Memory AO1 Flashcards
What is the capacity, duration and coding of the SR?
Capacity - Very large
Duration - Very brief (milliseconds)
Coding - Visually and Echoically
What is the capacity, duration and coding of the STM?
Capacity - Limited
Duration - 18 seconds aprox
Coding - Acoustic
What is the capacity, duration and coding of the LTM?
Capacity - Unlimited
Duration - Lifetime
Coding - Semantically (by meaning)
What is the recency effect?
When items are being circulated in STM.
What is the primacy effect?
When items have gone into LTM due to rehearsal.
What is the function of the Central Executive?
Controls attention and directs info to the 2 slave systems. It has a very limited capacity.
What is the function of the Phonological Loop?
Handles auditory info.
What is the function of the Articulatory Control System (Inner voice)?
Allows for sub-vocal repetition of items in the phonological store.
What is the function of the Phonological Store (Inner ear)?
Stores acoustic items for a short duration.
What is the function of the Visio-Spatial Sketchpad?
Handles visual and spatial tasks.
What is the function of the Inner Scribe?
Handles the spatial relationship between objects.
What is the function of the Visual Cache?
Stores visual info.
Describe Episodic Memory
Explicit, found in hippocampus, personal life experiences.
Describe Semantic Memory
Explicit, found in temporal lobe, holds knowledge, facts, meanings and concepts.
Describe Procedural Memory
Implicit, found in cerebellum and motor cortex, personal tasks/skills
Describe Johnson + Scott Study on Anxiety
- Investigate effect of weapon on EWT.
- Ppts put in fake waiting room.
- Group A heard argument followed by man leaving room with knife.
- Group B heard argument followed by man leaving room with pen.
- Ppts then asked to identify man from 50 photos.
- High anxiety group had less accuracy
Describe Yuille + Cutshall Study on Anxiety
- 13/21 witnesses aged 15-32 who observed real life shooting agreed to research interview 4-5 months after incident.
- Eyewitness accounts compared with initial police reports.
- Very little change in accuracy of recall
Describe Loftus + Palmer Study on Misleading Info
- Investigate effect of leading questions on EWT accuracy
- 45 American students split into 5 groups
- All ppts watch video of car crash and are asked question about speed of car
- Verbs different for each group (Smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted)
- Higher intensity verbs had higher speed estimates
Describe Fiona Gabbert Study on Post-Event Discussion
- Studied ppts in pairs
- Ppts watched video of same crime but from different angles
- Ppts then discussed what they saw before doing individual recall tests
- 71% of ppts recalled things they did not see themselves
- Control group with no discussion had 0%
Define Source Monitoring Theory
Memories of an event are distorted by post-event discussion. Eyewitness can recall information about an event but they can’t recall where it came from. This is known as source confusion.
Define Conformity Theory
Eyewitness’s recall changes because they go along with the recall of co-witnesses. They do this either for social approval or because they genuinely believe the co-witness is right and they’re wrong.
What is meant by recall/report everything
The eyewitness should not filter out or select what info to report. Every detail of the event they can recall should be described.
What is meant by Context Reinstatement
Returning to the original crime scene where internal or external cues may trigger the recall of memories.
What is meant by Reverse Order
Events of the crime should be recalled in a different sequence than the order they saw the crime take place. This prevent the recency effect and problems with schemas.
What is meant by Change Perspective
Eyewitness tries to recall events from the perspective of others that were present during the crime.
Define Retrieval Failure
A form of forgetting that occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access a memory.
Define Cue
An internal or external trigger of information that allows access to a memory.
What is the Encoding Specificity Principle
“Memory is most effective if the info present at learning is also present at the time of retrieval”
Define Retrieval Theory of Forgetting
In order to recall information accurately, we need to have the same internal and external cues that were present when we originally learnt the information.
Describe Godden + Baddeley study on Context-dependent forgetting
- Divers learnt word list either on land or underwater, then asked to recall word lost either on land or underwater, creating 4 conditions.
- Accurate recall 40% lower in non-matching conditions.
Define Interference Theory
Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to become distorted or forgotten.
Define Proactive Interference
Forgetting occurs when older memories we have previously stored disrupt the recall of newer memories.
Define Retroactive Interference
Forgetting occurs when newer memories we have stored disrupt the recall of older memories.
Describe McGeoch + McDonald study
- Studied retroactive interference by changing amount of similarity.
- Ppts had to learn 10 word list then a different word list.
- 6 groups had different 2nd word lists varying in similarity.
- Ppts with similar lists had worse recall of original list.
