatively stable store that holds info for longer than seconds

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7
Q

Capacity for SM

A

As much as senses can register at any one time, usually quite little

E.g. Reading a book, can’t look t whole page, have to look at individual words

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8
Q

Duration of storage for SM

A

1/10 second

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9
Q

Usual form of encoding of SM

A

Same form its perceived in; visual, auditory,smell,touch

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10
Q

Capacity of STM

A

5-9 units of info

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11
Q

Duration of storage for STM

A

30 seconds

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12
Q

Usual form of encoding for STM

A

acoustic/visual

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13
Q

Capacity of LTM

A

Unlimited

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14
Q

Duration of storage of LTM

A

Unlimited

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15
Q

Usual form of encoding for LTM

A

Semantic encoding

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16
Q

Basic structure of MSM

A

Sensory memory stores uncoded sensory input
STM stores acoustic visual stimuli for several seconds
LTM stores mainly semantic info for unlimited period

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17
Q

MSM stands for

A

Multi store model of memory

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18
Q

Describe the multi-store model of memory

A

Consists of three structural components.
Explains how info flows from one to the next
This may involve re-coding info into different form

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19
Q

Describe Sensory Memory

A

Information will decay almost immediately,
holds info in raw, unprocessed form.
Transfers attended to info to STM
Encoded in original form.

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20
Q

Describe Short term Memory

A

Limited capacity
Duration of around 20 seconds
Encoding is largely in acoustic form
If material is rehearsed for long enough will transfer to LTM

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21
Q

How does information get from STM to LTM

A

Rehearsal loop

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22
Q

describe Long term memory

A

Unlimited capacity and potentially limited duration
info may be lost if not rehearsed regularly
Encoding is largely semantic in nature.

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23
Q

Investigations into STM

A

Miller (1956)
Presented participants with different lengthen rows of numbers and asked ppt to recall numbers back.
Numbers of digits recalled of each row recorded and average of 7 +/- 2 was decided.

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24
Q

Immediate digit span

A

7 +/- 2

miller 1956 STM capacity

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25
Q

What did miller do

A

Investigate capacity of STM by immediate digit span

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26
Q

Key points to describe the multi-store model (MSM)

A

Linear model
Structures: sensory, short term and long term memory; encoding, capacity, duration of each
Processes: to transfer information from one store to another

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27
Q

What is meant by describing the MSM as ‘linear’?

A

Memory flows through the stores in a series of stages, but always in the same order.

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28
Q

What is sensory memory and how does information transfer from it to STM?

A

Holds information in its raw, unprocessed form from all the senses.
Very small capacity and information decays almost immediately if not attended to.
Attention causes transfer to STM

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29
Q

Characteristics of STM and transfer from it to LTM

A

STM prefers acoustic encoding: if information is presented visually it tends to be re-coded acoustically.
Capacity of about 7 items.
Can hold information for up to 30 seconds.
Information transferred to LTM by rehearsal.

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30
Q

Characteristics of LTM

A

LTM prefers to encode semantically (according to meaning)
It can hold a limitless amount of information…
…for up to a lifetime.

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31
Q

Ways to evaluate the MSM

A

Ways to evaluate the MSM Choose from:
Study/studies supporting separation between STM and LTM
Study/studies supporting idea that STM and LTM have different capacities, durations and / or encoding styles
Weakness in terms of unitary STM and / or transfer to LTM

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32
Q

‘Explain one strength of the MSM’: how to answer?

A

Use a study, e.g. one supporting separation between STM and LTM

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33
Q

Explain how one study supports the separation between STM and LTM

A

HM, a brain damaged patient, could remember about 7 numbers if tested immediately, but he kept forgetting that his uncle had died. His normal digit span evidenced a functioning STM, while forgetting about his uncle showed an inability to create new memories in LTM, showing a clear separation between the stores.

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34
Q

Explain how one study shows that STM and LTM prefer different encoding styles.

A

Baddeley:
Fewer words which sound similar (e.g. man, mad) are recalled in the correct order when tested immediately than words which sound different (e.g. pen, day).
Confusion between acoustically similar words shows that STM uses acoustic encoding.
Fewer words with similar meaning (e.g. big, large) are recalled in the correct order after 20 minute delay than words with dissimilar meaning (e.g. hot, old).
Confusion between semantically similar words shows that LTM prefers semantic encoding.

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35
Q

Explain one weakness of the MSM (in terms of STM)

A

It sees STM as a unitary store, a weakness compared with the WMM.
Baddeley showed that a visual tracking task was easier alongside a simultaneous verbal than another visual task.
Suggests that STM has different components for processing visual and verbal information, showing that MSM’s view of a unitary STM is less valid than WMM’s multi component view.

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36
Q

Explain one weakness of the MSM (in terms of transfer to LTM)

A

Emphasis on the importance of rehearsal to transfer information to LTM is too simplistic.
It fails to explain why we remember significant information which we haven’t rehearsed, but fail to remember less meaningful information which we have rehearsed.
Morris found that football fans were better at remembering fictional football results than non-fans. Neither group had more opportunity to rehearse, but the information was more significant to the fans.

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37
Q

Key points to describe working memory model (WMM)

A

Model of STM

Characteristics of central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer

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38
Q

How does WMM view the STM?

A

Place for storing and actively manipulating information. Consists of several components, each with limited but independent capacity.

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39
Q

Characteristics of central executive

A

In overall charge of tasks, e.g. sets task goals, maintains attention and co-ordinates multi-tasking.
Can process information from all senses.

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40
Q

Characteristics of phonological loop

A

Comprises phonological store, for storing verbal information, and phonological loop, for sub-vocal repetition.

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41
Q

Characteristics of visuo-spatial sketchpad

A

Stores visual and spatial information: how things look and their relationship to each other in space.

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42
Q

Characteristics of episodic buffer

A

A store for information retrieved from LTM.

Place where we can bring auditory and visual information together into a unified representation.

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43
Q

Ways to evaluate the WMM

A

Choose from:
Study or studies supporting existence of separate, independently operating components: experiment, case study, brain scan
Well triangulated evidence
Weakness(es): musical memory, falsifiability

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44
Q

Explain how one experiment supports the WMM

A

Baddeley found that participants could track a point of light better while doing a simultaneous verbal task than one involving imagining a letter. This is because the tracking and letter task both required the VSS which gets overloaded, whereas the verbal task uses the PL. So the study supports the idea of separate components for visual and verbal information.

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45
Q

Explain how case study evidence supports the WMM

A

KF suffered brain damage after a motorcycle accident. He had impaired memory for verbal but not visual information, showing that there must be separate components for verbal and visual information (the PL and VSS respectively).

46
Q

Explain how biological evidence supports the WMM

A

Brain scans show that the left hemisphere is active during tasks involving verbal memory and the right for spatial memory. The different brain locations for these types of memory suggests that the PL is separate from the VSS as the model suggests.

47
Q

Explain why evidence for the WMM is well triangulated

A

It uses different research methods, each with its own strengths: e.g. experiments are highly controlled while case studies show memory in everyday life. Overall this means the evidence for the model is strong, so the model is likely to be a valid one.

48
Q

Explain the criticism that WMM fails to explain musical memory

A

Berz points out that we can easily listen to instrumental music while performing verbal tasks such as reading. If the PL processed melody and pitch, its capacity would be overloaded, making reading difficult. Therefore he argues that the WMM should include a separate component for processing music.

49
Q

Explain the criticism that the WMM is not falsifiable

A

As the precise functioning of the CE is not clearly specified, the model is able to account for apparently contradictory findings. For example a researcher predicts that articulatory suppression will lead to poor performance on a simultaneous task, but it does not. The CE can ‘come to the rescue’, the researcher arguing that the CE rather than the PL must have performed the task. This means that the WMM can be difficult to test.

50
Q

Describe one way in which psychologists have investigated duration in STM

A

Peterson and Peterson presented participants with a consonant trigram and prevented rehearsal by asking them to count backwards in threes from a specified number. After intervals of 3,6,9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds participants were told to stop counting and recall the trigram. The percentage of trigrams recalled for each time interval was recorded.

51
Q

Describe Loftus (1979) into effect of anxiety on EWT

A

Participants waited in room close to lab.
Low volume discussion, man emerged holding pen.
High volume argument, man emerged holding blood-stained knife.
All shown 50 photos.
Pen condition 49% accuracy; knife condition 33%.
Anxiety may cause weapon focus making EWT worse.

52
Q

Evaluate Loftus (1979) into effect of anxiety on EWT

A

Ecological validity: staged and in a lab, but unexpected incident
Ethics: deception and failing to protect from harm

53
Q

Describe Yuille & Cutshall into effect of anxiety on EWT

A

Shopkeeper chased a thief into the street where they both fired several shots at each other. 13 witnesses were interviewed 5 months after the event, and their memories were found to be still very accurate. Those deeply affected by the shooting were found to be the most accurate.
Suggests that anxiety may make EWT better.

54
Q

Evaluate Yuille & Cutshall into effect of anxiety on EWT

A

Real life event so high in ecological validity.
Participants who experienced the highest levels of stress were also closer to the events. It may be that proximity to the event increases both anxiety and accuracy of EWT, rather than anxiety causing improved EWT.

55
Q

Describe Loftus (1975) into effect of misleading information on EWT

A

Video of events leading to a car accident.
Asked questions including ‘How fast was car going when it passed the Stop sign?’ (consistent with video) v ‘…when it passed the barn?’ (misleading)
10 new questions asked 1 week later, including ‘Did you see a barn?’
3% said ‘yes’ for Stop sign condition, 17% for barn condition.

56
Q

Describe Loftus (1979) into effect of misleading information.

A

Ppts shown slides of theft of large red purse from handbag.
They read account by psychology professor; in one condition this said that purse was brown.
Even in this condition almost all correctly remembered it was red.
Suggests that particularly salient information is less subject to distortion than periphereal details.

57
Q

Explain why misleading information may affect EWT.

A

May change memory of the event through retroactive interference.
May leave memory unaffected, but witnesses answer in accordance with misleading information due to response bias.
Subsequent Loftus study supports first explanation as many participants made error in line with misleading information even when offered money for answering correctly.

58
Q

Evaluate research into effect of misleading information on EWT.

A

Ecological validity strength: Loftus (1975) used video - more realistic than pictures or slides.
Ecological validity weakness: participants’ attention focused, unlike in real life EWT; no real consequences, and Foster showed that memory was better when participants thought testimony would affect trial.
Ethical criticism: experimental condition deceived.
Practical implications strength: useful to police (avoid misleading questions) and courts (judge warns jury if misleading questions asked)

59
Q

Describe Flin into effect of age on EWT

A

3 groups watched a talk by an actress pretending to be a nurse about foot hygiene. One of her two assistants (also actresses) tripped over the projector cable, scattering the slides, and the two assistants argued angrily.
Memory (tested the following day) showed no age related memory differences for the content of the talk and the argument.
However, after a five month delay, whereas adults and 9 year olds remembered as much as on the following day, the 5 year olds recalled about 40% less.

60
Q

Evaluate Flin into effect of age on EWT

A

Ethical criticism: deception
Ecological validity: staged and less traumatic than most crimes, but participants didn’t know their memory would be tested and the argument was unexpected.
Internal validity: field expt. so could have been differences for different groups, but scripted and used professional actresses
Practical application: interview young children ASAP, and avoid lengthy delays in listing trials when key witness is very young.

61
Q

Describe Poole and Lindsay into effect of age on EWT

A

3 to 8 year old children engaged in science demonstrations (e.g. lifting cans with pulleys) in the laboratory with ‘Mr Science’.
Children’s parents read them stories, containing details of the demonstrations they had done and others which they hadn’t done.
All ages tended to incorporate fabricated information into their memories.
However, when later asked to think carefully about where their information came from, the older (but not the younger) children were able to separate memory of the event from the post-event information.

62
Q

Evaluate Poole and Lindsay

A

Practical implication: police should be cautious in making arrests based on evidence of young children who have been exposed to misleading post-event information.

63
Q

Describe the cognitive interview technique

A 
Context reinstatement (CR): mentally reconstruct e.g. scene, weather, thoughts, feelings, preceding events.
Report every (RE) detail however trivial
Recall from changed perspective (CP): e.g. from viewpoint of another witness
Recall in reverse order (RO)
64
Q

Explain why the cognitive interview technique aids witness recall.

A

CR/RE involves bringing retrieval cues to mind; CP and RO help re-access original memory, uncontaminated by subsequent information or personal schemas.

65
Q

Evaluate the cognitive interview technique

A

Geiselman: more information recalled about simulated crime on video with CI than standard interview.
Fisher: enhanced CI increased info recalled from real Florida witnesses
Well triangulated findings suggest CI is effective for increasing amount of information remembered.
But Koehnken: also leads to more incorrect information.
CR and RE may be more useful than CP and RO according to Milne and Bull

66
Q

Describe organisation as a memory improvement strategy.

A

Organisation can involve putting concepts into a hierarchy showing semantic relatedness.
The overall concept appears at the top (e.g. minerals). This concept then divides into categories (e.g. metals and stones) underneath.
Each category divides into more specific ones as you go down the hierarchy.
Unrelated words can also be organised in the form of meaningful story.

67
Q

Explain why organisation improves memory

A

Both forms of organisation involve us doing meaningful (i.e. semantic) processing. Hierarchies make it clear how (already meaningful) concepts relate semantically to each other. The story method involves imposing meaning on (fairly meaningless) material. Research shows that processing material semantically helps us to remember it, probably because this is the preferred way of encoding it in LTM.
The story method also involves imagery, meaning that concepts have been encoded twice over, using both a visual and a verbal code.

68
Q

Evaluate organisation as a memory improvement strategy

A

Organising via hierarchies is supported by Bower et al.
Participants who recalled from a minerals hierarchy correctly recalled 65% of words while participants who learned the same words presented randomly recalled only 19%.
As the hierarchy condition remembered three times as many words as the control condition, this shows that making clear how words relate semantically to each other is an effective way of remembering them.
However, as we don’t usually only have to remember words, it is questionable how useful this strategy is in real life.

69
Q

Describe retrieval cues as a memory improvement strategy.

A

Involves bringing back to mind things which were encoded along with the material to be learned.
These can either relate to the surroundings we were in at the time (context dependent cues) or to how we were feeling (state dependent).
The cues help us to access the material we learned - i.e. they combat forgetting from LTM due to retrieval failure.

70
Q

Evaluate retrieval cues as a memory improvement strategy.

A

Smith: participants remembered 18 (out of 80) words when tested in the same basement where they learned them, compared to only 12 for participants tested in upstairs room with different furnishings. Other participants tested upstairs, told to imagine being in the basement, got 17: almost as good as actually being in the basement, showing the value of mentally reinstating contextual cues.
Geiselman: more information recalled about simulated crime on video with CI (involves mentally reinstating context) than standard interview.

71
Q

What did Miller (1956) investigate?

A

To find out what is the capacity of short-term memory

72
Q

How did Miller investigate capacity of STM?

A

Experimenter read out lists of random digits; participants required to repeat them back in correct order

73
Q

What feature of the MSM does Miller’s study provide evidence for?

A

Demonstrates that there is a short-term store with a limited capacity, which is different to a long term store which seems to have unlimited capacity

74
Q

Evaluation of Miller’s study

A

Reliable

May not be valid for words and items just for letters and digits

75
Q

What did peterson and peterson investigate?

A

Duration of STM

76
Q

How did peterson and peterson investigate the duration of STM?

A

Trigrams, counting backwards different lengths of time

77
Q

What aspect of the MSM did the findings of the peterson and peterson study support?

A

STM duration is short

78
Q

Evaluation of Peterson and Peterson study

A

Reliable
Validity
Interference previous items
Counting backwards

79
Q

What did Conrad investigate?

A

How STM stores info

80
Q

What did Bahrick investigate?

A

Duration of LTM plus recognition and recall

81
Q

What did Baddeley investigate?

A

Acoustic and semantic coding in LTM

82
Q

How did Conrad investigate how STM stores info

A

Phonologically similar and dissimilar words

83
Q

How did Bahrick investigate Duration of LTM plus recognition and recall?

A

High school Facebook or yearbook

84
Q

How did Baddeley investigate Acoustic and semantic coding in LTM?

A

Acoustically similar and dissimilar
Semantically similar and dissimilar
Dissimilar semantic best

85
Q

What aspect of the MSM does Conrad’s findings support?

A

STM stores info phonologically (acoustically) even when visually presented

86
Q

What aspect of the MSM does Bahrick’s findings support?

A

Long term memory has a long duration. Recognition better than recall

87
Q

What aspect of the MSM does Baddeley’s findings support?

A

LTM stores info semantically

88
Q

Evaluation of Conrad’s study

A

Reliable and valid

89
Q

Evaluation of Bahrick’s study

A

Not valid or reliable, too many uncontrolled extraneous variable e.g. interaction with friends and further meetings with old friends

90
Q

Evaluation of Baddeleys study

A

Reliable

Valid for words but artificial

91
Q

Explain one weakness of the MSM

A

One weakness is that the MSM shows that long term and short term memory are completely separate whereas Miller’s study shows the LTM and STM can work together

92
Q

What is chunking?

A

Chunking is used to remember parts of information, this is because its easier to process information with semantic meaning

93
Q

Name the 3 stages of Memory

A

Encoding
Storage
Retrieval

94
Q

Name the 3 ways in which memory can be encoded

A

Visual (image)
Acoustic (sound)
Semantic (meaning)

95
Q

Name the 3 kinds of memory

A

Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory

96
Q

Weaknesses of the MSM

A

Too simplistic and inflexible to explain the entire memory system

97
Q

What are the 4 parts of the working memory?

A

Central executive
Visuo-spatial scratch pad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop

98
Q

What does the central executive do?

A

Central executive:

Controls attention
Controls slave systems

99
Q

Name the 3 slave systems of the working memory

A

Visuo-spatial scratch pad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop

100
Q

Description of the central executive

A

No storage capacity
Directs work to different parts (correct department)
Allocates each slave system to task depending on speciality
Uses data from sensory memory and or LTM
Only works with one thing at a time-processes serially

101
Q

What does the Phonological loop do?

A

Comprises:

Articulatory control system for verbal rehearsal: the inner voice and
Phonological store for acoustically coded items: the inner ear

102
Q

Capacity for Phonological loop

A

Limited- 2 seconds (length of time for sounds then over written)

103
Q

Description of Phonological Loop

A

Handles auditory material
2 parts:
-Phonological store: ‘innner ear’
- Articulatory control system: inner voice for speech, sounds e.g. reading

104
Q

What does the visuo-spatial scratch pad do?

A

Storage for spatial and visual information ‘the inner eye’

105
Q

What does the episodic buffer do?

A

Temporary storage system that allows information from the subsidiary systems to be combined with information from LTM
Compares sound of something with visuals
Limited capacity

106
Q

Robbins 1996 study

A

Investigated the effect of generating random letter strings

107
Q

Names the stages of memory in eyewitness testimony

A
  • actual events
  • Stage 1: Aquisition (info person receives)
  • Stage 2: Storage (info person stores)
  • Stage 3: Retrieval (info person retrieves at a later time)
108
Q

Procedure of Robbins study

A

20 chess players asked to memorise in 10 seconds the positions of 16 chess pieces from real game

Whilst memorising ppts either

  • simultaneously engage CE By generating random letter sequences
  • simultaneously articulatory suppression saying the in time with metronome

After 10 seconds ppts memory tested by asking them to arrange chess pieces on another board to match those just seen

109
Q

Findings of Robbins study

A

Ppts in articulatory suppression condition performed well in recalling positions of chess pieces

Ppts in letter generation condition performed poorly

110
Q

Conclusion of robins study

A

Impaired performance of those generating letter sequences demonstrated that the CE PLayed a role in remembering chess positions

Good performance of ppts in articulatory suppression condition indicated that phonological loop was not involved in remembering the chess positions

111
Q

Evaluation of Robbins study

A

Well designed study enables us to determine that articulatory suppression and letter generation did cause difference in performance

Letter sequences recognised as valid way of engaging CE as require attention

Psychology AS (7 decks)

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