Paper 1 - Memory

Question 1

Define memory

Answer 1

How the mind stores and retrieves information and events experienced

Question 2

Outline research into the ‘Coding’ of Memory

Answer 2

Short-term Memory & Long-term Memory (Baddeley, 1966)

Once information gets into the memory system, it is stored in different formats, depending on the memory store and the process of converting information from one form to another is called coding

Baddeley (1966) gave different lists of words
* Once information gets into the memory system, it is stored in different formats, depending on the memory store. Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order.
* When they had to do these recall tasks immediately after hearing it, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words.
* If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time interval of 20 minutes, they did worse with the semantically similar words.

This suggests that information is coded:
1. Acoustically for short-term memory
2. Semantically for long-term memory

Question 3

Evaluate the research into the coding of memory

Answer 3

One strength of Baddeley’s study is that it identified a clear difference between two memory stores. Later research showed that there are some expectations to Baddeley’s findings. But the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic doing and LTM mostly semantic has stood the test of time. This was an important step in our understanding of the memory system, which led to the multi-store model

One limitation of Baddeley’s study was it used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. For example, the world lists had no personal meaning to participants. So Baddeley’s findings may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory takes, especially in everyday life. When processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic doing even for STM takes. This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application

Question 4

Outline research into the capacity of Memory

Answer 4

STM (Jacobs, 1887; Miller, 1956)

• Aim - how much information can the STM hold at any one time.

Jacobs (1887) developed a technique to measure digit span:
The researcher gives 4 digits, and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. If this is correct, the researcher reads out 5 digits until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. This determines the individual’s digit span.
Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items and the mean span for letters was 7.3.

• Miller (1956) made observations of everyday practice. He noted that things come in sevens: e.g., 7 days a week. This suggests that STM’s span (or capacity) is about 7 items.
• Miller also noted that people can recall 5 words as well as they can recall 5 letters or digits, they do this through chunking.

Question 5

Evaluate research into the capacity of memory

Answer 5

One strength of Jacob’s study is that it has been replicated. The study is a very old one and early research in psychology often lacked adequate controls. For example, some participants’ digit spans might have been underestimated because they were distracted during testing (confounding variable). Despite this, Jacob’s findings have been confirmed by other, better controlled studies since. This suggests that Jacob’s study is a valid test of digit span in STM

One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated STM capacity. Nelson Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only about 4 (plus or minus 1) chunks. This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (five items) is more appropriate than seven items,

Question 6

Outline the research into the ‘ Duration’ of memory Short term

Answer 6

Short-Term Memory (Peterson & Peterson, 1959)

Peterson and Peterson tested 24 undergraduate students.
* Each student took part in eight trials. On each trial, the student was given a trigram (e.g. YGC) to remember. They were also shown a 3-digit number, the participants were asked to count backwards from this three-digit number until told to stop.
* The counting backwards was to prevent rehearsal. On each trial, they were told to stop after a certain amount of time, 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds.
* Their findings found that STM has a duration of up to 18 seconds.

Question 7

Outline the research into Duration in the Long term

Answer 7

(Bahrick et., 1975)

Harry Bahrick and colleagues (1975) studied 392 participants from the American state of Ohio who was aged between 17 to 74. High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or directly from some schools. Recall was tested in various ways, such as a photo recognition test and a free recall test.

Participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition.

Question 8

Evaluate research into duration of memory

Answer 8

One strength of Bahrick et al’s study is that it has high external validity. This is because the researchers investigated meaningful memories. When studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower. This suggests that Bahrick et al’s findings reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of the duration of LTM

One limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study is that the stimulus material was artificial. The study is not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material. Even so, recalling constant syllables does not reflect most everyday memeory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful. This means the study lacked external validity

Question 9

Outline the Multi-store model of memory

Answer 9

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) developed the Multi-Store Model of memory (MSM), which describes flow between three permanent storage systems of memory: the sensory register (SR), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).

The Sensory register is where information from the senses is stored, but only for a duration of approximately half a second before it is forgotten. It is modality-specific, i.e. whichever sense is registered will match the way it is consequently held (for instance, a taste held as a taste).

However, if attended to, sensory information moves into the STM for temporary storage, which will be encoded visually (as an image), acoustically (as a sound) or, less often, semantically (through its meaning). STM is thought to have a capacity of 5-9 items and duration of approximately 30 seconds. This capacity can be increased through ‘chunking’ (converting a string of items into a number of larger ‘chunks’, e.g. number 343565787 to 343 565 787).

Rehearsing information via the rehearsal loop helps to retain information in the STM, and consolidate it to LTM, which is predominantly encoded semantically. Information can be stored and retrieved for up to any duration, and equally has a seemingly unlimited capacity.

Question 10

Outline some of key features of the multi-store model of memory

Answer 10

• Attention - Information passess further into memory only if attention is paid to it
• Mainteance rehersal loop - The repeating of material to ourselves. We can keep information in STM as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse to long enough, it passes into LTM
• Retrieval - When we want to recall information stored in LTM, it has to be transferred back to STM by a process called retrieval

1.Sensory register in the multi-store model of memory- Coding- modality-specific, depends on the sense, Capacity - very high, e.g. over one hundred million cells in one eye, each storing data and Duration- very brief, less than half a second
2. Short term memory - Coding- acoustic (based on sound), Capacity - between 5 and 9 (7 +2) items before some forgetting occurs (Cowan argues for around 5) and Duration - about 18 seconds unless the information is rehearsed
2. Long term memory - Coding - mostly semantic (i.e. in terms of meaning), Capacity - potentially unlimited, Duration - potentially up to lifetime

Question 11

Evaluate the Multi-Store model of memory

Answer 11

One strength of the MSM is support from studies showing that STM and LTM are different. For example, Baddeley (1966) found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STMs. But we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMs. Further support comes from the studies of capacity and duration. These studies clearly shown that STM and LTM are separate and independent memeory stores, as claimed by the MSM.

One limitation of the MSM is evidence of more than one STM store. Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a client they referred to as KF who had a clinical memory disorder called amnesia. KF’s STM for digits was very poor when he read the digits to himself. This evidence suggests that the MSM is wrong in claiming that there is just one STM processing different types of information (e.g. visual, auditory, etc)

Another limitation of the MSM is that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM. According to the MSM, what matters about rehearsal is the amount of it- the more you rehearse something, the more likely it is to transfer to LTM. This is prolonged rehearsal. But Craik and Watkins (1973) found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount. Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long-term storage and this occurs when you link the information to your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means that information can be transferred to LTM without prolonged rehearsal. This suggest that the MSM does not fully explain how long-term storage is achieved.

Question 12

Briefly describe Long-term memory

Answer 12

Endel Tulving (1985) was one of the first cogntive psychologists to realise that the multi-store model’s view of long-term memory was too simplistic and inflexible. Two categories of LTM were identified by Cohen & Squire, 1980: Explicit memories- ‘knowing that’ which is the knowledge of events and fact and implicit memories - ‘knowing how’ which is skilled behaviours which are largely unconscious

Question 13

Describe Episodic in Long-term memory

Answer 13

Episodic memory refers to our ability to recall events from our lives. An explicit memory type storing personal experiences.

It’s type is ‘time-stamped’ based on personal experiences. Episodic memories also store information about how events relate to each other in time.
The memory of a single episode is made up of three interconnected elements: Detail of the event, context, emotions
The brain region is the hippocampus and the strength of episodic memory is linked to the strength of the emotions during the event. It also requires conscious effort to be retrieved

Question 14

Describe the Sematic type in Long-Term Memory

Answer 14

Sematic memeory is an explicit type of memory that stores general knowledge, concepts and facts about the world and it is located in our temporal lobe

Unlike episodic memeory, it is not tied to a specific time or personal experience
Its type is not ‘time-stamped’ knowledge. According to Tulving, It is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory

Question 15

Describe the Procedural type in Long-Term Memory

Answer 15

It is Implicit (Non-declarative) type that stores skills, actions, and tasks that have
become automatic and It’s brain region is the cerebellum and motor cortex
It type is performed tasks/ skills

Question 16

Evaluate the types of Long Term Memory

Answer 16

One strength is evidence from the famous case studies of Molaison and Wearing. Episodic memory in both men are severely impaired due to brain damage. But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. They still understood the meaning of words. Their procedural memories were also intact. They both still knew how to walk and speak and Wearing (a professional musician) knew how to read music, sing and play the piano. This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM - one store can be damaged but the other stores are unaffected.

Another strength is that understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to help people with memory problems. For example, as people age, they experience memory loss. But research has shown this seems to be specific to episodic memory is becomes harder to recall memories of personal events/ experiences that occurred relatively recently through past episodic memories remain intact. This shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed

One limitation is that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to area of the brain. For example Buckner and Peterson (1996) reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memeory. They concluded that semantic memory is located in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right. However, other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memories and the right prefrontal cortex with episodic retrieval. This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there is poor agreement on where each type might be located

Question 17

Briefly describe the Working Memory Model

Answer 17

The working memory model (WWW, Baddeley and Hitch 1974) is an explanation of how one aspect of memory is organised and how it functions. The WMM is concerned with the ‘mental space’ that is active when we are temporarily sorting and manipulating information. The model consists of four main components. each of which is qualitatively different especially in terms of coding and capacity

Question 18

Briefly outline the Central Executive (supervisory system) in the Working Memory Model

Answer 18

Central Executive (Supervisory System) monitors incoming data, focuses and dived our limited attention and allocates subsystems to tasks. The CE has a very limited processing capacity and does not store information

Question 19

Briefly outline the
Visuospatial Sketchpad (Slave system) in the Working Memory Model

Answer 19

Visuospatial Sketchpad (Slave System) Stores visual and/or spatial information when required

Robert Logie (1955) subdivided the VSS into:
The visual cache: which stores visual data
The inner scribe: which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 20

Briefly outline the Phonological loop (Slave system) in the Working Memory Model

Answer 20

Phonological Loop (Slave System) deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives

The PL is subdivide into:
The phonological store: which stores the words you hear

The articulatory process: which allows maintenance rehearsal

Question 21

Briefly outline the episodic Buffer (Slave system) in the Working Memory Model

Answer 21

Episodic Buffer (Slave System) It is a temporary store for information, Integrating visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing - recording events (episodes) that are happening.
It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and ahs a limited capacity of about four chunks (Baddeley 2012). The episodic buffer links working memory to long-term memory and wider cogntive processes such as perception

Question 22

Evaluate the Working Memory Mode (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)

Answer 22

One strength is support from Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study of patient K. it demonstrates separate components in STM. KF suffered brain damage from a motorbike accident, causing impairment in verbal STM. KF’s phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketchpad was intact. This finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores

A limitation of the WMM is that they have a limited focus. The WMM explains the nature of short-term memory. Its focus is limited to STM and does not fully explain the link between working memory and long-term memory. Compared to the multi-store model, the WMM has a narrower scope. It is not a comprehensive account of memory in general.

One limitation is that there is a lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive. Baddeley (2003) himself recognised this when he said ‘the central executive is most important but the least understood component of working memory ‘. The CE needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attention’. This means that the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the WMM.

Question 23

Briefly outline interference as a explanation of forgetting

Answer 23

Interference has been proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in long-term memory (LTM). Once information has reached LTM it is more-or-less permanent. Therefore any forgetting of LTMs is most likely because we can’t get access to them even though they are available. Interference between memories makes it harder for us to locate them, and this experienced as ‘forgetting;

Question 24

Outline the types of interference in explaining forgetting

Answer 24

Proactive Interference as Occurs when older memories disrupt newer ones.
E.g., a teacher learns many names in the past and cannot remember the names of her current class.

Retroactive Interference
Occurs when a newer memory disrupts an older one.
E.g., a teacher learns many new names this year and cannot remember the names of her previous students.

Question 25

Outline research into the effects of similarity in the explanation for forgetting: interference

Answer 25

In both PI and RI, the interference is worse the memories (or learning) are similar, as discovered by McGeoch and McDonald (1931).

Procedure - McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list a 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list. There were six groups of participants who had to learn different types of new lists.

Findings and conclusions - When the participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 26

What are the effects of Similarity in the explanations to forgetting

Answer 26

The reason similarity affects recall may be for one of two reasons. It could be due to PI- previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store. Or it could be due to RI- new information overwrites previous similar memories is because of the similarity

Question 27

Evaluation The Interference theory as an explanations of forgetting

Answer 27

One strength is that there is evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations. Baddeley & Hitch, 1977 investigated interference as an explanation for forgetting and retroactive interference using rugby players. Participants were asked to remember the names of the teams they had played week by week in a season.
Players who had not played for two or three weeks had better recall of those games than those who had played other teams since then. An Accurate recall was not dependent on the time elapsed since the matches but on the number of games a player had played since that time. This study shows that interference can operate in at least some real-worked situations, increasing the validity of the theory.

However, One limitation is that there is Supporting Evidence that demonstrate that there is a lack of ecological validity (Mcgeoch & Mcdonald, 1931). The evidence was derived from a lab-based experiment with a high level of control.
The experiment utilised lists of words as the stimulus material. However, the task used in the experiment may not replicate memory in everyday life. This limitation makes it challenging to generalise the findings regarding the role of interference in forgetting real-life situations.

Another limitation is that interference is temporary can can be overcome by using cues. Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time. Recall averaged about 70% for the first list, but became progressively worse as participants learned each and additional list. But had the words really disappeared from LTM or were they still available? At the end of the procedure the participants were given a cued recall test- they were told the names of the categories. Recall rose again to about 70%. This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to material that is still in LTM, a finding not predicted by interference theory

Question 28

Briefly Outline the Retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 28

Forgetting occurs when we do not have the necessary cues to access memory
The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided

Cues- A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.
For example, cues may be: external / context-dependent (environmental context) and internal / state-dependent (mood or degree of drunkenness)

Question 29

Outline the Encoding Specificity Principle in an explanation for forgetting using the retrieval failure

Answer 29

Encoding Specificity Principle (Tulving, 1983)
* The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory
* If a cue is to help us to recall information, it has to: Be present at encoding (when we learn the material)
and at retrieval (when we recall it)
* If the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different (or if cues are entirely absent at retrieval) there will be some forgetting.

Question 30

Outline research on Context- dependent Forgetting

Answer 30

Context-dependent Forgetting (Godden & Baddeley, 1975)
Occurs when the external contexts at encoding and retrieval do not match.
This is due to the relevant environmental cues during learning being absent (missing) during recall.

Procedure - Deep-sea divers learned word lists and were later asked to recall them:
Condition 1: Learn on land - recall on land.
Condition 2: Learn on land - recall underwater.
Condition 3: Learn underwater - recall on land.
Condition 4: Learn underwater - recall underwater.

Findings
Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions/ contexts

Conclusions
Retrieval failure was due to the absence of encoded context cues at the time of recall- the material was not accessible (i.e. forgotten)

Question 31

Outline the State- dependant Forgetting in an explanation for forgetting using the retrieval failure

Answer 31

State-dependent Forgetting (Carter & Cassaday, 1998)
Relevant psychological or physiological cues present at encoding are later absent during retrieval.
Procedure - Participants learned lists of words/prose and later recalled them.
Condition 1: Learn on drug - recall when on it
Condition 2: Learn not on drug - recall when on it
Condition 3: Learn on it - recall when not on it
Condition 4: Learn not on it - recall when not on it
Findings - Recall was significantly worse in mismatched cues compared with matched cues
Conclusions - When the cues at encoding are absent at retrieval then there is more forgetting.

Question 32

Evaluate Retrieval Failure as a explanation for forgetting

Answer 32

A strength is the impressive range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation . The studies by Godden & Baddeley and Carter and Cassady are just two examples because they show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting in everyday life. Memory researcher Eynseck and Keane (2010) argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting for LTM. This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditioned of the lab.

Baddeley (1997) argues that context are actually not very strong, especially in everyday life. Different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen. For example, it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater. In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough. This evidence shows that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting

A strength of this theory is that retrieval Cues Have Real-life Applications such as memory strategies. People often go to another room to get an item but forget what they wanted. However, they remember again when they return to the original room. When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learned it first.

Question 33

Outline and describe research on leading questions in misleading information as a factor of affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 33

When you are asked a question, the wording of the question may lead (mislead) you to give a certain answer. This is a particular issue in eyewitness testimony

This was investigated by Lotus and Palmer (1974).
45 participants (students) watched film clips of car accidents and then answered questions about speed. The Critical question was : ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
They were five groups of participants and each were given a different verb in the critical question: smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted

Lotus and Palmer found that the verb ‘contacted’ produced a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph. For the verb ‘smashed’, the mean was 40.5 mph. The leading question (verb) biased eyewitness recall of an event. The verb ‘smashed’ suggested a faster speed of the car than ‘contacted’.

In conclusion - The verb conveyed an impression of the speed the car was travelling, and this altered the participants’ perceptions.
Eyewitness testimony might be biased by how questions are asked after committing a crime.

Question 34

Describe Gabbert Research into Factors affecting eye witness testimony

Answer 34

Eyewitness to a crime may sometimes discuss their experiences and memories with each other. The following experiment explores the effects of such post-event discussions.

Gabbert et al. 2003 investigated this through research on post-event discussion. Gabbert studies participants in pairs and each participants watched the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. Each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. Both participants discussed what they had seen on the video before individually completing a test of recall.

Gabbert found that 71% of participants wrongly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but had heard in the discussion. In the Control group, there was no discussion and no subsequent errors.

Question 35

Why do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 35

The response-bias explanation suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants’ memories, but just influences how they decide to answer. When a participant gets a leading question using the word smashed, this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate.

Lotus and Palmer (1974) conducted a second experiment that supported the substitution explanation, which proposes that the wording of a leading question changes the participant’s memory of the film clip. This was shown because participants who originally heard smashed were later more likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard hit

Question 36

Why does post-event discussion affect EWT?

Answer 36

Memory contamination - When co-witnesses discuss crime, they mix (misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories.
Memory conformity - Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right.

Question 37

Evaluate Misleading Information of Leading Questions & Post-event Discussion

Answer 37

A strength of misleading information is that it has real-world Application in the Criminal Justice System. The consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. Loftus, 1975 believes that leading questions can be such as distorting effect on memeory that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. Psychologists are sometimes expert witnesses in trials and explain limits of EWT to juries.
This theory improves how the legal system works and protects the innocent from faulty convictions.

Another strength of Misleading Information is that the research has a high internal validity Loftus’ study has carefully controlled experimental design which is minimising confounding variables and biases. There is a clear relationship between independent and dependent variables. This allows observed effects to be attributed to manipulated variables (e.g., critical verbs) therefore increasing confidence in causal inferences.

However, a weakness of this study is that there is Low Ecological Validity and Mundane Realism of Lab Experiments. Both of these features are limited by controlled and artificial laboratory experiments. The results and conclusions of these studies may not reflect real life, and therefore misleading information may not have the effect on EWT that is suggested.

Question 38

Define anxiety

Answer 38

Anxiety is defined as a state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotional reaction is worried thoughts and feelings of tension and physical reaction is increased heart rate and sweating

Question 39

Outline the Study into anxiety having a negative effect on eyewitness testimony accuracy

Answer 39

Weapon focus - When a crime involves a weapon, this creates anxiety. A witness’s attention is then focused on the weapon, leaving less attention for other details of the event

(Johnson & Scott, 1976)
Procedure- Participants sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study:
Low-anxiety condition- Participants heard a casual conversation and then saw a man walk through the waiting room carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
High-anxiety condition - A heated argument was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked through the room holding a knife covered in blood (creates anxiety and ‘weapon focus’).
Participants were later asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photographs.

Findings
Low-anxiety condition- 49% were able to identify the man
High-anxiety condition - Only 33% were able to identify the man

Conclusion
The tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events.

Question 40

Outline the Study into Anxiety having a positive effect on Eye witness Testimony accuracy

Answer 40

(Yuille & Cutshall, 1986)
Procedure
In an actual crime, a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead:
There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate in the study.
Participants were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident.
The information recalled as compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting.
Witnesses rated how stressed they felt at the time of the incident.

Findings
Witnesses accurately recalled what they recalled, and there was little change after 5 months.
Some details were less accurate, e.g. age/weight/height.
Low-stress levels- 75% were able to identify the man
High-stress levels- 88% were most accurate

Conclusion
Anxiety does not appear to reduce the accuracy of EWT for a real-world event and may even enhance it.

Question 41

Outline the Study into the idea the a ‘optimal’ levels of anxiety leads to a good eyewitness testimony

Answer 41

Yerkes-Dodson Law: The Inverted-U Theory (1908)
The relationship between performance and arousal/stress is an inverted U
Performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point.
- Where it then decreases drastically
There is an optimum level of stress for the ability to perform

Yerkes-Dodson Law Applied to Eyewitness Testimony (Deffenbacher, 1983)
Reviewed 21 studies of EWT with contradictory findings on the effects of anxiety on recall.
Low-anxiety levels- Poor recall/ inaccurate EWT
‘Optimum’ anxiety levels- Good recall/ accurate EWT
High-anxiety levels - Poor recall/ inaccurate EWT

Suggested the Yerkes-Dodson Law could explain this:
- Both low and high levels of anxiety produce poor recall
- Whereas optimum levels can lead to a very good recall

Question 42

Evaluate Anxiety as an explanation for forgetting (eyewitness testimony)

Answer 42

A strength of the theory that high anxiety can reduce recall accuracy for EWT, is that it has research support from laboratory studies. Loftus (1979) had ppts sat in a waiting room in two conditions. Condition 1 they overheard a heated discussion and a man burst in with a pen covered in grease. (lower anxiety condition). In the higher anxiety condition, 2, ppts overheard a more hostile argument plus broken glass, a man burst in with a paper knife covered in blood. In the low anxiety condition 49% could later recognise the man from 50 photos, whereas in the higher anxiety condition it was 33%. They concluded that anxiety caused by a weapon can divert attention from other features of a situation. This is called weapon focus. This matters as it provides laboratory evidence and potential explanation for why high anxiety seems to reduce recall performance when eye witnesses give testimony.

A Limitation of the theory that high anxiety can reduce recall accuracy for EWT is that ‘real life’ studies seem to contradict it. Christianson and Hubinette (1993) interviewed 110 witnesses of 22 bank robberies, 15 months later. They were surprisingly accurate about clothing and behaviour, even those who had been directly threatened or subjected to violence ( ie high anxiety). This matters as it contracts the inverted U hypothesis that suggests these eye witnesses should have reduced recall due to high anxiety.

However, there is conflicting research of anxiety having a factor of the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Frizzetti et al. (1992) suggested that ‘proximity to event’ is a confounding variable in ‘real life’ research of EWT and anxiety. Proximity varies systematically with the IV (anxiety), so we can not be sure what is causing the change in the DV (recall accuracy), proximity or anxiety? Those closest to the event would likely experience high anxiety, perhaps decreasing recall accuracy. However being close to the event would most often mean they could see more, and thus have higher recall accuracy. This confounding variable reduces the validity of the real life studies of EWT.

Question 43

How does The cognitive interview help improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 43

The Cognitive Interview (Geiselman et al., 1985)
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.

Research suggests it leads to enhanced retrieval and significantly more detailed and accurate eyewitness memory compared to a traditional interview and hypnosis

Question 44

Outline what 4 steps would improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 44

1. Report Everything
   Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event:
   even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it.
   Seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories.
2. Context Reinstatement
   The witness returns to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagines the environment and their emotions:
   e.g. the weather, what they could see
   e.g. what they felt
   This is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting
   Cues from the context may trigger recall - encoding specificity principle
3. Reverse Order
   Events are recalled in a different chronological order:
   (e.g. from the end back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning).
   This prevents people from basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events.
   It also prevents dishonesty and makes it harder to produce an untruthful account if it has to be reversed.
4. Changed Perspective
   Witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives.
   This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall.
   Schema are packages of information developed through experience.
   They generate a framework for interpreting incoming information.
   However can sometimes lead to distortion of eyewitness testimony.

Question 45

Outline the enhanced cognitive interview (Fisher, et al., 1987)

Answer 45

Enhanced Cognitive Interview (Fisher et al., 1987)
Developed additional elements of the cognitive interview
Relaxed business-like rapport between the interviewer and interviewee/eyewitness
This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction , e.g. knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact
The enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as: reducing the eyewitness’s anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly, asking open-ended questions

Question 46

Evaluate the Cognitive Interview

Answer 46

A strength of cognitive interview is that there is research evidence to support that the cognitive interview is effective. For example, Geiselman (1885) got his participants to watch a film of a violent crime and after 48 hours they were interviewed by a policeman using one of the three methods: cognitive interview, standard interview, or an interview using hypnosis. The results from the study showed that the cognitive interview had the highest average number of correctly recalled facts of 41.2, for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4. This study supports the cognitive interviews as effective because participants recalled more relevant information in comparison to the other methods and it shows that cognitive interview led to better memory for events

Another strength of cognitive interviews is that there is supporting evidence for it in real world studies. For example, Fisher et al (1989) got 16 experienced police officers in Miami and conducted 2 interviews on 47 witnesses/victims of shoplifting or mugging incidents. 7 police officers used the cognitive interview, and 9 police officers used the standard interview (control group). The results from the study showed that the cognitive interview gained 47% more accurate facts. Thus, this study supports that the cognitive interview is useful in real life situations.

A weakness of cognitive interview is that there is contradictory research that goes against Fisher and Geiselman findings. Koehnken found that witnesses recalled more incorrect information when interviewed with the cognitive compared to the standard interview technique, perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chance of making mistakes. Therefore, the cognitive interview is far more time consuming than the standard interview.