Memory AO3 Flashcards
1
Q
What is a strength of Baddley’s study?
CCD
A
- He identified a clear difference between two memory stores
- Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley’s findings
- The idea that STM is acoustic and LTM is semantic has stood the test of time
- Lead to the MSM
2
Q
How does Baddeley’s artificial stimuli affect his research?
CCD
A
- Word lists had no personal meaning
- May not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, especially in real life
- When processing more meaningful info, we may even use semantic coding for STM
- Limited application
3
Q
How are Jacobs’ findings valid?
CCD
A
- Study was replicated
- The study was conducted a long time ago, may have lacked adequate control
- Some p’s digit spans may have been underestimated because they were distracted
- However, his findings have been confirmed by more recent studies
4
Q
What did Miller’s research overestimate?
CCD
A
- Stm capacity
- Cowan reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is about 4 chunks
- The lower end of Miller’s estimate is more appropriate than 7.
5
Q
What effect did artifical stimuli have on Peterson’s study?
CCD
A
- Recalling consonant syllables does not reflect everyday memory activity where what we are trying to remember is meaningful
- not completely irrelevant as we do try to remember pointless things
- lacks external validity
6
Q
What is a strength of Bahrick’s research?
CCD
A
- Researchers investigated meaningful memories, higher external validity
- When studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless materials, recall was lower
- Findings reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of duration of LTM
7
Q
How does support from studies support the idea that STM and LTM are different?
MSM
A
- Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using STM
- We mix up words with similar meanings when we use LTM
- Further support from studies of capacity and duration
- Shows that they are independent stores
8
Q
What is the issue with such supporting studies of separate stores?
MSM
A
- Studies that support MSM did not use useful materials
- They used digits, letters and consonant syllables that have no meaning
- MSM may not be valid model of how memory works in everyday life
9
Q
What did shallice propose about STM?
MSM
A
- Multiple STM stores
- Studied a client called KF who had amnesia
- KF’s STM for digits read out to him was poor, recall was better when he read it himself
- Shows that there could be a store for non-verbal sounds
- MSM is wrong in claiming that there is one STM store
10
Q
What is the issue with prolonged rehearsal?
MSM
A
- It is not needed to transfer to LTM
- What matters about rehearsal is the amount of it
- Craik and Watkins found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount
- Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long term storage, linking information to existing knowledge
- MSM does not explain how long term storage is achieved
11
Q
How do human case studies support the types of LTM?
Types of LTM
A
- HM and Clive wearing
- Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to brain damage
- Semantic memories unaffected
- HM could not recall stroking a dog previously but he didn’t need the concept of dog explained to him
- Procedural was intact
- Clive could still play piano
- Supports Tulvig’s view that there are different stores in LTM
12
Q
What is the issue with support from human case studies?
Types of LTM
A
- Studying people with brain injuries can help researchers understand how the brain is supposed to work normally
- Studies may lack control of variables
- Researcher had no way of controlling what happened to the participant before or during the injury
- Therefore researcher has no knowledge of the individual’s memory before damage, hard to judge how much worse it is after
13
Q
How does understanding types of LTM have real world application?
types of LTM
A
- Can help people with memory problems
- As people age they experience memory loss, research has shown this is specific to episodic memory
- It becomes hard to recall recent memroies, past memories are intact
- Belleville= designed an intervention to improve episodic memory, the trained p’s performed better on a test of epsiodic memory than a control group
14
Q
How does shallice and warrington support MSM?
MSM
A
- KF had poor STM ability for auditory information but could process visual info normally
- immediate recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual)
- KF’s phonological loop was damaged, VSS was intact
- Supports separate visual and acoustic stores
15
Q
What is the issue with the KF case study?
MSM
A
- It is unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments which might have affected his performance on memory tasks
- The trauma may have affected his cognitive performance (motorcycle accident)
- Brain injury may have affected MANy different systems
16
Q
Why is the central executive criticised?
MSM
A
- Lack of clarity over the CE
- Baddeley said that it was the most important but least understood
- The CE needs to be clearly specified than just simply being attention
- Some psychologists believe that the CE may consist of separate subcomponents.
17
Q
How does Baddeley support the effects of interference?
Interference
A
- Asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played against during a rugby season
- Players all played for the same time interval but the number of games varied
- Most games= poor recall
- Interference can operate in a real word situation, increasing validity
18
Q
How does retrograde facilitation support interference?
Interference
A
- Coenen and Luijtelaar gave p’s a list of words and later asked them to recall the list, assuming the intervening experiences would act as interference
- when a list of words learnt under diazepam recall one week later was poor, before drug it was better
- Wixted suggests that the drug prevents new information reaching parts of the brain involved in processing memories
19
Q
How do supporting studies have validity issues?
Interference
A
- Most studies are lab based so researchers can control variables
- control over confounding variables also means studies show a clear link between interference and forgetting
- these studies use artificial materials and unrealistic procedures
20
Q
How do retrieval cues have real world application?
Retrieval
A
- They can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations
- Cues dont have a strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley suggests that they are still worth paying attention to
- If we lose something, we trace back our steps
- this is how research can remind of us strategies we use in real world to improve our recall
21
Q
How does research support retrieval failure?
Retrieval
A
- Baddeley and Cassaday are only two examples because they show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting in everyday life
- Eysenck and Keane argue that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting in LTM
- shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations
22
Q
How does baddeley criticise support for retrieval failure?
Retrieval
A
- He argues that context effects are not very strong especially in everyday life
- Different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen (e.g Godden and Baddeley)
- In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are not different enough.
23
Q
How does EWT (ML) have real word application?
misleading info EWT
A
- Practical use in criminal justice system
- The consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious
- Loftus believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase questions
- Psychologists are asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries to improve the way the legal system works
24
Q
How are the practical applications of EWT affected?
misleading info EWT
A
- By issues regarding research
- E.g Loftus and Palmer’s participants watched film clips in a lab, different from witnessing a real criminal event.
- Foster points out that what eyewitnesses remember has important consequences in the real world, participants are less motivated to be accurate because their response doesn’t necessarily matter
- Loftus is too pessimistic, EWT may be more dependable
25
Q
What is some evidence challenging memory conformity?
misleading info EWT
A
- post event discussion actually alters EWT
- Skagerberg and wright showed participants film clips
- A muggers’ hair was light brown in one and dark brown in the other
- participants discussed the clips in pairs
- they did not report what they had seen or what they heard from the co-witness but rather a blend of the two
- Memory itself is distorted through contimation rather than memory conformity
26
Q
Explain demand characteristics in EWT
misleading info EWT
A
- zaragoza and McCloskey argue that many answers given by participants in lab studies are due to demand characteristics
- participants usually want to be helpful and not let the researcher down
- So they guess when they are asked a question they don’t know the answer to
27
Q
What is a criticism of Johnson and Scott’s research?
EWT anxiety
A
- It may not have tested anxiety
- The reason why p’s focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared
- Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken in a salon video
- eyewitness accuracy was poor in unusual situations
28
Q
Describe support for negative effects of anxiety
EWT anxiety
A
- the study by Valentine and Mesout supports research on weapon focus, finding negative effects on recall
- Researchers used an objective measure (heart rate) to divide participants into anxiety groups
- Anxiety clearly disrupted ability to recall details about the actor in Dungeon’s labyrinth
29
Q
Describe support for positive effects of anxiety
EWT anxiety
A
- Christianson and Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden
- Some were directly involved and some were indirectly involved
- assumed that those directly involved would have worse recall
- recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses, direct victims were more accurate
30
Q
What is the issue with the inverted u theory?
EWT anxiety
A
- It appears to be a reasonable explanation of contradictory findings linking anxiety with recall
- It ignores the fact that anxiety has many elements- cognitive, behavioural, physical
- It focuses on mainly physical arousal and assumes this is the only aspect linked to EWT
- The way we think about the stressful situation may be important too
31
Q
How does evidence support the CI?
EWT cognitive interview
A
- Supports effectiveness
- Meta analysis by Kohnken combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI with the standard police interview
- the CI gave a 41% increase in accurate information compared with standard interview
32
Q
What else did Kohnken find?
EWT cognitive interview
A
- found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants
- this was an issue in the ECI which produced more incorrect details than the CI
- cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity
33
Q
Why might police officers be reluctant to use the CI?
EWT cognitive interview
A
- It is time consuming
- More time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax
- The CI also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours
- the complete CI is not a realistic method for police officers to use
