Memory Flashcards
Clive Wearing
Case Study. His procedural memory is intact and his semantic memory is only partly damaged however his STM, episodic memory and transfer from STM to LTM are completely damaged.
H.M
Case Study. Hippocampus removed to stop seizures from his epilepsy. Could learn new skills but couldn’t remember anything he just learned. No episodic memory or transfer but procedural intact.
Episodic Memories Neurological Pathway
Temporal lobe and frontal lobe connected by the hippocampus.
K.F
Case Study. Had STM loss. Couldn’t recall back more than 2 digits immediately if he heard them but could complete the task as normal if given to him visually.
Procedural Memories Neurological Pathway
Basal ganglia and limbic system link with cerebellum.
Bahrick (1975)
Tests LTM & VLTM duration. Recall and recognition of past school peers. Recall = 60% accuracy after 15 years & 30% after 47 years. Recognition = 90% after 15 years & 60% after 47 years.
Coding
The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
Report Every Detail
Witnesses encouraged to include every single detail. Trivial details may be important or may trigger other important memories.
Baddeley (Central Executive support)
True/False quiz with two conditions. Condition 1: the ‘the the’ test. Condition 2: Random Digit Task. Condition 2 was harder as it was a dual task so took longer due to dual task performance effect.
Retroactive Interference
Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories. Degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
Gabbot (2003)
Post event discussion. Burglary video.
Accessibility (or lack of)
Memories that are in storage/LTM cannot be recalled unless appropriate cues are present. Items can be regarded as hidden or buried, but not lost altogether.
Conway et al. (1994)
Investigated flashbulb memories for Thatcher’s resignation. Results suggested memories for significant events are ‘special’ (vivid and accurate).
Cue
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.
Interference
Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
Retrieval Failure
A form of forgetting. Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
Recall From A Different Perspective
Witnesses asked to recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. De-traumatises the event and disrupts the effect of schema.
Anxiety
A state of emotional and physical arousal. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations but can affect the accuracy and detail or EWT.
Procedural Memory
A long-term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things.
Episodic Buffer
The component of WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. Also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.
Schema Theory
A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
Overton (1964)
State dependent forgetting. Rats.
Context Reinstatement
Witnesses asked to remember/imagine the environment (and their emotions) from the original crime scene.
Loftus and Burns (1982)
Anxiety. Boy being shot in the face. Weapon focus effect.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Leading questions. Car accident. Critical verb suggested speed of car.
Hierarchical Network Model
Memories are a network - if it is there, there must be some way of getting to it.
Semantic Memories Neurological Pathway
Temporal lobe.
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Tests STM duration. Nonsense trigram test. After 3 seconds = 80% success. After 18 seconds = 2% success. Suggests STM duration of between 18-30 seconds.