Paper 1: Memory

Question 1

Who introduced the WMM and what did they believe/carryout?

Answer 1

• Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
• Believed memory is not just one store, but a number of different ones.
• 2 visual tasks = poorer performance but 1 visual and 1
  verbal means no interruption

Question 2

What is the WMM?

Answer 2

- Focused on STM ONLY and believed it was not a 
unitary store (like MSM)!! 

LTM as a more passive store that holds previously
learnt material for use by the STM when needed.

Question 3

Draw the WMM.

Answer 3

Question 4

What is the Central executive?

Answer 4

• Key component in the model
• Functions:
• Direct attention to tasks
• Determine how recources (slave systems) are allocated
• Limited capacity

Question 5

What is the Phonological Loop?

Answer 5

• Limited Capacity
• Deals with auditory information
• It preserves the order in which information
  arrives
• Baddeley (1986) further subdivided it into
• Phonological store ( stores words heard)
• Articulatory process ( holds words heard/seen and silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice).

Question 6

What is the Visuo-spatial Sketchpad?

Answer 6

• Visual and/or spatial information stored
  here e.g. Visual = what things look like and spatial = relationships between things
• Limited capacity
• Logie (1995) = suggested there is a sub-division:
• Visuo-cache (stores visual data)
• Inner scribe (records the arrangement of objects in the visual field)

Question 7

What is the Episodic Buffer?

Answer 7

• Baddeley(2000) added episodic buffer to WMM.
• temporary store of info.
• it integrates the visual, spatial and verbal info. processed by other stores
• it maintians a sene of time sequencing e.g. recording events that are happening.
• it can be seen as the storage component of the Central executive
• limited capacity of about 4 chunks
• EB links WMM to LTM and other Cognitive processes

Question 8

(AO3)

Support for WMM?

Answer 8

P - support.

E/E- KF injured in motorcyle accident. KF able to recall stored info. from LTM; however, had issues with his STM. Remeber visual images, uncluding faces, but unable to remeber sounds (acoustic info). Suggesting at least two components within STM - one for visual another for acoustic.

L - Supports WMM and idea of two slave systems, phonological loop and visual-spatial sketchpad. Support for idea of multi component STM.

Counter: However, case study based on one person (KF). Population validity is low and cant be genralised to target population.

Question 9

Describe Baddeley & Hitch’s research into WMM.

Answer 9

• Asked pariticpants to perform a reasoning task whilst simultaneously reciting aloud a list of 6 digits.
• If digit span really measure of STM capacity, ppts. be expected to show impaired peformance on reasoning task because their STM would be fully occupied.
• Found ppts. made few errors on either, though the speed was slightly slower.

Question 10

(AO3)

Further support for WMM?

Answer 10

P - Further support comes from dual-task studies by Baddeley and Hitch (1976)

E - Dual tasks reuqire ppts. to complete two tasks at same time.

E - One condition, ppts. may be required to complete two acoustic-based tasks, e.g. remebering series of digits and completing verbal reasoning task at same time. In other condition, ppts. required to complete one acoustic based task and one visual based task e.g. rember series of digits and copying a drawing.

When both tasks reuqire ppts. to use phonoligcal loop, ability to perform tasks is impaired. However, when simultaneously require to use phonological loop and other is visual-spatial sketchpad perfomrance not impaired.

L - Dual tasks provide evidence for existence of multiple components wihtin STM and support idea of a seperate phonoligcal loop and visual-spatial sketchpad.

Counter: Conducted under controlled conditions. Low ecological validity, as particpants may not have performed to dual tasks as well as could if in real life setting. Reduces ability to generalise results.

Question 11

(AO3)

Further support for WMM in terms of brain scans?

Answer 11

P - Further support from brain scans

E/E - Braver et al. gave ppts. tasks that involved CE while having brain scan. Found greater activity in left prefrontal Cortex. Acitivty in area increased as task became harder. As demands on CE increased, it hard to work harder to fulfill its functions.

L - provides support for WMM and especially for CE.

Question 12

(AO3)

Limitation of WMM.

Answer 12

P - WMM does not offer complete understanding of how memory works

E/E - Exact role played by CE remains not exactly clear and other researches have questioned wether it can be a single component or weteher there are seperate spatial and verbal working memory systems. CE most important, but least understood. Further, only focuses on STM. Link between WMM and LTM not fuly understood. No info. on how info is processed and transferred to LTM.

L - Therefore, WMM is an incomplete model of memory and other theories/models are required to gain a complete pic. of this complex cognitive phenomenon.

Question 13

Does the WMM have real life application?

Answer 13

• Can be applied to various real life settings.
• High correlation between working memory span and performace on various tasks, suggested working memory capacity might be used as a measure of suuitability for certian jobs. e.g. used as a recuritment tool for the US Air Force (Kyllonen and Christal, 1990).
• Pilots need both spatial and Auditory functioning at same time.

Question 14

Outline 16 marker on the WMM.

Answer 14

AO1 - Discuss WMM

AO3 - Support for WMM KF and counter

AO3 - Further support dual tasks and counter

AO3 - Further support brain scans

AO3 - Not complete understandng of how memory works

Question 15

What is memory?

Answer 15

• The process of retireivng and storing

Question 16

Who imposed the Multi-store model of memory?

Answer 16

• Atkinson & Shiffron (1968)

Question 17

What is the Multi-store model (MSM) of memory?

Answer 17

• Representation of how memory works in terms of three stores:
• Sensory register
• STM
• LTM
• Also describes how info. is transferred from one store to another; how remebered and how forgotten.

Question 18

What are the three types of memory?

Answer 18

SENSORY REGISTER

• iconic and echoic stores with very brief duration, high-capacity.
• Transfer by attention.

STM

• Limited capacity and duration store
• Mainly acoustic coding.
• Transfer to LTM by rehearsal

LTM

• Unlimited capacity store and duration, permanent store. Mainly semantic
• Created through maintencance rehearsal

Question 19

What are the three processes involved in memory?

Answer 19

• Coding = the acquisition of knowledge
• Storage = the retention of knowledge
• Retrieval = to recall or remember

Question 20

Describe the passing of one store to another.

Answer 20

• Info. picked up in sensory organs
• Disappears unless passed onto the STM
• Pay ‘attention’ in order to enter STM
• ‘Rehearsal’ to transfer info. to LTM

Question 21

What are the three main stores of the Sensory register?

What is the Duration of material in Sensory register and how is it registered?

Answer 21

• Iconic memory = visual unfo. is coded visually
• Echoic memory = sound or audiorty info. is coded acoustically
• Haptic memory = tactile input from the body i.e. thngs touched stored as feelings.
• Duration is less than half a second, but has high capacity e.g. over one hundred million cells in one eye, each storing data.
• Info. is passively registered i.e. we cant really control what enters

Question 22

Name the two types of rehearsal.

Answer 22

• Maintenance rehearsal keeps it in our STM
• Elaborative rehearsal can get it to our LTM

Question 23

(AO3)

Research support of the MSM?

Answer 23

P - Baddeley (1966), conducted research into coding in STM.

E/E - Used 5 words & asked for immediate recall. 4 lists - words that sounded similar hardest to remember when using STM. Confusion of acoustically similar words demonstrated importance of sound in STM. Also mix up words with similar meanings when using LTM. Concluded STM codes acoustically & LTM codes semantically.

L - Provides support for MSM as proves there are multiple stores in our memory, as per the MSM’s prediction.

Counter: Limiation of research on coding is use of artifical stimuli. No meaningful materials. Lists of words with no personal meanings to ppts. Cautious in generalising such results due to low ecological valditity.

Question 24

(AO3)

Further research support for MSM, Clive Wearing.

Answer 24

P - Support of MSM comes from case study of Clive Wearing.

E/E - CW contracted a virus caused severe amnesia (memory loss). Could only remeber info. for 20-30 seconds. However, able to recall info. from past e.g. wifes name. Unable to trasnfer info. from STM to LTM, but retrieve info. successfully.

L - Case supports idea of memries being formed by passing info. from one store to the next in a linear fashion and that damage to any part of the MSM can cause memory impairment. In line with MSM prediction.

Counter: Only based on one person. Pop. valdiity of case study is low and conseuquently can’t be generalised to target pop.

Question 25

(AO3)

Limiation of the MSM.

Answer 25

P - the unitary STM is a limation of the MSM.

E - this is because research shows that at the very least there must be one ST store to process visual info. and another one to process auditory info.

E - The WMM suggests STM isn’t unitary. WMM proposed by Baddeley & Hitch showed STM more than just one simple unitary store and compromises of diff. components.

L - Suggests that STM isn’t unitary as intially suggestsed which shows the research into the MSM is flawed.

Question 26

(AO3)

Further limiation of the MSM, more than one type of LTM?

Answer 26

P - Limitation of MSM is that follow-up research has shown there is more than one type of LTM.

E - Like STM, LTM isn’t unitary either

E - It is unlikely that different kinds of knwoledge e.g. remebering how to lay video game or what we did last week are all stored in a single LTM store. Different types of LTM have been identified e.g. episodic (memories of events), procedural (knowldge how to do things) and declarative (memories of facts).

L - Suggests that the research into the MSM is flawed.

Question 27

Discuss Shallice & Warringtons (1970) research into KF.

Answer 27

• Brain injury after motorcyle accident
• could learn new info. + recall stored info.
• Poor STM recall for verbal info but not visual.
• Also found KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they read them outloud to him, but recall better when digits read himself.
• Could be another STM store for non-verbal sounds i.e. noises.

Question 28

Line out 16 marker plan for a question on the MSM.

Answer 28

AO1 - Desbribe MSM.

AO3 - Support from Baddeley + counter

AO3 - Support from Clive wearing case study + counter

AO3 - Unitary STM limiation of MSM.

AO3 - Limiation research found more than one type of LTM.

Question 29

What is the capacity and duration of the STM?

Answer 29

• limited capacity store. Coding is mainly acoustic(sounds)
• Duration is between 18 and 30 seconds
• Generally it is found that PPs are able to recall
  between 5 and 9 chunks of information (i.e. 7±2
  chunks) in immediate serial recall tasks.
• Miller (1956) and others suggested that this
  represented the capacity of STM
• A rule can be used to chunk information together,
  allowing STM to hold more (e.g. 4 digits can make
  a date)

Question 30

What is the capacity and duration of the LTM?

Answer 30

• Permanent memory store
• Coding is mainly semantic (meaning)
• Unlimited capacity and can store memeories for up to a lifetime.

Question 31

Disucess Baddeley’s study on coding.

What was the Dependant variable (DV)

Answer 31

• Ppts. asked to learn four word lists:
• Acoustically similar
• Acoustically dissimilar
• Semantically similar
• Semantically dissimilar
• Ppts. either recalled list immediatley (STM) or after a timed delaY (LTM)
• DV was how many errors ppts. made
• research suggested STM uses acoustic code, whereas LTM uses semantic code

Question 32

(AO3)

Limiation of Baddeley’s research into coding?

Answer 32

P - use aritifical stimuli

E - Baddeley didn’t use meaningful materials, instead used word lists that had no personal meaning to ppts. Should be cautious generalsising such results due to low ecological validity of the experiment.

E - e.g. when processing more meaningful info., people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks.

L - Suggests findings from this study have limited application.

Counter: However, Baddeley’s experiment is reliable. If he wanted to repeat it with some ppts under same conditions using same word lists, then would have been able to do so. Allowed him to check for consistency of findings.

Question 33

Discuss a systematic attempt to measure the capacity of the STM.

Answer 33

• One of the earliest systematic attempts to measure the
  capacity of STM was carried out by Jacobs.
• He devised a method called the digit span technique.
• The researcher gives for example 4 digits and then the
  participants is asked to recall these in the correct order out
  loud.
• If they get it right they then give them 5 digits and so on
  until the participant can’t recall the order correctly.
• This determines the person’s digit span.
• Jacobs found that the mean span for digits was 9.3 and for
  letters 7.3

Question 34

(AO3)
Issue with Jacob’s study?

Answer 34

P - Conducted a long time ago.

E/E - Early research in psyhology often lack adequate control. e.g. some ppts. may been distracted so didn’t perform as as well. Confoudning vairables so results may not be valid.

L- Therefore this is a limitation of his research.

Counter: However, results of this study have been support by other research, supporitng its valdiity.

Question 35

(AO3)

One limiation of Millers research?

Answer 35

P- One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have
overestimated the capacity of STM.

E/E- Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded
that the capacity of STM was only about 4 chunks.

L- This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (5
items) is more appropriate than 5 items.

Question 36

(AO1)

Outline Duration in STM, Peterson squared

Answer 36

• Peterson & Peterson (1959)
• PPs presented with ‘trigrams’ (consonant
  syllables) and asked to recall them (accurately & in
  order)
• Between exposure & recall there was a delay in which
  they did an interference task
• The length of the delay was varied
• 24 undergraduate students took part
• Results obtained by plotting recall against length of
  delay
• Recall declined steadily with time
• After 3s 80% correct
• After 6s less than 50%
• After 18s less than 10%
• Information is lost rapidly from STM, which seems
  to have a duration of about 20s if nothing is done to
  maintain the info (i.e. rehearsal)

Question 37

(AO3)

Two issues for Petersons & Petersons research sample?

Answer 37

P- Peterson & Peterson used a sample of 24 psychology students, which is an issue for two reasons.

E/E- Firstly, the psychology students may have encountered the MSM of memory previously and therefore may have demonstrated demand characteristics by changing their behaviour to assist the experimenter. Secondly, the memory of psychology students may be different from that of other people, especially if they had previously studied strategies for memory improvement.

L- As a result we are unable to generalise the results of this study to non‐psychology students.

Counterargument : However, Peterson & Peterson’s study was highly controlled and took place in a laboratory of Indiana University. As a result Peterson & Peterson had a high degree of control for extraneous variables, which makes their procedure easy to replicate to test reliability.

Question 38

(AO1)

Duration of LTM?

Answer 38

• Bahrick et al (1975)
• Test of LTM using naturalistic materials
• 392 US PPs aged 17 and 74 who had left high
  school 1-48 years previously tested for recall of
  classmates
• Free recall test where pps recalled all the names of their
  graduating class
• Recognition of photos
• Name recognition & photo matching
• Recall was remarkably high
• 80% accuracy for name recognition at 48yrs
• 30% accuracy for free recall at 30yrs
• Supports the idea that LTM can store some types of
  info for very long time
• Free recall becomes more difficult over time, but
  recognition does not diminish much

Question 39

Positives of research into the duration of the LTM?

Answer 39

• Ecological validity was high
• The study used a naturally occurring form of info so avoided the artificiality often present in memory studies
• The type of info used was very specific
• Classmates may have high emotional significance, and there is usually great opportunity for rehearsal
• Conclusions not generalisable to other types of information
• confounding variables = A few of the pps may have looked at their yearbook over the years or recently which would have boosted their
  memory due to rehearsal.

Question 40

(AO3)

Bahricks research lack population validity?

Answer 40

P- Bahrick’s research used a sample of 392 American university graduates and therefore lacks population validity.

E- Psychologists are unable to generalise the results of Bahrick’s research to other populations.

E- E.G. students from the UK or Europe.

L- As a result, we are unable to conclude whether other populations would demonstrate the same ability to recall
names and faces after 47 years.

Question 41

(AO3)

Accuracy of LTM over certain years?

Answer 41

P- Bahrick found that the accuracy of LTM was 90% after 14 years and 60% after 47 years.

E/E- His research is unable to explain whether LTM becomes less accurate over time because of a limited duration, or whether LTM simply gets worse with age.

L- This is important because psychologists are unable to determine whether our LTM has an unlimited duration (like the MSM suggests), which is affected by other factors such as getting old, or whether our LTM has a limited duration.

Question 42

Discuss research related to the features of short-term memory (coding, capacity, duration) 16 marks.

Answer 42

A01: briefly outline the studies by Baddeley (coding), Miller (capacity) and Peterson and Peterson (duration).

A03 1: A limitation of the research on coding and duration is the use of artificial stimuli. Explain why and add a counterargument.

A03 2: One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated the capacity of STM. Explain why

A03 3: Peterson & Peterson used a sample of 24 psychology students, which is an issue for two reasons. Explain why this is an issue and add a counterargument.

Question 43

Background on Eye Witness Testimony (EWT)?

Answer 43

• We have seen that EWT may lack accuracy, yet such accuracy is vital to the police and the courts
• Psychologists have turned their attention to finding ways of improving the accuracy of EWT based on sound psychological evidence
• The cognitive interview is one of the most successful contributions psychologists have made to society (Eysenck & Keane (2010)

Question 44

Fisher and Gieselman’s relation to EWT?

Answer 44

• They believed that one way in which we remember events more accurately is to put them in to context.
• They also said that we can remember more if we are given retrieval cues.

Question 45

What and when was the Cognitive interview developed?

Answer 45

• The cognitive interview was developed in 1985, in response to criticisms of the traditional police interview.
• Fisher et al. (1987) studied police interviews in Florida and found that witnesses were often presented with a series of short, closed questions, which attempted to elicit facts.
• Furthermore, the police would often ask questions in a sequence that was not synchronised with the events that had taken place.
• As a result, Geiselman et al. (1985) developed the cognitive interview, identifying four key principles that they believed would enhance recall

Question 46

What are the four components of the original cognitive interview?

Answer 46

• Context reinstatement – trying to mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment, the individual’s emotional state including their feelings at the time of the incident – may all act as cues/triggers to recall
• Recall from a changed perspective – trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view eg. describing what another witness present at the scene would have seen – promotes more ‘holistic’ view of the event which may enhance recall
• Recall in reverse order – the witness is asked to describe the scene in a different chronological order eg. from the end to the beginning – to verify accuracy
• Report everything – the interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant – may highlight something that has been ‘overlooked’

Question 47

What the purpose of the four components of cognitive interview?

Answer 47

• The assumption of the first 2 components is to see if there is a consistency between the actual incident and the recreated incident.
• The other 2 components are there to see if the information observed can be retrieved from memory via other ‘routes’.

Question 48

(AO1)

Key study: Geiselman (1985)?

Answer 48

Aim: To examine the effectiveness of the cognitive
interview.

Method: A sample of 89 students watched a video of
a simulated crime. Two days later the students were
interviewed using the standard police interview or the
cognitive interview.

Results: The students who were interviewed using the
cognitive interview recalled significantly more correct
information than those interviewed using the standard
interview. In addition, the number of errors
(incorrect items recalled) by both groups was similar.

Conclusion: The cognitive interview is effective in
improving the quantity of information recalled and
does not lead to an increase in incorrect information.

Question 49

(AO3)

Results of Gieselamn supported by other research?

Answer 49

P- The results of Geiselman have been supported by other research, including Fisher et al. (1989).

E- These researchers examined the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in real police interviews.

E- 16 experienced detectives recorded a selection of their interviews, using a standard interviewing technique. Detectives then divided into two groups. One group was trained to use the cognitive interview, while the other (control) group continued using the standard interview. After training, their subsequent interviews were recorded and analysed. The trained detectives elicited 46% more information after their cognitive interview training, in comparison to the control group. Where it was possible to confirm the information, over 90% of it was found to be accurate.

L- These results support the findings of Geiselman, using real police interviews, and provide support for the effectiveness of the cognitive interview.

Question 50

(AO3)

Cognitive interview susceptible to misleading info?

Answer 50

P- Although the cognitive interview increases the quantity of information recalled, research has found that the cognitive interview is still susceptible to misleading information.

E/E- Centofanti & Reece (2006) showed participants a video of a bank robbery and then provided participants with a misleading or neutral post‐event summary. On average the participants who were questioned using a cognitive interview, recalled 35% more information. However, the participants in both conditions wereequally susceptible to misleading information.

L- Therefore, although the cognitive interview enhances the quantity of information recalled, interviewers need to be careful that participants are not exposed to misleading information in the form of leading questions or post‐event discussion.

Question 51

(AO3)

Evidence show Cognitive interview (CI) still not used widely?

Answer 51

P- Despite the effectiveness of the CI, there is evidence showing that it’s still not used as widely.

E/E- Kebbell & Wagstaff (1996) have found that police typically use interviewing techniques that limit the quantity of information provided, rather than those that improve accuracy. Furthermore, the cognitive interview requires special training and many police forces have not provided more than rudimentary training

L- As a result, this explains why the cognitive interview is not readily used.

Question 52

(AO3)

CI useful when interviewing older witnesses?

Answer 52

P- The cognitive interview is useful when interviewing older witnesses.

E/E- Wright and Holliday (2007) found that the older the participant, the less complete and accurate the recall, but when they used the CI technique, the older participants recalled significantly greater detail without giving any false information.

L- This suggests that Cis are effective especially when it comes to interviewing people of a certain age.

Question 53

Discuss the use of the cognitive interview as a means of improving the accuracy of memory (16 marks).

Answer 53

A01: describe the different components of the CI, as well as the key study by Geiselman

A03 1: explain how and why the results of Geiselman have been supported by other research (Fisher et al.’s experiment)

A03 2: explain why the CI is still susceptible to misleading information. Refer to research to substantiate your point.

A03 3: explain the evidence showing that CIs are still not used as widely. Also make reference to the training that’s required.

A03 4: explain why the CI is useful when it comes to interviewing older witnesses. Refer to evidence.