Memory

Question 1

Outline and define the 3 features of memory

Answer 1

Coding - how you store and retrieve memories
Capacity - how much information you can remember
Duration - how long you can store information

Question 2

Outline research related to short term memory

Answer 2

Baddeley - coding (acoustically and semantically)
Jacobs - capacity (numbers and letters)
Miller -capacity ( 7+-2)
Peterson - Duration (constant syllable)

Question 3

What happened in Baddeley’s study into coding in STM and LTM

Answer 3

Acoustically similar words (cat, cab etc) or dissimilar (pit, few etc).semantically similar words (large, big etc) or dissimilar (good, hot) were tested.
STM encodes acoustically and you should find it harder to remember words in the long term that sounds the same.

Question 4

What happened in Jacobs study of capacity in STM

Answer 4

Researcher reads digits out (increasing the number read every time, does the same with letters and continues until the participant can’t remember any more.
Participants could repeat 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters. In the correct order and immediate.

Question 5

What happened in millers study into capacity of STM?

Answer 5

Miller made observations of everyday practice. He noted that things came in 7s.
He said that the span of the STM is 7 items + or - 2

Question 6

What happened in petersons and petersons study into duration of STM?

Answer 6

24 students were given a constant syllable (YCG) to remember and a 3 digit number to count backwards from after for 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds.
Students recalled about 80% of the syllables correctly with 3 second interval. Average recall after 18 seconds fell to 3%. Suggesting that duration of STM without rehearsal is 18-30 seconds.

Question 7

Evaluate research related to the features of STM

Answer 7

Baddeley STM - LIMITATION - the word list had no personal meaning to the participants. Artificial stimuli. Can’t generalise .
Baddeley LTM - STRENGTH - lab experiment. Good internal validity. High control.
Jacobs STM -LIMITATION - experiment was a long time ago. Low temporal validity.
Miller STM -LIMITATION - Cowan argues against and says you can only remember 4 chunks of information.
Peterson STM -LIMITATION- artificial task. Low ecological validity.

Question 8

Describe different types of LTM

Answer 8

Semantic - Memories of facts and knowledge. These memories are not time stamped. You do have to put effort in to retrieve.
Procedural - memories of skills and how to do an activity. No time stamping. You don’t need much effort to retrieve.
Episodic - personal memories or events. Time stamped. You have to make a conscious effort to recall.

Question 9

Evaluate the types of LTM.

Answer 9

Turving et al- SUPPORTS - did a brain scan and found each 3 types of memories were found at different parts. Semantic (frontal lobe), procedural (cerebellum), Episodic (temporal lobe).
Clive Wearing- SUPPORTS - They are in different parts as he could remember semantic memories and procedural it was just episode that were gone.
HM - SUPPORTS - had hippocampus removed. He only lost episodic memories.
HM - LIMITATION- we can’t form a casual relationship between brain region and Type of LTM as he had brain damage.
LIMITATION - we can not generalise HM and Wearing to lots of people.

Question 10

Describe the multi store memory model.

Answer 10

Atkinson and Schiffen
Input
Sensory store - DURATION (less than a second) CAPACITY (very large) CODING (visual, acoustic)
STM Store - DURATION (18- 30 seconds) CAPACITY (7+1 -2 chunks) CODING (acoustic)
LTM store - DURATION (unlimited) CAPACITY (unlimited) CODING semantic

Question 11

Evaluate the multi store memory model

Answer 11

LIMITATION - carick and Watkins believe it takes elaborate rehersal to get it into your LTM.
LIMITATION- the 3 types of LTM are not included into the MSM - Clive wearing
STRENGTH- duration is backed up by Peterson and Bahrick
STRENGTH - Capacity is backed up by Miller and Jacobs
Compare with WMM

Question 12

Describe the working memory model.

Answer 12

Central executive- an attention process that monitors data and allocates slave systems.
Phonological loop - it deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which information comes in. Phonological store - stores the words you hear. Articulatory store - maintenance rehearsal.
Episodic buffer - temporary store for information and can merge information together. Passes the information to LTM, limited capacity (about 4 chunks)
Visio spatial information- stores visual information, limited capacity.

Question 13

Evaluate the working memory model

Answer 13

Strength - KF suffered brain damage. He had poor STM for verbal information but could process visual information normally.
STRENGTH - Baddeley dual task performance, can’t do 2 visual tasks at once you can so visual and verbal task though as they use separate slave systems.
LIMITATION - central executive could be broken down. Lack of clarity.
LIMITATION - 3 different types of LTM. Clive wearing.

Question 14

Outline the research into interference

Answer 14

Retroactive - when new memories interfere with old memories
Proactive - when old memories interfere with new memories.
McDonald investigated Retroactive memories. They had to learn a list of words, remember them, learn another list of words then repeat the second list. The red group did the worst because the words were similar (semantic)

Question 15

Evaluate research into interference

Answer 15

STRENGTH - lab study, reduces extraneous variables.
LIMITATION - lab study’s have low ecological validity.
STRENGTH - lab study’s have high internal validity.
LIMITATION - lab study’s have demand characteristics
STRENGTH - Rugby players were asked to repeat the team they played 3 weeks ago, the players who hadn’t played for 3 weeks did better as they had no retroactive memories blocking

Question 16

Retrieval failure - outline research into cues

Answer 16

If a cue is to help it much be there at encoding and retrieval.
Godden and Baddeley - location cue
4 groups, learn and recall, land land, water water, water land, land water. Land land was the best. 40 % leases accurate when changing location.

Question 17

Retrieval failure - evaluation for cues

Answer 17

STRENGTH - Feild experiment - mundane realism, high ecological validity for them.
LIMITATION- more extraneous variables could effect the DV.
STRENGTH - cues work AGGLETON AND WASKED, Viking smell.
LIMITATION - You can’t generalise it, no real life examples in everyday life.

Question 18

Retrieval failure - outline state dependant research

Answer 18

The cue is how you feel. The state you encode the information in needs to be the same when you retrieve.
Cater and Cassidy gave participants anti histamine tablets which makes them drowsy. 4 groups learn, recall. Drug drug, not not, drug not, not drug. Group drug drug and not not did the best.

Question 19

Retrieval failure - evaluate state dependant research

Answer 19

STRENGTH- Basket et al Chewing Gum had to learn 15 words. Tested 24 hours later. GUM GUM (11) NOT NOT (8.5) GUM NOT (8), NOT GUM (7).
LIMITATION- Godden and Baddeley repeated. They saw if they recognised a word from a list. All 4 conditions were the same performance.

Question 20

Misleading information - outline study’s into leading questions.

Answer 20

Loftus and Palmer arranged for participants to watch films of car accidents they then asked the question How fast was the car traveling when it HIT the other car? They changes the word HIT though contacted, bumped, collided and smashed.
Contacted - 31.8 mph
Smashed - 40.5 mph

Question 21

Misleading information - evaluate leading questions

Answer 21

Lab experiment:
STRENGTH - high control over extraneous variables. High internal validity.
LIMITATION- Mundane experiment - you wouldn’t be watching a film. Low ecological validity.

Question 22

Misleading information - outline research into post event discussion.

Answer 22

Where witnesses discuss what they have seen after an event. This may influence accuracy of recall.
Gabbert et al - 2 participants watched the same film but from different angles. The participants were then allowed to discuss what they saw. They then had to recall the events. There was a book title you could see in one film but not the other. 71% of participants recalled events they didn’t see. 0% of the control group. Due to memory conformity.

Question 23

Misleading information - evaluate research into post event discussion

Answer 23

STRENGTH- Bonded he found that if participants are warned about the effects they are less likely to do it. For those participants who were warned that anything they heard was second hand information the recall was most accurate.
LIMITATION - Zaragoska and mccloskey - they argue that any information given in a lab study is due to demand characteristics.

Question 24

Outline research into anxiety

Answer 24

Yerkes and Dodson law - low and high anxiety = low memory recall.
Johnson and Scott- participants thought they were in a lab study. While in waiting room they heard an argument then a man walked through with a greasy pen (low anxiety) and another set of participants saw a man with a knife with blood (high anxiety).
49% of participants could pick out pen man from 50 photos, 33% with blood. Due to tunnel vision so you narrow down to the object itself not the person.
Yuille and Cutshall - conducted an experiment from a real life gun shooting in a gun shop in Canada. 13 whitenesses took part 4-5 months after the event. They were compared with the original police interviews. Accuracy was tested on how much information they could reall. They also had to measure there anxiety at the event.
There was little change in their accuracy. Some items were less accurate like height, age and colour etc. Those who reported most stressed were most accurate. 88 % compared to 75%

Question 25

Evaluate research into anxiety

Answer 25

Johnson and Scott:
STRENGTH Field experiment which is good as it has high ecological validity.
LIMITATION- low control over extraneous variables/ demand characteristics.
LIMITATION - psychological harm
YUILLE AND CUTSHALL:
STRENGTH- high ecological validity.
LIMITATION - protection from harm
LIMITATION - EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES - post event discussion

Question 26

Outline the research into cognitive interviews

Answer 26

4 ways you can conduct a cognitive interview:
Report everything
Reinstate the context
Reverse the order
Change perspective
Enhanced cognitive interview:
Fisher et al developed additional features to reduce anxiety and build a relationship between interviewer and interviewee.

Question 27

Evaluate research into cognitive interviews

Answer 27

LIMITATION - Kohnken et al - meta analysis of 50 studies. Cognitive interview has provided 81% correct information but also 61 % increase of false information.
LIMITATION - low internal validity as every CI is different.
LIMITATION - Police officers use their own version of CI which may be slightly different to the one tested.