Memory Flashcards
What sort of information is stored in the Short Term Memory and how does it get logged there?
Short Term Memory stores memories that we recall straight away (or within a minute- 18 seconds usually). We process it through rehearsal (repeating the thought over and over).
What is acoustic coding?
when, during rehearsal, inputs are associated with each other through repeated sounds, rhythms and sounds i.e. we associate the memories with sound sequences and repetition/similar sizes, but the associations don’t tend to have meanings. For instance, if you remember a sequence of words (CAD,CAM,MAC,MAM) because they look the same or are the same size.
Name a study that makes the link between Acoustic Coding and Short Term Memory.
Baddeley’s Study
Describe the method of B_______y’s experiment
Baddeley used memorising word lists to test how different codings are used in short and long term memory. The word lists either had the word associated via acoustic coding or semantic coding (i.e. just sounding the same or having similar meanings).
Describe the findings of B_____y’s study
Baddeley– That STM is largely coded acoustically, while LTM is largely coded semantically.
How does long term memory relate to short term memory?
Information is only stored in long term memory after it is stored in short term memory. The memory is rehearsed through elaborative rehearsal, so it can be semantically coded and retained permanently.
What sort of Coding is used in long term memory?
The coding in long term memory must be semantic, meaning it has to be converted from the acoustic coding in short term memory through specific types of rehearsal.
What was M____r’s 1956 theory linking memory and numbers?
Miller wrote the theory of the magic number. This could be formulated as 7+/- 2. He concluded that immediate memory could remember only 5 to 9 items (7+ or 7- 2). This theory is now used a lot, for instance in the days of the week and the number of notes in musical scales.
What is one other approach/theory of M____rs?
Miller— the theory of chunking. Tis suggests that we can remember more if we break information down into 5-9. This relates to Miller’s 1956 number theory. In this way, we can remember 5-9 words just as easily as remembering 5-9 letters.
Describe the method of one study related to the Capacity of Short term memory
Jacob’s Digit Span Test (1887)- The researcher recited a number of digits and participants had to recall the digits in the same order. The researcher would then increase the sequence by one digit and the participant had to recall the numbers again. The participant kept doing this until until the participant recalled the digits incorrectly.
What were the findings of Jacob’s study and how does this relate to the capacity of Short term memory?
- Eight year old children could recall on average 6.6 digits
- 19 year olds could recall on average 8.6 digits
The mean in all participants for recalling items is 9.3, whereas the mean for recalling numbers is 7.3. Not only did this support Miller’s number theory, but it showed that short term memory is very limited, and that it’s capacity can increase with age.
Describe the method of one study related to the Duration of Short term memory
Peterson and Peterson (1959) measured the duration of 24 student’s short term memory. Each participant was tested over eight trials. In each trial, the the participant was given a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number to remember Participants were then asked to recall the figure either after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds.
What were the findings of Jacob’s study and how does this relate to the capacity of Short term memory?
- Eight year old children could recall on average 6.6 digits
- 19 year olds could recall on average 8.6 digits
The mean in all participants for recalling items is 9.3, whereas the mean for recalling numbers is 7.3. Not only did this support Miller’s number theory, but it showed that short term memory is very limited, and that it’s capacity can increase with age.
Describe the method of one study related to the Duration of Short term memory
Peterson and Peterson (1959) measured the duration of 24 student’s short term memory. Each participant was tested over eight trials. In each trial, the the participant was given a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number to remember Participants were then asked to recall the figure either after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds.
What were the findings of P______n and P______n’s 1959 study?
Peterson and Peterson On average: After 3 seconds: 90% were correct After 9 seconds: 20% were correct After 18 seconds: 2% were correct this suggests that Short Term memory has a very short duration (18 seconds), especially if verbal rehearsal is prevented.
What is the method of one study related to the Duration of Long term memory
Barhick’s 1975 study tested 400 people ages 17-74 on their memories of their university classmates. He used two tests: A photo recognition test of 50 photos and a free recall test. In the photo test, participants were shown 50 photos of their classmates and asked to identify the people in the photos. In the free recall test, participants were asked to remember and recite any names they could remember from their graduating class
What were the findings of B_____k’s 1959 study and what did they show about the duration of Long Term Memory?
Bahrick– Participants tested within 15 years of graduating identified 90% of the people in the photos accurately, whereas people who graduated up to 48 years ago, only identified 70% of the photos accurately.
In the free recall test, those who had graduated within 15 years were 60% accurate, whereas those who had graduated within 48 years were 30% accurate.
Describe the Multi Store Model in a flow chart
Environmental stimuli →→→→Sensory Memory/Immediate Memory →→→→attention must then be focused on the specific memory in order for it to be put into the… →→→→
Short Term Memory →→→→ processed using Maintenance Rehearsal →→→→ processed using elaborative rehearsal →→→→Long Term Memory.
How can memories retrieved from our long term memory be distorted over time?
They can then be retrieved and brought to the short term memory/given attention , but every time the memory is retrieved and then sent back to the LTM using elaborative rehearsal, it brings new information with it based on the context when recalling the event and distorts/changes the memory.
How can Decay occur during Sensory Memory?
We experience a ton of environmental stimuli everyday, but if you pay attention to a stimuli/ memory in the sensory memory it can then be processed into the Short Term Memory and retained. If it is not focused on, or given attention, it can decay and not be registered (like how you probably don’t remember what colour the first car you saw today was)
How can someone forget something due to the Short term Memory?
In the short term memory, a memory needs to be rehearsed in order to be stored. If the memory is not rehearsed or repeated, it will be forgotten.
How can a memory be displaced?
if too much information is given, to the point that you forget older memories to make space for new ones, this is called displacement.
Describe the findings of S_____g’s 1960 study
Sperling–Sensory Memory can not hold information for very long as information decays rapidly in the energy store without attention.
What is the Serial Position Effect comprised of?
The primary effect and the recency effect
What is the primary effect?
The tendency for people to remember something at the beginning of a list or experience.This could be because of these items being rehearsed more.
What is the Recency effect?
The tendency for people to remember the last five items in a list or experience. This is because these items and memories have been inputted too recently for them to have decayed yet.
How does Serial Position effect explain displacement?
Items in the middle of a list/experience are more likely to be displaced than at the start or the end of the list/experience.
What is one study that showed Serial Position effect? (briefly outline the method)
Glanzer and Canitz (1966)
Participants were shown 20 words, one word at a time, and were then asked to recall any words they remembered after the short duration while shown the words. The most commonly remembered words were at the start and the end of the list.
Why was Scoville an idiot?
He did not realise that the hippocampus controlled memory and not epilepsy.
What are the three types of long term memory that people inferred from Henry Molaison’s case?
Episodic, Semantic and Procedural.
What are Episodic memories?
It stores narrative consciousness, i.e. the memory can be told in a story/narrative. These memories are controlled by the hippocampus.
What are Semantic memories?
These are factual memories, e.g. memories that memories that everyone experiences similarly, for example place names.
What are Procedural memories?
These are unconscious physical memories (i.e. writing or cycling). They are controlled by the cerebellum.
Who was Henry Molaison (HM)?
He was a famous case study. He was in a car accident and later discovered that he had contracted epilepsy. He was neglected by his family because of this, so tried to get an experimental surgery to remove his hippocampus in an attempt to help the epilepsy. However, he seemed to lose his short term memory, but not his long term memory, and could still recall things we assume we would not be able to remember without our short term memory. Therefore, he helped to debunk the Multi-Store Model.
What was the aim of the B______y and H___h study (1974)?
Baddeley and Hitch— To prove that memory is formed not just in one store, but in a number of different stores.
What were the findings of B______y and H___h’s 1974 study?
Baddeley and Hitch— the researchers found that if you do two similar memory tasks (i.e. two visual tasks) at the same time, you do not perform as well as if you do them separately. However, if you do the visual memory task whilst doing a verbal task, there is no interference, and the results are just as good as if you did them separately. This proves that short term memory is made up of more than one component.
How does the Working Memory model differ to the multi-store model?
The main components (sensory memory traveling to the STM through attention, being rehearsed and then being stored in the Long term memory), The Short Term memory is stored in 4 different sections.
What are the four different subdivisions of the Short Term memory in the working memory model?
The central executive, the phonological loop, the episodic buffer, the visuospatial sketchpad.
What is the function of the Central Executive?
The CE reviews data from the senses, but it can’t hold it for long, as it has a limited capacity. It processes resources/information from the slave systems (all the other subdivisions). It coordinates all of these elements into your memories, like an executive producer of a film.
What is the function of the Phonological Loop?
What are it’s two subsections job?
It deals with auditory information and remembers word order- it is often called the inner ear. It can be divided into the phonological store and the auditory process. The phonological store holds the words and sounds we hear whereas the articulatory process helps us remember word order, separate specific noises from background noise and other functions
What is the function of the visuospatial sketchpad?
It is were visual and spatial information is stored. it is used when you have to carry out a spatial task (i.e. traveling from one room to another, or counting the windows in a building),as it stores visual info (what things look like) and spatial info (the relationship between things).
Describe some findings of Logle’s 1995 study that determined that the visuo-spatial sketchpad has two sections
Logle found that VSS can be divided into: A visual cache which stores information about visual information e.g. shape and colour and an inner scribe, which the arrangements of objects in your vision and the relationship between objects.
What is the function of the Episodic Buffer?
The general store of the model, where the information is collected before it gets stored in the LTM. It holds information relating to both visual and auditory information. The Episodic Buffer records information from the other three regions of the STM, as well as recording a sense of time sequencing , basically recording events in a story-like episodic manner. However, it has a limited capacity.
What is word length effect?
The phonological store can only hold the amount of information that you can say in 1.5-2 seconds.
However, this disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task (E.g. repeatedly saying a word like “bill, bill, bill” while reading the list).
How does Word Length Effect support the theory of the Working Memory Model?
The fact that word length effect does not apply when accompanied by an articulatory suppression task shows that there are at least two separate processes in remembering words
What are the two opposing views relating to anxiety affecting memory, and what studies correspond to these views?
The view that Anxiety helps create strong memories (supported by Christian and Hubinette 1993), and the view that anxiety makes memory formation worse (Johnson and Scott 1976).
What was the aim of Ch__st___son and H_bin____s’ 1993 study?
Christianson and Hubinette
To investigate the effects of anxiety on eyewitness recall.
Describe the method of Ch\_\_st\_\_\_son and H_bin\_\_\_\_s' 1993 study, include: Participants Duration/timing of experiment Independant variables Dependant Variables
Christian and Hubinette
Asked 58 eyewitnesses to recall their memory of a real bank robbery 4-15 months after the incident.
in the first independent variable, participants had the role of the victim (the bank teller) and the second independent variable had the participants who were customer bystanders. The dependant variable was to what extent the details given by the eye witness testimony matched the CCTV footage of the event.
What were the findings from Ch__st___son and H_bin____s’ 1993 study?
Christian and Hubinette
All of the eyewitness victims (bank tellers) had above 75% average accuracy in their testimony (while under the anxiety of being robbed). Therefore, participants reporting more anxiety had overall better recall.
What was the conclusion of Ch__st___son and H_bin____s’ 1993 study?
Christian and Hubinette
That Semantic and Episodic Memory is better when anxious.
What was the aim of J_____n and S___t’s 1976 experiment?
Johnson and Scott
To investigate the effect of anxiety on eyewitness recall.
What were the independent variable and dependent variable of J_____n and S___t’s 1976 experiment?
Johnson and Scott
Both conditions witnessed a public argument between two confederates, but in the first independent variable, the witnesses saw the confederates holding a greasy pen, whereas in the other variable, the confederates were holding a bloody knife. The dependant variable was how accurately the witness identified the person holding the instrument (aggressor) some time after the argument.
What were the findings of J_____n and S___t’s 1976 experiment?
Johnson and Scott
People who witnessed the confederate holding a pen had 49% accuracy when identifying the aggressor, while those who witnessed the aggressor holding the bloody knife had 33% accuracy identifying them.
What was the conclusion of J_____n and S___t’s 1976 experiment?
Johnson and Scott
Though it was expected that the heightened of witnessing the aggressor holding a bloody knife would better memory cognition, weapon focus effect caused these participants to have lower accuracy in their identification.
According to the Y_____s-D_ds_n curve, how are anxiety levels and quality of performance related?
Yerkes-Dodson
They are proportional in a curve- meaning that quality of performance increases with stress up to a certain point, ater which quality of performance decreases with stress.
According to the Y_____s-D_ds_n, what are the different levels of anxiety?
Yerkes-Dodson
(from low to high) Sleep, Boredom, mild alertness, optimal level, stress, anxiety, panic.
What is the mnemonic you use for the the levels of anxiety in the Y_____s-D_ds_n curve?
Yerkes-Dodson
Slippery Barnacles Make Awesome Octopus Lozenges, Soothes Agitated Parts.
How does the Yerkes-Dodson curve differ from the Catastrophe Theory of anxiety?
In catastrophe theory, after a certain point of anxiety are performance level plateaus and we are unable to function, rather than having a gradual, curved decline.
What is one reason why post-event recall and discussion might not be completely accurate?
When asked to recall the memory, the questionee will have to reconstruct the memory in their mind. However, each recall will involve the memory being processed between long term memory and short term memory, and each recall will distort the original memory because of new information/environment being involved during rehearsal.
What was the aim of L____s and P____r (1974)?
Loftus and Palmer
To test if the language used (in the leading questions) during eyewitness testimony can alter the memory of an event.
What was the specifics in the method of L____s and P____r (1974)?
(Experimental type, Experimental design, Independent Variable and Dependant Variable)
Loftus and Palmer
The study was a laboratory experiment, using independent group design. In the two conditions they used different versions of the independent variable, which was what verb was used to describe a car crash (e.g. hit, collided, bumped, smashed) when questioning participants on the event. The dependant variable was what speed the participants estimated the car to have been travelling in hindsight.
What was the procedure used for L____s and P____r (1974)?
eg. sample, methodology
Loftus and Palmer
The experiment involved 45 students. They all watched 7 film clips of car accidents. These students were then asked questions about these videos after being split into 5 groups of 9 students. Each group was asked a question testing different IVs (e.g. “how fast were the cars travelling when they HIT each other?” for one group, and “how fast were the cars travelling when they BUMPED each other?” for another group.
Name a study that demonstrates how environmental, cultural or circumstantial factors can affect eyewitness testimony.
Allport and Postman 1947. After reading a report of a mugging on a local subway, participants were asked to identify the criminal described in the report. Most participants reported the participant to be black, despite no specification of race. This was due to 1940s conventions in culture and racism.
What are the three types of long-term memory?
episodic, Semantic and Procedural.
What is an episodic memory?
A memory that entails the specific details of an event, the context of the event and the emotion in the event. The event is usually remembered as occurring as part of a larger sequence, i.e. your first day in school.
What is a semantic memory?
Semantic memories are memories that are shared by everyone who experiences an event (e.g. not a memory only one person would experience), for example, what the capital of England
What is a procedural memory?
And how is it different to semantic and episodic memory
Memories relating to life skills, such as knowing how to tie your shoelaces, or ride a bike. These skills/memories are typically acquired using skills and practice. These are implicit memories, so we are less aware of them as they have become automatic (unlike semantic and episodic memories). When we try and focus on a procedural task, we often can’t complete, as it stops the automatic process.
What region of the brain is Episodic memory associated with?
The Hippocampus and the temporal lobe.
What region of the brain is Semantic memory associated with?
The Temporal lobe
What region of the brain is Procedural memory associated with?
The cerebellum, the Basal Ganglia and the limbic system.
What is Interference (forgetting) ?
An explanation for forgetting in terms of one memory disrupting the ability to recall another. This is most likely to occur when the two memories have some similarity.
What is Proactive Interference?
A type of interference used in the explanation for forgetting. It is when past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something (i.e. trying to learn flashcards after you’ve already learned 150).
What is Retroactive Interference?
A type of interference used in the explanation for forgetting. It is when current attempts to learn something interfere with past learnings (I.e. memorizing a song, and then someone plays a different song immediately after you have learnt the original song).
Name one study that proved/Supported Retroactive Interference theory
Muller and Pilzecker
Briefly outline The case study of M____r and P__z__ker (1900)
Muller and Pilzecker
They gave participants a list of nonsense syllables to learn for 6 minutes and then, after a retention interval, asked participants to recall the list. They also repeated this, but gave the second group of participants a separate task during the retention interval between initial learning and recall (they were shown and asked to describe paintings). These participants (the second group), did not recall the syllables as well.
Name one study that proved/Supported Proactive Interference theory
Benton Underwood (1957)
Briefly outline the findings of The case study of B____n U_______d (1957)
Benton Underwood
He analysed findings from a number of studies and concluded that when participants have to learn a series of words from a word list, they do not learn the later words in the sequence as well as the earlier words in the sequence. For example, if the participant mastered 10 or more lists, after 24 hours, they would remember only 20% of what they learned. However, if they only memorised one list, they could remember 70% of the words.
How does similarity of test materials relate to interference?
Interference is strongest the more similar that the the items are.
What is Retrieval Failure?
Occurs due to the absence of cues. It is an explanation for forgetting based on the the idea that the memory does exist, but you can’t retrieve it. As retrieval depends on cues, a lack of cues would cause a lack of retrieval.
What are cues?
cues are things that serve as a reminder. They can be meaningfully linked, environmental cues (a specific room) or cues related to your mental state (like being drunk).
What is the encoding specificity principle?
The idea that recall is most effective if a cue/information present when encoding the memory is also present when retrieving the memory.
What is one case study that supports the encoding specificity principle?
Endel Tulving and Donald Thomson (1973)
What was the method of E___l T_____g and D____d T_____n’s study?
Endel Tulving and Donald Thomson
Participants were told to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories. Each word was presented as the category and the word (e.g. the participant would memorize fruit-apple). The participants were split into two conditions. Participants either had to use free recall or were given cues in the form of the category name, in cued recall (e.g. fruit would be the cue for apple).
What were the findings of E___l T_____g and D____d T_____n’s study?
Endel Tulving and Donald Thomson
In the free recall condition, average 40% of words were recalled. In the cued recall, 60% of words were recalled.
What is context-dependent forgetting?
Recall can be more successful when the context it was encoded in is matched during recall. If the memory is attempted to be recalled in a different context, this could cause retrieval failure.
Name two studies that prove/support Context dependent forgetting
One example would be a study by Ethel Abernethy and another would be Godden and Baddeley.
VERY BRIEFLY outline E___l A______y’s study
Ethel Abernethy
Basically, she tested a bunch of her students regularly, but with the students in 4 conditions. Some were always in the same room they were taught in with the same teacher, others were always in the same classroom with a different teacher, some with the same teacher, but in a different classroom and some in a different room with a different teacher. Those who stayed in the same room with the same teacher performed the best (assumedly due to the presence of familiar memory cues).
VERY BRIEFLY outline G____n and B_____y study
Godden and Baddeley
They investigated contextual cues. The participants were scuba divers. Four conditions. They were asked to learn a series of words either on land or underwater. They were then tested either on land or underwater. The highest test results were in the condition were the initial context matched the recall environment (i.e. learnt on land and tested on land.)
what is State-dependant forgetting?
What state you are when you learn/encode a memory can also be a code. Therefore, if you are in the same state during recall of a memory as you were when you encoded the memory, successful recall is more likely (and vice versa).
What is one study that helps prove/support the theory of state-dependent forgetting?
Goodwin Et Al (1969)
VERY BRIEFLY outline the G_____n Et Al (1969) study
Goodwin et al
There were four conditions. The participants were all men. Some were asked to remember a list of words while drunk, while others were asked to remember a list of words while sober. After 24 hours, the men were tested again. Some were sober during testing and some were drunk (again) during testing. Information was best recalled when tested in the same state.
Name two types of Post-Event discussion that could possibly affect Eyewitness Testimony?
Conformity Effect and Repeat Interviewing
Describe Conformity Effect
If a lot of people witness an event, they might each have their own perception. If they discuss their perceptions with each other, they could reach a consensus view of what happened, to please everyone, that might not be as accurate.
Describe Repeat Intervieewing
The more a person is interviewed, the higher the chance that the cues/questions from the last interview will be incorporated into the current interview’s testimony (like Chinese whispers). Leading questions in an interview can also alter a person’s testimony.
What are four features of The Cognitive Interview?
Changing the order, Changing the perspective, mental reinstatement and reporting everything.
Who was S____n K____o and why was he one of the reasons for creating the cognitive interview?
Stefan Kiszco was convicted for the murder of an 11 year old girl in 1976. He “confessed” this after two days of police questioning. However, Stefan had very high anxiety and a low IQ, so deliberately falsely confessed to the crime, as the intensive questioning and repeated interviews severely affected him. He was incarcerated for 16 years before his innocence was discovered.
What are 3 strengths of the cognitive interview?
- It is cleverly structured
- it gives up to 50% more recalled information than standard interview techniques (though this is not necessarily accurate information)
- it has open questions that allow the witnesses to report the memory in their own words.
What are 4 risks of the Cognitive Interview?
- It is very time consuming
- the careful and specific measures that must be taken are very intensive for the interviewer
- the interview is only effective if the interviewee is co-operative with the questions
- there is still a risk of the interviewing using leading questions.
What is Mental Reinstatement in a cognitive interview?
The interviewer will ask the interviewee to describe teir surroundings during the event. This reinstates the context of the event for the interviewee, which could improve recall (by reducing context-dependent forgetting) and allows the interviewer to obtain specifics without the use of leading questions.
What is Report Everything in a cognitive interview?
The interviewer, instead of asking about specific details, will ask the witness to “report everything” they witnessed occuring. This helps the interviewer avoid leading questions as well as not causing the witness to reconstruct the memory due to focussing on certain specifics in the event.
What is Changing the Order in a cognitive interview?
When the interviewer asks about the event in a different order than chronological (i.e., in a car crash, from the crash backwards). This changes the schema in recalling the information, so could reveal new information (therefore avoiding schema interference), reduces repetition affecting the memory and it is less episodic/story-like, so will reduce exaggeration.
What is Changing the perspective in a cognitive interview?
When the interviewer asks the witness to recount the event from someone else’s perspective. This could reduce the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony, as different perspectives would experience different stress levels, and an analytical approach could reduce stress.
