Memory Predicted Questions

Question 1

Outline and evaluate research into coding in memory (8 marks) - A01

Answer 1

• Coding refers to the format that information is stored in our memory.
• This can involve sensory short-term and long-term memory.
• Sensory memory: according to modality e.g. haptic, visual
• STM: acoustically
• LTM: semantically
• Baddeley (1966) investigated coding in the STM and LTM stores by giving one group, acoustically similar words to remember and one group acoustically dissimilar words, one group semantically similar and one group semantically dissimilar word lists.
• Those who recalled immediately (STM) found the acoustically similar words harder to recall, suggesting they were coded acoustically by the STM.
• Go to recalled 20 minutes later (LTM) found the semantically similar word harder to record, suggesting the long-term memory codes semantically.

Question 2

Outline and evaluate research into coding in memory (8 marks) - A03

Answer 2

+ A strength of Baddeley’s research is that he showed a clear difference in coding between the two memory stores. His controlled and standardised experiment enables cause-and-effect to be established, which was also used to form the multi store model of memory later on. His study also has reliability as it can be easily replicated other studies have found that, despite a few expectations, the idea of acoustic instrument coding to be mostly valid.

• One weakness of research into coding, such as Baddeley, is that it uses artificial materials. This is an issue because we do not remember word lists like this on a day-to-day basis and additionally, there is no personal meaning to the participants. This therefore limits the generalisability of the results and lacks ecological validity. We cannot make assumptions about memories which are coded in real life situations, where the task may have personal meaning based on an artificial task and laboratory set up.

Question 3

Outline and evaluate research into capacity in memory (8 marks) - AO1

Answer 3

• Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be stored in each memory store.
• The capacity of sensory memory is very high.
• Capacity of STM is 7+/-2
• Jacobs (1887) read out increasing numbers of digits, and asked participants to recall them until they can no longer remember correctly.
• The main digit span was 9.3 items and for letters 7.3, suggesting this is the capacity of short-term memory.
• Miller (1956) also found the capacity of short-term memory is around 5-9 items, but can be increased through chunking.
• The capacity of long-term memories, potentially unlimited.

Question 4

Outline and evaluate research into capacity in memory (8 marks) - AO3

Answer 4

+ A strength of Jacob’s study is that it is easily replicated. Other studies have replicated Jacob’s original research and found similar results, even when using more control methods (Bopp and Verhaeghen, 2005). This suggests that Jacobs’ original method of testing the capacity of short-term memory was valid.

• A limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated the capacity of short-term memory. A review of research conducted by Cowan (2001) found the capacity of short-term memory, was in fact, much smaller, probably 3-5 chunks. This suggests Miller was probably only accurate towards the lower end of his estimate.
• Another weakness into capacity, such as Jacobs, is that it uses artificial materials. This is an issue because we do not remember digits like this on a day-to-day basis and additionally they have no personal meaning to the participants. This therefore limits the generalisability of the result and lacks ecological validity. We could not make assumptions about the capacity of memory in real life situations, where the task may have a personal meaning, based on an artificial task in a laboratory set up.

Question 5

Outline and evaluate different types of long-term memory (16 marks) - AO1

Answer 5

• There are three different types of long-term memory.
• Procedural memories are memories of how to do things, such as actions of skills. These memories require a lot of repetition and practice before we can recall them without any effort. They’re form of implicit memory, meaning we find them very difficult to explain, even if we find the actions easy to perform. After practice, procedural memories become automatic, for example, riding a bike or walking.
• Episodic memories are memories of events. This is a type of explicit memory which usually includes details of an event, timestamps, context in which the event took place and emotions associated with the event. There will be different elements that we remember, for instance, the people who were there, where it was and what behaviours we saw which create an overall single memory. We make a conscious effort to recall these, for example, where we went on holiday at 10 years old.
• Semantic memories are memories for facts and knowledge. This is also a type of explicit memory, although semantic memory usually start as episodic memories, but progressively lose their association with particular events and only the knowledge remains. They are also memories for concepts such as what ‘status’ is and are not time stamped like episodic memory. An example of a semantic memory is knowing the capital city of England is London. We are less likely to forget, semantic memories.

Question 6

Outline and evaluate different types of long-term memory (16 marks) - AO3

Answer 6

+ A strength of the types of long-term memory is that there is research to support their existence. Tulving (1989) performed, brain scans on volunteers, and found that when the participants were using their episodic memory, part of the frontal cortex (frontal lobes) was active, compared to when the semantic memory, when the back cortex was active. This supports the notion that there are different types of long-term memory which are processed in different areas of the brain.

+ Additionally, evidence supporting the existence of different types of long-term memories comes from case studies, such as Clive Wearing. Clive had impaired episodic impairment from a viral infection, but his semantic and procedural memories stayed intact, as he could still understand meanings of words and play the piano. Therefore, this suggests that each type of memory is a separate store and, if one is damaged, others can continue to work.

+ Research into different types of long-term memory has good real world application. It is common for elderly people to suffer from memory loss as they age and research suggests that this is mostly for episodic memories, such as personal experiences. Belleville et al. (2006) devise an intervention to improve episodic memory in older people which showed to have a positive impact on their memory. Therefore, by understanding that there are different types of long-term memory it has enabled interventions and treatments to be developed for different types of memory loss/problems.

• However, there is conflicting research into the location of different types of long-term memory. Bukner and Peterson (1996) examined research, and found that semantic memory is located on the left side of the prefrontal cortex, and episodic on the right side. But other researchers found this to be the other way round. This challenges the other research looking at the location of different types of long-term memory and undermines the idea there physically separate stores for each of these types.

Question 7

Describe and evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting (16 marks) - AO1

Answer 7

• One of the reasons people forget information is not because the information has been lost, but because they have insufficient cues to locate the memory.
• The encoding specificity principle states that a cue has to be present at encoding and at retrieval for it to aid memory.
• If the cues are different at encoding and retrieval or if the cue is absent, then forgetting with occur.
• Some cues are linked in a meaningful way, such as in mnemonics, and some are encoded at time of learning.
• There are two non meaningful cues that can affect recall which are context, dependent, forgetting and state dependent forgetting.
• Abernathy (1940) tested students each week in either: same teaching room and same instructor, same teaching room and different instructor, different teaching room and different instructor, all different teaching room and same instructor.
• He found that those who were tested in the same room with the same instructor did best, and those who were, who were nonmatching conditions performed worse, demonstrating context, dependent forgetting.
• Hardman (1998) found that those who learned a list of words on exercise bike could remember them better when exercising again, and those were not exercising. This demonstrates that a mismatch between internal state learning and Rico can cause state dependent forgetting.

Question 8

Describe and evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting (16 marks) - AO3

Answer 8

+ Other studies have found similar results to Abernathy (1940). For instance, Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated his study but using divers. They learnt a word list either on land or in the water and then recalled either in a matching condition or non matching condition. They found that accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching condition. Therefore, this supports the idea that external cues in the context were missing when they were in a non matching condition and this caused context-dependent forgetting.

+ In support of state dependent forgetting, there have also been other studies to show how the lack of internal cues can cause forgetting. Goodwin et al. 1969) taught word lists to people when they were drunk and tound their recall was better it they recalled the words when in a drunken state again rather than when they were sober. Their intoxication was acting as a cue for their memory and so when they were sober they suffered state-dependent forgetting.

+ A strength of research into retrieval failure is that we can use our understanding of forgetting to develop strategies for improvingrecall. By matching our context or state learningto later retrieval we can helo to morove memory. For instance. if students sat their exams in the same room they learn the information in, they would probably perform better. Therefore, these explanations have good real world value.

• However, Baddeley (1997) did criticise his own study into the divers as it used contexts that were very different (land and water) which probably wouldn’t happen in real life. Generally, recalling information in different rooms is unlikely to have a big impact on forgetting as they are very similar environments. Therefore, the lack of context cues may not be useful in explaining real life forgetting.

Question 9

Discuss the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (16 marks) - AO1

Answer 9

• The cognitive interview is a technique used by the police to help improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
• It consists of four main techniques.
• The first is ‘report everything’, which is where the interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem to be unimportant.
• Secondly, the use ‘context reinstatement’, which asks the eyewitness to try and mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment, such as the weather conditions and the individual’s emotional state including their feelings at the time of the incident.
• The third technique is to ask eyewitness to ‘recall from changed perspective’. This involves trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view, e.g. describing what another witness present at the scene would have seen.
• Finally, they are asked to ‘recall events in a different order’, so the witness is asked to recall the scene in a different chronological order, e.g. from the end to the beginning.
• There is also an enhanced version of the cognitive interview which establish key social skills that are needed for the interviewer. For example, they should maintain eye contact but release it when needed, use open-ended questions, as well asking the witness to speak slowly.

Question 10

Discuss the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (16 marks) - AO3

Answer 10

+ Studies have shown that this technique can increase the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. Kohnken et al. (1999 conducted a meta-analysis of 53 studies and found that the cognitive interview increased accuracy by 34% in comparison to standard interviewing. Therefore, this demonstrates that the cognitive interview is effective in improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. However, Kohnken et al. also found that there was an increase in accurate information, particularly when using the enhanced cognitive interview. It might be that the cognitive interview produces a greater quantity of information but the quality of that information is compromised. Therefore, this brings into question the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

• Some of the techniques may be more effective than others. For example, Milne and Bull (2002) (as well as police officers) suggested that the recall using each individual technique is similar but using a combination ofreport everything and context reinstatement produced the best recall. This reduces the validity of the cognitive interview as a whole as it may that police officers only need to use some of the techniques to improve accuracy and so all 4 techniques are not necessarily needed or as effective.
• The cognitive interview may only be useful when interviewing those over the age of 8. Geiselman (1999) found that children under the age of six reported things slightly less accurately when they were used the cognitive interview. This could be due to them not understanding the instructions properly. They suggested that cognitive interview was only really effective children over the age of 8. This limits the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as it can only be used with older witnesses.