Memory Flashcards
What are the 2 types of interference?
Proactive
Retroactive
What is the definition of proactive?
Old information interferes with the ability to recall new information.
What is the definition of retroactive?
New information interferes with the ability to recall old information.
What is a limitation to the interference theory?
Tells us little about the cognitive processes involved in forgetting- only explains certain ways of forgetting
Mcgeoch and Mcdonald- Low ecological validity- the research carried out wouldn’t happen in everyday life.
Artificial research as they were all laboratory experiments
What is the definition of memory?
Memory is the process of retaining information after the original material is no longer present. It refers to the mental processes used to encode, store and retrieve information.
What is the definition of encoding?
A chemical memory trace in the brain which takes place during the presentation of material. It is the transformation of sensory input into a form that allows it to be stored.
What are some types of encoding?
Visual
Acoustic
Semantic
What is the definition of capacity?
How much information a store can hold
What is the definition of duration?
The length of time information is stored.
What is the capacity for STM?
7 + or - 2
What is the duration of STM?
18-30 seconds
What are the registers contained in the sensory register?
Iconic- Visual
Echoic- Auditory
Haptic-Touch
What is the MSM of memory?
A structural model of which there are 3 separate, distinct memory stores that are unitary for information to pass through in a linear way
How is information passed through the MSM of memory?
Information - Sensory register- Attention- STM- (Decay)- Rehearsal- LTM (Decay)
What are the strengths of the MSM of memory?
Physiological evidence- Brain Scans
Primacy and Recency Effect
Episodic, Semantic and Procedural stores of LTM
What is meant by Episodic?
Episodic= Episodes of life
Information about events that have been experienced throughout life
Declarative information- consciously recalled
Consists of 3 elements- Specific details of the event, context and emotion
What is meant by Semantic?
Facts and knowledge about the World e.g: capital cities, definitions and words.
Declarative information- consciously recalled
Begins as episodic memory as we acquire knowledge from personal experiences
What is meant by Procedural?
Procedural= the procedure of how to do something
Knowledge of how to do things and tasks
Concerned with skills and are acquired through repetition and practice
Procedural memories are implicit and automatic so that we focus our attention on other tasks
What are the limitations of the MSM?
Oversimplified- Brain damaged patients/ LTM
How do fMRI scans support the MSM?
Shows that different parts of the brains are active when using different types of memory.
Prefrontal cortex-STM
Hippocampus-LTM
Supportive as shows there are separate stores
How does the primary and recency effect support MSM?
Primary effect-superior recall of words at the start of the list
Recency effect-Superior recall of the items at the end of the list (recency-recent)
Shows the existence of separate stores and indicates that rehearsal leads to LTM, the primary effect indicates LTM and the recency effect portrays the STM.
What is the definition of The Working Memory Model?
The area of memory that is used whilst ‘working on things’
What is the WMM made up of?
Central executive
Phonological loop
Visuo-spatial sketch pad
Episodic buffer
What is the central executive?
The coordination of mental processes
Directs attention to a certain task
Limited capacity
What does the phonological loop do?
Operates independently
Articulatory process as it silently repeats the words you hear
Limited capacity
What does the visuo spatial sketch pad do?
Codes visual information as separate objects
Inner scribe as it stores the arrangement of objects
Limited capacity
What does the episode buffer do?
Known as the general store
Enables information in the visuo spatial sketch pad and phonological loop to be combined with information in the LTM
What is the definition of EWT?
Evidence given by a witness to a significant event
What is the definition of EWT?
Evidence given by a witness to a significant event
What are the strengths of the WMM?
Shah and Miyake- found that an individual can score higher on a spatial working memory task but low on a verbal memory task- supporting how there are individual differences within the stores.
Brain damaged patients KF- able to remember visually but not verbal tasks and PET scans show that different parts of the brain are active whilst doing different verbal and visual tasks
What are the limitations of the WMM?
Central executive- not fully able to understand and the idea that the central executive is a single store is questionable as researchers suggest that there may be separate verbal and spatial working memory systems rather than a single central executive.
Lack of explanation- doesn’t explain changes in processing ability as a result of practice or over time
What is the definition of retrieval failure?
Information may still be stored but it cannot be accessed as retrieval cues are not present.
What is meant by context dependent forgetting?
Cues may be based on context
Evidence indicates that retrieval is more likely when the context at encoding matches the context at retrieval, otherwise it leads to retrieval failure
What is meant by state dependent forgetting?
Mental state you are in at the time can act as a cue
Godwin- asked male volunteers to remember a list of words when they were either drunk or sober. 24 hours later they had to recall the words in the opposite state then in the same state, they found that most participants remembered words when in the same state they learnt them.
What is a strength of the retrieval failure theory?
Recruited scuba divers and asked them to learn words underwater. Found that the highest recall was when scuba divers were underwater supporting the importance of contexts
What are the limitations of retrieval failure?
Artificial research- lab experiments meant that it has low ecological validity as the words were an artificial task and the findings don’t relate to everyday and aren’t accurate enough
Anderson- found that although interference plays a role in forgetting, it remains unclear how much forgetting can be attributed to interference or retrieval failure.
What did Johnson and Scott do?
Participants were exposed to 2 situations: 1) they overheard an argument and saw a man run through carrying a pen knife covered in grease. 2)
What were the findings from Johnson and Scott?
Pen knife recall- 49% accuracy
Bloodstained recall- 33% accuracy
What is meant by ‘the weapon focus’?
The participants focuses their attention on the weapon which distracts their attention from the appearance of the perpretrator?
What did loftus do?
Participants were shown a film of events leading up to a car accident. The control group were asked questions that had actually happened e.g: ‘how fast was the car going when it passed the stop sign?’
The experimental group were asked misleading information about the speed of the car, e.g: ‘how fast was the car going when it passed the barn on a country road?’ As there was no barn
What did loftus find?
17% of the participants in the experimental group reported seeing a barn whereas only 3% in the control group made that mistake, showing that participants absorb the misleading post event information into their original memory
What are the strengths of anxiety effecting EWT?
Johnson and Scott- lab experiment meant that there was high control of variables and was able to establish cause and effect
The findings from these experiments have helped the way police interview witnesses, increasing the accuracy
What are the limitations of factors influencing EWT?
Lab experiment could lead to demand characteristics
Low ecological validity- participants cannot relate to the emotions of people involved in real life events
