Memory Flashcards
What is coding?
The form info is stored in
What is retrieval?
Accessing info from LTM
What is attention?
Mental focus on an object
What is an episodic memory?
Memory that has a narrative e.g. what you did yesterday
What is a semantic memory?
Memory that has a meaning e.g. Oxford has a meaning
What is an acoustic memory?
Memory based on sounds/words/rhythm e.g. song lyrics
What is cognitive psychology?
Brain like a computer
Input—>processing—>Output
/
Storage
What is short term memory?
Info that we process and recall straight away is usually stored in STM.
- Coding is acoustic
- Info is kept here using rehearsal
- limited capacity
What is long term memory?
Permanent memory store
- Info goes here after the STM
- Coding is semantic
- Long term memory is potentially unlimited capacity and can hold on to it for years
What did Miller conclude in 1956 about memory?
He concluded that we can recall 7 items (+/- 2) with a range between 5-9.
We can also remember more as long as we break it down into 5-9 manageable chunks
How many items can we recall on average to do with memory?
7 on average -+ 2 (range of 5-9)
What did Jacobs (1887) conclude about how many letters we can recall compared to numbers?
- researcher gives number of digits and ppt has to recall
- every time researcher increases number by 1 until cannot recall
Mean digit span was 9.3 items
Letters was 7.3 letters
What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) conclude about duration of STM?
- used 24 students and tested them on 8 trials
- given a consonant syllable and 3 digit number
- asked to recall it after increasing intervals 3,6,9 ..
Found STM lasts between 18-30 seconds
What did Bahrick (1975) conclude about the duration of LTM?
- tested 400 ppts of various ages on memory of classmates
- ppts were asked to list names they could remember from a year book of 50 photos
15 years after graduation- 90% accurate
48 years - 70% accurate
what did Baddeley (1966) conclude about the difference between acoustically similar words and semantically similar words?
-Found that ppt’s had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM
Found that ppt’s had difficulty remembering semantically similar words in LTM but not STM
Describe the multi store model
maintenance R Elaborative
stimuli attention Rehearsal
——–> sensory memory ——> STM————-> LTM forgettin
/ /
What did Sperling (1960) conclude about the duration of sensory memory?
Lasts between 0.25-0.5 seconds
What did Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) conclude about which words we remember in a list
Serial position effect- tendency to remember words at start and end of a list
Primacy effect- the tendency to remember the first 5 words or so from the start of a list
Rendency effect- the tendency to remember the last 5 or so words from the end of a list
-showed ppt’s list of 20 words, one at a time and asked to recall
What did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) conclude was wrong about the MSM?
-Memory is multiple stores
-2 visual tasks = poor performance
1 visual and 1 verbal means no interruption
-Believed STM was not a single store
-LTM is a more passive store that held previously learned material for use by STM when needed
What does the working memory model look like?
sensory memory
l attention
STM
central executive
/ l
phonological loop visuo-spatial sketchpad
l /
episodic buffer
encoding ↑ ↓ retrieval
LTM
+rehearsal
What is the function of the central executive?
- involves reasoning and decision making tasks (like a company boss)
- Limited capacity - data arrives from senses but not held for long
- modality free, no store
What is the function of the phonological loop?
-Deals with auditory info and preserves word order (inner ear)
- limited capacity, 2 seconds of info
- acoustic
Split into:
- Phonological store (holds words heard)
- Articulatory process (holds words heard/seen and silently repeated like an inner voice, kind of maintenance rehearsal)
What is the function of the visuo-spatial sketch pad?
-visual or spatial info stored here - inner eye
(spatial is relationship between 2 things)
-limited capacity (3-4 things)
-visual store
-Logie (1995) suggested subdivision:
visuo-cache for store
inner scribe for spatial relations
What is the function of the episodic buffer?
- more general store
- integrates info from other areas
- limited capacity of 4 chunks
- modality free
What experiment did Baddeley and Hitch (1976) do to show STM could be divided into several components?
-Independent groups
IV (1): CE occupied by repeating a word
IV (2): CE and AL occupied by repeating random number sequence
DV: true/false task accuracy
Findings: reduced accuracy when 2 WM areas used together
Conclusion: existence of CE and AL is supported and they are functionally different
What are the 3 types of LTM?
- )Episodic - narrative, conscious, relies on hippocampus e.g. any story you can tell about your life, learned from HM and brain scans
- )Semantic- meaning/fact e.g. something you can tell e.g. capitals cities (you haven’t been there you just know it)
- )Procedural- unconscious, physical memories, you can become good at something without knowing e.g. playing the piano
Define interference
An explanation for forgetting in terms of one memory disrupting the ability to recall another (usually if there are some similarities)
What are the 2 types of interference?
Proactive interference- past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something
Retroactive interference- current attempts to learn something interferes with past learning
What is retrieval failure? (Tulving et al. 1973)
-The reason we forget is due to insufficient cues
- All memories are encoded with info from the environment, semantic memory
- Cues enable us to remember something
- Memories are like a web in the mind, you can’t remember one thing without remembering another
What is the encoding specificity principle?
The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original event
What are the 2 types of cue dependent forgetting?
Context- external environment cues (you remember things better when in the same environment) , context dependent forgetting.
State- internal cues (you remember things better when in the same condition e.g. drunk, sober) state dependent forgetting.
What experiment did Godden and Baddeley (1975) use to show context dependent forgetting?
Aim to investigate whether context affects memory
(-repeated measures, counterbalanced)
-scuba divers given a list of words
IV : on land or in water
DV: number of words correctly recalled
Findings- recall was significantly better in original context
Conclusion- forgetting is context dependent
What experiment did Goodwin (1969) use to prove state dependent forgetting?
Aim- to discover if mental/physical state affects memory
(-independent groups, not matched pairs)
Male volunteers given a list of words
IV: At 3 times legal drink drive limit
DV: number of words correctly recalled 24 hours after
Findings- recall was better in original state (even if drunk)
Conclusion- forgetting is state dependent
What did McGeoch and Mcdonald (1931) conclude about how memory is affected when interference is similar?
The more similar the interference is to the words being remembered, the worse recall is
How did Baddeley and Hitch investigate retroactive interference?
Natural study Got rugby players IV (1): player injured after 3rd game IV(2): player played the whole season DV: How many names these players could recall findings- fewer games = more accurate
Write 3 evaluative paragraphs about the multi store model, what 3 points can you write about?
P-Too simplistic
E- HM procedure/ conversation (epilepsy/ brain injury, neglect)
E- Hm is difficult to generalise
L- Ext validity low/ not representative
P-Ecologically valid
E- Meta analysis scans show hippocampus use is the same in everyone
E - however in Hm, one patient isn’t enough to generalise, research wasn’t finished
L- high external validity
P- 3 types of LTM not enough (actually 4)
E- emotional/ associate memory shown with priming
E- int validity/ Hm only shows 3 types
L uses a scientific method
What are the 2 opposing views in how anxiety affects memory?
Can make memories stronger or worse
What experiment was used to show that anxiety can improve memory?
Christianson and Hubinette- 1993 - quasi
Aim- investigate effects of anxiety on eyewitness recall, with 58 real bank robbery witnesses, 4-15 months after incident.
Iv (1) - victim of crime (bank teller)
Iv (2) - bystander
Dv- detail match to cctv of crime
Findings- all victims above 75% accuracy, victims with more anxiety had better recall
Conclusion- semantic/ episodic memory formation is better when anxious
What experiment was used to show that anxiety makes memory worse?
Johnson and Scott- 1976
Aim- investigate the effects of anxiety on eyewitness recall
Iv (1)- see confederate holding a greasy pen
Iv (2)- “ “ “ “ bloody knife
Dv- ID of criminal accuracy
Finding- Pen- 49% recalled
Knife- 33% recall
Conclusion- weapon focus effect
What is the yerkes- dodson curve?
Level of arousal affects quality of performance
Too low of too high arousal makes performance worse.
What did loftus and palmer (1974) conclude about how language used affects memory?
PPt's had to estimate speed of car.
Iv- verb used
ppt's watched a car crash and then asked a critical questions
findings - contacted, 31.8mph
Smashed, 40.8 mphDefine memory reconstruction
memories are changed every time they are recalled.
Write 3 evaluative paragraphs about eyewitness testimony?
loftus and palmer
P- High validity- later research it is shown that you can implant false memories using misleading language
E- ppts who read non disney as a child were more likely than controls to report they met these characters at disneyland as a child
E- shows false info was implanted, shows broken glass condition
L- shows test-retest reliability
P- artificial setting
E- didn’t use real crimes- research shows that real crimes have more accurate recall
E- L & P’s lab experiment has poor mundane realism and demand c’s, guessed hypothesis
L- low ecological validity.
P- used mainly uni students
E- Similar ages
E- Similar IQ- extraneous variables, different ages have better or worse memory- cannot be generalised and low pop val
L- cannot be generalised
What are the 4 main parts of a cognitive interview?
Report everything- recall everything
Change the perspective
Change the order
Mental reinstatement- back to where it happened
Why are participants told to recall everything in a cognitive interview?
Avoid reconstruction
Memories interconnected
Why is the perspective changed in a cognitive interview?
lowers anxiety
avoid interference theory
avoid reconstruction
Why is the ordered changed in a cognitive interview?
Avoid reconstruction/ schema interference theory
Why is mental reinstatement used?
Allows for state/ context dependent memory
Makes memories accessible
What are the benefits of a cognitive interview?
- structured
- up to 50% more info recalled
- open ended questions mean witnesses report memories in their own words
What are the drawbacks of a cognitive interview?
- time consuming
- intensive for the interviewer
- only useful with cooperative witnesses
- danger of asking leading questions
Write 3 evaluative paragraphs about how anxiety affects EWT?
P- some suggest Y-D curve is too simplistic, lacking internal validity
E- Recall tests show very sudden decline after peak anxiety was passed
E- Furthermore, catastrophic theory which suggests that stress can switch off a massive part of your brain
L- Means you can experience PTSD
P- Issue with WFE theory is that anxiety may not be the cause
E- evidence from this involving a raw chicken rather than a knife of pen
E- Both studies here concern violent crimes, other experiment have shown recall difference between these and non violent crimes
L- Mean Johnson and Scott and Christiansen and Hubinette suffer from poor ecological validity, as most crimes not violent
P- individual differences are an issue in all tests
E- ppts took a personality test which shows some people are neurotic- meaning they worry a lot
E- Other individual differences such as IQ can have an effect on results
L- these extraneous variables can affect all tests- low ecological validity
