Memory

Question 1

What is the coding, capacity and duration of STM?

Answer 1

Coding: Acoustic

Capacity: 5-9 items

Duration: 18-30 seconds

Question 2

What is the coding, capacity and duration of LTM?

Answer 2

Coding: Semantic

Capacity: Unlimited

Duration: A lifetime

Question 3

What research support is there for STM and LTM memory coding?

Answer 3

Baddeley: 4 Groups of words. 10 words in each list, particpants heard and then had to recall in the correct order.

1. acoustically similar (cat, cab, can) - badly recalled immediately after
2. acoustically dissimilar - good recall immediately after
3. semantically similar (great, large, big) - bad recall 20 mins later
4. semantically dissimilar - good recall 20 mins later

Question 4

What is the research on STM capacity?

Answer 4

Jacobs - digit span - increasingly longer lists of numbers to remember (in the correct order)

Miller observed chunking. People can recall 5 words as well as 5 letters by grouping letters into chunks

Question 5

What is the research for STM duration?

Answer 5

Peterson and Peterson: 24 undertgraduates each taking part in 8 tests. Each test = trigram (three consonants e.g. YCG). They would be given a trigram to remember and then have to count backwards form a three digit number to prevent rehearsal of the trigram.

Stopped after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds and asked to recall the trigram.

• After 3 seconds more than 75% could remember.
• At 18 seconds less than 20% of participants were able to remember the trigram.

Question 6

What is the research for LTM duration?

Answer 6

Harry Bahrick studied 392 participants aged 17-74.

1) photo recognition of 50 photos, some from the participant’s year book
2) free recall where participants recalled all the names of their class

• After 15 years of graduation, 90% correct in photo recognition
• After 48 years, 70% correct in photo recognition
• After 15 year 60% in free recall
• After 48 years, 30% in free recall

Question 7

What are the strengths and weaknesses of memory research?

Answer 7

STRENGTH: Harry Bahrick’s high school photo research has high external validity

WEAKNESS: Most memoery research uses artificial stimuli giving it low external validity

Question 8

Complete the following:

Answer 8

Question 9

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the multi-store model?

Answer 9

STRENGTH: Supporting research evidence from Baddeley (acoustic, semantic)

WEAKNESS: More than one STM - KF short term memory poor when digits read to him and better when he read digits himself. More than one LTM e.g. Clive Wearing. Therefore not unitary stores

WEAKNESS: More than one type of rehearsal. Craik and Watkins - maintenance rehearsal which keeps things in STM and elaborative rehearsal (thinking carefully about the information/thinking about what it means) goes into LTM.

Question 10

What are the three types of LTM?

Answer 10

Episodic - Recalling events. Consciously recalled (you have to think about them). We know roughly when they happened.

Procedural - Memory for actions/skills. Not consciously recalled.

Semantic - facts and meanings of words. Not time stamped.

Question 11

What are the strengths and weaknesses of different types of LTM?

Answer 11

STRENGTH: Clinical evidence e.g. Clive Wearing

STRENGTH: Neuroimaging evidence using PET scanner. Episodic from right prefrontal cortex and semantic from left prefrontal cortex.

STRENGTH: Real life appplications. Beleville demonstrated that episodic coudl be improved in older people.

WEAKNESS: Case studies - difficult to generalise over whole population.

Question 12

What is the main part and 3 “slave systems” of the working memory model?

Answer 12

Main part: Central executive which processes incoming data and allocates to the slave systems.

Phonological loop: Processes sound information. Phonological store stores the words, Articulatory process expresses them.

Visuo-spatial sketchpad: Stores visual/spatial information. Visual cache stores the data, inner scribe records the arrangement of the objects.

Episodic buffer: Added to the model later. Integrates all sensual data and processes them into episodes.

Question 13

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Working Memory model?

Answer 13

STRENGTH: KF had poor verbal STM but good visual STM. Supports existence of two different stores.

STRENGTH: Dual task performance experiments (Baddeley). More difficult to do two visual tasks at the same time than a visual and verbal task.

WEAKNESS: Lack of clarity over the central executive.

Question 14

What are the two explanations for forgetting?

Answer 14

• Interference
• Retrieval failure

Question 15

What are the two types of interference in forgetting?

Answer 15

Retroactive interference: Where old memories get displaced by new ones

Proactive interference: Where new memories get displaced by old ones

Question 16

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the interference theory of forgetting?

Answer 16

STRENGTH: Evidence from highly controlled lab studies. e.g. McGeoch and McDonald (see graph)

WEAKNESS: Artificial materials

STRENGTH: Real life studies e.g. Baddeley and Hitch asking rugby players to remember teams they had played against. Number of games since was more important for forgetting than length of time.

Question 17

What is the main idea behind the retrieval failure explanation of forgetting?

Answer 17

The encoding specificity principle. If a cue is to help us to recall information, it has to be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and at retrieval.

Question 18

What is the difference between context dependent and state dependent forgetting?

Answer 18

CONTEXT: External cues at learning being different to those at recalling. e.g. Godden and Baddeley divers (land/land, land water etc), Aggleton and Waskett (smells in museum), Baker et al (gum/gum, gum/no gum etc)

or

STATE: Internal cues being different to those at recalling e.g. Carter and Cassaday (learning on drug/not on drug). Mood, drunk state etc are other examples of internal cues.

Question 19

What are the strengths and weaknesses of retrieval failure theory of forgetting?

Answer 19

STRENGTH: Supporting evidence in highly controlled experiments.

WEAKNESS: Context effects not very strong unless there is a very big difference between the contexts as it was with on land and under water. Therefore real-life applications limited. HOWEVER, it is used in the cognitive interview.

WEAKNESS: Godden and Baddeley replicated their experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall. Performance became the same in all four conditions.

Question 20

What are the main two factors affecting eyewitness testimony?

Answer 20

Misleading information (leading questions and post event discussion) and anxiety

Question 21

What were the results of the Loftus and Palmer “car crash video” experiment?

Answer 21

Contacted: 31.8 mph

Hit: 34.0 mph

Bumped: 38.1 mph

Collided: 39.3 mph

Smashed: 40.5 mph

Smashed more likely to recall broken glass after being asked the leading question “Did you see the broken glass” (which wasn’t actually there)

Question 22

What are the two reasons leading questions affect eyewitness testimony?

Answer 22

Response-bias explanation: The wording of the question doesn’t actually change the participants memories but just influences how they decide to answer.

Substitution explanation: The leading question actually changes the participant’s memory.

Question 23

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Misleading Information theory for eyewitness testimony?

Answer 23

STRENGTH: Real life applications. Hugely important in making sure that police interviews and the courts avoid leading questions.

WEAKNESS: Artificial tasks - car crash videos are videos and not real life which is more stressful and real.

WEAKNESS: Individual differences - Anastasi and Rhodes discovered 18-25 year olds are more accurate anyway than 55-78 year olds.

WEAKNESS: Possible demand characteristics. Participants may want to appear helpful and attentive so answer yes to the broken glass question anyway.

Question 24

How was post event discussion demonstrated as an illustration of how misleading information can affect eyewitness testimony?

Answer 24

Fiona Gabbert et al studied participants in pairs watching videos of a crime from different angles. 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but had picked up in discussion.

Question 25

What is teh Yerkes-Dodson Law?

Answer 25

Question 26

What experiment showed that anxiety had a NEGATIVE effect on recall?

Answer 26

Johnson and Scott: Participants seated in waiting room - in one condition an argument and a man appearing with pen and grease (low anxiety condition) and the other condition argument with sound of breaking glass and a man appearing with knife and blood (high anxiety condition).

Pen: 49% remembered man

Knife: 33% remembered man

Question 27

What experiment shows that anxiety has a POSITIVE effect on recall?

Answer 27

Yuille and Cutshall studied a real life shooting in Canada.

The shop owner shot a thief dead.

21 witnesses, 13 agreed to take part in the study.

Interviews 4-5 months after the incident and compared with original police interviews. Participants also asked to say how stressed they were at the time of the crime on a 7 point scale.

Highest stress score 88% accurate, lowest stress 75% accurate.

Question 28

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

Answer 28

STRENGTH: Research evidence.

WEAKNESS: Weapon focus may not be relevant. Pickel’s experiment in hairdresser with scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken. Accuracy was significantly poorer in the UNUSUAL conditions e.g. chicken, not necessarily the anxious ones.

WEAKNESS: Ethical issues. May subject people to psychological harm putting them into anxious conditions.

WEAKNESS: Demand characteristics in lab studies.

Question 29

What are the four stages of the Cognitive Interview to increase accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 29

1. Report everything
2. Reinstate the context (either visit original scene or recreate the scene imaginatively)
3. Reverse the order
4. Change perspective

1 and 2 produce better recall than the others.

Question 30

What are some of the extra elements in the enhanced coginitive interview?

Answer 30

Interviewer should know when to establish eye contact, reduce anxiety in the interview, minimise distractions, asking open ended questions.

Question 31

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Cognitive Interview?

Answer 31

WEAKNESS: Time consuming

STRENGTH: Meta-analysis by Kohnken et al shos enhanced CI consistently provides more correct information than standard police interviewing. Real life applications. BUT also provides more incorrect information too.