Memory

Question 1

Coding.

Answer 1

The way in which memory is stored in the various memory stores.

Question 2

Capacity.

Answer 2

Amount of memory that can be held in a memory store.

Question 3

Duration.

Answer 3

The length of time information can be held in memory.

Question 4

Short-term memory.

Answer 4

> The limited-capacity memory store.
Coding is mainly acoustic.
Capacity is between about 5 - 9 items on average
Duration is between about 18-30 seconds.

Question 5

Long-term memory.

Answer 5

> The permanent memory store.
Coding is mainly semantic.
It has unlimited capacity and
Can store memories up for a lifetime.

Question 6

Acoustic.

Answer 6

Memories that are learnt through hearing. -> STM

Question 7

Semantic.

Answer 7

Something that has meaning to someone will be coded semantically. -> LTM

Question 8

Baddeley - research on coding.

Answer 8

Group 1 (acoustically similar) - Words sounded similar.
Group 2 (acoustically dissimilar) - Words sounded different.
Group 3 (semantically similar)  -  Words with similar meanings.
Group 4 (semantically dissimilar) - Words that all had different meanings.
Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order, when they had to do this immediately after hearing the words they tended to do worse with words that sound similar. If participants were asked to recall the word list after 20 minutes, they did worse with the semantically similar words.

Question 9

Jacobs - research on capacity.

Answer 9

Developed a technique to measure digit span. The researcher gives, for example, 4 digits then participant asked to recall them in the order out loud. If this is correct, the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. This determines the individual’s digit span. The mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 and the mean span for letters was 7.3.

Question 10

Miller - research on capacity.

Answer 10

Made observations of everyday practice. He noticed that things come in sevens: 7 notes on the piano, 7 days in a week, 7 deadly sins and so on. This suggests that the span or capacity of STM is about 7 items (plus or minus 2). However, Miller also noted that people can recall 5 words as well as they can recall 5 letters. They do this by chunking - grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks.

Question 11

Margaret and Lloyd Peterson - Research on Duration of STM.

Answer 11

Tester 24 undergraduate students. Each student took part in eight trials On each trial the participant was given a consonant syllable to remember and was also given a 3-digit number. The participant was told to count backwards from that 3-digit number until told to stop. The counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the constant syllable. On each trial they were told to stop after a different amount of time. This is called the retention interval. It suggests that STM may have a very short duration unless we repeat something over and over again.

Question 12

Harry Bahrick and colleagues - Research on Duration of LTM.

Answer 12

> Studied 392 participants from Ohio aged between 17 and 74.
High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or the schools.
Recall was tested: photo recognition of 50 photos and free recall tests where participants recalled names of people from their graduating class.
Participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate.
After 48 years recall declined about 70% for photo recognition.
Free recall was less good than photo recognition, after 15 years they were about 60% accurate, after 48 years they were about 30%.
(high external validity)

Question 13

The multi-store model of memory

Answer 13

A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, short term memory, and long term memory. It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten.

Question 14

The multi-store model of memory - sensory register

Answer 14

> The memory stores for each of our five senses such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store).
Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is acoustic.
The capacity for sensory registers is huge (millions of receptors) and information lasts for a very short time (less that half a second).

Question 15

Coding, capacity and, duration of STM

Answer 15

> Limited duration - lasts only for a few seconds.
Limited capacity store - Only a certain number of things can be remembered before they are forgotten again (5-9 items on average.)
Information is coded acoustically.

Question 16

Coding, capacity and, duration of LTM

Answer 16

> Duration - It is possible for long term memories to last a lifetime.
Psychologists believe that long-term memory has an unlimited capacity.
Information is coded semantically.

Question 17

Types of LTM - episodic memory

Answer 17

> A long-term memory store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from the store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort.
These memories are ‘time-stamped’
Memory of a single episode will include several elements that are interwoven.
You may be able to do this quickly but you will still be conscious of searching for the memory.

Question 18

Types of LTM - semantic memory

Answer 18

> A long-term memory store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately.
Often been likened to an encyclopedia or a dictionary.
Can include things such as applying to university, the taste of certain things.
Are not time-stamped as it is less personal as they are facts that we all share.
Constantly being added to.

Question 19

Types of LTM - procedural memory

Answer 19

> A long-term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories and learned skills.
We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate decision.
How we do things.
Don’t need conscious awareness.
Often skills we find hard to explain to someone else.

Question 20

The working memory model

Answer 20

> A representation of short term memory. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision making system.

Question 21

The working memory model - central executive

Answer 21

> The component of the WMM that coordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory, it also allocates processing resources to those activities.
Concerned with the part of the mind that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information.
Consists of four main components each of which is qualitatively different especially in terms of capacity and coding.

Question 22

The working memory model - phonological loop

Answer 22

> The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This is both written and spoken material. It is divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process.
One of the slave systems
Deals with auditory information.
Phonological store - stores the words you hear.
Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal. >Capacity of this loop is believed to be 2 seconds.

Question 23

The working memory model - Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 23

> The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called out ‘inner-eye’
Stores visual and/or spatial information when required.
Limited capacity of about three or four objects.
Visual scribe - stores visulal data.
Inner scribe - Records arrangements of objects in the visual fields.

Question 24

The working memory model - episodic buffer

Answer 24

> Brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.
Temporary store of information.
Integrates the visual, spatial and verbal.
Records events (episodes) that are happening.
Capacity of about four chunks.

Question 25

Explanations for forgetting - interference

Answer 25

> Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
Focussing on forgetting long-term memory.
Becomes a problem of access to the memory.
Makes it harder for us to locate the memory.

Question 26

Explanations for forgetting - proactive interference

Answer 26

> Forgetting often occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
Teacher has learnt so many names in the past that she finds difficulty in learning names of her current class.

Question 27

Explanations for forgetting - retroactive interference

Answer 27

> Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is yet again greater when the memories similar.
Teacher has learnt so many new names that she finds it hard to recall names of old students.

Question 28

Retrieval failure

Answer 28

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access a memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 29

Cue

Answer 29

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. Cues may be external or internal.

Question 30

Retrieval failure theory

Answer 30

> The reason why we forget is because we have insufficient cues.
When information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time.
If these cues are not accessible at the time of recall, it may appear to have been forgotten.

Question 31

Encoding specificity principle.

Answer 31

> Researched by Tulving.
If a cue is to help us recall information it has to be present at encoding and at retrieval.
If the cues are available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting.

Question 32

Eye witness testimony

Answer 32

The ability of people to remember events such as accidents and crimes that they have themselves observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety.

Question 33

Misleading information

Answer 33

Incorrect evidence given to the eyewitness usually after the event. It can take many forms such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witness and/or other people.

Question 34

Leading question

Answer 34

A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.

Question 35

Post-event question

Answer 35

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witness may discuss what they have seen with co-witness or other people. This may affect recall of the event.

Question 36

Eyewitness testimony - Loftus and Palmer aim

Answer 36

Look at the affect of questions on eyewitness testimony.

Question 37

Eyewitness testimony - Loftus and Palmer procedure

Answer 37

Loftus and Palmer arranged for students to watch film clips of car accidents and then gave them questions about the accidents. In the critical question, participants were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling: ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ This is a leading question because the verb ‘hit’ suggests the speed at which the car was moving. There were five groups of participants, each of which were given a different verb in the critical question. One group had hit another had contacted, bumped, collided, smashed.

Question 38

Eyewitness testimony - Loftus and Palmer findings

Answer 38

The verb contacted resulted in an estimated speed of 31.8mph whereas with the verb smash the estimated speed was 40.5mph

Question 39

Eyewitness testimony - Loftus and Palmer conclusion

Answer 39

The way in which questions are worded can cause the recall of the event to become biased.

Question 40

Why do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 40

The response-bias explanation suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participant’s memories, instead just influences how they decide to answer. Loftus and Palmer conducted a second experiment which supported the substitution explanation - the wording of a leading question actually changes the participants memory of the film clip. This was demonstrated because the participants who originally heard the verb ‘smashed’ were more likely to report broken glass.

Question 41

Eyewitness testimony - Gabbert et al aim

Answer 41

To see how misleading information/ misinformation effects post event discussion.

Question 42

Eyewitness testimony - Gabbert et al procedure

Answer 42

Gabbert et al studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime but from different points of view. This meant that the participants could see elements of the event that the other could not. For example, one participant could see the title of a book being carried by a woman. The participants then discussed what they saw before completing a test of recall individually.

Question 43

Eyewitness testimony - Gabbert et al findings

Answer 43

71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. The corresponding figure in a control group, was 0%.

Question 44

Eyewitness testimony - Gabbert et al conclusion

Answer 44

Gabbert et al concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win approval or because they think that they are wrong and the other person is right. This was named phenomenon memory conformity.

Question 45

Eyewitness testimony - Johnson and Scott aim

Answer 45

Look at the effect of weapons on accuracy of recall of the witness.

Question 46

Eyewitness testimony - Johnson and Scott findings

Answer 46

Johnson and Scott did research on this. They led participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room. In the ‘low anxiety’ situation a man walked through the waiting area with a pen and grease on his hands. In the ‘high anxiety’ condition other participants heard the same argument but then it was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. The man then walked out of the room holding a paper knife covered in blood.

Question 47

Eyewitness testimony - Johnson and Scott procedure

Answer 47

The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos; 49% of the participants who saw the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. The corresponding figure for the participants who had seen the man holding the blood covered knife was just 33%.

Question 48

Eyewitness testimony - Johnson and Scott conclusion

Answer 48

The tunnel theory of memory argues that a witness’s attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because it is a source of anxiety.

Question 49

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 49

The stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body. The fight or flight response is triggered which our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we become more aware of cues in the situation.

Question 50

Eyewitness testimony - Yuille and Cutshall aims

Answer 50

Look at how anxiety around a crime can positively affect the recall of the events that happened.

Question 51

Eyewitness testimony - Yuille and Cutshall procedure

Answer 51

Yuille and Cutshall conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses - 13 agreed to take part in the study. The interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews taken at the start of the investigation. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident using a 7-point scale and asked if they had felt emotional problems since the event, such as sleeplessness.

Question 52

Eyewitness testimony - Yuille and Cutshall findings

Answer 52

Witnesses were very accurate in their account and there was little change in the amount or accuracy after 5 months - though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of the colour of items and age/height/weight estimates. Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group)

Question 53

Eyewitness testimony - Yuille and Cutshall conclusion

Answer 53

The more stress someone felt during the crime, the more accurate their recall was 5 months later.

Question 54

Four main techniques in cognitive interview

Answer 54

> report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change perspective

Question 55

Cognitive interview - Report everything

Answer 55

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important, and moreover, may trigger other important memories.

Question 56

Cognitive interview - Reinstate the context

Answer 56

The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment and their emotions. This is related to context-dependent forgetting.

Question 57

Cognitive interview - Reverse the order

Answer 57

Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened.

Question 58

Cognitive interview - Change perspective

Answer 58

Witness should recall the event from other people’s perspectives. This is done to disrupt the effects of expectations and schema on recall.