memory - ao1 complete Flashcards
paper 1
Miller
Used a serial recall task to determine STM capacity and found that most people could remember between 5-9 items (magic number 7)
Peterson & Peterson
Found that 90% of participants could remember a 3-consonant trigram after 3 seconds, but only 2% could recall it after 18 seconds
Bahrick
Investigated the duration of LTM by asking people to recall people from their high school. Even after 48 years, they scored 70% on photo recall
Baddeley
Found that STM and LTM are coded differently - STM are coded acoustically and LTM coded semantically
Glanzer & Cunitz
Discovered the Serial Position Effect, where people are more likely to remember words at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list
Patient KF
Had a motorcycle accident and afterwards had a normal visual STM capacity, but an abnormally low verbal STM capacity
Patient HM
Had his hippocampus removed and afterwards was unable to form new declarative memories (episodic and semantic), but able to form new procedural memories
Gathercole & Baddeley
Dual task technique. Found that we can do visual and verbal tasks simultaneously but not 2 visual tasks.
Underwood
Participants who memorised one list could recall 70% of it the next day, but if they memorised 10+ lists they only recalled 20%
Muller
Recall of nonsense syllables was worse for participants given a distraction task during the retention interval
Godden & Baddeley
Participants learnt word lists on ground or underwater (scuba). Recall was best if the conditions were the same as during learning - whether back on ground or underwater
Goodwin et al
Participants who were drunk when learning word lists were better at recalling them if they were drunk again. If sober at learning, recall was best when sober again
Loftus & Palmer
Altered the verb they used during questioning witnesses to a car crash. If using the word ‘smashed’, their speed estimates averaged 41mph, compared to 32mph for ‘contacted’
Yuille & Cutshall
Used leading questions on witnesses to a real life armed robbery. They found that in real life cases, leading questions did not affect memory.
Gabbert
Showed different participants two videos of the same event and then allowed them to discuss what they had seen. 71% of them later recalled things that they couldn’t have seen
Loftus (or Johnson & Scott)
Studied the Weapon Focus Effect. 33% of participants correctly identified a man if he was carrying a knife, but 47% recalled if he carried a pen
Christianson & Hubinette
Studied real life bank robberies and, contrary to the Weapon Focus Effect, found that the best recall was from witnesses who experienced the threat close up
Kohnken
Compared cognitive and standard interview. Cognitive was better (though it also led to more incorrect information being reported).
Capacity
The amount of data a store can hold
Serial recall
A method of testing memory by asking participants to ask them to repeat information in order (usually a list of numbers)
Duration
The length of time a store can hold data
Coding
The way in which information is changed in order to be stored in memory
Sensory memory
The first store in the MSM. Picks up information from the senses for a very limited time
Short term memory
A temporary memory store which holds information that has had attention paid to it for roughly 18-30 seconds
Long term memory
A permanent and virtually unlimited memory store from the MSM
Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating information over and over again to transfer from STM to LTM
Decay
When a memory disappears over time
Displacement
When a memory store runs out of capacity and information is ‘pushed out’ by other information
Retrieval
When information is recalled from LTM back to STM
Central executive
The master store of the WMM, responsible for directing information to the appropriate slave system
Phonological loop
A slave system of the WMM used for processing sounds and auditory information
Visuospatial sketchpad
A slave system of the WMM used for processing visual and spatial information
Episodic buffer
The most recently added slave system of the WMM, responsible for integrating information to make sense for the LTM
Semantic memories
Memories of the meaning of things
Episodic memories
Memories of events
Procedural memories
Memories of skills and processes
Explicit/Declarative memories
Memories that you have to consciously think about, including episodic and semantic
Implicit/Non-declarative memories
Memories that are unconscious, and do not need to be explicitly thought about, including procedural
Interference
An explanation for forgetting that claims information is lost due to confusion with other, similar information
Proactive interference
When old information affects our ability to learn new information
Retroactive interference
When new information affects our ability to remember old information
Retrieval failure
When information is unable to be transferred from LTM to STM due to a lack of cues
Context-dependent forgetting
An explanation of why trying to recall something in a different situation to when you learnt it is difficult
State-dependent forgetting
An explanation of why trying to recall something in a different mental state or emotion to when you learnt it is difficult
Misleading information
Incorrect information/ideas presented to a witness, usually after the event. Examples include leading questions and post-event discussion
Leading questions
A question which implies or favours a particular answer - e.g. ‘Was he wearing a brown jacket?’
Post-event discussion
The idea that your memory of an event can be affected by talking to people about it after the event, perhaps due to memory conformity
Anxiety
A factor affecting EWT - the stress a witness felt during the event
Weapon focus
The theory that people tend to focus on threatening objects rather than faces
Cognitive interview
A technique for improving eye witness testimony
Report everything
Asking the witness to recall every aspect of an event, even if it seems irrelevant
Change perspective
A cognitive interview technique where the witness is asked to recall the events from another witness’ point of view
Change order
A cognitive interview technique where the witness is asked to recall events in a non-chronological order to disrupt schema
Context reinstatement
When the witness is asked to put themselves back in the same mental state they were in during an event
