Memory Flashcards
What happened in the Godden and Badly study?
The participants learned vocabulary underwater and then they recalled the words on land. The other PP’s learned on land and recalled underwater.
Other PP’s learnt in one context and recalled in the same.
They concluded that learning in context may be very helpful. As PP’s that recalled and learnt words in the same environment remembered more words.
What happened in the Underwood and Postman interference study?
Participants were divided into two groups. Group A were asked to learn a list of word Paris i.e cat-tree they were then asked to learn a second list of word pairs. Group B were asked to learn the first list of word pairs only.Both groups were asked to recall the first list of word pairs.
Group B who only had one list of words recalled more words accurately.
What happened in the Peterson and Peterson study?
Participants were asked to remember sets of three letters and then count backwards in three’s to prevent rehearsal.
The time they had to count backwards in 3’s varied from 3, 15, 12, 18 seconds etc.
Around 90% of participants recalled the numbers in the 3 second “retention interval.” Short term memory works better with rehearsal.
Outline the Multi-Store Theory
We all have a set of memory stores within the brain being:
Sensory- Up to around six seconds of storage and is very temporary.
Short Term- Around seven chunks of information and may be used when remembering phone numbers or car registration plates.
Long Term- Can hold information for a lifetime and is a very powerful memory store that helps us remember things from a long time ago.
Outline Levels of Processing Theory
We have three levels of processing that happens within the brain.
Structural- How a word is spelt such as with capital letters or a full stop afterwards. This is how a word looks.
Phonetic- How a word sounds and perhaps if it rhymes with any other words. Bat rhymes with cat etc.
Semantic- The deepest level of processing that may require us to think about the word and how it relates to the real world. Such as- a tiger is an animal. A house is where someone lives.
Implications: We all have three levels of processing that occur when we use words and phrases and also for remembering information.
Semantic processing requires the deepest processing work and therefore makes it easier to remember something that is attached to semantic processing.
Define Eye-Witness Testimony
It is a statement or a set of information given by someone often stating facts about a crime scene or a specific event. The testimony may be given to the police and used in court cases to defend or prosecute a person. However people may reconstruct what they remember to fit in with what they don’t know and this way of gaining information can sometimes be unreliable.
Find a criticism of using Eye-Witness Testimony’s
People may give inaccurate information about an event as they may have reconstructed memories they think they have seen and this can lead to false prosecutions and legal problems. Especially with this method of trial.
In UK courts, it is impossible for a sentence to be given to someone when there is only one person with an eye-witness testimony and there must be multiple people to give statements to prevent false accusations and reconstructive memories being created about the event.
Define Reconstructive Memory
When someone witnesses something and later recall the event and they can’t remember parts of it so their brain reconstructs the memories to fit in with what they can’t remember.
This can cause lots of problems as people become convinced they have seen something when in reality it is false and they just don’t realise it.
What role does the Hippocampus play in memory?
The Hippocampus is vital for the creation and storage of new memories. A man called HM had his Hippcampus removed in a surgical operation and he couldn’t create new memories giving him Antero-grade amnesia.
He would repeat sentences many times as his brain thought these memories were new but he couldn’t store them. HM was an experiment but without this happening more Hippcampuses may have been damaged without knowing their role and function within the brain.
Define Retro-grade amnesia
When someone can’t remember lots or all of the events before the incident occurred that led to them having amnesia such as a head injury or brain damage.
They can form new memories however.
Define Antero-grade amnesia
When someone can not create any new memories but they can remember old memories from before the event occurred that caused their amnesia.
This can be more damaging than retro-grade as people will repeat sentences as they can’t remember they have said them and people may repeat actions and interactions due to not being able to remember they have just done it.
Define Storage, Encoding and Retrieval
Encoding: The process of encoding new memories into our brains, essentially this is vital for the creation of new memories. People with Antero-grade amnesia struggle or can’t do this and this can be a problem.
Storage: Where our encoded memories our stored and storage is often associated with the multi-store theory and this is where our short term memories are retrieved and long term memories are encoded.
Retrieval: When we extract the memories from our storage after they have been encoded. People with Retro-grade amnesia can’t do this with old memories.
