Memory Key Terms

Question 1

What is coding?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is capacity?

Answer 2

The amount of information that can be held in a memory store.

Question 3

What is duration?

Answer 3

The length of time information can be held in memory.

Question 4

What is short-term memory?

Answer 4

The limited capacity memory store. Coding is mainly acoustic (sounds), capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is between about 18 and 30 seconds.

Question 5

What is long-term memory?

Answer 5

The permanent memory store. Coding is mainly semantic (meaning), it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime.

Question 6

What is the multi-store model of memory?

Answer 6

A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten.

Question 7

What is the sensory register?

Answer 7

The memory stores for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store). Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is acoustic. The capacity of sensory registers is huge (millions of receptors) and information lasts for a very short time (less than half a second).

Question 8

What is episodic memory?

Answer 8

A long-term memory store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort.

Question 9

What is semantic memory?

Answer 9

A long-term memory store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately.

Question 10

What is procedural memory?

Answer 10

A long-term memory store for our knowledge and how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Question 11

What is the working memory model (WMM)?

Answer 11

A representation of short-term memory. It suggests the STM is a dynamic process of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system.

Question 12

What is the central executive (CE)?

Answer 12

The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.

Question 13

What is the phonological loop (PL)?

Answer 13

The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process.

Question 14

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)?

Answer 14

The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’.

Question 15

What is the episodic buffer (EB)?

Answer 15

The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than the separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.

Question 16

What is interference?

Answer 16

Forgetting because one memory blocks another causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.

Question 17

What is proactive interference (PI)?

Answer 17

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.

Question 18

What is retroactive interference (RI)?

Answer 18

Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar.

Question 19

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 19

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Question 20

What is a cue?

Answer 20

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. For example, cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness).

Question 21

What is an eyewitness testimony (EWT)?

Answer 21

The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety.

Question 22

What is misleading information?

Answer 22

Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event (hence often called ‘post-event information’). It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people.

Question 23

What are leading questions?

Answer 23

A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer. For example, “Was the knife in the accused’s left hand?” suggests the answer is ‘left hand’.

Question 24

What is a post-event discussion (PED)?

Answer 24

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witnesses’s recall of the event.

Question 25

What is anxiety?

Answer 25

A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweating. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations, but can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony?

Question 26

What is a cognitive interview (CI)?

Answer 26

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory- report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.