Memory

Question 1

Sensory store

Answer 1

Large capacity
0.25 to 2 seconds
Different stores for different senses

Question 2

Short term memory store

Answer 2

7 +-2
Up to 30 seconds
Acoustically encoded

Question 3

Long term memory store

Answer 3

Huge capacity for a life time

Semantic encoding

Question 4

Peterson and Peterson

Duration of STM

Answer 4

Briefly showed people a trigram and asked to recall after different delays
During the delays, the participants had to count backwards in 3s to stop rehearsal

When asked to recall after 3seconds, 80% could remember
9 seconds, only 30%

Concluded that STM has a limited duration

Question 5

Encoding

Answer 5

How we store things in memory

Question 6

Baddeley 1966a

Encoding of STM

Answer 6

4 word lists each with 10 words
Immediate recall
Found that people correctly recalled more words when they sounded dissimilar (75% correct) compared to when they sounded similar (55%)
Similarity in meaning had little effect on the accuracy of recall

The results imply that STM involves acoustic encoding. Similar sounded words are likely to get muddled up, leading to poor recall

Question 7

Episodic memory

Answer 7

Specific personal events

Conscious

Question 8

Semantic memory

Answer 8

General knowledge of the worlds

Conscious

Question 9

Procedural memory

Answer 9

Performance of actions

Unconscious

Question 10

Baddeley 1966b

Encoding in LTM

Answer 10

Same word lists
Delay of 20 mins
Participants had to recall words in correct order

It was found that recall was more accurate for dissimilar meaning words (85% correct) compared to similar meaning words. (55%)
There was no difference in accuracy for acoustically similar.

The results imply that LTM involves the use of semantic encoding
Similar meaning thugs are likely to get muddled up.

Question 11

Who was the multi store model developed by

Answer 11

Atkinson and Shriffin 1968

Question 12

Bahrick et al 1975

Very long term memory

Answer 12

Nearly 400 American ex high school students aged between 17 and 74
Various tests including a free recall test where participants tried to remember names of people is a graduate class, a photo recognition test consisting of 50 photos and a name recognition test.

Results showed that participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in identify names and faces

Recognition memory was better than recall because they were given a cue.

Concluded that classmates are rarely forgotten. Recognition is better than recall

Question 13

Primacy and recency effects

Answer 13

It has been found that if people are given a relatively long list of words and asked to call them, then best recall is for the early items (primacy) and the later items (recency)

It has been argued that the recency effect is because some words are still in STM and so can be easily recalled.
The primacy effect if thought to be become early words in the list have been rehearsed and placed into LTM.
The middle words cannot be rehearsed and out into LTM as they are displaced by incoming words.

This supports that STM and LTM are separate.

Question 14

Evidence that STM and LTM are sperate

Answer 14

Encoded in different ways (baddeley)
Evidence of primacy and recency effects in the serial position effect
Evidence from studies of patients with memory problems following brain damage.

Question 15

HM

Answer 15

In 1953, HM underwent surgery for very severe epilepsy
The surgery aimed to remove areas of the brain thought to be at the heart of his epilepsy. In particular, an area known as the hippocampus was removed.
The surgery did reduce his epilepsy, however it was discovered that it drastically altered his memory. He was no longer able to form new long term memories. He can recognise people and events from his childhood.

Question 16

KF

Answer 16

Shallice and Warrington reported a case study of a man who had brain damage following a motor cycle accident.

KF had a greatly reduced digit span and reduced recency effect suggesting impaired short term memory. However, he could form long term memory.

This evidence adds further support to the idea that short term and long term memories are separate.

His STM was reduced to 3-4 words at a time however his memory for images was still 7+-2. This provides evidence against the multi store model because it suggests there are 2 types of short term memory.

Question 17

The working memory model

Answer 17

The working memory model is an explanation of how one aspect of memory (STM) is organised and how it functions

Question 18

Central executive

Answer 18

Coordinates the activities of the 3 sub systems in memory

Question 19

Phonological loop

Answer 19

Deals with auditory info

Inner voice- rehearses info
Inner ear- stores sounds

Question 20

Visio spatial ketch pad

Answer 20

Deals with visual info

Visual cache- stores images
Inner scribe - stores spatial info

Question 21

Episodic buffer

Answer 21

The component which brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory

Provides a bridge between STM and LTM

Question 22

How does KF support working memory model?

Answer 22

After brain damage, KF had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally.
This suggests that just his phonological loop had been damaged, leaving other areas of memory intact.

This supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.

However, evidence from brain damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patents who have had traumatic experiences.

Question 23

Baddeley

Evidence for the phonological loop

Answer 23

Participants were given lists of 5 short words and lists of long words. Their memory for the different lists was tested immediately.
They had to recall the words in order. The number of words recalled for the ‘short’ word lists and long words were compared.

It was found that more words were called if the words were shorter.

Baddeley argued that this word length effect is seen because when trying to remember words,new rehearse them using our inner voice. The ability of our inner voice to rehearse words is limited by the length of time it takes to ‘say’ the word.
So if it takes longer to say the words, then the words will have started to decay before we have finished rehearsing the list and we will start to make errors.

Question 24

Weaknesses of the working memory model

Answer 24

Only gives us a detailed understanding of short term memory.

Our current understanding of the central executive is relatively poor and the roles of the central executive are rather vague

Question 25

Interference theory of forgetting

Answer 25

This theory suggests that we forget due to new or old information affecting our memory.

Proactive interference is when old information interferes with new information.

Retroactive interference is when new information interferences with old information

Question 26

Baddeley and Hitch

Interference theory of forgetting

Answer 26

Participants who had played a varying number of rugby games had to remember as many teams they had played against as possible.

It was found that forgetting was more due to the number of games played than the time passed between games.

The participants who played lots of games recently have less new info to interfere

Question 27

Problem of the interference theory

Answer 27

It only explains forgetting when there are 2 similar bits of info

Question 28

Retrieval cue failure

Answer 28

This occurs when the information is still in long term memory but there aren’t enough cues to retrieve the information.

Our memories can only be retrieved if we have cues or promos to help retrieve them

Question 29

Godden and Baddeley

Retrieval cue failure

Answer 29

16 divers were split into 4 groups
Learned words on land, tested on land
Learning words on land, tested underwater
Learned words under water, tested underwater.

Groups A and C learned and test on words in the same place and these groups had the best recall. This is because the external cues available at learning were the same as at recall

Question 30

Cue

Answer 30

A trigger of info that allows us to access memory

Question 31

Problems with godden and baddeleys divers study

Answer 31

Small sample

Hard to find environments as different as on land and under water, in real life contexts won’t be as different.

Question 32

Eye witness testimony

Answer 32

The ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents which they’ve observed.

Question 33

Factors which affect the accuracy of eye witness testimony

Answer 33

Leading questions
Anxiety
Post event discussion

Question 34

The cognitive interview

crop not crap

Answer 34

Recreate the context- witnesses should rerun to the original crime scene and imagine what the environment was like and their emotions

Report every detail- witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event even though it may seem irrrelevant. Trivial details may be important and could trigger other memories

Recall the event in different orders- events should be called in a different order to the original sequence. Eg start with what happened last

Report from different perspectives- witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspective

Question 35

Gabbert

Post event discussion

Answer 35

Participants watched a video of a girl stealing a wallet. However, half of the participants saw the video with the actual footage of the girl stealing the wallet. The other half saw the video from a different perspective and didn’t actually see the physical act of the girl stealing the wallet.
Participants from each group were then paired up to discuss the case and were asked what they had seen and whether they thought the girl was guilty

71% of participants claimed to have seen the inns which they definitely did not.

By discussing an event with other people who had seen the event from a different perspective, memories can be altered

Question 36

Loftus and Palmer

Leading questions

Answer 36

Participants were shown a video of 2 cars colliding. They were asked to estimate how fast the cars were going at the time but the wording of the question was altered.
Some participants were asked how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other and others were asked how fast were the cars going when they hit each other.

Participants gave faster estimations of speed if they heard the word smashed. (Mean estimate 41mph) than the word hit (34mph)

Also those who heard to word smashed were more likely to say they had seen broken glass

Concluded that what we are asked after an incident can become mixed with our memory

Question 37

Loftus

Anxiety

Answer 37

Participants were left in a waiting area outside a lab
In the 1st situation, they overheard a discussion followed by a man holing a pen and with grease on his hands.

2nd situation p- overheard a heated discussion followed by a man with blood stained knife

Participants were then asked to identify the man from a set of 50 photos

49% correctly identified man holding pen
33% correctly identified the mean with knife

Participants were less able to correctly recall the man with the knife because they had their attention absorbed by the knife. This has become known as weapon focus.