memory evaluations

Question 1

what is the evaluation of Baddeley’s research on coding of STM?

Answer 1

application-on one hand we could argue results have limited application because the task is so artificial as the words don’t mean anything to the participants ,however findings could be useful for understanding problems within people

validity-task lacks mundane realism ,therefore results lack ecological validity and don’t reflect everyday memory

Question 2

what is the evaluation of Millers research on capacity of STM?

Answer 2

application- capacity depends on many things such as whether the items being remembered are known or not or how they are represented. Miller’s law therefore not that useful as general law
reliability-repeated finding is studies support millers law suggesting it is a reliable measure of STM capacity. However others have argued that there’s no magic number for memory capacity and it very much depends on what is being remembered

Question 3

what is the evaluation of Peterson and Peterson’s research on duration of STM?

Answer 3

validity- the stimuli were artificial: memorising trigrams lacks mundane realism, therefore results lack ecological validity and cannot be generalised to real memory events. However we do try to remember letter based stimuli(postcodes) so maybe the study is valid for these instances.

Question 4

what is the evaluation of Bahrick’s research on the duration of LTM?

Answer 4

-uses more meaningful material so is higher in external validity, however it is very hard to control variables in a study such as this, as it is unknown how many participants have looked at their yearbook in intervening years for example

validity-task in high in mundane realism as real pictures of people are known to the participants were used, therefore results are high in ecological validity

Question 5

what is the first strength of the MSM of memory?

Answer 5

empirical research evidence to suggests that there are in fact different stores for STM and LTM-
Baddeley found that recall of acoustically similar words was disrupted when ppts were asked to recall them immediately but not after a delay. However, recall of semantically similar words was disrupted after a delay but not during immediate recall. This clearly shows that information recalled immediately and information recalled after a period of time are not processes by the same store

Question 6

what is the other strength of the MSM memory?

Answer 6

more research evidence -
study of HM shows the brain loses control of the body during a seizure which caused him short term memory loss. Hippocampus removal affected his LTM but STM was completely fine–> evidence they are separate stores.
Hippocampus is crucial in the creation of new LTM

Question 7

what are limitations of the MSM of memory?

Answer 7

-too simplistic ad rehearsal is too simple a process to explain the transfer of information from STM to LTM. The model fails to account that students can remember an article they read once in a paper but struggle to learn concepts learnt in class despite constant revision

Question 8

what are the strengths of types of LTM?

Answer 8

the case of HM supports Tulving’s theory of LTM. HM had procedural memory because he got better at drawing the star with practice. However he didn’t have episodic and semantic memory because he couldn’t remember what he ate and what his doctor’s name was which suggests there are different stores of LTM

Question 9

parietal and occipital process semantic memory and frontal lobe and temporal process episodic memory what does this mean?

Answer 9

suggest Tulving’s theory is a valid explanation of LTM as there is clear evidence that the different types of memory are processed in different areas of the brain.

Question 10

what is another strength of types of LTM?

Answer 10

has real world application-theory allows us to enable specific therapies to be developed for those with brain damage and cognitive impairments such as amnesia

Question 11

what is a weakness of the WMM?

Answer 11

little is known about how the central executive works and some psychologists argue that it’s not unitary and Baddeley says it was the least understood component. Suggests the WMM is incomplete and not fully explained

Question 12

what is a strength of the WMM?

Answer 12

there is research support-KF had variable problems with STM following brain damage. When items were presented verbally his digit span was 1 but when presented visually he performed better which suggests STM has different processes for verbal and visual information which WMM accounts for

Question 13

what is another weakness of the WMM?

Answer 13

case study investigation are limited in the extent which they can provide support for the WMM e.g. the example of KF is limited in its generalisability as the sample consisted of 1 person who had brain damage. Model may not be applicable to wider population.

Question 14

what is the strength of interference theory?

Answer 14

there is empirical research e.g. Tulving and Ptsoka found that when ppts were given 1 list of 24 words their recall was about 70%.However each time they were given another list to learn recall decreased.–>suggest forgetting is can be due to proactive interference

Question 15

what is a weakness of interference theory?

Answer 15

basing theory on research from the lab can lack mundane realism. Remembering word lists is not n everyday activity–>may not be applicable to real life examples of forgetting

Question 16

what is a strength of retrieval failure?

Answer 16

there is research support–>diver who were asked to learn a word list whilst under land .Half of ppts then had to recall the info in the same context in which the encoded it and the other in a different context. Forgetting was higher in ppts who had to recall the info in a different context

Question 17

what is a failure of retrieval failure?

Answer 17

it can be argued that encoding specificity principle cannot be independently tested as no way of knowing for example if the divers in Godden and Baddeley’s study actually used the water/land as a cue as it impossible to test the impact of just the cue itself

Question 18

what is a strength of Loftus and palmers EWT research of influence of leading questions in accuracy of EWT?

Answer 18

extraneous variables were controlled including :
the instructions ,
film clips,
questions in the questionnaire,
the way the critical question was worded other than the verb
time ppts had between the questionnaire and the critical question in experi2

Question 19

what was a weakness of Loftus and Palmer’s research of influence of leading questions in accuracy of EWT?

Answer 19

lacks mundane realism as watching a car crash video doesn’t reflect the same level of anxiety that would be experienced when watching a real car crash.

Question 20

what is miscarriage of justice?

Answer 20

when an innocent person is found guilty of a crime and punished.

Question 21

what is another strength if Loftus and palmers research of influence of leading questions in accuracy of EWT?

Answer 21

has real world application as it led to changes in the way police question witnesses

Question 22

what as a weakness in the Loftus and Burn study of how anxiety influences EWT?

Answer 22

the conclusion Loftus and her colleagues made was mainly based on data collected within an artificial environment–>if real crime witnesses would be more fearful and produce more adrenaline which could make them more alert of crime

Question 23

what was the evaluation of Yuille and Cutshall’s research on anxiety affecting EWT?

Answer 23

the reason why the most anxious were the most accurate may have been because they may have been repeatedly reading and talking about the crime which is why detail report was so accurate not because of anxiety.

Question 24

what is meta analysis?

Answer 24

secondary piece of research where findings of other peoples research are analysed and conclusions are drawn from

Question 25

what is a strength of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 25

has research to support its effectiveness:
Kohnken(1999)
analysed 50 studies by other psychologists which compared standard interview vs cognitive interview
overall there was 8% increase of correct info with cognitive interview
this meta-analysis shows cognitive interview is effective at improving the accuracy of EWT and benefits police

Question 26

what was a con in Kohnken (1999) research?

Answer 26

there was also a 6% increase of incorrect information which suggests cognitive interview may waste time as detectives will have to attempt to distinguish between a vast amount of accurate and inaccurate info