Need To Know Memory Flashcards
Long term memory
Memory used for events that happened in the past.
- Lasts anywhere from 2 mins to 100 yrs
- Potentially unlimited duration and capacity
- Coded semantically
Working memory model
- explanation of memory used when working on task
- Each store is qualitatively different
- model suggests 1 store for visual processing sound
- formed basis of wmm where ‘slave systems’ are organised by central executive
- Replaced idea of unitary store
- suggests system involving active processing and short term storage of info
- Key features:
- central executive
- phonological loop (two components phonological store,articulatory control process)
- visuo spatial sketch pad
- episode buffer
Phonological store
-Holds words heard like an inner ear
Phonological loop
- Codes speech sounds in working memory
- typically involving maintenance rehearsal which is repeating words over and over again
The central executive
- Processes info from all sensory routes
- process is attention like having limited capacity
Visuo spatial sketch pad
- Codes visual info in terms of separate objects
- arrangement of these objects in one visual field
Evidence for phonological loop and articulatory process
- Phonological loop explains why the word length effect occurs
- fact that people cope better with short words than long words in working memory
Sensory register
- Info at senses
- collected from ears, eyes, nose, fingers
- we’re only able to hold accurate images of sensory info momentarily
- but capacity of sensory memory is very large
Central executive
-Monitors and coordinates all other mental functions in working memory
Episodic buffer
- Receives input from many sources
- temporarily stores this info
- then intergrates it in order to construct a mental episode of what’s being experienced
Capacity
- measure of how much can be held in memory
- represented in terms of bits of info like numbers of digits
Coding
- way info is changed so it can be stored in memory
- Info enters brain via senses
- then stored in vicarious forms like:
- visual codes
- acoustic codes
- semantic codes.
Duration
-measure of how long a memory lasts before it’s no longer available
Multi store model
- explanation of memory based on 3 separate memory stores
- how info is transferred between these stores
Interference
- where one memory disturbs ability to recall another
- might result in forgetting or distorting one or the other or both
- more likely to happen if memories are similar
2 types of dependent forgetting
- Context: external environmental cues aka ‘context dependent forgetting’
- state: internal cues aka ‘state dependent forgetting’
2 types of interference
- Proactive: previously learnt info interferes with new info you’re trying to store
- pro= ( old affects new)
- Retrooactive: new memory interferes with older ones
- retro= ( new affects old)
Ewt eyewitness testimony
-evidence provided in court by person who witnessed a crime with a view to identifying perpetrator
Leading questions
- contains misleading pieces of info of wording
- usually closed questions
The two explanations as to why leading questions affect ewt
- response bias explanation:
- suggests wording of question has no real effect on participants memories but just influences how they decide to answer
- substitution explanation:
- wording of leading question actually changes participants memory
Misleading info post event discussion
- when co witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other their ewt may become contaminated
- because they combine (mis) info from other witnesses with their own memories aka post event discussion
- can also create entirely new false memories
Post event discussion evidence gabbert
- participants in pairs watched video of crime filmed from different angles
- each participant could see bits the other couldn’t
- participants then discussed what they’d seen
- found 71% of participants gave info they hadn’t seen but picked up by discussion
Ewt anxiety negative effects
- anxiety creates physiological arousal in body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse
- one approach was to look at effects of weapons on accuracy of recall
Ewt anxiety positive effects on recall
- stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal within body
- flight or fight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory for event
- because we become more aware of cues in situation
Research ewt
Deffenbacher et al
Christianson and hubinette
- deffenbacher et al meta analysis
- found high levels of stress impacted on accuracy of ewt
- Christianson and hubinette questioned real victims of a bank robbery
- found those who’d actually been threatened were more accurate in recall compared to those who were on lookers
- continued to be true 15mths later
The weapon focus effect
- where in violent crimes arousal may focus witness on more central details of attack eg weapon
- rather than more peripheral details
- eg what else was going on and what perpetrator looked like
Ewt and anxiety evaluation
Lab
Field
- research is inconclusive with a split between lab stating anxiety is detrimental to memory recall
- natural phenomena research would suggest anxiety aides memory recall
- weapons effect-criticised as this may test surprise rather than anxiety
- field studies sometimes lack control.
- researchers using real life witness interviews someone after event means there may be some extraneous variables
- researcher has no control eg media coverage of an incident or being interviewed or post event discussion
Ewt and anxiety evaluation ethical issues
- creating anxiety is risky as recalling traumas can cause psychological harm
- real life studies are beneficial as they’re more valid than lab experiment
- inverted v is too simplistic
- Anxiety is difficult to define and measure accurately
- contains many elements like:
- cognitive
- behavioural
- emotional
- physical
- theory assumes there’s only one linked to poor performance
- physiological arousal
The cognitive interview
- police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime
- encourages them to recreate original context in order to increase accessibility of stored info
Fisher and geiselman cognitive interview research
- reviewed memory literature
- people remember things better if they’re provided with retrieval cues
Techniques devised for cognitive interview
- report everything
- reinstatement of context
- change order
- change perspective
Cognitive interview individual differences evaluation mella and fisher 1996
- cognitive and normal interview techniques tested on older adults 72 and younger adults 22 memory
- cognitive interview was better for both but more significantly an advantage for elderly
- different police forces use different aspects of cognitive interview technique
- difficult to evaluate its effectiveness fully
- technique takes more time than is often available
- techniques that limit ewt to minimum are often preferred
- demands are placed on interviewer to ‘probe’ effectively
- quantity and quality of cognitive interview training is an issue
Short term memory
- used for immediate events
- stms are measured in seconds and mins
- short duration
- disappear unless rehearsed
- limited capacity of about 4 items or chunks
- coded acoustically
- referred to as working memory
The encoding specificity principle
Endel tulving
-discovered if a cue is to help us recall info it needs to be present at encoding and at retrieval
‘’ the greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event; the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory ‘’
Factors affecting ewt misleading info loftus and Palmer
- loftus and Palmer showed video clips of car crashes
- asked leading question ‘’ how fast were the cars going when they ——— ‘’.
- Higher speed estimates for smashed then connected
- more likely to falsely remember broken glass with smashed
Factors affecting ewt misleading info loftus and Palmer evaluation list
+ practical applications
- /+ mostly lab experiments
- lacks mundane realism
Factors effecting ewt misleading info
Loftus
Yuille and cutshall
Loftus and Zanni
- loftus- showed pictures of man stealing a red wallet
- researcher questioned witnesses and called wallet brown
- 98% of participants still correctly called wallet red
- werent affected by lqs after event
- yuille and cutshall - interviewed 13 people after witnessing armed robbery
- interview included 2 leading questions.
- Witnesses weren’t influenced by questions and account remained similar to original statement
- loftus and zanni showed if people were asked ‘’ did you see a broken headlight ‘’
- 7% reported seeing one
- if asked ‘’ did you see the broken headlight ‘’
- 17% reported seeing one
- none in the clip they saw
Evaluation of retrieval failure
Problems
Real world applications
- Problems with encoding specificity principle
- not testable, leads to form of circular responding
- baddeley- if cue leads to retrieval of a memory then it must have been encoded at time of learning
- If it doesn’t lead to retrieval of a memory then according to esp cue wasn’t present at time of learning
- research = real world applications smith showed just thinking of room where you did original learning (mental reinstatement) was as effective as actually being in same room at time of retrieval
- Retrieval cues also work in cognitive interviews
Retrieval failure tulving
- reason we forget is due to insufficient cues
- when we encode a memory we also store info that occurred around it (cues) like way we felt or place we were in
- can’t remember or recall could be because we aren’t in similar situation to when memory was originally stored
- if cues aren’t present when we come to recall then we find it difficult to retrieve memory
- not necessarily because we’ve forgotten but we don’t have cues to help us access memory
Cues definition
- a trigger of info that allows us to access a memory
- eg external (environmental context) or internal (mood)
Retrieval failure definition
-explanation of forgetting based on idea that we don’t have necessary cues to access memory
Theories of forgetting- interference theory
-sees info in long term memory being disrupted by other info during coding
List 2 forms of interference
- proactive
- retroactive
Explain retroactive and proactive interference
- proactive- info stored previously interferes with an attempt to recall something new
- pro means forward so old affects new
- retroactive - coding new memory disrupts old info stored previously.
- Retro means past so new affects old
Interference theory evaluation McGeoch and McDonald
List of +/-
- gave participants lists of words to learn
- learned list A then had a break and learned list B
- If list B was similar words to list A then they had poorer recall than if they were different
A03:
+ highly reliable finding
- low in ecological validity and mundane realism
Interference theory evaluation baddeley and hitch
List of +/-
- got participants who had played a number of rugby games to remember as many of the teams they had played against they could.
- found forgetting was due to number of games played (so interference of memory had occurred) rather than amount of time passes between games
+ more real life
Types of long term memory list
- episodic
- semantic
- procedural
Types of long term memory
Episodic
- concerned with personal experience
- individuals unique memory of specific event or events in which they were involved
- 3 elements :
- details of event
- context
- emotions felt at time eg childhood memories or a traumatic event
Types of long term memory
Semantic
- memories related to knowledge about worlds
- shared by everyone instead of being personal experience
- semantic memories related to things like function of objects or what behaviour is appropriate in particular situation may also be related to abstract concepts like maths
Types of long term memory
Procedural
- concerned with skills like knowing how to tie a shoelace or how to carry out maths calculation
- remembering how to do something rather than knowing what to do
- typically acquired through repetition and practice
- less aware of these memories as they’ve become automatic
long term memory evaluation brain scans
- distinction between these types of LTM is supported by brain scans
- different areas of brain appear to be active when using different types of LTM
- Episodic memory associated with hippocampus and temporal lobe
- semantic memory associated with temporal lobe
- procedural memory associated with cerebellum
- suggests these types of ltm are separate and are found in different areas of brain
long term memory evaluation
Distinguishing procedural and declarative memories
- evidence from case studies offer further support for different types of LTM
- case patient HM highlights distinction between procedural and episodic/ semantic memories.
- After surgery HM could still form new procedural memories but was unable to form episodic/ semantic memories
- supports distinction between procedural and episodic/semantic memories, highlighting existence of multiple types of ltm
long term memory evaluation
Problems with evidence from patients with brain damage
- criticism of research is reliance on patients with brain damage
- difficult to conclude from patients like HM exact parts of brain that are affected until after patient has died
- damage to particular area of brain doesn’t mean this area is responsible for particular behaviour.
- means we can’t establish causal relationship between particular brain region and type of LTM
long term memory evaluation
There may be a fourth type of LTM
- research has shown implicit memories also influence response a person makes
- priming refers to influence of implicit memories on our responses
- Priming is controlled by brain system separate from temporal system
- supports explicit memories
- suggests original theory of LTM is too simplistic and other types of LTM may exist
