Memory Studies Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What did Jacob’s study research?

A

The capacity of STM by determining the individual’s digit span.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What were the results of Jacob’s (1887) study?

A

Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items. The mean span for letters was 7.3.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What was the method for Jacob’s (1887) research?

A

The researcher gives, for example, four digits and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. If this is correct, the researcher reads out five digits, and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Strengths of Jacob’s (1887) research

A

The results have been supported in other research, supporting its validity.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Weakness of Jacob’s (1887) research

A

Jacobs’ study was conducted a long time ago and early research in Psychology often lacked adequate control. E.g. some participants may have been distracted while they were being tested so they didn’t perform as well as they might. This would mean that the results might not be valid because there were confounding variables that weren’t controlled. Therefore, we can’t be certain that the results are a valid reflection of the capacity of STM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What did Miller’s (1956) study research?

A

He researched the span (capacity) of human memory in items.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What was the method for Miller’s (1956) research?

A

Participants count and remember an increasing number of flashing dots, digits, numbers or words.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What were the results of Miller’s (1956) study?

A

Miller (1956) found that capacity of STM is 7 +- 2. People can recall 5 words as easily as 5 letters by chunking – grouping sets of letters or digits into units or chunks.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What were the weaknesses of Miller’s (1956) study?

A

He may have overestimated the capacity of STM as Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM was only about four chunks. This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (5 items) is more appropriate than 7 items.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson (1959)
research?

A

To investigate the duration of short-term memory and provide empirical evidence for the multi-store model.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What was the procedure of Peterson and Peterson (1959) research?

A

A lab experiment with 8 trials.
1. On each trial they were given a meaningless consonant trigram (e.g. TGH) to remember and a three-digit number.
2. The student was then asked to count backwards from the number in either 3s or 4s until told to stop to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable (which would increase the student’s memory).
3. On each trial, they were told to stop after a different amount of time - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds (a retention interval).
4. After this, they were asked to stop counting and to repeat the trigram.
The percentage of trigrams correctly recalled was recorded for each retention interval.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What was the sample of the Peterson and Peterson (1959) research?

A

24 undergraduate students

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What were the findings of the Peterson and Peterson (1959) research?

A

The longer the interval delay the less trigrams were recalled. Participants were able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3 seconds delay. However, after 18 seconds less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What conclusions were made from the findings of Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) research?

A

Information must be rehearsed in order to keep it in STM. Short-term memory has a limited duration (up to 18 seconds) when rehearsal is prevented. It also showed that short-term memory is different from long-term memory in terms of duration.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Weakness of Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) research.

A

The stimulus material was artificial as trying to memorise consonant syllables does not reflect most real-life memory activities where what we try to remember something meaningful. So we might say that the study lacked external validity and may therefore underestimates the duration of STM for more realistic information.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Strength (of weakness) of Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) research.

A

We do sometimes try to memorise fairly meaningless things e.g. phone numbers, so the study is not totally irrelevant and may tell us something about the duration of STM in these circumstances.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What was the aim of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

A

To investigate the duration of LTM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What was the procedure of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

A

High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants directly or from some schools. Recall was tested in various ways, including: (1) free recall test - where participants recalled the names of as many of their former classmates as possible; (2) photo recognition test - where they were asked to identify former classmates in a set of 50 where some were from their yearbook and some weren’t.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What was the sample of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

nationality, number, type, age

A

Participants were an opportunity sample of 392 American ex-high school students aged 17-74 years.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What were the findings of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study within 15 years of graduation?

A

Participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. Free recall was less good. After 15 years, this was about 60% accurate.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What were the findings of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study for 48 years after graduation?

A

Recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition. Free recall was less good, dropping to 30% after 48 years.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What was the conclusion of the findings of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

A

LTM has a seemingly unlimited duration.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What were the strengths of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

A

The study has higher external validity as real-life memories were studied. When studies on LTM have used meaningless pictures, recall rates were lower. Therefore the study seems to tell us about the duration of LTM with realistic tasks.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What were the weaknesses of Bahrick et al.’s (1975) study?

A

The downside of such real-life research is that confounding variables are not controlled e.g. participants may have looked at their yearbook photos and rehearsed their memory over the years. Therefore, the study lacks internal validity and we can’t be certain that the results reflect the true duration of LTM without rehearsal.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What was the aim of Baddeley’s (1966) study?

A

To find out about the coding of STM and LTM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

What was the procedure of Baddeley’s (1966) study?

A

Baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember.
Group 1 (acoustically similar words), Group 2 – (acoustically dissimilar words), Group 3 (semantically similar words) and
Group 4 (semantically dissimilar words). Participants were shown the original list of words and asked to recall them in the correct order.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What were the findings and conclusion of Baddeley’s (1966) study for STM?

A

When they had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it (STM recall), they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. This suggests that information is coded acoustically in STM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

What were the findings and conclusion of Baddeley’s (1966) study for LTM?

A

If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time interval of 20 minutes (LTM recall), they did worse with the semantically similar words. This suggests that information is coded semantically in LTM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

Weaknesses of Baddeley’s (1966) study?

A

However, the study used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. The word lists had no personal meaning to participants. This means that we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of memory task e.g. when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks. This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application about the coding of STM and LTM.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What problems did HM have and why?

A

Henry had seizures, blacked out and frequently lost control of his bodily functions due to a fracture in his skull. HM hippocampus was removed, and his seizures stopped and his IQ increased slightly However many of his old memories were lost and his ability to create new long term memory was completely broken. However, his unconscious motor sensors remembered what his mind had forgotten.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

How does the case of HM support the ideas of MSM?

A

It supports the ideas of MSM that STM and LTM are seperate as his short term memory works effectively but was unable to make long term memories which suggests they are seperate unitary sections. It supports the MSM as the with maintenance rehearsal as HM could remember for 15 minutes if he constantly repeated what was said.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

How does the case of HM undermine the ideas of MSM?

A

It contradicts the MSM because in the star drawing task (drawing star in between two other stars looking at it through a mirror) he improved in doing it but had no memory of doing the star before. This suggests that there is more than one type LTM, one for events (actually completing the task) and one for muscle memory (physically drawing the star) because his LTM for events was damaged but his LTM for muscle memory was in tact. This undermines the MSM’s idea that LTM is one unitary store.

33
Q

What is the problem with using the case of HM as evidence against the model?

A

A case study of HM involves just studying him (one single participant). It may be that his memory is different to the rest of the population because he has a unique brain injury. He had surgery to remove his hippocampus and this surgery may not be the same as others who have their hippocampus removed. Therefore his memory may be impacted differently to other people’s - it may even have worked differently before the surgery because of his seizures. Therefore the results lack external validity and can’t be generalised to other members of the population who have not had surgery or even those who have. So it’s not strong supporting or undermining evidence for the MSM.

34
Q

What was the case of KF?

A

Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a patient with amnesia called KF.

35
Q

What did they find about KF’s STM?

A

They found that his STM for digits was very poor when they were read out loud to him, but his recall was much better when he was able to read them to himself.

36
Q

How did the case of KF contradict the MSM?

A

It contradicts the MSM that there is one unitary store for STM because he remembers digits more effectively when he sees them (iconic) than when he hears them (echoic) which suggests there are different types of STM one for visual info and one for sound info.

37
Q

What did Craik and Watkins find?

A

That there are different types of rehearsal. There are two main types: maintenance rehearsal (MSM) and elaborative rehearsal which is needed to transfer information from STM to LTM. Elaborative rehearsal is when you link the information into your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means.

38
Q

Why did Craik and Watkins (1973) findings contradict the MSM?

A

It says that elaborative rehearsal is needed to transport memories from STM to LTM using links or thinking about the meaning which is different to the idea of prolonged rehearsal which involves thinking about a memory for a longer time.

39
Q

Why did Craik and Watkins (1973) findings support the MSM?

A

It supports the MSM as it says there are two types of rehearsal, and maintenance rehearsal is used to keep memories in the STM.

40
Q

How does Baddeley’s research support the MSM?

A

It supports the view that these two memory stores are separate (unitary) and qualitatively different as proposed by the MSM.

41
Q

Why is evidence of more than one type of LTM undermining for the MSM?

A

Research suggests that there must be at least one long-term store to store our knowledge of the world and one to store our knowledge of how to do things, which undermines the unitary store of LTM proposed by the MSM.

42
Q

Who developed the MSM?

A

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

43
Q

What did Tulving (1985) propose about the MSM?

A

That the MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible and that there are three LTM stores, containing different types of information: episodic, semantic and procedural.

44
Q

Who is Clive Wearing?

A

He suffers from a severe form of amnesia that resulted from a viral infection that attacked his brain, damaging the hippocampus and associated areas. Before this infection, Clive was a world-class musician.

45
Q

What type of Clive Wearing’s memory is intact?

A

His procedural memories are intact as he still remembers his motor functions such as playing the piano.

46
Q

What type of Clive Wearing’s memory is partially intact?

A

His semantic memories are partially intact as he can still understand the meaning of words and carry out a conversation but cannot remember his children’s names

47
Q

What type of Clive Wearing’s memory is extremely damaged?

A

His episodic memeory is extremely damaged as he cannot remember having a musical education which should be episodic memories.

48
Q

What did Tulving et al. (1994) do as part of their brain scan studies?

A

They got their participants to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner.

49
Q

What did Tulving et al. (1994) find out from their brain scan studies?

A

They found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex. The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories. The right prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling episodic memories.

50
Q

What did Tulving et al. findings tell us about types of LTM?

later research

A

They supported the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM within the brain. It has also been confirmed many times in later research studies, further supporting the validity of this finding.

51
Q

What real world applications are there for the different types of LTM?

A

Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives. Research has found that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory than a control group.

52
Q

What do the real world applications of LTM tell us about the different types of LTM?

A

Episodic memory is the type of memory most affected by mild cognitive impairment, which highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between types of LTM – it enables specific treatments to be developed, supporting the external validity of the theory.

53
Q

What disagreements are there towards the the division of three LTM stores?

A

Some people accept that procedural memories represent one type of LTM but argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one LTM store that they call declarative memory (i.e. memories that can be consciously recalled). Procedural memories are non-declarative.

54
Q

What did Baddeley et al. (1975) find about dual-task performance?

A

Participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks (tracking a light and describing the letter F) than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time.

55
Q

Why were the 2 visual tasks more difficult in Baddeley et al. (1975) findings ?

A

This because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system, whereas when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there is no competition.

56
Q

How did Baddeley et al. (1975) support the WMM?

A

It supports that the slave systems have a limited capacity and so when multiple tasks require the same slave system (e.g. Two visual tasks) then this exceeds the capacity of the slave system making the tasks harder. Whereas, when doing tasks that require two different slave systems, the tasks are easier as they don’t exceed the capacities of either system. As such, this supports that there must be one slave system for processing visual input (visuo-spatial sketchpad) and one for processing sound input (phonological loop) as proposed by the WMM.

57
Q

What did McGeoch and McDonald study?

A

Retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two list of words.

58
Q

How did McGeoch and McDonald conduct their study (6 groupings)?

A

All groups had to memorise the same original list that was retested for results.
· Group 1 – synonyms
· Group 2 – antonyms
· Group 3 – unrelated words
· Group 4 – nonsense syllables
· Group 5 – three-digit numbers
· Group 6 – no new list

59
Q

What were the results of the McGeoch and McDonald study?

A

When the participants then recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list (retroactive inference). The most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall. This suggests that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

60
Q

What study supports proactive inference?

A

Tulving and Psotka gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time (participants were not told what the categories were). Recall averaged about 70% for the first list but became progressively worse for each list as they learned each additional one (proactive interference).

61
Q

What studies support retrieval failure theory?

A

Godden and Baddely (drugged state) and Carter and Cassady (divers)

62
Q

What was the method of Godden and Baddely study?

A

4 groups of divers learnt a list of words and had to recall them. learnt underwater and recalled on underwater. learnt on land and recalled on land. learnt underwater and recalled on land and vice versa.

63
Q

What was the method of the Carter and Cassady study?

A

4 groups of participants learnt a list of words and a passage of prose had to recall them. learnt on anti-histamine drug and recalled on drug. learnt in normal state and recalled in normal state, learnt on drug and recalled in normal state and vice versa.

64
Q

What were the results of the Godden and Baddely study?

A

Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching context conditions.

65
Q

What were the results of Carter and Cassady study?

A

Performance on memory test was significantly worse in the non-matching state conditions.

66
Q

What did Loftus and Palmer study?

A

Misleading information due to leading question (car crash video)

67
Q

What did Gabbet et al study?

A

Misleading information due to post-event discussion (crime video from different angles)

68
Q

What was the method of the Loftus and Palmer study?

A

5 groups of participants watched videos of a car crash. They were all asked “how fast the cars were going when they … each other?”, with a different verb for each group e.g. contacted as control group, hit, crashed.

69
Q

What were the results of the Loftus and Palmer study?

A

Mean estimated speed-
Contacted: 31.8mph
Smashed: 40.5mph.

70
Q

What was the method of the Gabbert et al study?

A

Pairs of participants watched a video of a crime from different points of view which revealed different sets of information to them e.g. title of book. They were then allowed to discuss what they’d seen, before individually completing a recall test.

71
Q

What were the results of the Gabbert et al study?

A

71% of the participants recalled information that they did not see (picked up in discussion) vs in the control group where it was 0%.

72
Q

Procedure of study for anxiety having a negative effect on EWT recall?

A

Johnson and Scott: participants waited outside lab for ‘real study’ to begin. Low anxiety condition overheard discussion about equipment failure and man leaving with pen and greasy hands. High anxiety condition overheard heated discussion and crashing sounds and man leaving with knife covered in blood.

73
Q

Results of study for anxiety having a negative effect on EWT recall?

A

Johnson and Scott: participants later asked to identify the man from 50 photographs. 49% correctly identified the man holding the pen, but only 33% could identify the man with the bloodstained knife.

74
Q

Procedure of study for anxiety having a positive effect on EWT recall?

A

Study of real-life crime where the gun shop owner shot a thief dead in Vancouver, Canada. Out of 21 witnesses, 13 took part. Interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. Accuracy was determined by the number of details recorded in each account. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident on a 7-point-scale, and asked if they had any emotional problems since the event e.g. sleeplessness.

75
Q

Results of study for anxiety having a positive effect on EWT recall?

A

The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount or accuracy after 5 months, though some details were less accurate e.g. colour of items. Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were the most accurate (88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).

76
Q

Supporting evidence for cognitive interview (general)?

A

Some research has found that using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any of the other conditions. This confirmed police officers’ suspicions that some aspects of the CI are more useful than others.

77
Q

Supporting evidence for enhanced cognitive interview?

A

Kohnken et al. combined data from 55 studies in a meta-analysis. The enhanced CI consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview used by police (81% increase in correct information).

78
Q

Undermining evidence for enhanced cognitive interview (same study)?

A

Kohnken et al. also found a 61% increase in the amount of incorrect information when the enhanced CI was used compared to the standard interview.