Memory Key Psychologists Flashcards
Jacobs (capacity)
-Lab experiment
-P’s were presented with a list of digits or letters and had to recall them in the order they were presented.
-Sequence started at 3 items and increased by one each time until p’s failed to recall the sequence correctly.
-Average STM span was between 5 & 9 items
Digits recalled better than letters
Peterson and Peterson (duration of STM)
-Lab experiment
-Student participants
-Presented with trigram – 3 consonants
-Presented with trigram and had to count back in 3s from a given three digit number (to prevent rehearsal).
-The different time periods between seeing the trigram and recalling it were 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds
-After 3 second delay – 80% of trigrams were recalled accurately. Recall got progressively worse as the delay grew longer.
-After 18 seconds less than 10% of the trigrams were recalled correctly.
Bahrick (duration of LTM)
-Ex American high school children aged between 17 and 74
-Shown high school year book
-In one of two conditions (1) photo-recognition test -50 photos, some from the participants high school yearbook (2) free recall - where participants recalled all the names of their graduating class
-(1)P’s who were tested with 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years recall was 70% for photo recognition.
-(2) Free recall - After 15 years this was about 60% accurate, dropping to 30% after 48 years.
-Shows existence of very long-term memory
Baddeley (coding in STM <M)
-Key information = test for number of errors made
-STM – Tested immediately. Two-word lists (1) acoustically similar words (2) acoustically dissimilar words.
-Found – MORE ERRORS in the acoustically similar word list – showing that STM codes acoustically
-LTM – tested after a delay Two word lists (1) semantically similar words (same meaning) (2) semantically dissimilar words
-Found – MORE errors made with semantically similar words – shows LTM codes semantically
Atkinson & Shiffrin (MSMM)
-Developed model of memory
3 different stores: Sensory register (information initially received by environment, no control over what enters, one store for each of the senses, large capacity but for a very very short period of time), STM, LTM
-Information passes from sensory register to STM via attention
-Information passes from STM to LTM via rehearsal
-Rehearsal loop maintains information in STM longer
-Information can be lost at from each store via forgetting (sensory – decay, STM – decay and displacement, LTM – interference and retrieval failure)
-Information passes from store to store in a fixed (linear) sequence
Tulving (LTM types)
-Procedural – how to do things e.g., ride a bike, requires no conscious recollection, actions or skills
-Episodic – personal memories – timed stamped, need to consciously recall the information
-Semantic – facts, knowledge of the world, encyclopaedic knowledge, no context needed
Godden & Baddeley (context dependent forgetting)
-Retrieval failure – absence of cues – context dependent forgetting
-Divers
-4 conditions asked to learn and recall a series of words
(1) Learn on beach, recall on beach (13.5 words correctly recalled)
(2) Learn on beach, recall under water (8. 5 words)
(3) Learn under water, recall on beach (8.6 words)
(4) Learn under water, recall under water (11.4 words correctly recalled)
-Most words were recalled when the environment was the same for learning as it was at recall.
-Forgetting occurred due to an absence of cues when the environment was different
Goodwin (state dependent forgetting)
-Retrieval failure – absence of cues (internal cues) – state dependent forgetting
-Medical students
-4 conditions
(1) Sober for training, sober for test
(2) Sober for training, drunk for test
(3) Drunk for training, sober for test
(4) Drunk for training, drunk for test
All had same amount of alcohol in their systems
-Group 1 performed the best
Most errors were in condition 2 and 3 as they we in different states in learning and in recall.
-Supports retrieval failure explanation
Loftus & Palmer (leading questions)
-Lab experiment
-Car crash study leading questions (type of misleading information)
-Student participants, saw videos of car crashes, asked questions about what they had seen
-5 groups – each group were asked the critical question (how fast were the cars going when they ***** into each other) but with the verb changed. The 5 verbs were SMASHED, HIT, BUMPED, CONTACTED, COLLIDED
-Smashed produced the highest speed estimate of 40.8 mph. Contacted produced the lowest speed estimate of 31.8 mph.
-Shows the impact of leading questions. -Smashed is a dramatic word and gives the impression of a big impact at speed. This therefore caused the p’s to be influenced by the word and give a higher speed estimate
Gabbert (post event discussion)
-Lab experiment
-All participants watched a video of a girl stealing money.
-Participants memory of the event was then tested individually (control group) or in pairs (post discussion group)
-Participants in the post discussion group were told that they had witnessed the same video but they had in fact seen a different version.
-After the discussing the crime – they completed a questionnaire testing their memory of the event. 71% of the witnesses in the post discussion group recalled information that they had not actually seen. The figure was 0% for the control group.
Loftus (anxiety)
-Lab experiment
-2 conditions (1) They overheard a discussion in a lab about an equipment failure. A person then emerged holding a pen with grease on his hands. (2) They overheard an argument between people in the lab. After the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs, a man emerged from the lab holding a knife covered in blood.
-Participants were then given 50 photos and asked to identify the person who had come out of the lab.
-(1) Identified the person 49% of the time (low anxiety condition) (2) identified the person 33% of the time (high anxiety condition).
-Conclusion: anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of EWT – Loftus concluded that this was due to the weapon focus effect.
Yullie & Cutshall (anxiety -real life event)
-Natural experiment
-Investigated the accuracy of a real-life event. Interviewed 13 witnesses to a real-life shooting (interviews happened 4 months after but were compared to police interviews given at the time).
-The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident using a 7 point scale. Findings: *Witnesses gave very accurate accounts several months later
* Those who reported to be the most distressed at the time of the shooting proved to be the most accurate 5 months later (88% compared to 75% for less-stressed group
