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Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What are schemas?

A 
An organised package of information that stores our knowledge about the world in our LTM.
They allow us to:
Make sense of what we encounter
Predict what is going to happen
Behave appropriately
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2
Q

What if we lack an appropriate schema for something?

A

We may find it hard to make sense of information; this will make it more difficult to remember.
If incoming information doesn’t fit into any of our existing schemas, we may need to create a new one.

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3
Q

How can our mental schemas lead to inaccuracy?

A

When we use our schemas, we use stereotypes, expectations and assumptions that distort our memories and make them inaccurate.

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4
Q

What are the three types of memory?

A

Sensory register - initial contact for stimuli
Short term memory -information we are currently aware of
Long term memory - Continual storage of information which is largely outside of our awareness

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5
Q

What types of coding does each type of memory have?

A

SR: Iconic and echoic coding
STM: Acoustic coding
LTM: Semantic coding

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6
Q

What are the capacities of each type of memory?

A

SR: Unlimited
STM: Limited (7+-2)
LTM: Unlimited

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7
Q

What are the durations of each type of memory?

A

SR: Limited to less than half a second
STM: Limited to 18-30 seconds
LTM: Unlimited

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8
Q

What are the strengths of the Multi-Store Model?

A

Research support for encoding (Baddeley, recall of acoustically similar words)
Research support for capacity of STM being limited (Jacobs, numbers - 9.3, letters - 7.3)
Case study of HM supports the model
Research support for duration of SR, STM and LTM

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9
Q

What are the limitations of the Multi-Store Model?

A

Original model was incomplete

Model is based on research which uses artificial tasks

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10
Q

What research supports encoding?

A

Baddeley (1966)
Found that immediate recall was worse for acoustically similar words.
Indicates coding in STM is acoustic
Also found that recall after 20 minutes was better for semantically different words.
Indicates coding in LTM is semantic

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11
Q

What research supports for the capacity of STM being limited?

A

Jacobs (1887)
Tested capacity in STM by saying a list of numbers or letters and increasing the length each time
Found that capacity for numbers was 9.3
Found that capacity for letters was 7.3

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12
Q

What research supports for the duration on the sensory register?

A

Sperling (1960)
Flashed a grid of letters on screen to participants for less than half a second
Participants could recall 4 or 5 letters
Shows that SR is less than one second

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13
Q

What research supports the duration of STM?

A

Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Read out a series of trigrams and participants were asked to count out loud backwards from a given number.
After a certain length of time they were asked to write down the trigram they had heard.
After 3 seconds, recall was 80%
After 18 seconds, recall was 3%
Showing duration of STM is about 18-30 seconds

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14
Q

What research is there to support the duration of LTM?

A

Bahrick (1975)
Tested participants on photo recognition of their yearbook classmates and recall test of their names.
Participants tested 15 years after graduation were 90% accurate on photos and 60% on recall.
Participants tested 48 years after graduation were 70% accurate on photos and 30% accurate on recall.
Shows that LTM is unlimited.

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15
Q

What case study supports the Multi-Store Model?

A

HM
He couldn’t make new LTMs
This suggests there are separate stores for STM and LTM

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16
Q

What are the 3 LTM stores?

A

Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Procedural memory

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17
Q

What is episodic memory?

A

Memories of events
Time stamped
About people, places and things and are woven together to create one memory.
Memories may be easily and quickly accessed but only with conscious effort (declarative)

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18
Q

What is semantic memory?

A

Contains our knowledge of the world, facts, things and their meanings.
Not time stamped
Memories may be easily and quickly accessed but only with conscious effort (declarative)

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19
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

Memory for actions and skills
We do not have to use conscious or effortful recall, we do the tasks without necessarily being aware of what we are doing (non declarative)
Not time stamped

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20
Q

What does the Central Executive control?

A

Controls attention and coordinates the actions of the other components
It processes information from the senses and LTM
It has a limited capacity
It allocates one of the slave systems to a task

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21
Q

What’s the function of the phonological loop?

A

Has two parts:
Phonological store: “inner ear”
Holds words that have been heard
Uses a sound based code to store information but decays after 2 seconds unless rehearsed by articulatory control system
Articulatory control systems: “inner voice”
Rehearses information
Has a time based capacity of about 2 seconds

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22
Q

What is the function of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

A

Has two parts:
Visual cache:
Stores information such as form and colour
Inner scribe:
Deals with spatial relations
Stores information about where items are in the visual field

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23
Q

What is the role of the episodic buffer?

A

Temporarily stores information and integrates it to provide a holistic view of experience.
Its purpose is to bind together all of the information from the other components and prepares memories for storage in LTM.
Forms the bridge between working memory and long term memory.

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24
Q

What are the strengths of the working memory model?

A

It is plausible because it fits with everyday experience - Baddeley suggests that mentally counting the number of windows in your house demonstrates the operations of working memory.
Case study supports it - KF suffered brain damage and when he was given verbal information, recall was poor. When given visual information, recall was good. This supports separation of the phonological loop.

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25
Q

What is a limitation of the working memory model?

A

The functions of the central executive are vague and difficult to test.
How the capacity of the central executive can be measured independently of the others components is unclear.

26
Q

What are the two explanations for forgetting?

A

Interference

Retrieval failure

27
Q

What are the two types of interference?

A

Proactive interference

Retroactive interference

28
Q

What is proactive interference?

A

Past memories affecting our ability to recall new ones.

29
Q

What is retroactive interference?

A

Recent memories affecting our ability to recall old ones.

30
Q

Explain McGeoch and McDonald’s study on retroactive interference.

A

Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They learnt a new list with 6 groups with different lists, including synonyms, antonyms, unrelated words, nonsense syllables, three-digit numbers and no new list as the control group.
The more similar the material was to the original list, the worse the recall was of the original list. This showed that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

31
Q

What is retrieval failure?

A

Forgetting due to an absence of cues; the information is not lost but is inaccessible.

32
Q

What is a cue?

A

Something associated with a memory which is stored at the same time; acts as a trigger.

33
Q

Describe the Deep sea divers study on retrieval failure.

A

Participants learnt a list of words and were asked to recall them.
Same context (learnt list and recalled underwater).
Same context (learnt list and recalled on land)
Different context (learnt list underwater and recalled on land)
Different context (learnt list on land and recalled underwater)
Forgetting increased by 40% when learning and recall context differs.

34
Q

What is eye witness testimony?

A

Evidence provided to the police or in court by a person who has witnessed a crime.

35
Q

What are the factors affecting the accuracy of eye witness testimony?

A

Misleading information

Leading question

36
Q

What is mis-leading information?

A

Information that may lead to a witness’s memory of a crime being altered.

37
Q

What is a leading question?

A

A question which suggests to the witness what answer is desired, or leads them to the desired answer.

38
Q

Describe Loftus and Palmer’s study on leading information?

A

Participants watched film clips of a car accident, then answered questions. One asked about the speed of the cars; the verb was different in each of the 5 conditions: smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted.
The verb acts to lead the witness, the use of certain verbs can change a person’s interpretation of an event.
The results showed that the mean estimate for the word smashed was the highest, and contacted was the smallest.

39
Q

What is post-event discussion?

A

Discussion with other witnesses or interviewers where memories can become contaminated by discussion with others.

40
Q

What are the 4 cognitive interviews retrieval techniques?

A

1 - Report everything
2 - Mental reinstatement of original context (mentally recreate incident)
3 - Recall events in different order
4 - Changing the perspective (imagine other points of view of incident)

41
Q

What characteristics does anxiety have?

A
  • Cognitive: mental processes; thoughts, attention
  • Emotional: feelings of fear, anxiety and dread
  • Behavioural: what we do/physical; heart racing, shaking and sweating
42
Q

What study shows that anxiety has a negative effect on recall?

A
  • Johnson and Scott
  • Participants in a study were asked to wait outside a lab and ‘overheard’ an argument
  • Condition 1: low anxiety - a man came out with greasy hands holding a pen
  • Condition 2: high anxiety - heard breaking glass and then a man came out holding a paper knife covered in blood
  • Participants were then shown 50 photographs and asked if they could identify the man who had come out of the lab
43
Q

What were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s study?

anxiety has a negative effect on recall

A

Condition 1: low anxiety - 49% accurate recall
Condition 2: high anxiety - 33% accurate recall
Conclusion: Heightened arousal - weapon focuses attention and so other aspects of the scene are ignored

44
Q

What did Pickel want to test?

A

If it was anxiety or just surprise that was being tested in weapon focus experiments.

45
Q

What happened in Pickel’s study?

A
  • Participants watched a video of a person entering a hair dresser’s carrying either:
  • Gun (high threat, high surprise)
  • Wallet (low threat, low surprise)
  • Scissors (high threat, low surprise)
  • Raw chicken (low threat, high surprise)
46
Q

What were the findings of Pickel’s study?

A
  • Gun - poor recall
  • Wallet - good recall
  • Scissors - good recall
  • Raw chicken - poor recall
47
Q

What study showed anxiety has a positive effect on recall?

A
  • Christianson and Hubinette
  • They questioned 58 participants who had witnessed genuine bank robberies
  • Bystanders had low anxiety
  • Those directly threatened by the bank robbers had high anxiety
  • 75% recall accuracy
  • Those who had experienced high anxiety had a more accurate recall than bystanders
48
Q

What were the positives to Christianson and Hubinette’s study on anxiety has a positive effect on recall?

A
  • It was a natural experiment
  • High ecological validity - studying reaction to real events so behaviour is real-life behaviour
  • Ethical - any stress from the original event is not the researcher’s responsibility
49
Q

What were the negatives to Christianson and Hubinette’s study on anxiety has a positive effect on recall?

A
  • Lack of control over extraneous variables in a natural setting eg, type of weapon, number of assailants
  • Proximity to the robbers - those who were directly threatened were likely to have been closer to get a better look, compared to bystanders
  • Those directly threatened were likely to be employed by bank and feel more responsibility to identify or have training to identify
50
Q

How can the contradiction of anxiety effecting recall be explained?

A
  • The Yerkes - Dodson law

- Says that performance improves with increased arousal up to an optimal point, then declines

51
Q

What happened in Loftus and Palmer’s 2nd experiment?

A
  • Participants watched clips of a car crash
  • They answered questions as per experiment 1, but this time they only had two verbs, either hit or smashed
  • Participants who were asked ‘smashed’ gave a higher mean speed estimated than those asked ‘hit’
  • A week later they were asked if they saw any broken glass (there was no broken glass)
  • More people answered yes in the ‘smashed’ condition
  • These findings support the altered memory explanation because they were asked a week later
52
Q

What is reconstructive memory?

A
  • We rebuild our memory every time we use it
  • Automatic and unconscious
  • We use stereotypes, expectations from our mental schemes and any misleading information we receive
53
Q

What happened in Gabbert et al’s study on post-event discussion?

A
  • Pairs of participants; each participant watched a video of the same crime
  • Each member of the pair saw a different perspective
  • They discussed the crime together before completing a recall test
  • 71% of participants reported details of the crime they hadn’t seen but they had gathered from their discussion with the paired participant
  • 0% of the control group reported details they hadn’t seen
  • In conclusion, participants go along with the information gathered at discussions to either win social approval or they think they’re wrong
  • Called ‘memory conformity’
54
Q

Who is Ronald Cotton?

A
  • He was falsely accused of sexual assault
  • The victim constructed a false memory of Cotton and convinced herself that she was right
  • Cotton was the only one in the line up and the photos and the police told her that they were the same person and so she was completely convinced that she had the right man
  • When she imagined the situation, she imagined Cotton
55
Q

What happened in Sutherland and Hayne’s study on misleading information?

A
  • Showed participants a video clip
  • Then asked misleading questions
  • Recall was better for the central details of the event than peripheral details
  • Presumably participant’s attention was focused on the central features of the event and this made them more resistant to contamination
  • Therefore the effect on quality of testimony may not be as strong as research suggests
56
Q

Why is reporting everything important?

A
  • Witnesses may leave out details they feel are irrelevant especially if they do not fit into their existing schemas for that type of event
  • Reporting everything prevents judgements on what to report being made on the basis of schema
  • These memories may then in turn act to cue other memories about the crime and so forgetting is reduced
57
Q

Why is mental reinstatement of original context important?

A
  • Context cues encoded at the time of the crime can be recalled and these in turn will trigger recall of memories which otherwise will be forgotten
58
Q

Why is recalling events in a different order important?

A
  • This interrupts the use of schemas by for example working from the mid-point backwards or from the end backwards, and prevents expectations of what might have happened from dictating their testimony
59
Q

Why is changing the perspective important?

A
  • Prevents the activation of schemas
  • Otherwise eg, if you saw a robbery as you walked into Tesco, your schema of what happens every time you walk into Tesco may be what you report instead of what actually happened
60
Q

What are the strengths of the cognitive interview?

A
  • Research support for the effectiveness of the interview
  • Carried out a meta-analysis combining data from 50 studies
  • Findings showed that the enhanced interview consistently produced more correct information than the standard police interview
  • This is useful because the accurate information makes it more likely that the correct suspect is identified
61
Q

What are the limitations of the cognitive interview?

A
  • Time consuming
  • More time is needed to carry out the interview and train police
  • This means there may not be enough time to carry out the interviews properly and so the benefits are not used in every case
  • Another limitation is that is creates an increase in inaccurate information
  • Found an 81% increase in accurate information but also a 61% increase in incorrect information when CI was compared to a standard interview
  • This could lead to possible misidentification of a suspect

Psychology (17 decks)

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