Memory

Question 1

the capacity of short-term memory

Answer 1

7+/-2

Question 2

the duration of short-term memory

Answer 2

18-30 seconds

Question 3

the encoding for the short-term memory

Answer 3

acoustic

Question 4

true/false, the capacity and duration of long-term memory is infinite as far as we know

Answer 4

true

Question 5

the encoding for the long-term memory

Answer 5

semantic

Question 6

define semantic memory

Answer 6

facts and general knowledge e.g. ice is made of water

Question 7

evaluate long and short term memory

Answer 7

.The capacity of the STM may be even smaller, some suggests its only 4 chunks of visual info
.Testing lack ecological validity- trying to memorise constants isn’t part of everyday activities, so it doesn’t reflet accurately what we remember day to day
.LTM may not have been tested to encoding, in Baddeley’s experiment, he only waited 20 minutes to test LTM, was this long enough

Question 8

what is episodic memory

Answer 8

Personal experiences, you know the context of what you were feeling, persons unique memory of an event

Question 9

what is procedural memory

Answer 9

The memory of everyday skills, like typing, you are less aware of this as it comes naturally and automatic

Question 10

evaluate the different types of memory

Answer 10

.Brian scans- different areas of the brain are active when sing different types of memory, e.g. episodic is associated with the hippocampus but procedural is associated with the cerebellum
.Distinguishing between episodic and semantic- semantic is everyday facts and episodic is personal facts, episodic may be a gateway to semantic memories, Alzheimers patients could make new episodic memories but not new semantic

Question 11

evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory

Answer 11

.Lab studies- found support for separate store, STM was linked to prefrontal cortex and LTM was linked to the hippocampus
.Case studies- allows us to learn more about the stores, a man (HM) had his hippocampus removed and was unable to form new LTM
.Too simplistic- the stores may not be as unitary as we thought when we look into the Working Memory Model.
.LTM involves more than just rehearsal- ma be deep thought processing rather than just repetition
.How separate are they- when asked a word they had just learned, ps found it easier if the word was semantically linked with them, in their LTM

Question 12

outline the working memory model

Answer 12

Central executive- directs attention to particular tasks, controls the 3 slave systems
Phonological loop-auditory info, presents the order of new info coming in, inner ear to hold words you hear, and the inner voice for repetition
Visuospatial sketchpad- what things look like and their physical relationship to each other, visual cache to know form and colour and the inner scribe for the arrangements of objects
Episodic buffer- general store, maintains a sense of time-keeping and sequencing

Question 13

evaluate the working memory model

Answer 13

.Duel task performance- found we can concentrate on tow things at the same time. Hitch and Baddeley, task 1 occupied the Central executive, task 2 occupied the phono loop or both the loop and CE, task was slower if they had to complete both, does show that the CE is part of it
.Evidene from brain-damaged patients- KF, auditory was worse than his visual. HIs auditory issues were limited to verbal material like letter but now meaning sounds- shows existence of more stores
.What even is the CE- essentially it is attention but this interpretation may be too vauge. Critics think the notion of only one is too simplistic and that there would be multiple components e.g one man who had a tumour removed was ok at tests of reason but not good at decision making, therefore the CE was not entirely intact
.Can we trust brain-damaged patients- just the trauma alone may have affected their memory in ways that we can’t trust the data, may change the person’s behaviour and their attention, not memory

Question 14

what is retroactive interference

Answer 14

can’t remember old things because the new info is interfering what had already been learnt

Question 15

outline the study of McGeoch and McDonald

Answer 15

The experienced the effects of similar material and how it affects our memory.
Gave ps 10 adjectives, then a rest interval where they learned another set, the set was either synonym of the first list, nonsense syllables or numbers. Recall of the first list with synonyms was 12%, for the nonsense syllables was 26%, and numbers were 37%. The similarity affected the recall performance

Question 16

evaluate interference as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 16

.Research lacks eco-logical validty- they are artifical, nonsense lists that we wouldnt use in everyday life. Hard to relate to day to day forgetting, ps may lack motivation
.Interference may only explain some instances of forgetting, although interefernce can occur in everyday life, often they dont as the memories need to be similar or it to affect the person
.Accessiblity or availibility- memories may just be temporarily innacessible rather than lost. Cesaro found when tested after 24 hours, recognition showed better recovery but recallection remained the same
.RWA- we can relate and use this in terms of advertsing , studies habe shown recall is impaired when seeing similar brands consecutivly, this is an issue especilly with the money advertsing companies pay, we now know how to combat the problem
.Individual differences- some people are less affected by pro-active interfernce, they may be less suseptible due to a better working model of memory

Question 17

retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting- encoding specificity principle

Answer 17

encoding specificity principle
memory is most effective if info that was present at the time of learning and encoding is also present at the time of recollection, due to cues.
.Tulving and Pearlstone investigated this, ps had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories (word; pear, category; fruit) two conditions, 1=free recall, 2=cues given, 40% for free recall, but 60% for cued recall

Question 18

retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting- context-dependent forgetting

Answer 18

context-dependent forgetting
.Abernethy, test ps with 4 conditions, those who were tested with the same instructor they had when learning as well as the same room came out with significantly better results.

Question 19

retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting- state dependent forgetting

Answer 19

state-dependent forgetting
the mental state you were in when you learnt it.
Goodwin tested this on drunk men, found that those who were drunk when they learned the list of words, had better recollection if they were also drunk when tested

Question 20

evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 20

.A lot of research support has documented the importance of retrieval cues. Includes lab, field, natural experiments as well as anecdotal evidence that had relevance to everyday life
.RWA- allows us to try and improve our recall, for example in exams. Abernethy suggests doing the exam in the room where you learnt the info, or at least imagine it, Smith showed just thinking of the room may help mental reinstatment.
.RWA- we can also use this when using cognitive interviews
.Doesnt work for every kind of memory, in an exam you are not remembering a list of wording, rather a complex set of associations that are less easily triggered by cues.
.Retrieval failure can also explain interference- interference could just be down to a lack of cues. Tulving and Pearlstone- 6 wordlists categories to learn, each has 24 words. Ps Made to free recall, the more lists they had to learn, the worse they did, but when given cues, performance went to remembering 70% of the lists.

Question 21

eye-witness testimonies- misleading information

Answer 21

Leading questions
.Loftus and Palmer Barn and Stop, 17% of ex-group saw the barn and only 3% of the control group.
.Loftus and Palmer- different words for the crash, “smashed” got 40.8 miles an hour but “contacted” got 31 miles.
.Loftus- red handbag, psychologists said it brown, they all got the answer right, shows if the info is blatantly wrong, then, the eye-witness won’t bite.

Question 22

evaluate misleading question in affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 22

.Some say that Loftus’s studies didn’t represent real life, they were not emotionally aroused or engaged in reacting to a proper crime. Low eco-validity. Yuille and Cutshall investigated a real life crime and found that even with misleading questions, eyewitnesses were still very accurate
.RWA- this research has been used to warn justice systems about the possible problems and inaccuracies of EWTs, found inaccurate EWT was the largest factor contributing to the conviction of innocent people.
.Indvidual differences- it has been found that the elderly have more difficulty remembering the source of their information

Question 23

how the role of anxiety effects the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies

Answer 23

.Johnson and Scott- pen/grease, knife/blood. Mean accuracy was highest in the pen condition as there was a focus fo the weapon 49% accuracy, for the knife it was only, 33% accuracy
.Positive effects- Yuille and Cutshall looked into a real life crime, a shooting and robbery, they were interview several months later with misleading questions and were still accurate even with the high anxiety. Accuracy for actions was 83%, for people 87%, and for objects 90%. High eco-validity and longitudinal.

Question 24

evaluate anxiety for affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies

Answer 24

.Is it surprises rather than anxiety- Pichel, ps watched thief in a hair salon, either holding, scissors, handgun, raw chicken, wallet. Identification was least accurate with the high surprise situation
.Rwal life vs lab- though Yuille and Cutshall found what they found, a meta-analysis of 34 studies found that in general, lab studies showed anxiety leads to reduced accuracy
.Violent/non-violent- victims of violent crimes were more accurate than those of non-violent crimes
.Individual differences- emotional sensitivity is one extraneous variable, ps were studied for neuroticism and those labelled more stable had rising levels of accuracy as stress increased and for the neurotics, this had the opposite effect
.Alternative model- more complex relationship between anxiety and performance, the catastrophe theory suggests when physiological arousal reaches beyond optimum level, there is a gradual decrease in performance.

Question 25

cognitive interviews

Answer 25

.Mental reinstatement of original context- encouraged to mentally recreate both physical and psychological environment, “think about how you were feeling that day”, aim to triggers memories
.Report everything- encourages the witness to report every detail, no matter how small, they may think it’s irrelevant but it may be critical.
.Change order-alternative timelines, e.g. in reverse. Our schemas affect our recollection as we expect certain things to happen, messing up the order may cause us to remember things we didn’t expect to happen
.Change perspective- encourage witness to imagine how it happened from someone else’s perspective, again disrupts pre-existing schemas

Question 26

evaluate cognitive interviews

Answer 26

.Effectivness- a meta-analysis of 53 studies found an increase of 34% of correct answers in CI, however, this was in a lab, lacks eco-logical validity. Also found hat all of the parts weren’t necessary as they did well when using one component but best with all of them
.Quantity vs quality- although one study found an 81% increase inaccurate info, they also found a 61% increase in inaccurate info. Need to treat with caution
.CI in practice- Police say this technique requires too much time and also gives them too much info, they want to limit the amount of info to the bare minimum. Also, requires special training, so it hasn’t been widespread
.Difficulties establishing effectiveness- in real life any officers don’t use all of the procedures, some only find the changing perspective to be effective and useful
.Individual differences- for old people, it may be good for them not to have to sift through info and tell everything because they may not know whether something would be relevant or not. One study compared older men and younger men’s memory using the CI and standard and found the CI produced more info and also helped the older ones to produce accurate statements.

Question 27

define mundane realism

Answer 27

how realistic the study is to real life