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Y1 PSYCH > memory key points > Flashcards

memory key points Flashcards

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1
Q

memory variables

A

coding
duration
capacity

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2
Q

coding is

A

the process of changing information from the environment to store it in memory

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3
Q

how is coding stored

coding is

A
  • acoustic in short-term memory, and semantic in long-term memory
  • Baddeley (1966)
  • found that more mistakes are made when recalling acoustically-similar words straight after learning them, whilst more mistakes are made when recalling semantically-similar words 20 minutes after learning them (LTM recall)
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4
Q

capacity is

A

the amount of information that can be stored

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5
Q

the theory on capacity is

A
  • based on Miller’s idea that things come in groups of 7 (e.g. 7 days of the week), suggesting that we are predisposed to remembering this quantity and that such a ‘chunking’ method can help us recall information. Jacobs also demonstrated that the mean letter span was 7.3
    and the mean digit span was 9.3 (i.e. the number of letters or digits we can recall after increasing
    intervals)
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6
Q

duration is

A

the time period that information is held in the memory stores

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7
Q

capacity of STM

A

7+_ 2 units

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8
Q

capacity of LTM

A

potentially unlimited

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9
Q

duration of STM

A

30 seconds

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10
Q

duration of stm is demonstrated by

A
  • Petersen et al (1959)
  • who found that increasing retention intervals decreased the accuracy of recall of consonant syllables in 24 undergraduates, when counting down from a 3 digit number (preventing mental rehearsal)
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11
Q

duration of LTM

A

potentially unlimited

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12
Q

duration of ltm is demonstrated by

A
  • Bahrick et al (1975)
  • who found that photo recognition of graduating classmates of the 396 participants decreased from 90% to 70% between 15 years and 46 years of graduating
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13
Q

encoding in STM

A

mainly acoustically

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14
Q

encoding in LTM

A

mainly semantically

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15
Q

who was the msm proposed by

A

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

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16
Q

three distinct phases of msm

A

sensory register
short term memory
long term memory

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17
Q

outline the MSM of memory

A

Sensory Memory -> Attention -> STM -> (Maintenance rehearsal or) elaborative rehearsal -> LTM -> (Retrieval, Interference, Decay Retrieval failure, displacement for STM)

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18
Q

what does the MSM model suggest

A
  • it attempts to explain how memory works
  • memory consists of multiple stores
  • there is a sequence between these stores
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19
Q

evidence to support the MSM

A
  • Glanzer and Cunnitz (primacy and recency effect)
  • HM (LTM gone)
  • Beardsley (Prefrontal cortex for STM and Hippocampus for Ltm)
  • (Bahrick Peterson and Peterson, miller, baddeley)
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20
Q

evaluate the MSM

A
  • too simple (but easier to understand)
  • supporting evidence
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21
Q

explain what is meant by the term ‘duration’ in relation to memory

A

how long a memory ‘trace’ (i.e. information about the past) can be held for, before it is forgotten

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22
Q

explain what is meant by the term ‘capacity’ in relation to memory

A

the maximum amount of information that can be retained in memory

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23
Q

explain what is meant by the term ‘coding’ in relation to memory

A

the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

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24
Q

describe research that has investigated capacity in STM

A
  • Miller (Immediate Digit Span Test)
  • Jacobs Support
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25
Q

describe research that has investigated duration in STM

A
  • Peterson and Peterson (Trigrams)
  • 24 students given a consonant syllable and a three digit number ie. THX 512.
  • they were asked to recall the consonant syllable after a retention interval of 3, 6 , 9, 12 or 15 seconds.
  • during this interval they had to count backwards from their three digit number
  • participants were 90% correct after 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 and only 2% correct after 18 seconds
  • suggesting it is less than 18 seconds.
26
Q

describe research that has investigated duration in LTM

A
  • Bahrick (Free recall, photo recognition and name recognition tests)
  • 400 people of various ages were tested on their memory of high school classmates.
  • they were given a free recall to recall as many class mates as they could
  • then they were given 50 photos, some with people from their school year book
  • Bahrick found that recall after 15 years of graduation was 90% accurate from photos, and after 48 years was 70%
  • with free recall it was about 60% accurate and 30%
  • showing that it is possibly an unlimited duration for LTM
27
Q

describe research that has investigated coding

A
  • Baddeley (Semantically and Acoustically Similar/Dissimilar words)
  • Baddeley had lists of acoustically similar words such as: Cat, cab, can, map, mat, max etc.
    And also semantically similar words: Huge, big, large, titanic, massive etc
  • he found that participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in the STM and in the LTM struggled with semantically similar words
  • he concluded that STM is largely encoded acoustically whereas LTM is encoded semantically
28
Q

briefly explain the case of HM

A
  • Scoville and Milner studied HM who had his hippocampus to treat his epilepsy
  • he was unable to form new LTMs but could form STMs
29
Q

explain what is meant by ‘episodic memory’

A
  • memory that is concerned with the knowledge of life events
  • e.g first day of school
30
Q

explain what is meant by ‘semantic memory’

A
  • memory concerned with knowledge of facts
  • e.g knowing the capital of a country
31
Q

explain what is meant by ‘procedural memory’

A
  • memory concerned with knowing how to do things
  • e.g riding a bike, driving a car
  • eventually, with repetition, becomes automatic
32
Q

arguments for different types of LTM

A
  • Brain scans show different areas of activity depending on the type of memory being accessed
  • H.M. (Scoville and Milner, 1957) could form procedural memories but not episodic or semantic after damage to the hippocampus and temporal lobe
  • Alzheimer’s patients could form episodic memories but not semantic (Hodges and Patterson)
33
Q

arguments against different types of LTM

A
  • Evidence collected from amnesiacs may not be reliable because researchers can’t be sure of the extent and position of the brain damage until after death
  • Damage to important neural connections could be causing the amnesia
  • A 4th type of LTM has been proposed, involved with the automatic recognition of stimuli called the perceptual-representation system
34
Q

what does the WMM suggest

A

STM is made up of multiple stores and the MSM is too simple

35
Q

who developed the Working Memory Model?

A

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

36
Q

what are the components of the WMM?

A
  • Central executive
  • Visuo-spatial sketch pad
  • Phonological loop
  • Episodic buffer
  • Long-term memory
37
Q

what does the Central Executive do

A

directs attention to particular tasks and controls the 2 slave systems (phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad)

38
Q

what does the phonological loop do

A
  • processes and retains the order of heard information
  • can be divided into 2 substores
39
Q

what can the phonological loop be divided into

A
  • phonological store (stores heard information, inner ear)
  • articulatory process (subvocal repetition, inner voice)
40
Q

what does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do

A

plans spatial tasks and stores visual or spatial information

41
Q

what can the visuo-spatial sketchpad be divided into

A
  • visual cache (visual information)
  • inner scribe (processes spatial relations)
42
Q

what does the episodic buffer do

A

integrates information from all other STM stores

43
Q

what study provides evidence for the WMM

A
  • Hitch and Baddeley ( dual tasks “B is followed by A”)
  • KF (Verbal bad Visual Fine)
44
Q

evaluate the WMM

A
  • lack of evidence for the CE
  • supporting evidence for separate stores of STM (Hitch and Baddeley)
  • Lieberman stated that the visuo-spatial should be divided into two separate components: one for visual and one for spatial as the sketchpad presumes that all spatial was first visual, but it cant be as blind people have good spatial awareness
45
Q

what is interference?

A

when two memories are similar so the presence of one interferes with the ability to recall the other

46
Q

outline the two ways interference can explain forgetting

A
  • proactive interference - this is where old information interferes with trying to learn new information.
  • retroactive interference - this is where new information has interfered with old information.
47
Q

show evidence for both proactive and retroactive interference

A

Proactive interference - Underwood conducted a meta-analysis and concluded that when participants have to learn a series of word lists they do not learn the lists encountered later on in the sequence as well as the ones at the start. Overall he said that if participants memorised 10 or more lists then after 24 hours they could only recall a very small amount compared to when they only learned one list they could recall much more.

Retroactive interference - Muller gave participants a list of nonsense syllables to learn for 6 mins then after an interval they had to recall. If participants had been given an intervening task they recalled much less.

Rugby

48
Q

define retrieval failure

A
  • retrieval failure occurs when there is an absence of cues. This is an explanation for forgetting based on the idea that cues are needed in order to recall information
  • cues are things that serve as a reminder as they have a meaningful link or an environmental cue to a memory
49
Q

outline and show evidence for the encoding specificity principle

A

This states that a cue does not have to be exactly right in order to retrieve information but rather the closer it is the more useful it will be.
A study was conducted where participants had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories. Participants had to recall as many words as they could in one of two conditions, the first being where they are given a cue (the categories) and the second being free recall. Average words recalled were 60% compared to 40% showing that having cues learnt at the time of encoding can significantly help recall information.

50
Q

outline context dependent forgetting

A

The context you are in when learning something can act as a cue and if that context dependant cue is not there then retrieving information can be difficult.
Godden and Baddeley investigated this by having participants either learn a set of words on land or underwater (scuba divers), half of each groups had to go to the opposite condition and now all participant had to recall as many words as they could. They found that participants who were in the same context as where they learnt the information were able to recall much more than if in a different context.

51
Q

outline state dependent forgetting

A

The mental state you are in at the time of learning information can also act as a cue. Goodwin conducted a study where he asked male volunteers to learn a list of words whilst they were either drunk or sober. The participants then were asked to recall the words 24 hours later where some were sober but others had to get drunk again. The recall scores were much higher when they were in the same state as when they learnt the information.

52
Q

Tulvig and Pearlstone (1966)

A
  • Participants had to learn 48 words in 12 categories
  • Free recall produced an accuracy of 40%
  • Cued recall (Given the category names) produced an accuracy of 60%
53
Q

Abernethy (1940)

A
  • Context-dependent forgetting
  • Students taught a topic and then were tested on it
  • Students tested in the same room by the same teacher as when they learned it performed the best
  • More academic gifted students were less affected by the context
54
Q

Godden and Baddeley (1975)

A
  • Context-dependent forgetting
  • Participants had to learn and recall a list of words either on land or underwater
  • Participants learning and recalling in the same environment performed better
55
Q

Goodwin et al. (1969)

A
  • State-dependent forgetting
  • Had to learn and recall a list of words when either drunk or sober
  • Participants learning and recalling in the same condition performed better
56
Q

the accuracy of EWT is affected by…

A

age, anxiety, leading questions, post event discussion

57
Q

what is misleading information?

A
  • Information that is given to an eyewitness which may change or contaminate their memory of the event
  • E.g. Leading questions, post-event discussion
58
Q

post-event discussion

A
  • Conformity effect e.g. Gabbert et al. (2003) 71% of people recalled items in the other persons video after discussing what they had seen in pairs
  • Repeat interviewing is when comments from the interviewer can contaminate the eyewitnesses recall, especially in children (La Rooy et al., 2005)
59
Q

study of leading questions and EWT

A

Loftus and Palmer (traffic accident videos)
Forty five participants were shown 7 films of different traffic accidents. Each participant was then given a questionnaire with a list of questions about the crash, with one critical question ‘How fast were the cars going when they verb each other’. The verb was replaced with either smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted. This was a leading question based on the verb used. The results showed an average of 10mph mean difference between contacted and smashed.
Another experiment was done but this time only two verbs were used smashed, hit and a control group. One week later they were asked whether they had seen any glass and found that while most said no, more people in the smashed condition did say yes

60
Q

arguments for misleading information

A
  • Supported by studies e.g. Braun et al. (2003) Disneyland interviews
  • Has been used in the justice system when using and collecting eyewitness testimony
61
Q

arguments against misleading information

A
  • Foster et al. (1994) found eyewitness accounts were more accurate if they thought the robbery was real and that their response would be used in court
  • Yullie and Cutshall found eyewitness testimonies from real witnesses weren’t affected by being given leading questions, even 4 months after the event
  • Most studies lack ecological validity

Y1 PSYCH (8 decks)

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