Psychology 1 - Memory

Question 1

How are memories stored and retrieved?

Answer 1

Encoding (can be stored)
Storage (stored memory)
Retrieval (decoding memory so we can understand it)

Question 2

How does data shift from the short-term to the long-term memory?

Answer 2

Rehearsal

Question 3

What is the levels of processing theory?

Answer 3

Structural processing (way it looks)
Phonetic processing (way it sounds)
Semantic processing (understanding it)
The higher the level of processing, the more likely it is that you will remember it

Question 4

What is reconstructive memory theory?

Answer 4

Memory will change over time so that the person can understand aspects of the memory better

Question 5

What is the difference between implications and applications?

Answer 5

Implications are what the theories suggest we could do

Applications are how theories are used in the real world

Question 6

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 6

New memories interfere with old memories

Question 7

What is proactive interference?

Answer 7

Old memories interfere with new memories

Question 8

What happened to HM?

Answer 8

He had his hippocampus removed to get rid of his seizures but he got anterograde amnesia because he couldn’t encode memories from short-term into long-term

Question 9

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 9

Memories cannot shift into the long-term store

Question 10

What is a leading question?

Answer 10

A question that suggests an answer

Question 11

What is a cognitive interview?

Answer 11

An interview that uses a recreation of the context where something happened to help them remember

Question 12

What is multi-store theory?

Answer 12

Sensory memory (few seconds)
Short-term memory (few minutes)
Long-term memory (years)

Question 13

What is the primacy effect?

Answer 13

Items at the start of a list are rehearsed the most so they shift to the long-term and are more likely to be remembered

Question 14

What is the recency effect?

Answer 14

When items at the end of the list are remembered well because they are still in the short-term

Question 15

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 15

When a portion of the long-term (cortex) is damaged meaning you lose some old memories

Question 16

Give a study about multi-store theory

Answer 16

Murdock (1962)

To provide evidence to support multi-store theory

Participants had to learn a list of words, one displayed every 2 seconds one at a time and then recall them in any order

The words at the end were recalled first because they were still in the short-term store (recency effect) and words at the start were remembered next because they had shifted into the long-term store (primacy effect)

The primacy and recency effects provide evidence for seperate short-term and long-term stores

Question 17

Evaluate the multi-store theory study

Answer 17

They could have concentrated at the beginning and got bored in the middle
This study assumes the multi-store theory is true

Question 18

Give a study about reconstructive memory theory

Answer 18

Bartlett (1932)

To see if people, when given something unfamiliar to remember, would alter the information

They were asked to read a native American legend, later they were asked to retell the story, they did this several times in the next week

They didn’t understand parts of story with spirits so they unconciously changed the story over time so that it made sense

Memory reconstructs so that it makes sense to us and follows our beliefs

Question 19

Evaluate the reconstruction study

Answer 19

They could have forgotten parts of the story and made it up

The evidence definitely shows people changing their memory of the story

Question 20

Give a study about levels of processing

Answer 20

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

To see if the type of question asked about words will have an effect on the number of words recalled

Subjects were presented with a list of words one at a time and were asked questions about them, some required structural, phonetic and some semantic, they were then given a longer list of words and asked to identify the ones they had questions on

They identified 70% semantics, 35% phonetics and 15% structurals

The more deeply information is processed, the more likely it is to be remembered

Question 21

Evaluate the levels of processing study

Answer 21

The semantic questions could have been more complicated so they would have think for longer
The study assumes the levels of processing theory is true

Question 22

Give a study about interference

Answer 22

Underwood & Postman (1960)

To see if new information interferes with old information

Subjects divided into 2 groups, group A had to had to learn a list of word pairs and then another list of word pairs, group B only had to remember the first list of word pairs

Group B’s recall of the first list was better than group A

New information will cause people to recall previously learned information less accurately

Question 23

Evaluate the interference study

Answer 23

Lacks ecological validity because we don’t usually remember such similar lists
Simply having to remember more information could cause group A to forget everything, not just the first list

Question 24

Give a study about context

Answer 24

Godden & Baddeley (1975)

To see if people who learn and are tested in the same context recall more information than those who learn and are tested in different contexts

Split into 4 groups, group A had to learn and recall underwater, group B learned underwater and recalled on the shore, group C had to learn and recall on the shore, group D learned on the shore and recalled underwater

Groups 1 and 3 remembered 40% more words than groups 2 and 4

Recall of information will be better if it happens in the context of where it was learned

Question 25

Evaluate the context study

Answer 25

Underwater scenery could distract the divers when they were remembering information
Lacks ecological validity because people don’t usually memorise information underwater

Question 26

Give a study about leading questions

Answer 26

Loftus & Palmer (1974)

To see if leading questions affect the accuracy of recall

Shown a film of a car crash, split into 2 groups, afterwards, group A were asked “how fast was car going when it hit the other car” and group B were asked the same but with “smashed” instead of “hit”

Group A gave lower speeds than group B

Leading question will reduce the accuracy of recall and bend the memory towards what the leading question suggests

Question 27

Evaluate the leading questions study

Answer 27

It was a film so it is hard to work out how fast it was going
People aren’t to measuring speeds so it could have been a guess