Memory Key Terms

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

This refers to one of the factors that has been shown to affect eyewitness testimony which was studied by Loftus who proposed a ‘weapon focus effect’, suggesting that anxiety caused from witnessing a weapon draws the attention away from the perpetrators and reduces accuracy of eyewitness testimonies.

Question 2

Capacity

Answer 2

This refers to the quantity of information that can be stored in memory. Research into capacity has been conducted by Jacobs (digit span) and Miller (chunking).

Question 3

Central executive (Baddeley)

Answer 3

This is the boss of the working memory model as it directs attention to the two slave systems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Question 4

Coding

Answer 4

This refers to the way in which information is changed and stored in memory, e.g. acoustically, semantically and visually. Research into coding has been conducted by Baddeley (word lists).

Question 5

Cognitive interview (Gieselman et al)

Answer 5

The cognitive interview was developed as a response to criticisms of the traditional police interview and consists of four key elements: Context reinstatement, report everything, recall from changed perspective and recall in reverse order.

Question 6

Duration

Answer 6

This refers to the length of time that information is held for in memory. Research into duration has been conducted by Bahrick et al (Yearbook photo-recognition and free recall) as well as Peterson and Peterson (consonant syllables).

Question 7

Episodic memory

Answer 7

These are memories of personal episodes of an individual’s life. These memories have three specific elements: details of the event, the context and the emotions experienced.