Memory (Unit 1) Flashcards
What is the Echoic store for?
Auditory sensation memory
What is the Iconic store for?
Visual sensation memory
What is the Haptic store for?
Tactile sensation memory (touch)
What is the Olfactory store for?
Smell sensation memory
Why is the capacity of the SR so difficult to research?
Memories leave the store so quickly that it is difficult to find out how much was stored initially
KEY STUDY: Baddeley (1996)
What was it?
Aim:
-To assess whether STM and LTM are Semantic or Acoustic
Procedure:
- 75 ppts. were split into 4 groups and given a list of words. There were 4 different lists:
a. Acoustically similar
b. Acoustically dissimilar
c. Semantically similar
d. Semantically dissimilar
Those being tested for STM were given the list they tried to remember, but had to rearrange the words into the correct order. The LTM ppts did the same, but were distracted for 20 minutes beforehand
KEY STUDY: Baddeley (1996)
What did he find?
STM ppts: List A recall was the worst at 10% accuracy, the rest were between 60-80%
LTM ppts: List C recall was the worst at 55% accuracy, the rest were between 70-80%
Name the researcher of STM capacity and their findings
Miller (1956)
-Found that people have a digit span of 7+or-2
Name the researchers of STM duration and their findings
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
-Found that STM duration is 20-30 seconds
KEY STUDY: Peterson and Peterson (1959)
What was it and what did they find?
Procedure:
Participants were presented with trigrams (3 consonants e.g. CPW) and then asked to count backwards from a number in multiples of 3 before recalling the trigram. There were also varied intervals for the length of counting, also in multiples of 3
Findings:
- 80% could recall a trigram after a 3 second interval
- 10% could recall a trigram after an 18 second interval
Outline one criticism of the Peterson and Peterson STM duration study
‘Trigrams’ are not what we usually use our STM for
Who is Clive Wearing?
He is a man who has about 30 second memory duration, and cannot create new LTMs. Although he can still play the piano and read music, suggesting his procedural memory is still intact
KEY STUDY: Bahrick et al. (1975)
What was it?
-392 graduates were shown photographs from their high-school yearbook
-The ppts were split into two groups:
Recognition Group (faces to names)
Recall Group (names to faces)
KEY STUDY: Bahrick et al. (1975)
What did they find?
Recognition Group; 90% accurate after 14 years, 60% accurate after 47 years
Recall Group; 60% accurate after 7 years, less than 20% after 47 years
Name the Encoding method for STM and LTM (include studies)
STM; Visual (Baddeley et al.)
LTM; Semantically (Baddeley et al.)
State the capacity for STM and LTM (include studies)
STM; 7+or-2 (Miller’s Digit Span Technique)
LTM; Unlimited
State the memory duration for STM and LTM (include studies)
STM; Less than 30secs (Peterson and Peterson)
LTM; Potentially a lifetime (Bahrick et al.)
Explain what is meant by the ‘primary effect’ and ‘recency effect’
Primary effect; words at the start of a word list are easily recalled from LTM
Recency effect; words at the end of a word list are easily recalled from STM
Together, these are called the ‘Serial Position Effect’
Outline the strengths of the Multi-Store Model of memory
- Clive Wearing and H.M. are proof that there are two separate stores of memory
- Glanzer and Cunitz; Serial Position Effect
Outline the weaknesses of the Multi-Store Model of memory
- Too reductionist
- Doesn’t explain the process involved in encoding
- STM and LTM seen as individual stores, some may argue the STM is part of the LTM, activated when necessary
What are the four key components to the Working Memory Model?
The Central Executive
The Phonological Loop
The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
The Episodic Buffer
What is the Central Executive responsible for in the Working Memory Model?
- Controls attention
- Involved in problem solving
- Processes info from the ‘slave systems’, sensory organs and LTM
- Limited Capacity
What is the Phonological Loop responsible for in the Working Memory Model?
Phonological Store (Inner Ear)
- Processes speech-based sounds and encodes them acoustically for a brief period
- Limited Capacity
Articulatory Control Process (Inner Voice)
-Allows subvocal repetition of items stored in the Phonological Store
What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad responsible for in the Working Memory Model?
- Stores + processes visual and spatial info
- Has a limited capacity
Visual Cache:
-Stores visual info about form and colour
Inner Scribe:
- Deals with spatial info and body movements
- Transfers info in the Visual Cache to the Central Executive
What is the Episodic Buffer responsible for in the Working Memory Model?
- An additional storage system
- Binds together info from the other components to help recall chunks from the LTM
- Limited Capacity
Give advantages of the WMM over the Multi-Store Model
- WMM explains how it is easier to do two different tasks simultaneously, rather than two similar ones
- Baddeley got ppts to follow a dot and outline block letter F, ppts struggled as both tasks involve the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
What is the main weakness of the Working Memory Model?
Lack of research into the precise function of the Central Executive
How has brain scanning supported the WMM?
PET; identifies Phonological+Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
- Left Hemisphere; Spatial
- Right Hemisphere; Visual
Outline the different types of Long Term Memory
Explicit (Conscious)
- Episodic; personal events
- Semantic; personal knowledge
Implicit (Unconscious)
-Procedural; performing unconscious actions
Episodic memories are associated with which parts of the brain?
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Neocortex
- Hippocampus
KEY STUDY: Tulving (1989)
What was it?
- 6 ppts were injected with radioactive gold and scanned with a gamma ray (to locate the gold)
- Each ppt did 8 tasks lasting 80 seconds each, with a 2 minute gap in between
- Tasks involved 4 semantic and 4 episodic topics in a random order
- Tasks were conducted by ppts lying on a couch, retrieving an episodic or semantic memory from LTM for 60 seconds, scanning occurs 8 seconds following injection
KEY STUDY: Tulving (1989)
What did he find?
-3 ppts produced inconclusive data
-Other 3 showed consistent data:
+Episodic = Frontal Lobes of the brain
+Semantic = Posterior Region of the brain
(Although this was only reflected by 50% of ppts)
Evaluation of episodic memory [as part of the LTM]
Pros:
Tulving; shows difference between processing Semantic and Episodic LTMs
Cons:
-The extent to which Episodic and Semantic memory systems differ is still unclear; semantic memories often clearly originate in episodic memory
Semantic memories are associated with which parts of the brain?
- Frontal Lobes
- Temporal Lobes
- Hippocampus
Evaluation of semantic memory [as part of the LTM]
Cons:
-The extent to which Episodic and Semantic memory systems differ is still unclear; semantic memories often clearly originate in episodic memory
Procedural memories are associated with which parts of the brain?
- Primary Motor Cortex
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Cerebellum
Evaluation of procedural memory [as part of the LTM]
Pros:
-Although HM’s hippocampus and parts of temporal lobes were damaged, he still exceeded at drawing the star in the mirror (procedural memory)
Cons:
-General lack of research into the areas of the brain related to procedural memory, and it’s rare to find a brain damaged person who can’t form procedural memory
Define ‘proactive interference’
Occurs when information stored previously interferes with an attempt to recall something new
e.g. the memory of an old phone number might disrupt recalling a new phone number
Define ‘retroactive interference’
Occurs when new information interferes with information already stored in the LTM
e.g. the new memory of a registration plate disrupting the memory of an old registration plate
Schmidt et al. (2000)
What was it and what did they find?
Procedure:
- 211 ppts aged from 11-79 were asked to name 48 streets surrounding the elementary school that they all went to
- If they’ve moved, where to and for how long was also recorded to see the affect of retrospective interference
Findings:
-Learning new street patterns make it harder to recall old ones
Evaluation of the interference explanation of forgetting
Cons:
- The interference explanation only seems to apply when the two pieces of information are similar to each other
- Research is often in laboratories, lacking mundane realism
What are the two types of cue-dependent forgetting
- Context dependent failure
2. State dependent failure
Outline and explain what is meant by ‘context-dependent failure’ (include research evidence)
Occurs when the external environment during recall is different from when the memory was coded
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
- Asked scuba divers to learn material on dry land or underwater
- Better recollection was found when the ppts were in the same condition as where they learnt
Outline and explain what is meant by ‘state-dependent failure’ (include research evidence)
Occurs when the internal retrieval cue (physical or emotional state) are different from when memory was coded
Overton (1972)
- Participants learnt material whilst drunk or sober
- They then had to recall the material in the same or opposing state
- Those in the same state as when learnt, recalled better
Evaluation of the cue-dependent forgetting explanation
Pros:
- LevelsOfProcessing; suggests info deeply processed at coding is less likely to be forgotten
- Real World Applications; reconstruction of crimes
Cons:
-Godden and Baddeley; being in the same condition didn’t alter the number of words forgotten
What are the three stages of Eyewitness Testimony?
Encoding; of info into LTM
Retention; (memories, maybe lost/distorted)
Retrieval; (may be affected by Q’s asked)
What are the two forms of ‘misleading information’ that can cause inaccurate eyewitness testimony?
Leading Questions
and
Post-event Discussion
KEY STUDY: Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What was it? (Experiment One)
Experiment One:
- 45 university students watched 7 clips of car crashes
- There were 5 conditions (9 ppts each)
- Key Q: “About how fast were the cars going when they … eachother?”
- Either contacted/hit/bumped/collided/smashed
- Estimations of speed were then recorded
KEY STUDY: Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What was it? (Experiment Two)
Experiment Two:
-150 students watched a clip of a car crash
-50 were asked the key question, with “smashed”
-50 were asked the key question with “hit”
-50 weren’t asked at all (control group)
-One week later they were all asked:
“Did you see any broken glass?”
KEY STUDY: Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What did they find? (Experiment One and Two)
Experiment One:
- Leading questions can affect recollection of events
- “Contacted” = 31.8mph mean estimate
- “Smashed” = 40.8mph mean estimate
Experiment Two:
- Post-event information can affect recollection of events
- Control Group = 6 said YES about broken glass
- “Smashed” = 16 said YES about broken glass
Summarise Loftus’ ‘White Barn’ Study’
- Participants watched a video of a car going down a country road
- Participants were asked how fast the car was going when it went past the white barn. There was no white barn.
A week later, 17% recalled a white barn
Evaluation of research into the effect of misleading information on EWT
Pros:
Loftus; research in a lab under controlled condition, less extraneous variables, high validity
Cons:
Loftus; low ecological validity as clips of car crashes, and a real car crash stimulate different emotions and mental processes
What is meant by ‘weapon focus’?
If there is a weapon involved in a situation, the victim will generally focus closely on the weapon
Loftus et al. 1979 (Role of anxiety in EWT)
What was it?
Procedure:
-Participants are in a waiting room
2 conditions;
1. Low-key argument in next room, then man walks out of the room with a pen in his hand
2. Loud argument in next room, then man walks out with bloodied letter-opener
-Participants were then presented with 50 pictures and asked to identify the man
Loftus et al. 1979 (Role of anxiety in EWT)
What they find?
- 49% of ppts identified man with pen
- 33% of ppts identified man with letter-opener
The ‘weapon’ MAY have distracted the participants
Evaluation of the effect of anxiety on EWT
Pros:
- Studies on real witnesses have high ecological validity
- Loftus’ lab studies are controlled and replicable
Cons:
- Ethical issues; witnesses may potentially relive trauma
- Pickel; surprise is the problem, not anxiety
List the four techniques that the Cognitive interview is based on
- Mental reinstatement of content
- Report everything
- Change of narrative order
- Change of perspective
Explain what is meant by the ‘Mental reinstatement of content’ technique as part of the Cognitive interview
Mentally recreate the physical and psychological environment of the incident
Explain what is meant by the ‘Report everything’ technique as part of the Cognitive interview
Reporting everything may trigger recollection of another memory as memories are interconnected
Explain what is meant by the ‘Change of narrative order’ technique as part of the Cognitive interview
e.g. describing the event in reverse from the most memorable aspect
Explain what is meant by the ‘Change of perspective’ technique as part of the Cognitive interview
e.g. how someone else may have witnessed the incident
How does the Cognitive Interview differ from the Standard Police Interview
CI:
- Focus on the witness
- Encouraged to report everything
- No leading question
SPI:
- Revolves are interviewer, not witness
- Interviewer asks the questions
- Possibility of leading questions
Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview
Pros:
-Kohnken; 81% increase in accurate information
Cons:
-Kohnken; Although, an increase in incorrect items too
