Memory Ao1 Only

Question 1

What is the coding of STM and LTM and how did the researcher find it?

Answer 1

Baddeley
STM = acoustic
LTM = semantic
- Immediate recall worse with acoustic, recall after 20 minutes worse with semantic.

Question 2

What is the capacity of the STM?

Answer 2

1) Jacob:
- Researcher recalls digits until they can’t be recalled correctly. 9.3 numbers, 7.3 letters on average.

2) Miller:
- Span of 7+/-2 = improved by chunking. (7 is magic number).

Question 3

What is the duration of the STM and LTM?

Answer 3

1) STM:
Petersen and Petersen
- 24 students given consonant syllables to remember and 3 digit number to count backwards from. 80% after 3s, 3% after 18s.

2) LTM:
Bahrick et al:
- American participants ages 17-74 face recognition and free recall of high school photos. 48 years after = 70% in photo recognition, free recall much less (30%) accurate.

Question 4

What are the 3 types of LTM?

Answer 4

1) Episodic memory:
- Memories of events that are complex and time-stamped. Require conscious recall.

2) Semantic memory:
- Knowledge of the world (combination of encyclopaedia and dictionary). Not time-stamped and less personal. Everyone can get this knowledge.

3) Procedural memory:
- Stores memories for actions and skills. Recall without awareness or effort. Become automatic with practice.

Question 5

Who made the Multi-Store model of memory?

Answer 5

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Question 6

MSM model
How does stimuli pass into the sensory register, and what is the:
- Duration
- Capacity
- Coding
(of the SR)

How does SR pass info onto the STM?

Answer 6

Passes into SR using our senses.
1) less than 0.5s
2) High
3) Modality specific

By attention

Question 7

MSM model
What is the:
- Duration
- Capacity
- Coding
(of the STM)

And how does it pass info on to the LTM?

Answer 7

1) 18s (unless rehearsed)
2) 5-9 items
3) Acoustic

Prolonged rehearsal

Question 8

What is the:
- Duration
- Capacity
- Coding
(of the LTM)

Answer 8

1) Up to a lifetime
2) Unlimited
3) Semantic

Question 9

Who made the STM Working Memory Model?

Answer 9

Baddeley and Hitch

Question 10

What does the Central Executive do?

Answer 10

Supervisory role:
- Allocates subsystems tasks and has a very limited capacity.

Question 11

What comes under the Phonological Loop, and what do they do?

Answer 11

Deals with auditory information:

1) Articulatory process:
- Allows rehearsal to keep sounds (words) in WM while needed.

2) Phonological store:
- Stores words you hear

Capacity is two seconds of speech.

Question 12

What is the system that deals with visual information in the WMM.

Answer 12

The Visuo-spatial sketchpad:

1) Visual cache:
- Stores visual data

2) Inner scribe:
- Records arrangement of objects in vision.

Capacity is three or four objects.

Question 13

What connects the CE and the LTM in the WMM and what does it do?

Answer 13

Episodic buffer:

Integrates data from other stores, maintains sense of time sequencing and links to the LTM.

Question 14

What is interference?

Answer 14

Interference forgetting occurs when two pieces of information disrupt each other and we cant get access to them even though they are in the LTM store.

Question 15

What are the two types of interference?

Answer 15

1) Proactive interference:
- Old memories disrupting new ones.
2) Retroactive interference:
- New memories disrupting old ones.

Interference is worse when memories are similar.

Question 16

Describe McGeoch and McDonald’s (1931) study

Answer 16

Procedure:
- Participants memorised a list of words.
- Then given a new list to learn.
- 6 groups (one was control) so 5 different/ new lists, e.g. antonyms, synonyms.
- Recall of second list measured

Findings:
- Most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall.

Question 17

Describe retrieval failure

Answer 17

Cues are stored at the same time as memory, cannot access memory without cue.

Encoding Specificity Principle:
- Forgetting occurs if cues at coding and retrieval are different.

There are meaningful links (STM = Short Term Memory) and unhelpful ones:
- Context-dependant
- State-dependant

Question 18

Who conducted the procedure to test context-dependant forgetting and what was the procedure?

Answer 18

Godden and Baddeley:

• Divers learned list of words, recalled the same words in same/ different context (land/water).
• Recall was 40% lower when context for learning and recall were different.

Question 19

Who conducted the procedure to test state-dependant forgetting and what was the procedure?

Answer 19

Carter and Cassaday:

• Participants learned and recalled list of words when on drug/ not on drug (antihistamine).
• Recall was poorest when internal states at learning and recall were different.

Question 20

What are the two types of consequences come from leading questions?

Answer 20

1) Response-bias
- Influences kind of answer given.

2) Substitution
- Interference with eyewitness memory; distorting accuracy.

Question 21

Who conducted the study on leading questions and what did it involve?

Answer 21

Loftus and Palmer

Procedure:
- 45 participants watched clips of car accidents.
- Each asked ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
- 5 groups, all had a different verb e.g contacted, smashed.

Findings:
- Contacted produced a response of 31.8mph.
- Smashed produced a response of 40.5mph

Question 22

What are the two possible consequences of discussing an event after it happened?

Answer 22

1) Memory contamination:
- Mixing of memories with others.
2) Memory conformity:
- Go along with others for social approval (NSI or ISI).

Question 23

Who conducted the study on post-event discussion and what did it involve?

Answer 23

Gabbert et al.

Procedure:
- Paired participants watched a videoed crime, but each saw different elements (angles) of the video.
- Both discussed it, after watching it, then individually recalled.

Findings:
- 71% recalled aspects of the event that they did not see but had from a PED.
- Control group with no discussion had no errors.

Question 24

Describe Johnson and Scott’s research into EWT anxiety effect.

Answer 24

Johnson and Scott

Procedure:
- Participants sat in a waiting room, and heard an argument where one person immerged.
1) Low-anxiety situation:
- A man comes through with pen.
2) High-anxiety situation:
- Heated argument, followed by someone holding a knife with blood on it.

Findings:
- 49% of participants in low anxiety identified him successfully and 33% of participants in high anxiety.
- Tunnel theory suggests focus on the knife (object of most stress) so weapon focus not person.

Anxiety may have a NEGATIVE effect.

Question 25

Describe Yuille and Cutshall’s research into the effect of anxiety on EWT.

Answer 25

Yuille and Cutshall

Procedure:
- Real-life crime, where the thief was shot dead.
- 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate.
- Participants interviewed 4-5 months after incident.

Findings:
- Very accurate, little change after 5 months for main aspects.
- Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate.
- 88% compared to 75% for the least-stressed witnesses.

Anxiety may have a POSITIVE effect.

Question 26

Who came up with the Inverted-U theory and what is it?

Answer 26

Yerkes and Dodson:
- The relationship between arousal and performance is an inverted U.

Deffenbacher:
- Reviewed 21 EWT studies and found optimum levels of anxiety produces best recall.

Question 27

Describe the cognitive interview.

Answer 27

CI is based on the psychological understanding of memory and has its origins in the cognitive approach. Devised by Fisher and Geiselman. Rapport established using four techniques.

1) Report everything:
- Recall every detail even trivial, could be cue to more recall.

2) Reinstate the context:
- Mentally return to original scene, acts as a context-dependant cue.

3) Reverse the order:
- Recall events backwards to avoid effect of expectation and reduces dishonesty.

4) Change the perspective:
- Recall from another persons point of view, reduces effect of schema on recall.

Enhanced cognitive interview (ECI):
- Fisher et al. developed additional elements. Reduce EW anxiety, open questions and speaking slowly.