Memory

Question 1

Peterson and Peterson, 1959

Answer 1

Investigated duration of STM.
Trigrams.
Counting distraction task.
3 second interval = 80% accuracy of recall
18 second interval = 10% accuracy of recall

Question 2

Bahrick, 1975

Answer 2

Investigated duration of LTM.
Recognition and matching tasks. Recalling school mates.
34 years after school = 90% accurate recall
48 years after school = 80% accurate recall

Question 3

Baddeley, 1966

Answer 3

Investigated coding of STM and LTM.
Lists of words to recall that were acoustically different or similar and semantically different or similar.
Had to recall either immediately or wait.
STM codes acoustically (mistakes made in set 1 - acoustically similar).
LTM codes semantically (mistakes made in set 3 - semantically similar).

Question 4

Miller and Jacobs, 1887/1956

Answer 4

Investigated capacity of STM.
Recalling strings of words or numbers.
Average of 7 numbers and 9 words remembered.
Miller claimed the STM has a capacity of 7(+or-)2.
Holds 5-9 items.

Question 5

Wagenaar

Answer 5

Investigated capacity of LTM.
Wrote 2400 diary entries. Found that when recalling events rather than dates he could remember most of them. Shows capacity of LTM is very large.

Question 6

Positives of memory research

Answer 6

Mostly lab studies - results reliable and replicable so we have confidence that this is how memory really works.

Practical applications for improving our memory/teaching techniques.

Some are field experiments - high external validity.

Distraction tasks ensure results fully reflect function of the memory, not rehearsal.

Question 7

Negative of memory research

Answer 7

Lab studies - lack external validity.

Subjective on individual differences - some people may have a better memory than others which can skew results.

Question 8

Components in the WMM

Answer 8

• Central executive
• Phonological loop
• Visuospatial sketchpad
• Episodic buffer

Question 9

Central executive

Answer 9

• Decides what to pay attention to.
• Limited capacity (deals with one bit of info at a time)
• Modality free (doesn’t code)

Question 10

Phonological loop

Answer 10

• Sound info, voice inside head when writing or thinking.
• Consists of articulatory control (rehearses words), phonological store (stores words).
• Duration of 2 seconds.
• Codes echoically (acoustically).

Question 11

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 11

• Visual info, allows us to create mental images and navigate around our environment.
• Capacity of 3-4 items.
• Stores iconically (visually).

Question 12

Episodic buffer

Answer 12

• Brings/chunks together material from sub-systems to create a single memory.
• Can handle 4 chunks of info at a time.
• Modality free (doesn’t code).

Question 13

Strengths of the WMM

Answer 13

Practical applications:

• Dyslexia, knowledge of poor verbal memory means learning adapted to use visual memory instead (visuospatial sketchpad instead of phonological loop).
• Understanding of poor concentration in people with depression (overloaded central executive).
• Improving revision, don’t listen to music as it overloads phonological loop.
• In general, improvements to education systems.

Question 14

Negatives of WMM

Answer 14

Reductionist - displays a complex situation as something very simple.

Question 15

Support for WMM

Answer 15

KF case study - suffered damage to brain after motorcycle accident. He became verbally impaired. Visual memory remained unaffected. This shows that the STM has separate components for visual and verbal info, supporting the existence of phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

Question 16

Cognitive interview

Answer 16

• Report everything (releases linked memories)
• Recreate the context (releases cues, triggers memory)
• Change order of recall (gets rid of schemas)
• Change perspective (provokes deeper thinking)

Question 17

Enhanced cognitive review

Answer 17

• Ask witness to speak slowly (slows thought process).
• Adopt the language of witness (relaxed, aids memory).
• Ask open ended questions (allows max info to be given).

Question 18

Positives of Cognitive Interview

Answer 18

• Improves recall and lower rates of false conviction.
• Benefits economy, less people in prison more in work.
• Undergone peer review, a reliable technique.

Question 19

Negatives of Cognitive Interview

Answer 19

• Time consuming, elongates the process which can be stressful for police and witnesses.
• Studies showed it increased amount of info by 81% but 61% of this was false. Leads to false conviction.
• Requires depth and detail, can be traumatising for witnesses to remember.

Question 20

The Encoding Specificity Principle

Answer 20

Tulving - “the greater the similarity between the encoding event and retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory”

Question 21

Interference Theory of Forgetting

Answer 21

Occurs when one memory disturbs the ability to recall another. Most likely when memories are similar.

Proactive = old memories interfere with new ones.
Retroactive = new memories interfere with old ones.

Question 22

Support for the Interference Theory - Baddeley and Hitch (1977)

Answer 22

Rugby union players asked to recall the names of teams they had played that season.

Players who played all games forgot more names that those who had played less games due to injury.

This shows that learning the names of new teams caused distortion of the old ones/poor recall ability, supporting retroactive interference.

\:) = natural environment, high external validity.
\:( = subjective on players' memories.

Question 23

Retrieval Failure Theory of Forgetting

Answer 23

The failure to retrieve memories due to a lack of cues. When we encode a memory info (cues) are stored alongside it. Therefore when these cues are present in future, the original memory will be triggered and we will remember.

Context-dependant cues = from external environment
State-dependant cues = internal/how we feel

Question 24

Positives of Retrieval Failure Theory

Answer 24

• Practical applications, help students to revise using cues that can trigger memories in exam. Eg, silence.
• Dementia, memory boxes to help recall.

Question 25

Negatives of Retrieval Failure Theory

Answer 25

• Support is often held in lab, low external validity.

- Impossible to accurately measure memory. Everyone has different recall abilities so results can’t be generalised.

Question 26

Support for Retrieval Failure Theory - Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Answer 26

Deep sea divers asked to learn and recall words:
1) learn on land, recall underwater
2) learn on land, recall on land
3) learn underwater, recall on land
4) learn underwater, recall underwater
Divers could recall more words when conditions matched. 40% less accurate recall when un-matched.
Supports retrieval failure. When external environment was the same, context-dependant cues were released that triggered memories of the words.

:( subjective on someone’s memory (inaccurate)
:( artificial task (ungeneralisable to everyday life)

Question 27

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Answer 27

The Multistore Model of Memory.

Sensory register = gathers info from sense organs. If paid attention to it goes to…
Short term memory = info that is currently happening. If not rehearsed will be forgotten. If rehearsed passed on to…
Long term memory = info held longer here. Can be forgotten through trace decay.

Question 28

The sensory register - coding

Answer 28

Raw, unprocessed. Seperate stores for each sense:

• echoic (sound)
• iconic (visual)
• gustatory (taste)
• olfactory (smell)

Question 29

The sensory register - capacity

Answer 29

Sperling (1960) suggested 4 items when associating sounds/senses with memories.

Question 30

The sensory register - duration

Answer 30

400 milliseconds (backed up by Sperling 1960).

Question 31

Short term memory - coding

Answer 31

Accoustically (Baddeley 1966)

Question 32

Short term memory - capacity

Answer 32

5-9 items 7(+or-2) Miller and Jacobs

Question 33

Short term memory - duration

Answer 33

18-30 seconds (Peterson and Peterson)

Question 34

Long term memory - coding

Answer 34

Semantically (Baddeley 1966)

Question 35

Long term memory - capacity

Answer 35

Unlimited (Wagenaar)

Question 36

Long term memory - duration

Answer 36

34-48 years (Bahrick 1975)

Question 37

Evaluation of the MSM

Answer 37

Supporting lab research =
:) replicable and reliable
:( lacks external validity/unimportant tasks

Supporting case studies =
:) in depth/high external validity
:( unique to one person/cannot be generalised

Brain scans =
:) provide scientific proof to support MSM/reliable
:( reductionist/technology not advanced enough to give evidence of exact function of memory

Question 38

Support for MSM - Clive wearing

Answer 38

Virus attacked hippocampus which caused STM loss. Only had 7 second memory. Could still remember childhood, proving that the STM and LTM are seperate and serve different functions.

Question 39

Types of LTM

Answer 39

Explicit: episodic and semantic
Implicit: procedural

Question 40

Explicit LTM

Answer 40

Memories we can put into words. Only recalled if consciously thought about.

Question 41

Implicit LTM

Answer 41

Memories we can’t put into words. Don’t require conscious thought to be recalled. Know how to do them without thinking about it eg, riding a bike.

Question 42

Episodic LTM

Answer 42

Specific events, people, places or objects and behaviours involved. Eg, a wedding.

Location = prefrontal cortex

Question 43

Semantic LTM

Answer 43

Knowledge, facts, meanings and understanding. Eg, capital cities.

Location = temporal lobes

Question 44

Procedural LTM

Answer 44

Memories of/knowing how to perform an action. Usually related to muscle memory. Eg, riding a bike, speaking with correct punctuation and grammar.

Location = neocortex areas

Question 45

Support for types of LTM - Tulving (1972)

Answer 45

• Injected radioactive gold into 6 volunteers.
• PET scanned to detect its location, showing blood flow during thought.
• Required to think of 4 semantic and 4 episodic memories.

Greater cortical blood flow in the frontal lobes for episodic memories and in posterior regions for semantic.

Shows that episodic and semantic are different types of LTM that work separately to one another/control different processes.

:) brain scans scientific and accurate
:) lab study, replicable/reliable
:( sample very small, ungeneralisable
:( results from 3 p’s inconclusive, skewed accuracy of evidence.

Question 46

Support for LTM - Clive Wearing

Answer 46

7 second memory due to damaged hippocampus. Couldn’t recall episodic memories. Semantic and procedural memories remained unaffected; could still walk and play the piano.

Shows that different types of LTM must exist and function separately from one another. Localised in different areas.

:) case studies very detailed with high external validity.
:( only occurred to one person, cannot be replicated or generalised which skews reliability of results.

Question 47

The impact of anxiety on eyewitness testimony

Answer 47

Anxiety can influence someone’s ability to recall accurately. It differs from person to person. Studies into this are:

• Johnson and Scott
• Yerkes-Dodson curve

Question 48

Johnson and Scott - Procedure

Answer 48

2 conditions:
-No weapon (p’s would hear convo about equipment failure. Would then see target running into reception holding pen with grease covered hands).
-Weapon (p’s would hear heated row and breaking glass. Target would run into reception with a bloodied letter opener).
Both groups shown 50 photos and asked to identify the target.

Question 49

Johnson and Scott - Findings and conclusion

Answer 49

Witnesses of non-weapon condition correctly identified target 49% of the time. In weapon condition accuracy was only 33%.

Implies anxiety negatively impacts recall ability. Those in weapon condition may have felt pressure to provide correct info as it was a serious matter, therefore their memory became more distorted under the stress.

Weapon focus - could also distort memory. P’s focus on the weapon rather than target so cannot recall his face.

Question 50

Johnson and Scott - evaluation

Answer 50

:) clear link between anxiety and recall.
:) leads to practical applications when using witnesses, measures can be taken to relax witness to prevent false testimony.

:( ethical issues - caused stress to p’s, weren’t protected from harm, consented to incorrect brief.
:( results are subjective on someone’s memory, might not be reliable representation of how recall is affected.
:( demand characteristics - unusual situation/knew they were meant to be taking part in study. Therefore may have adjusted recall to fit expected aims.

Question 51

The Yerkes-Dodson curve

Answer 51

A model suggesting that we need an extent of anxiety to increase performance in memory tasks. Stress reaches an optimal point at which we can efficiently store/recall memories. Too low/too high causes distortion or memory loss.

Question 52

Evaluating the Yerkes-Dodson curve

Answer 52

:) logical explanation as to why memory would be effected during a stressful event.

:( reductionist. Levels of stress are subjective and affect everyone differently. Makes explanation harder to generalise and produces inconsistent findings.

Question 53

Types of misleading information

Answer 53

• Leading questions (set people up to answer a certain way. Makes someone question themselves and alters their memory).
• Post event discussion (conforming to the memories of others, distorts own recall of what happened).
• Repeat interviewing (causes witness to doubt own memory. Makes them feel wrong so change story on this basis).

ALL LEAD TO FALSE TESTIMONY!

Question 54

Leading questions - Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Answer 54

Students divided into 5 conditions:
“Hit” (34mph) / “Bumped” (38mph) / “Collided” (39mph) / “Contacted” (32mph) / “Smashed” (41mph)

Watched video of cars smashing then asked “how fast were the cars moving when they…..into each other”

When asked if they saw broken glass, more people from “smashed” said they had than “hit” condition.

Question 55

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - findings and conclusions

Answer 55

"contacted" = 32mph
"smashed" = 41mph

Cars were moving at same speed in each video. The verb used elicited different responses. Shows that how question is worded alters perception of an event. This applies to EWT; the way an interviewer words a question can distort EW memories.

Question 56

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - evaluation

Answer 56

:) controlled conditions, reliable/replicable results
:) practical applications, police can keep questions vague and open so recall is accurate (leads to decrease of false conviction and improves economy)

:( artificial setting, unrealistic task, hence cannot be sure this is how recall works in real world.
:( lacks validity, prone to demand characteristics.

Question 57

Post event discussion - Gabbert

Answer 57

P’s divided into groups to watch different videos of same event. After watching, p’s required to discuss it (thinking they were talking about same clip) and then write down what they could remember.

Question 58

Gabbert - findings and conclusion

Answer 58

Recollection from every participant contained info from the video they didn’t watch. 71% of recalled info was incorrect.

Shows that conferring with others distorts memory of what actually occurred/ creates new memories. This has similar effects in EWT, leading to false conviction.

Question 59

Gabbert - evaluation

Answer 59

:) practical application - stopping EWs from conferring after an incident.
:) lowers rates of false conviction which is positive for economy as less people in prison more in work.

:( individual differences - not all people conform to memories of others, so may not provide any use in practical application and false conviction wont improve.