memory

Question 1

What is Coding?

Answer 1

The way info is changed so that it can be stored in memory

Question 2

What is Duration?

Answer 2

A measure of how long a memory lasts before it’s no longer available

Question 3

Define Capacity

Answer 3

It’s a measure of how much can be held in memory.

Question 4

Define short term memory and name it’s features.

Answer 4

your memory for immediate events.
short duration.
disappear unless they're rehearsed.
limited capacity. 7+ or - 2
tends to be coded acoustically.

Question 5

Define Long term Memory and names it’s features.

Answer 5

your memory for events that have happened in the past.
can last anywhere from 2 minutes to a 100 years.
has potentially unlimited duration and capacity.
tends to be coded semantically

Question 6

What is attention?

Answer 6

mental focus on an object

Question 7

What is acoustic coding?

Answer 7

memory based on sounds/words/rhythms

Question 8

What is the serial position effect?

Answer 8

it’s the fact that we remember words from the beginning and end of the list.

Question 9

What is the digit span test?

Answer 9

a test where people are given a certain amount of digits in a small period of time and have to recall as many as possible.

Question 10

What is the multi-store model.

Answer 10

an explanation of memory based on three separate memory stores and how info is transferred between these stores

Question 11

What is Episodic Memory

Answer 11

personal memories of events e.g what you did yesterday or what teacher you liked.

Question 12

What is procedural memory?

Answer 12

memory for how to do things

Question 13

What is semantic memory?

Answer 13

shared memories for facts and knowledge. these memories may be concerned e.g such as knowing that ice is made out of water

Question 14

What is an eyewitness testimony?

Answer 14

the evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identifying the perpetrator of the crime

Question 15

what is a cognitive interview

Answer 15

a police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime.
it encourages them to recreate the original context of the crime in order to increase the accessibility of stored information.

Question 16

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 16

It’s a part of the WMM that codes speech sounds in working memory.

Question 17

Define visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 17

It’s a part of the WMM that codes visual information in terms of separate objects including the arrangement of these objects in one’s visual field.

Question 18

What is the working memory model?

Answer 18

an explanation of the memory used when working on a task

Question 19

What is the central executive?

Answer 19

it’s the store of the WMM that monitors and coordinates all other mental functions in working memory

Question 20

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 20

It’s the general store of the Working Memory Model which acts as an extra storage system.

Question 21

What is the sensory register?

Answer 21

it’s the place where sensory information is stored.
Its constantly receiving new information, but most of this receives no attention and remains in the sensory register for milliseconds

Question 22

What are the cognitive techniques?

Answer 22

mental reinstatement of original context.
report everything
change order
change perspective

Question 23

What is mental reinstatement?

Answer 23

where the interviewer encourages the interviewee to mentally recreate both the physical and psychological environment of the original incident

Question 24

What is meant by report everything?

Answer 24

it’s when the interviewer encourages to report every single detail of the event without editing anything

Question 25

What is meant by change order?

Answer 25

when the interviewer trys alternative ways through the timeline of the incident

Question 26

What is meant by change perspective?

Answer 26

when the interviewee is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives.

Question 27

Give a description of the central executive?

Answer 27

• has no capacity for storing data (basically it can’t handle too many things at once)
• has a very limited capacity

Question 28

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 28

it’s the process of repeating information in short - term memory in order for to be transferred to the long term memory

Question 29

Describe the Loftus and Palmer experiment 1?

Answer 29

45 students were shown 7 different traffic accidents. After each film they were given questionnaire. For one group it asked them to describe the accident and then answer a series of questions.
There was one critical question. (for all groups)
Critical question : “about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other”.

The other four groups were given the verbs smashed collided, bumped or contacted in the place of “Hit”. This was a leading question because it suggested the answer the participants might give.

Question 30

What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s experiment 1?

Answer 30

smashed - mean speed estimate 40.8
collided - mean speed estimate - 39.3
bumped - mean speed estimate 38.1
hit - mean speed estimate 34.0
contacted - mean speed estimate 31.8

Question 31

Describe Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment?

Answer 31

Aim: to see if the leading question can actually cause information to be altered before it is stored.
Procedure: participants split into 3 groups. Watched a film of a car accident for 1 minute.
They were asked the same question about speed.
Returned 1 week later and were asked 10 questions about the accident.
Critical question: did you see any broken glass?

Question 32

What were the finds of L and P experiment 2?

Answer 32

Smashed - 16 yes, 34 no
hit - 7 yes, 43 no
control - 6 yes, 44 no
(yes and no about broken glass)

Question 33

What is the function of the central executive?

Answer 33

To direct attention to particular tasks, determining at any time how the brain’s resources are allocated to tasks.

Question 34

Describe the phonological loop

Answer 34

limited capacity
it deals with the auditory information and preserves the order of information.
Baddeley (1986) further subdivided this loop into:
Phonological store- holds the words you hear
An articulatory process which is used for words that are heard or seen. These words are silently repeated. This is a form of maintenance rehearsal.

Question 35

Describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 35

is used when you have to plan a spatial task.
Spatial information is the physical relationship between things.
Logie (1995) suggested that visuo-spatial sketchpad can be split into:
1. A visual cache which stores information about visual items.
2. An inner scribe which stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Question 36

Describe the episodic buffer

Answer 36

it was added in 2000 because Baddeley realised the model needed a general store.
It integrates info from the Central executive, phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. It also records events that are happening. It sends info to LTM

Question 37

Give an evaluation of cog.interview

Answer 37

1. effectiveness - review of 53 studies found 34% more info from (kohnken et al) most due to report everything and mental reinstatement component (Milne and Bull)
2. Quality may suffer- 81% increase in correct recalls but 61% false positives
3. In practice - time consuming and inadequate training.

Question 38

give evals of MMM

Answer 38

1. Too simple - STM and LTM subdivided
2. case study - (HM) loss of hippocampus - intellect and personality remained the same, but could not form new LTMs but could remember things from before the surgery

Question 39

Give a description of the Multi-store memory model.

Answer 39

sensory register - large capacity, very short duration (milliseconds)
attention transfers information from sensory register
STM - limited capacity - so info decays, limited duration (few mins) unless rehearsed.
Maintenance rehearsal eventually creates a LTM
LTM - potentially unlimited capacity and duration, forgetting may be due to lack of accessibility.
Retrieval from LTM goes through STM