Memory (Paper 1)

Question 1

What are the three types of memory stores according to the MSM

Answer 1

Sensory register, short term memory and long term memory

Question 2

The sensory register

Answer 2

The sensory register is continuously receiving information from al of our senses and is the first store in the multi store model.

Question 3

Coding in the SR

Answer 3

Information is coded by the senses. For example, some sense receptors in the back of the eye code visual signals. Each sensory input has a separate sensory store: echoic (sound), iconic (vision), gustatory (taste), olfactory (smell), haptic (touch).

Question 4

Capacity of the SR

Answer 4

Each sensory memory store has a large capacity. This is because we experience so many senses constantly that it needs a large capacity. However, it is hard to investigate the capacity accurately as there is so much information entering and leaving at all times.

Question 5

Duration of the SR

Answer 5

Different sensory memory stores appear to have different durations. However, they all decay quickly as the store needs to constant,y make space for new information coming in. Therefore, it has very low duration (1 second or less)

Question 6

Sperling (1960)

Answer 6

• Presented a grid of letters (3x4) for less than a second
• People on average recalled 4 letters
• They could not recall any more because the information decayed before they could report them all

Question 7

The short term memory

Answer 7

This is the second memory store in the multi store model.

Question 8

Coding in STM

Answer 8

Coding is the process by which the brain stores information from the senses. The STM is coded acoustically, remembering the sounds and words

Question 9

Baddeley (1966) experiment for coding of STM

Answer 9

• He gave participants a list acoustically similar words in one condition and acoustically dissimilar words in the other condition.
• He found that people recalled less similar words (10%) compared to the dissimilar words (between 60 and 80%)
• He suggested that this means it’s coded acoustically due to the confusion caused when coding the words.

Question 10

Capacity of STM

Answer 10

The capacity of STM is limited to between 5 and 9 items. However we can use chunking to increases capacity. Chunking is when you find a common link or meaning between a set of numbers or letters. For example you might split you phone number into three numbers at a time rather than remembering individual numbers.

Question 11

Miller (1956)

Answer 11

Millers ‘magic number 7’ was the title of his memorable work. He discovered that on average people’s average span for letters and numbers was 7 +/- 2. He found this by reviewing data from previous experiments.

Question 12

Jacobs (1887)

Answer 12

• He used the ‘digit span method’ to find limits of the STM. He found a mean span of 9.3 for numbers and 7.3 for letters.
• He conducted a experiment where the participant had to recall a longer list of numbers starting from 3 digits.
• Every time they got one right a new number with a extra digit would be produced for them to recall until they reached their limit.

Question 13

Duration of STM

Answer 13

The duration of the STM is expected to be a maximum of 30 seconds. However, this can be extended by repetition or rehearsal. This is the function of the rehearsal loop in MSM.

Question 14

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Answer 14

• They used trigrams (a set of three consonants) to test retention.
• They then asked participants to learn the trigram and count backwards from a three digit unnumbered until told to stop.
• They tested recall of the trigrams after 3,6,9,12,15 and 18 seconds which they called the retention level.
• They found STM duration declined rapidly beyond 18 seconds and the counting back prevented them from being able to rehearse the three consonants.

Question 15

Long Term Memory

Answer 15

This is the last part of the multi store model. It stores information over a long period of time. Throughout our lives LTM allows us to remember important people, certain routines and our knowledge base.

Question 16

Coding in LTM

Answer 16

The coding in LTM is semantic coding. This means that information is remembered through meanings rather than visually or acoustically. When we understand the meaning of something it is more likely to be remembered.

Question 17

Capacity of LTM

Answer 17

The capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited, depending on individual differences. However, decay, interference and illness may result in the loss of information.

Question 18

Duration of LTM

Answer 18

The duration of information in the LTM is unlimited. Many people remember people, events and facts for a lifetime.

Question 19

Bahrick et al (1975)

Answer 19

• Conducted an experiment from a high school in America. He asked students 14 years after graduation to remember names and faces from their yearbook.
• He found there was a 90% accuracy.
• However, he did the same experiment on students who had graduated 48 years ago.
• They had 70% accuracy when matching names to faces.
• However, the other condition only had 30% accuracy when asked to free-recall names without faces.
• This shows that without frequent recall information can decay in the LTM.
• Recognition is much easier than free-recall, could explain why exams are challenging

Question 20

Who was the the Multi Store Model introduced by

Answer 20

• Introduced by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
• Cognitive explanation
• Uses analogy of a computer and the concepts of encoding and retrieval to understand memory

Question 21

3 types of memory stores involved

Answer 21

Sensory register, short term memory and long term memory

Question 22

How does the Multi Store Model work

Answer 22

1. Information reaches sensory register from the senses
2. We select what to pay attention to and pass this on to the STM, most information is lost at the sensory register
3. The rehearsal loop (e.g. revision) keeps information in the STM for long enough it to be passed into the LTM
4. Lack of rehearsal can result in the information being lost in the STM
5. The information in the LTM lasts forever and can be used by the STM by retrieval, when in the STM information can be used

Question 23

The working memory model

Answer 23

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) thought that STM is more complex than Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) had proposed. They felt that in STM more pieces of information are held simultaneously for a few seconds while the brain decides what is relevant or not. There are 3 main components of WMM and they all code information differently

Question 24

Central executive

Answer 24

The central executive is the decision making aspect of the WMM. There are 2 slave systems that the central executive allocates tasks to. It has very limited storage capacity.

Question 25

Phonological loop

Answer 25

This is the first slave system. It deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which it arrives. Subdivided into:

• The phonological store, which stores the words that you can hear
• Articulatory process is like a ‘inner voice’ that allows us to repeat information in our head to help us to remember

Question 26

Visio-spacial sketchpad

Answer 26

The VSS stores visual and/or spatial information when required. For example, if you are asked to picture how many windows there are on your house you will visualise it in your head. It has limited capacity (3 or 4) objects.
Logos (1995) subdivided into 2 parts :
-Visual cache, which stores visual data
-Inner scribe, records the arrangement of objects e.g. memorising a route

Question 27

Research support for PL

Answer 27

Baddeley et al (1975) demonstrated word length effect by asking participants to remember a list on long and short words. They could hold fewer long words in the PL because it has limited capacity. However if they had to speak out loud when remembering the short words they struggled because the PL storage was being taken up by speech.

Question 28

Research support for the VSS

Answer 28

Gathercole and Baddeley (1993) asked participants to track a moving light at the same time as describing the angles on a letter F. They compared results to participants completing a visual and verbal task simultaneously. When two separate stores were involved performance was better. This supports evidence of two separate stores.

Question 29

The problem of central executive

Answer 29

No one has been able to pin down a part of the brain that could be the CE. It could be possible to find in the future with better neuro technology.

Question 30

Dual task experiments

Answer 30

This proved evidence of the model as two different stores working at the same time showed better performance than the same store working the same as the two separate stores combined.

Question 31

Types of Long Term Memory

Answer 31

• Tulving (1985) was one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise that the MSM’S view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible.
• Tulving proposed that there was in fact three LTM stores, containing different types of information in each.

Question 32

Episodic memory

Answer 32

These are memories of events in life. They are usually processed deeply because they have meaning and emotional content. It requires some conscious effort to recall them

Question 33

Semantic memory

Answer 33

These are memories that make up our knowledge. As we mature, we accumulate knowledge through facts, events and actions. We store those that have meaning for us, and it requires some conscious effort to recall them

Question 34

Procedural memory

Answer 34

This is memory for how to do things, such as ride a bike, skip, skate, sew, knit. Once learnt, it is often automatic and requires little effort to recall.

Question 35

Prefrontal cortex

Answer 35

Involved in the storage of short term memories

Question 36

Hippocampus

Answer 36

Plays a pivotal role in the formation of new long term semantic and episodic memories

Question 37

Clive Wearing evidence for different types of LTM

Answer 37

• Suffered viral infection in the brain due to amnesia which meant his episodic memory was severely impaired.
• He could not recall personal events that had happened in the past
• However his semantic memories and procedual memories were relatively unaffected (he remembered how to play the piano)

Question 38

HM evidence for different types of LTM

Answer 38

• HM had brain surgery for epilepsy which removed his hippocampus
• Hippocampus is vital for creating new memories
• Therefore he was unable to retain new memories for more than a few minutes
• However, he still remembered information and facts from before his surgery due to his semantic and procedual memory being intact

Question 39

Neuro evidence

Answer 39

• Using PET scans, Tulving et al 1994 discovered that left prefrontal cortex is involved in semantic memory and the right prefrontal cortex is involved in episodic memory
• This was found as he asked participants to complete various tasks whilst there brains were being scanned

Question 40

Evaluation for types of LTM

Answer 40

Positive: more effective help for stroke patients, strong evidence due to brain scans which increases reputation of psychology as a science

Question 41

Explanations for forgetting: interference

Answer 41

Forgetting is a retrieval failure when material stored in the LTM is lost temporarily or permanently despite conscious effort to recall it. There are two explanations for this: interference and retrieval failure

Question 42

Retroactive interference

Answer 42

• Old information being interfered with, New info ‘overwrites’ previously stored info
• For example, learning German then learning french which disrupts the memory of German. You could use a french word when speaking German
• Learn A, the learn B, try to remember A but B interferes

Question 43

Proactive interference

Answer 43

• New information being interfered with. Something you have already learnt disrupts something you are trying to learn.
• Difficulties learning your new phone number as you keep remembering your old one.

Question 44

Postman (1960)

Answer 44

• Aim: investigate how retroactive interference affects learning.
• Method: lab experiment, P’s split into two groups and both had to remember a list of paired words. Experimental group had to learn a new list whereas control group didn’t
• Results: recall of first list from control group was better than experimental group as there was no interference from new information learnt

Question 45

Baddeley and Hitch (1977)

Answer 45

• They asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against earlier in the season
• For various reasons including injuries and suspensions most players they interviewed had missed some games. So for one player the last game might have been last week, while for another it was two months ago.
• Baddeley and Hitch found that recall for the last game was equally good whether that game was played some time ago or last week. This shows that incorrect recall was not due to decay (the passage of time) but was related to the number of intervening games
• Natural experiment, ecological validity

Question 46

Evaluation of interference

Answer 46

• Lots of lab experiments with high control and standardised procedures mean research is reliable
• Can be applied to real life, e.g.B Baddeley and Hitch field exp
• However there is a lack of ecological validity in Postman’s exp as the experiment was not done in a natural environment

Question 47

Cue dependent forgetting

Answer 47

Absence of cues can cause a failure to retrieve a memory from the LTM store. The theory proposes that when we learn information we also encode the context (external cues) and mental state (internal cues).

Question 48

Tulving 1983

Answer 48

For a cue to be effective, it needs to be present when learning and recalling. If the cue is different then there will be a failure to retrieve a memory from the LTM

Question 49

Godden and Baddeley 1975 (context dependent forgetting)

Answer 49

-Got 18 divers to learn lists of 36 words on land or under water.
-When the learning and recall conditions matched (e.g. learnt list on land and recall list on land) performance was better
-This proves that context dependent forgetting is a thing
Evaluation: limited eco validity as environment was familiar to their every day life, also experiment was disrupted due to weather

Question 50

Goodwin et al 1969 (state dependent forgetting)

Answer 50

• 48 male medical students were randomly assigned to 4 groups in a 2 day experiment
• Sober both days, intoxicated both days, intoxicated day 1 and sober day 2, sober day 1 and intoxicated day 2
• Participants had to perform 4 tests: avoidance task, verbal rote learning task, word association, picture recognition
• Found that more errors were found when intoxicated, and sober on both days performed best in all tasks
• intoxicated on both days and sober in both days had better performance than the other two in day 2

Question 51

Misleading information

Answer 51

Leading questions and post event discussion are two factors that can affect the accuracy of eye witness testimony

Question 52

Leading questions

Answer 52

-Leading questions such as ‘did you see the broken glass’ rather than ‘what did you see’
-Response bias: when a person gets a leading question it biases their response without changing the memory
Memory substitution: when a person gets a leading question it actually changes the stored memory

Question 53

Loftus and Palmer 1974

Answer 53

• 45 student participants shown short video clips
• Split into 5 groups
• All the participants were asked ‘how fast were the cars going when they ——- each other
• Each group were given a different verb from the experimenter ‘smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted’.
• They were then asked to estimate the speed of the car, when the harsher verbs were used such as smashed the mean estimation of speed was higher compared to a low estimation when contacted was used

Question 54

Post event discussion

Answer 54

When witnesses discuss what they saw after a crime their memory can become become contaminated by what others say. In court witnesses cannot speak to each other until the trial is completed.

Question 55

Memory conformity

Answer 55

People being influenced by another person’s report. This results in the individual’s memory report becoming more similar to another

Question 56

Gabbart et al 2003

Answer 56

-Investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
-Sample consisted of 60 students from the University of Aberdeen and 60 older adults recruited from a local community.
-Participants watched a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet. The participants were either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group).
-The participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video, however they had in fact seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person had actually witnessed the girl stealing.
-Participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime together.
-All of the participants then completed a questionnaire, testing their memory
of the event.
-Gabbert et al. found that 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had not actually seen and 60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact they had not seen her commit a crime.
-These results highlight the issue of post-even discussion and the powerful effect this can have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 57

Anxiety and eye witness testimony

Answer 57

Anxiety has a big effect on eye witness testimony, when a crime happens you are usually in an emotional state and this can affect the accuracy of eye witness testimony.

Question 58

Johnson and Scott

Answer 58

Aim: investigate the effect of a weapon on eye witness testimony accuracy
Method (pen/knife study): participants waited in a reception area and were exposed to either:
1. a heated argument in the next room, a crash of equipment and then a man emerged holding a paper knife
2. a disagreement about lab equipment in the next room and then a man left holding a pen
Participants had to identify the man from 50 photos
Results: Those in the pen condition were correct 49% of the time. Those in the knife condition were correct 33% of the time.
Conclusion: Anxiety decreased the effectiveness of eye witness testimony, as participants were focusing on the knife rather than the mans face. This is the weapon focus phenomenon.

Question 59

Optimum level

Answer 59

It could be that there is an optimum level for anxiety. Recall improves up to a point and then declines if anxiety continues to increase. The optimism point on the graph is perfect for eye witness testimony.

Question 60

The cognitive interview

Answer 60

• Geiselman et al developed the cognitive interview, identifying four key principles that they believed would enhance recall:
• Context Reinstatement: when a person mentally recalls the context of the event. For example a person may remember the time, weather or who they were with. These can act as a recall trigger
• Report everything: where a person recalls every detail they can remember, even those that may seem trivial
• Recall from changed perspective: when a person considers the event from someone else’s point of view, for example, they might consider what the offender saw
• Recall in reverse order: where a person recalls a event in reverse chronological order